[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 64 Introduced in House (IH)]
107th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 64
To provide for the establishment of the position of Deputy
Administrator for Science and Technology of the Environmental
Protection Agency, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 3, 2001
Mr. Ehlers introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Science
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide for the establishment of the position of Deputy
Administrator for Science and Technology of the Environmental
Protection Agency, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. DEPUTY ADMINISTRATORS.
(a) Deputy Administrator for Science and Technology.--
(1) Appointment.--The President shall appoint, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, a Deputy Administrator
for Science and Technology of the Environmental Protection
Agency.
(2) Responsibilities.--The Deputy Administrator for Science
and Technology shall have overall responsibility for the
scientific and technical foundation of Environmental Protection
Agency decisions, including being responsible for--
(A) identifying and defining the important
scientific issues facing the Environmental Protection
Agency, including those embedded in major policy or
regulatory proposals;
(B) developing and overseeing an integrated
agencywide strategy for acquiring, disseminating, and
applying information;
(C) ensuring that the complex scientific outreach
and communication needs of the Environmental Protection
Agency are met, including the need to reach throughout
the Agency for credible science in support of the
regulatory offices, regions, and Agency-wide policy
deliberations, as well as the need to reach out to the
broader domestic and international scientific community
for scientific knowledge that is relevant to an Agency
policy or regulatory issue;
(D) coordinating and overseeing scientific quality
assurance and peer review practices throughout the
Environmental Protection Agency; and
(E) developing processes to ensure that appropriate
scientific information is used in decisionmaking
throughout the Environmental Protection Agency, and
ensuring that the scientific and technical information
underlying each Environmental Protection Agency
regulatory decision is valid, appropriately
characterized in terms of scientific uncertainty and
cross-media issues, and appropriately applied.
(3) Qualifications.--An individual appointed under
paragraph (1) shall have an outstanding technical background,
including research accomplishments, scientific reputation, and
experience in public forums.
(4) Consultation.--Before appointing an individual under
paragraph (1), the President shall consult with the National
Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the
Science Advisory Board of the Environmental Protection Agency,
and other appropriate scientific organizations.
(5) Compensation.--The Deputy Administrator for Science and
Technology shall be compensated at the rate provided for level
III of the Executive Schedule pursuant to section 5314 of title
5, United States Code.
(b) Deputy Administrator for Policy and Management.--The position
of Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall be
redesignated as the Deputy Administrator for Policy and Management, and
the individual serving in that position as of the date of the enactment
of this Act shall assume such title.
(c) Conforming Amendment.--Section 5314 of title 5, United States
Code, is amended by striking the item relating to the Deputy
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and inserting the
following:
``Deputy Administrator for Policy and Management of the
Environmental Protection Agency.
``Deputy Administrator for Science and Technology of the
Environmental Protection Agency.''.
SEC. 2. ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.
(a) Title and Term.--One of the Assistant Administrators of the
Environmental Protection Agency shall be designated as the Assistant
Administrator for Research and Development, and shall also have the
title of Chief Scientist of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Appointments to such position made after the date of the enactment of
this Act shall be for a term of 6 years.
(b) Qualifications.--An individual appointed under subsection (a)
shall have an outstanding technical background, including research
accomplishments, scientific reputation, and experience in leading a
research and development organization.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS CONCERNING OTHER ACTIVITIES OF OFFICE OF
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the Office of Research and Development should--
(A) make a concerted effort to give research
managers of the Office a high degree of flexibility and
accountability, including empowering the research
managers to make decisions at the lowest appropriate
management level consistent with the policy of the
Environmental Protection Agency and the strategic goals
and budget priorities of the Office;
(B) maintain approximately an even balance between
core research and problem-driven research;
(C) develop and implement a structured strategy for
encouraging, and acquiring and applying the results of,
research conducted or sponsored by other Federal and
State agencies, universities, and industry, both in the
United States and in foreign countries; and
(D) substantially improve the documentation and
transparency of the decisionmaking processes of the
Office for--
(i) establishing research and technical-
assistance priorities;
(ii) making intramural and extramural
assignments; and
(iii) allocating funds; and
(2) the Administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency should--
(A) substantially increase the efforts of the
Agency--
(i) to disseminate actively the research
products and ongoing projects of the Office of
Research and Development;
(ii) to explain the significance of the
research products and projects; and
(iii) to assist other persons and entities
inside and outside the Agency in applying the
results of the research products and projects;
(B)(i) direct the Deputy Administrator for Science
and Technology to expand on the science inventory of
the Agency by conducting, documenting, and publishing a
more comprehensive and detailed inventory of all
scientific activities conducted by Agency units outside
the Office, which inventory should include information
such as--
(I) project goals, milestones, and
schedules;
(II) principal investigators and project
managers; and
(III) allocations of staff and financial
resources; and
(ii) use the results of the inventory to ensure
that activities described in clause (i) are properly
coordinated through the Agency-wide science planning
and budgeting process and are appropriately peer
reviewed; and
(C) change the peer-review policy of the Agency to
more strictly separate the management of the
development of a work product from the management of
the peer review of that work product, thereby ensuring
greater independence of peer reviews from the control
of program managers, or the potential appearance of
control by program managers, throughout the Agency.
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