[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2879 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
113th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 2879
To provide for the implementation of a Sustainable Chemistry Program,
and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 18, 2014
Mr. Coons (for himself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Rockefeller, and Mr. Isakson)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide for the implementation of a Sustainable Chemistry Program,
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 ``Sustainable Chemistry Research and
Development Act of 2014''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act--
(1) Advisory council.--The term ``Advisory Council'' means
the advisory council established under section 3(d).
(2) Interagency working group.--The term ``Interagency
Working Group'' means the interagency working group established
under section 3(c).
(3) Program.--The term ``Program'' means the Sustainable
Chemistry Program described in section 3.
(4) Sustainable chemistry.--The term ``sustainable
chemistry'' means the design, development, demonstration, and
commercialization of high-quality chemicals and materials,
chemical processes and products, and manufacturing processes
that eliminate or reduce chemical risks to benefit human health
and the environment across the chemical lifecycle, to the
highest extent practicable, through--
(A) increasing the use of more sustainable,
renewable, or recycled substances and materials;
(B) increasing the use of substitutes for rare
substances;
(C) promoting safe and more efficient
manufacturing;
(D) minimizing lifecycle impacts, including
environmental and health impacts;
(E) optimizing product design and encouraging the
reduction of waste and the reuse or recycling of
chemicals and materials to account for the end of life
or the final disposition of the product; or
(F) increasing the design and use of safe
molecules, chemicals, materials, chemistries, and
chemical processes.
SEC. 3. SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--The President shall establish an interagency
Sustainable Chemistry Program to promote and coordinate Federal
sustainable chemistry research, development, demonstration, technology
transfer, commercialization, education, and training activities.
(b) Program Activities.--The activities of the Program shall be
designed to--
(1) provide sustained support for sustainable chemistry
research, development, demonstration, technology transfer,
commercialization, education, and training through--
(A) merit-based competitive grants to individual
investigators and teams of investigators, including, to
the extent practicable, young investigators, for
research and development;
(B) grants to fund collaborative research and
development partnerships among universities, industry,
and nonprofit organizations;
(C) grants, loans, and loan guarantees to aid in
the technology transfer and commercialization of
sustainable chemicals, materials, processes, and
products;
(D) incentive prize competitions and challenges;
(E) coordination of sustainable chemistry research,
development, demonstration, and technology transfer
conducted at Federal laboratories and agencies; and
(F) to the extent practicable, encouragement of
consideration of sustainable chemistry in, as
appropriate--
(i) the conduct of Federal and State
science and engineering research and
development; and
(ii) the solicitation and evaluation of
applicable proposals for science and
engineering research and development;
(2) examine methods by which the Federal Government can
create incentives for consideration and use of sustainable
chemistry processes and products, including innovative
financing mechanisms;
(3) facilitate the adoption of sustainable chemistry
innovations and methods;
(4) expand the education and training of undergraduate and
graduate students and professional scientists and engineers,
including through partnerships with industry, in sustainable
chemistry science and engineering;
(5) collect and disseminate information on sustainable
chemistry research, development, and technology transfer
including information on--
(A) incentives and impediments to development,
manufacturing, and commercialization;
(B) accomplishments;
(C) best practices; and
(D) costs and benefits;
(6) support (including through technical assistance,
participation, financial support, or other forms of support)
venues for outreach and dissemination of sustainable chemistry
advances such as symposia, forums, conferences, and written
materials in collaboration with, as appropriate, industry,
academia, scientific and professional societies, and other
relevant groups;
(7) support (including through technical assistance,
participation, financial support, or other forms of support)
economic, legal, and other appropriate social science research
to identify barriers to commercialization and methods to
advance commercialization of sustainable chemistry;
(8) provide for public input and outreach to be integrated
into the Program by the convening of public discussions,
through mechanisms such as public meetings, consensus
conferences, and educational events, as appropriate; and
(9) develop metrics to track the outputs and outcomes of
the Program.
(c) Interagency Working Group.--
(1) Establishment.--Not later than 180 days after the date
of enactment of this Act, the President, in consultation with
the Office of Science and Technology Policy, shall establish an
Interagency Working Group that shall include representatives
from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, the Department of Energy, the
Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture,
the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health,
and any other agency that the President may designate to
oversee the planning, management, and coordination of the
Program.
(2) Governance.--The Director of the National Science
Foundation and the Assistant Administrator for Research and
Development of the Environmental Protection Agency, or their
designees, shall serve as co-chairs of the Interagency Working
Group.
(3) Responsibilities.--In overseeing the planning,
management, and coordination of the Program, the Interagency
Working Group shall--
(A) establish goals and priorities for the Program,
in consultation with the Advisory Council;
(B) provide for interagency coordination, including
budget coordination, of activities under the Program;
(C) meet not later than 90 days from its
establishment and periodically thereafter; and
(D) consult with the Advisory Council on a regular
basis.
(d) Advisory Council.--
(1) Establishment.--Not later than 180 days after the date
of the establishment of the Interagency Working Group, the co-
chairs of the Interagency Working Group shall establish an
Advisory Council on Sustainable Chemistry that shall make
recommendations to the Interagency Working Group and provide it
with ongoing advice and assistance.
(2) Membership.--The Advisory Council members shall not be
employees of the Federal Government and shall include a diverse
representation of knowledgeable individuals from the private
sector (including small- and medium-sized enterprises from
across the value chain), academia, State and tribal
governments, and nongovernmental organizations and others who
are in a position to provide expertise.
(3) Conflict of interest.--
(A) In general.--The Interagency Working Group
shall make its best efforts to ensure that--
(i) no individual appointed to serve on the
Advisory Council has a conflict of interest
that is relevant to the functions to be
performed, unless such conflict is promptly and
publicly disclosed and the Interagency Working
Group determines that the conflict is
unavoidable;
(ii) the Advisory Council membership is
fairly balanced as determined by the
Interagency Working Group to be appropriate for
the functions to be performed;
(iii) any products of the Interagency
Working Group will be the result of the
Interagency Working Group's independent
judgment; and
(iv) the meetings and proceedings of the
Advisory Council be open and available to the
public.
(B) Notification of conflicts.--The Interagency
Working Group shall require that individuals nominated
or appointed to serve on the Advisory Council inform
the Interagency Working Group of any conflicts of
interest that are relevant to the functions to be
performed.
(C) FACA applicability.--All proceedings and
meetings of the Advisory Council shall be subject to
the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.).
(4) Governance.--The co-chairs of the Interagency Working
Group--
(A) may appoint new members of the Advisory Council
as needed; and
(B) shall appoint the original Chair to serve a
term of 1 year.
(5) Appointment of chair.--The Advisory Council shall
appoint a Chair from among the members of the Advisory Council
after the term of the original Chair appointed under paragraph
(3)(B) expires.
(e) Agency Budget Requests.--
(1) In general.--Each Federal agency and department
participating in the Program shall, as part of its annual
request for appropriations to the Office of Management and
Budget, submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget
that--
(A) identifies the activities of the agency or
department that contribute directly to the Program; and
(B) states the portion of the agency or
department's request for appropriations that is
allocated to those activities.
(2) Annual budget request to congress.--The President shall
include in the annual budget request to Congress a statement of
the portion of the annual budget request for each agency or
department that will be allocated to activities undertaken
pursuant to the Program.
(f) Report to Congress.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 2 years after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Interagency Working Group shall
submit a report to the Committee on Science, Space, and
Technology and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on Environment and
Public Works and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation of the Senate that shall include--
(A) a summary of federally funded sustainable
chemistry research, development, demonstration,
technology transfer, commercialization, education, and
training activities;
(B) a summary of the financial resources allocated
to sustainable chemistry initiatives;
(C) an analysis of the progress made toward
achieving the goals and priorities of this Act, and
recommendations for future program activities;
(D) an assessment of the benefits of expanding
existing, federally supported regional innovation and
manufacturing hubs to include sustainable chemistry and
the value of directing the creation of one or more
dedicated sustainable chemistry centers of excellence
or hubs; and
(E) an evaluation of steps taken and future
strategies to avoid duplication of efforts, streamline
interagency coordination, facilitate information
sharing, and spread best practices between
participating agencies in the Program.
(2) Submission to gao.--The Interagency Working Group shall
also submit the report described in paragraph (1) to the
Government Accountability Office for consideration in future
congressional inquiries.
SEC. 4. PARTNERSHIPS IN SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY.
(a) Authorization.--The Interagency Working Group shall lead the
agencies participating in the Program to carry out a joint, coordinated
program to award grants to institutions of higher education to
establish partnerships with companies across the value chain in the
chemical industry, including small- and medium-sized enterprises, to--
(1) create collaborative research, development,
demonstration, technology transfer, and commercialization
programs; and
(2) train students and retrain professional scientists and
engineers in the use of sustainable chemistry concepts and
strategies by methods including--
(A) developing curricular materials and courses for
undergraduate and graduate levels and for the
professional development of scientists and engineers;
and
(B) publicizing the availability of professional
development courses in sustainable chemistry and
recruiting scientists and engineers to pursue such
courses.
(b) Guidelines.--The Interagency Working Group shall establish
guidelines and criteria for--
(1) a partnership between a company in the chemical
industry and an institution of higher education eligible for a
grant under subsection (a); and
(2) the grant application and awarding process, which shall
include--
(A) competitive, merit-based review of each grant
application; and
(B) cost-sharing from non-Federal sources by
members of the partnerships.
SEC. 5. STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY.
The Director of the National Science Foundation shall enter into an
arrangement with the National Research Council to conduct a study that
shall--
(1) assess the current status of sustainable chemistry
research in the United States, and suggest high-priority
research and development needs within sustainable chemistry;
(2) examine the status of sustainable chemistry in the
education of chemists and chemical engineers and other relevant
professions and identify recommendations to improve and broaden
the implementation of sustainable chemistry practices in
science and engineering education, including examining the role
of toxicology, chemical hazard and risk assessment, lifecycle
assessment, and environmental fate and effects in science and
engineering education;
(3) examine case studies of successful and unsuccessful
attempts at commercialization and adoption of sustainable
chemistry processes and products in the United States and
abroad and recommend research areas, priorities, and public
policy options that would help to overcome identified barriers
to commercialization; and
(4) using available economic analyses, discuss the
potential economic impact of sustainable chemistry, including
job creation.
SEC. 6. NATIONAL STRATEGY AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.
Not later than 2 years after the release of the study described in
section 5, the Interagency Working Group, in consultation with the
Advisory Council, shall produce a national strategy and accompanying
implementation plan for sustainable chemistry that provides a framework
for advancing sustainable chemistry research, development, technology
transfer, commercialization, and education and training.
SEC. 7. PRIORITIZATION.
In carrying out this Act, the Interagency Working Group shall
prioritize support for activities that achieve, to the highest extent
practicable, the goals of sustainable chemistry.
<all>