[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7900 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 7900
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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 9, 2024
Mr. Finstad (for himself, Mr. Johnson of South Dakota, Mr. Bacon, Mrs.
Hinson, Mr. Scott Franklin of Florida, Mr. Van Orden, Mr. Newhouse,
Mrs. Fischbach, Mr. Austin Scott of Georgia, Mr. Williams of Texas, Mr.
Flood, and Mr. Moore of Alabama) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to the
Committees on Energy and Commerce, and Transportation and
Infrastructure, 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 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. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``EPA Accountability to Farm Country
Act''.
SEC. 2. REGULATORY REVIEW BY THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE.
(a) Review of Regulatory Actions.--The Secretary shall review each
covered publication not later than 30 days after the date on which such
publication is issued to determine whether the covered publication may
have a major economic impact on production or prices of agricultural
commodities, retail food prices, or otherwise on the agricultural
economy.
(b) Information Gathering.--If the Secretary determines a covered
publication may have a major economic impact on production or prices of
agricultural commodities, retail food prices, and otherwise on the
agricultural economy, within 30 days of such determination, the
Secretary shall--
(1) convene a review panel for analysis of the regulatory
action that is the subject of the covered publication that
includes--
(A) the Secretary;
(B) an employee of the Department of Agriculture;
(C) an employee of the Environmental Protection
Agency that is designated by the Administrator;
(D) an employee from the Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and
Budget that is designated by the Director of the Office
of Management and Budget; and
(E) four active producers from different geographic
areas of the United States, and that represent a cross-
section of agricultural commodities grown in the United
States;
(2) notify the Committee on Agriculture of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition,
and Forestry of the Senate--
(A) that such a review panel is being convened; and
(B) which covered publication is to be considered
by such review panel;
(3) solicit from the Administrator any information the
Secretary determines necessary to facilitate a review of the
covered publication; and
(4) issue an economic impact statement for the publication
item that contains a detailed estimate of potential costs to
the agriculture sector of the United States.
(c) Duties of the Administrator.--The Administrator shall provide
any information solicited by the Secretary under subsection (b)(3) for
purposes of facilitating a review of the covered publication involved.
(d) Duties and Report of the Review Panel.--
(1) Duties.--A review panel convened under subsection (b)
with respect to a covered publication shall--
(A) review any information or material obtained by
the Secretary and prepared in connection with the
covered publication, including any draft proposed
guidance, policy, memorandum, regulation, assessment,
decision, or statement of general applicability and
future effect;
(B) collect advice and recommendations from
agricultural entity representatives with respect to
such publication; and
(C) compile and analyze such advice and
recommendations.
(2) Report.--Not later than 60 days after the date a review
panel is convened under subsection (b) with respect to a
covered publication, the review panel shall submit to the
Secretary, the Administrator, the Committee on Agriculture of
the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Agriculture,
Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate a report, which shall be
made publicly available by the Secretary, describing--
(A) the economic impact statement for the covered
publication issued under subsection (b)(4);
(B) the findings of the review panel; and
(C) any recommendations of the Administrator to
limit the scope of the covered publication to ensure
the regulatory action that is the subject of such
publication does not have a major economic impact on
production and prices of agricultural commodities,
retail food prices, and otherwise on the agricultural
economy.
(e) Economic Impact of Regulatory Agenda.--Any regulatory action
that is the subject of a covered publication that has been reviewed by
a review panel under subsection (b) that has been determined to have a
major economic impact or affects a substantial number of agricultural
entities shall not be finalized until the Administrator implements the
recommendations made by the review panel, as described in subsection
(d).
(f) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
(2) Covered publication defined.--The term ``covered
publication'' means a publication that gives notice that the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is
preparing, or plans to prepare, any guidance, policy,
memorandum, regulation, assessment, decision, or statement of
general applicability and future effect, including--
(A) any regulatory agenda of the Environmental
Protection Agency published pursuant to section 602 of
title 5, United States Code;
(B) any regulatory plan or agenda published by the
Environmental Protection Agency or the Office of
Management and Budget pursuant to an Executive order,
including Executive Order 12866; and
(C) any other publication issued by the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency or
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
that may reasonably be foreseen to contain such a
notice.
(3) Major economic impact.--The term ``major economic
impact'' means, with respect to a regulatory action that is the
subject of a covered publication, that the action would--
(A) have an annual effect on the economy of the
United States of $50,000,000 or more;
(B) cause a major increase in costs or prices for
agricultural entities, consumers, individual
industries, Federal, State, or local government
agencies, or geographic regions; or
(C) cause significant adverse effects on
employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or
the ability of United States-based enterprises to
compete with foreign-based enterprises in domestic and
export markets.
(4) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Agriculture.
<all>