[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1466 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1466

      To establish a regulatory review process for rules that the 
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency plans to propose, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 1, 2013

 Mr. Kirk (for himself and Mr. Manchin) introduced the following bill; 
 which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and 
                              Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To establish a regulatory review process for rules that the 
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency plans to propose, 
                        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. REGULATORY REVIEW BY THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE.

    (a) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the 
        Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
            (2) Agricultural entity.--The term ``agricultural entity'' 
        means an entity that is involved in or relates to agricultural 
        enterprise, including an enterprise that is engaged in the 
        business of--
                    (A) producing food and fiber;
                    (B) ranching and raising of livestock;
                    (C) aquaculture; and
                    (D) any other farming- and agriculture-related 
                activities.
            (3) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Agriculture.
    (b) Review of Regulatory Agenda.--The Secretary shall review each 
notice issued by the Administrator and published in the Federal 
Register relating to the preparation of any guidance, policy, 
memorandum, regulation, or statement of general applicability and 
future effect that may have a significant impact on a substantial 
number of agricultural entities, including--
            (1) any regulatory agenda published by the Administrator 
        under section 602 of title 5, United States Code;
            (2) any regulation plan or agenda published by the 
        Administrator or the Director of the Office of Management and 
        Budget pursuant to an Executive order, including Executive 
        Order 12866 (5 U.S.C. 601 note; relating to regulatory planning 
        and review); and
            (3) any other publication issued by the Administrator or 
        the Director of the Office of Management and Budget that may 
        reasonably be foreseen to contain a notice of a plan by the 
        Administrator to prepare any guidance, policy, memorandum, 
        regulation, or statement of general applicability and future 
        effect that may have a significant impact on a substantial 
        number of agricultural entities.
    (c) Information Gathering.--For a publication item reviewed under 
subsection (b) that the Secretary determines may have a significant 
impact on a substantial number of agricultural entities, the Secretary 
shall--
            (1) solicit from the Administrator any information the 
        Administrator may provide to facilitate a review of the 
        publication item;
            (2) acting through the Chief Economist of the Department of 
        Agriculture, produce an economic impact statement for the 
        publication item that contains a detailed estimate of potential 
        costs to agricultural entities;
            (3) identify individuals representative of potentially 
        affected agricultural entities for the purpose of obtaining 
        advice and recommendations from those individuals about the 
        potential impacts of the publication item; and
            (4) convene a review panel for analysis of the publication 
        item that includes the Secretary, any full-time Federal 
        employee of the Department of Agriculture appointed to the 
        panel by the Secretary, and any employee of the Environmental 
        Protection Agency or the Office of Information and Regulatory 
        Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget that accepts an 
        invitation from the Secretary to participate in the panel.
    (d) Duties of the Review Panel.--A review panel convened for a 
publication item under subsection (c)(4) shall--
            (1) review any information or material obtained by the 
        Secretary and prepared in connection with the publication item, 
        including any draft proposed guidance, policy, memorandum, 
        regulation, or statement of general applicability and future 
        effect;
            (2) collect advice and recommendations from agricultural 
        entity representatives identified by the Administrator after 
        consultation with the Secretary;
            (3) compile and analyze the advice and recommendations; and
            (4) make recommendations to the Secretary based on the 
        information gathered by the review panel or provided by 
        agricultural entity representatives.
    (e) Comments.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 60 days after the date on 
        which the Secretary convenes a review panel under subsection 
        (c)(4), the Secretary shall submit to the Administrator 
        comments on the planned or proposed guidance, policy, 
        memorandum, regulation, or statement of general applicability 
        and future effect for consideration and inclusion in any 
        related administrative record, including--
                    (A) a report by the Secretary on the concerns of 
                agricultural entities;
                    (B) the findings of the review panel;
                    (C) the findings of the Secretary, including any 
                adopted findings of the review panel; and
                    (D) recommendations of the Secretary.
            (2) Publication.--The Secretary shall publish the comments 
        under paragraph (1) in the Federal Register and make the 
        comments available to the public on the public Internet site of 
        the Department of Agriculture.
    (f) Waivers.--The Secretary may waive initiation of the review 
panel under subsection (c)(4) as the Secretary determines appropriate.
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