[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3494 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3494

To restore the value of every American in environmental decisions, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 16, 2008

  Mrs. Boxer introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To restore the value of every American in environmental decisions, 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. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Restoring the Value of Every 
American in Environmental Decisions Act''.

SEC. 2. VALUATION OF STATISTICAL LIFE IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 
              AGENCY DECISIONMAKING.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) using a dollar value to establish the worth of a human 
        life as the basis of making decisions about whether to take 
        actions to protect humans from dying from environmental 
        pollution has been controversial, because that practice--
                    (A) offends many deeply held religious, moral, and 
                ethical beliefs of people in the United States;
                    (B) fails to sufficiently consider the long-
                standing use of credible and accepted alternative 
                decisionmaking tools, such as--
                            (i) health-based protections that use the 
                        latest science to understand and address 
                        serious health threats, including safeguards 
                        that seek to protect vulnerable individuals 
                        (such as pregnant women, infants, children, and 
                        the elderly);
                            (ii) technology-forcing standards that 
                        promote increased research and development in 
                        effective, cutting-edge technologies that can 
                        save lives by cutting costs while--
                                    (I) reducing the use of dangerous 
                                materials;
                                    (II) preventing or reducing the 
                                release of those materials into the 
                                environment; or
                                    (III) creating new and safer 
                                systems or materials;
                            (iii) right-to-know safeguards that--
                                    (I) inform families, communities, 
                                workers, and others about known or 
                                potential threats;
                                    (II) enable those individuals and 
                                communities to make decisions about 
                                safety based on the information; and
                                    (III) encourage emitters and users 
                                of toxic chemicals to reduce the 
                                emission and use of those chemicals; 
                                and
                    (C) fails to promote the development and 
                improvement of other desirable methods of 
                decisionmaking;
            (2) decisionmaking by the Environmental Protection Agency 
        usually involves policy decisions and legal standards, such as 
        health-based protections, technology-forcing standards, or 
        right-to-know safeguards, rather than monetized values of life 
        and illnesses;
            (3) Federal agencies should continue to consider the 
        nonquantifiable benefits of agency actions, regardless of 
        whether the number of deaths or illnesses resulting from those 
        actions can be quantified or expressed in monetary terms;
            (4)(A) there is a great difference between a voluntarily 
        accepted risk and an involuntarily imposed risk; and
            (B) that difference renders the use of a value of 
        statistical life based on measures of voluntarily accepted 
        risks questionable as applied to involuntarily imposed risks; 
        and
            (5) as of the date of enactment of this Act, applicable 
        value of statistical life methodologies do not represent the 
        full value of a human life, including (among other issues) the 
        concepts that--
                    (A) an individual may value another life more than 
                one's own, for example the lives of family members or 
                children;
                    (B) infants, children, and many other individuals 
                do not have the ability to decide the appropriate value 
                of avoiding death;
                    (C) many studies of statistical life methodologies 
                are based on a small subset of the population that may 
                be willing to accept a higher risk of death or illness 
                for less compensation than other members of society; 
                and
                    (D) differing economic situations or negotiating 
                positions may falsely skew statistical life methodology 
                estimates downward.
    (b) Value of Statistical Life.--
            (1) Requirement.--To the extent that the Administrator of 
        the Environmental Protection Agency (referred to in this Act as 
        the ``Administrator'') uses in decisionmaking any value of 
        statistical life, the Administrator--
                    (A) shall not reduce that value below the highest 
                value of statistical life used in a decisionmaking of 
                the Administrator before the date of enactment of this 
                Act; and
                    (B) shall increase that value not less frequently 
                than once each calendar year, by adjusting the value to 
                reflect--
                            (i) the average annual total compensation 
                        of individuals, including income and benefits;
                            (ii) the average capital that may be 
                        liquidated upon the death of an individual; and
                            (iii) the value of nonpaid activities, 
                        including the relevant activities described in 
                        the American Time Survey Results published by 
                        the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the 
                        Department of Labor.
            (2) Prohibition.--The Administrator shall not decrease the 
        value of statistical life used in a decisionmaking by the 
        Administrator based on age, income, race, illness, disability, 
        date of death, or any other personal attribute or relativistic 
        analysis of the value of life.
            (3) Transparency requirement.--The Administrator shall--
                    (A) ensure that the process of the Administrator 
                for establishing a value of statistical life under this 
                subsection is conducted in a manner that is open to the 
                public, including by--
                            (i) providing public notice and an 
                        opportunity to comment for a period of at least 
                        60 days on any proposed revision of a value of 
                        a statistical life;
                            (ii) explaining the process to the public 
                        using common, understandable terms; and
                            (iii) for each significant study upon which 
                        the Administrator relies, providing--
                                    (I) a short description of the 
                                methodological strengths and weaknesses 
                                of the study; and
                                    (II) a description of the injury, 
                                illness, death, or other event used as 
                                a basis for the study; and
                    (B) provide to the Committee on Environment and 
                Public Works of the Senate and the Committee on Energy 
                and Commerce of the House of Representatives, 
                concurrently with the public notice described in 
                subparagraph (A)(i), any proposed revision of a value 
                of a statistical life.
    (c) Effect of Section.--Nothing in this section--
            (1) expresses on behalf of Congress any endorsement of 
        any--
                    (A) use of value of statistical life analysis as a 
                decisionmaking criterion;
                    (B) cost-benefit analysis;
                    (C) regulatory decisionmaking threshold; or
                    (D) single process of agency decisionmaking;
            (2) creates a duty to make or revise any standard under any 
        other applicable law; or
            (3) affects any substantive standard for promulgating 
        regulations under any other applicable law.
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