[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5235 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5235

To direct the President to enter into an arrangement with the National 
 Academy of Sciences to evaluate certain Federal rules and regulations 
 for potentially harmful impacts on public health, air quality, water 
quality, plant and animal wildlife, global climate, or the environment; 
   and to direct Federal departments and agencies to create plans to 
reverse those impacts that are determined to be harmful by the National 
                          Academy of Sciences.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 27, 2006

   Ms. Lee introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on 
 Transportation and Infrastructure, Resources, and Agriculture, for a 
 period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
                          committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the President to enter into an arrangement with the National 
 Academy of Sciences to evaluate certain Federal rules and regulations 
 for potentially harmful impacts on public health, air quality, water 
quality, plant and animal wildlife, global climate, or the environment; 
   and to direct Federal departments and agencies to create plans to 
reverse those impacts that are determined to be harmful by the National 
                          Academy of Sciences.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Environment and Public Health 
Restoration Act of 2006''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    (a) General Findings.--The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) Our natural environment encompasses a wide variety of 
        habitats and ecosystems that nurture and sustain a diversity of 
        species, including the human race.
            (2) The abundance of natural resources in our environment 
        forms the basis for our economy and has greatly contributed to 
        human development throughout history.
            (3) The accelerated pace of human development over the last 
        several hundred years has significantly impacted our natural 
        environment and its resources, the health and diversity of 
        plant and animal wildlife, the availability of critical 
        habitats, the quality of our air and our water, and our global 
        climate.
            (4) The intervention of the Federal Government is necessary 
        to minimize and mitigate human impact on the environment for 
        the benefit of public health, maintain air quality and water 
        quality, sustain the diversity of plants and animals, combat 
        global climate change, and protect the environment.
            (5) Laws and regulations in the United States have been 
        created and promulgated to minimize and mitigate human impact 
        on the environment for the benefit of public health, maintain 
        air quality and water quality, sustain wildlife, and protect 
        the environment.
            (6) Such laws include the Antiquities Act of 1906 (16 
        U.S.C. 431 et seq.) initiated by President Theodore Roosevelt 
        to create the national park system, the National Environmental 
        Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), the Clean Air Act 
        (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.), the Federal Water Pollution Control 
        Act Amendments of 1972 (Public Law 92-500), the Clean Water Act 
        of 1977 (Public Law 95-217), the Comprehensive Environmental 
        Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (Public Law 
        96-510), the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Public Law 93-
        205), and the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (Public 
        Law 94-588).
            (7) Attempts to repeal or weaken key environmental 
        safeguards pose dangers to the public health, air quality, 
        water quality, wildlife, and the environment.
    (b) Findings on Changes and Proposed Change in Law.--The Congress 
finds that, since 2001, the following changes and proposed changes to 
existing law or regulations have or will negatively impact the 
environment and public health:
            (1) Clean water.--
                    (A) On May 9, 2002, the Environmental Protection 
                Agency and the United States Army Corps of Engineers 
                put forth a final rule that reconciled section 404 
                regulations of the Clean Water Act by redefining the 
                term ``fill material'' and amending the definition of 
                the term ``discharge of fill material'', reversing a 
                25-year-old Clean Water Act regulation. The new rule 
                fails to restrict the dumping of hardrock mining waste, 
                construction debris, and other industrial wastes into 
                rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands. The rule further 
                allows destructive mountaintop removal coal mining 
                companies to dump waste into streams and lakes, 
                polluting the surrounding natural habitat and poisoning 
                plants and animals that depend on those water sources.
                    (B) On February 12, 2003, the Environmental 
                Protection Agency published the rule ``National 
                Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit 
                Regulation and Effluent Limitation Guidelines and 
                Standards for Concentrated Animal Feeding 
                Operations''--new livestock waste regulations that 
                aimed to control factory farm pollution but which would 
                severely undermine existing Clean Water Act 
                protections. This regulation allows large-scale animal 
                factories to foul the Nation's waters with animal 
                waste, allows livestock owners to draft their own 
                pollution-management plans and avoid groundwater 
                monitoring, legalizes the discharge of contaminated 
                runoff water rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria, 
                and metals, and ensures that large factory farms are 
                not held liable for the environmental damage they 
                cause.
                    (C) On March 19, 2003, the Environmental Protection 
                Agency published a new rule regarding the Total Maximum 
                Daily Load program of the Clean Water Act, which 
                regulates the maximum amount of a particular pollutant 
                that can be present in a body of water and still meet 
                water quality standards. The new rule withdrew the 
                existing regulation put forth on July 13, 2000, and 
                halted momentum in cleaning up polluted waterways 
                throughout the country. By abandoning the existing 
                rule, the Environmental Protection Agency is 
                undermining the effectiveness of clean-up plans and is 
                allowing States to avoid cleaning polluted waters 
                entirely by dropping them from their clean-up lists. 
                Waterways play a crucial role in the lives of Americans 
                and are critical to the livelihood of fish and 
                wildlife. By dropping the July 2000 rule, cleanup of 
                existing polluted rivers, shorelines, and lakes will be 
                delayed, harming more fish and wildlife and worsening 
                the quality of drinking water.
            (2) Forests and land management.--
                    (A) On December 3, 2003, the President signed the 
                Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (Public law 
                108-148). Although the law attempts to reduce the risk 
                of catastrophic forest fires, it provides a boon to 
                timber companies by accelerating the aggressive 
                thinning of backcountry forests that are far from at-
                risk communities. The law allows for increased logging 
                of large, fire-resistant trees that are not in close 
                proximity of homes and communities; it undermines 
                critical protections for endangered species by 
                exempting Federal land management agencies from 
                consulting with the United States Fish and Wildlife 
                Service before approving any action that could harm 
                endangered plants or wildlife; and it limits public 
                participation by reducing the number of environmental 
                project reviews and exempting projects designed to 
                reduce hazardous fuels from analysis.
                    (B) On January 5, 2005, the Department of 
                Agriculture published a new national forest system land 
                and resource management planning rule in the Federal 
                Register that replaced the existing rule published on 
                November 9, 2000. The revised rule opens 155 national 
                forests and 20 grasslands (over 192 million acres of 
                public lands) to logging, grazing, drilling, and other 
                commercial activities. The new rule reverses more than 
                20 years of protection for wildlife and national 
                forests by removing the overall goal of ensuring 
                ecological sustainability in managing the national 
                forest system, weakening the National Forest Management 
                Act of 1976, and effectively ending the review of 
                forest management plans under the National 
                Environmental Policy Act of 1969.
                    (C) On May 13, 2005, the Department of Agriculture 
                published the Protection of Inventoried Roadless Areas 
                rule, replacing the original Roadless Area Conservation 
                Rule issued in January 2001. The new rule gives State 
                Governors 18 months to petition the Federal Government 
                to either restore the previous rule for their States, 
                or submit a new management and development plan for 
                national forest areas inventoried under the rule. As a 
                result of the new rule, 58.5 million acres of wild 
                national forests are now vulnerable to logging, road 
                building, and other development that may fragment 
                natural habitats and negatively impact fish and 
                wildlife.
            (3) Clean air.--
                    (A) On February 14, 2002, the President announced 
                the Clear Skies Initiative, a limited market based cap 
                and trade system designed to cut down on harmful air 
                pollutants. The legislative proposal was later 
                submitted to the Congress on July 29, 2002, and has 
                since been introduced in various forms through the last 
                three Congresses. The Clear Skies Initiative would 
                weaken existing emission reduction targets for sulfur 
                dioxide, mercury, and nitrogen oxides under the Clean 
                Air Act by allowing three times more toxic mercury 
                emissions, 50 percent more sulfur emissions, and 
                hundreds of thousands more tons of nitrogen oxides.
                    (B) On October 27, 2003, the Environmental 
                Protection Agency published the rule ``Prevention of 
                Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Non-Attainment New 
                Source Review (NSR): Equipment Replacement Provision of 
                the Routine Maintenance, Repair and Replacement 
                Exclusion'', which was slightly clarified on June 6, 
                2005. The new rule significantly undermines the New 
                Source Review Permitting Program, a key tool of the 
                Clean Air Act which requires owners of industrial 
                facilities to install modern pollution control 
                mechanisms whenever existing equipment is expanded, 
                improved, replaced, or significantly repaired. In 
                clarifying the definition of ``routine maintenance,'' 
                the new rule exempts more than 17,000 older power 
                plants, oil refineries, and factories across the 
                country from having to install pollution controls when 
                replacing equipment or carrying out upgrades, even if 
                such activities increase air pollution. Ultimately the 
                new rule undermines the effectiveness of the Clean Air 
                Act and fails to hold the oldest and dirtiest 
                industrial facilities accountable for reducing the 
                amount of pollution they produce, allowing them to 
                continue to emit harmful toxic pollutants that will 
                have a detrimental impact on public health and the 
                environment.
                    (C) On March 29, 2005, the Environmental Protection 
                Agency formally revised and reversed the regulatory 
                finding that it issued in December 2000 pursuant to 
                section 112(n)(1)(A) of the Clean Air Act, removing 
                coal- and oil-fired electric utility steam generating 
                units from the Clean Air Act section 112(c) source 
                category list. The new rule revokes a decision in 2000 
                which determined that as the largest domestic source of 
                mercury emissions it is ``necessary and appropriate'' 
                to require power plants which use coal- and oil-fired 
                utility units to apply technology that would reduce 
                their mercury emissions as those emissions pose a 
                significant public health and environmental hazard. By 
                reversing its previous intent to regulate these power 
                plants and reduce the emissions of a serious hazardous 
                air pollutant, the Environmental Protection Agency is 
                potentially exposing millions of people to continued 
                mercury pollution.
                    (D) On May 18, 2005, the Environmental Protection 
                Agency issued a new rule entitled ``Standards of 
                Performance for New and Existing Stationary Sources: 
                Electric Utility Steam Generating Units'', also known 
                as the Clean Air Mercury Rule, which implements a cap-
                and-trade approach that is intended to reduce mercury 
                emissions from coal-fired power plants. The new rule 
                subverts a previous Environmental Protection Agency 
                finding that required power plants to implement maximum 
                achievable controls on mercury emissions by 2008, a 
                decision that would have resulted in a 90 percent cut 
                within 3 years, and further replaces an existing target 
                of achieving an overall 70 percent reduction in 
                emissions by 2018 in favor of a 50 percent reduction by 
                2020. By delaying the regulation of mercury emissions 
                and reducing the overall targets for reduction the 
                Environmental Protection Agency further exposes 
                millions of people to continued mercury pollution.

SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    It is the policy of the United States Government to work in 
conjunction with States, territories, tribal governments, international 
organizations, and foreign governments in order to act as a steward of 
the environment for the benefit of public health, maintain air quality 
and water quality, sustain the diversity of plant and animal species, 
combat global climate change, and protect the environment for future 
generations to enjoy.

SEC. 4. STUDY AND REPORT ON PUBLIC HEALTH OR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF 
              REVISED RULES, REGULATIONS, LAWS, OR PROPOSED LAWS.

    (a) Study.--Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of 
this Act, the President shall enter into an arrangement under which the 
National Academy of Sciences will conduct a study to determine the 
impact on public health, air quality, water quality, wildlife, and the 
environment of the following regulations, laws, and proposed laws:
            (1) Clean water.--
                    (A) Final Revisions to the Clean Water Act 
                Regulatory Definitions of ``Fill Material'' and 
                ``Discharge of Fill Material'', finalized and published 
                in the Federal Register on May 9, 2002 (67 FR 31129), 
                amending title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, part 
                232.
                    (B) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System 
                Permit Regulation and Effluent Limitation Guidelines 
                and Standards for Concentrated Animal Feeding 
                Operations, finalized and published in the Federal 
                Register on February 12, 2003 (68 FR 7176), amending 
                title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, parts 9, 122, 
                123, and 412.
                    (C) A March 19, 2003, rule published in the Federal 
                Register (68 FR 13608) withdrawing a July 13, 2000, 
                rule revising the Total Maximum Daily Load program of 
                the Clean Water Act (65 FR 43586), amending title 40, 
                Code of Federal Regulations, parts 9, 122, 123, 124, 
                and 130.
            (2) Forests and land management.--
                    (A) Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003, signed 
                into law on December 3, 2003 (Public Law 108-148).
                    (B) National Forest System Land and Resource 
                Management Planning Rule, finalized and published in 
                the Federal Register on January 5, 2005 (70 FR 1022-
                23), replacing the rule announced on November 9, 2000, 
                amending title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, parts 
                217 and 219.
                    (C) Protection of Inventoried Roadless Areas, 
                finalized and published in the Federal Register on May 
                13, 2005 (70 FR 25654), amending subpart B of title 36, 
                Code of Federal Regulations, part 294.
            (3) Clean air.--
                    (A) Clear Skies Initiative, announced by the 
                President on February 14, 2002, and introduced as 
                legislation in each subsequent Congress.
                    (B) Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) 
                and Non-Attainment New Source Review (NSR): Equipment 
                Replacement Provision of the Routine Maintenance, 
                Repair and Replacement Exclusion, finalized and 
                published in the Federal Register on October 27, 2003 
                (68 FR 61248), and altered slightly on June 6, 2005.
                    (C) A rule revoking a 2000 decision that it is 
                ``necessary and appropriate'' to require that each 
                power plant apply technology to reduce mercury 
                emissions finalized and published in the Federal 
                Register on March 29, 2005 (70 FR 15994), which amended 
                title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, part 63.
                    (D) Standards of Performance for New and Existing 
                Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Steam Generating 
                Units, finalized and published in the Federal Register 
                on May 18, 2005 (70 FR 28606), which amended title 40, 
                Code of Federal Regulations, parts 60, 72, and 75.
    (b) Method.--In conducting the study under subsection (a), the 
National Academy of Sciences may utilize and compare existing 
scientific studies regarding the regulations, laws, and proposed laws 
listed in subsection (a).
    (c) Report.--Under the arrangement entered into under subsection 
(a), not later than 270 days after the date on which such arrangement 
is entered into, the National Academy of Sciences shall make publicly 
available and shall submit to the Congress and to the head of each 
department and agency of the Federal Government that issued, 
implements, or would implement a regulation, law, or proposed law 
listed in subsection (a), a report containing--
            (1) a description of the impact of all such regulations, 
        laws, and proposed laws on public health, air quality, water 
        quality, wildlife, and the environment, compared to the impact 
        of preexisting regulations, or laws in effect, including--
                    (A) any negative impacts to air quality or water 
                quality;
                    (B) any negative impacts to wildlife;
                    (C) any delays in hazardous waste cleanup that are 
                projected to be hazardous to public health; and
                    (D) any other negative impact on public health or 
                the environment; and
            (2) any recommendations that the National Academy of 
        Sciences considers appropriate to maintain, restore, or improve 
        in whole or in part protections for public health, air quality, 
        water quality, wildlife, and the environment for each of the 
        regulations, laws, and proposed laws listed in subsection (a), 
        which may include recommendations for the adoption of any 
        regulation or law in place or proposed prior to January 1, 
        2001.

SEC. 5. DEPARTMENT AND AGENCY REVISION OF EXISTING RULES, REGULATIONS, 
              OR LAWS.

    Not later than 180 days after the date on which the report is 
submitted pursuant to section 4(c), the head of each department and 
agency that has issued or implemented a regulation or law listed in 
section 4(a) shall submit to the Congress a plan describing the steps 
such department or such agency will take, or has taken, to restore or 
improve protections for public health and the environment in whole or 
in part that were in existence prior to the issuance of such regulation 
or law.
                                 <all>