97020: Environmental Protection Legislation in the 105th Congress

Martin R. Lee, Coordinator
Environment and Natural Resources Policy Division

November 9, 1998

CONTENTS

SUMMARY
MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
Environmental Protection Issues and the 106th Congress?
Regulatory Reform and Environmental Protection (by Martin Lee and Linda Schierow)
Funding Environmental Protection (by Martin Lee)
Clean Air Act (by James McCarthy)
Transportation Equity Act for the 21^st Century (by David Bearden)
Global Climate Change (by Martin Lee)
Reauthorizing Superfund (by Mark Reisch)
Defense Cleanup and Environmental Programs (by David Bearden)
Reauthorizing the Clean Water Act (by Claudia Copeland)

Funding
Nonpoint Source Pollution
Wetlands

Solid Waste: Interstate Waste, Flow Control, and Managing Wastes (by James McCarthy)
Underground Storage Tanks (by Mary Tiemann)
Toxic Release Inventory Expansion (by Linda Schierow)
Safe Drinking Water Act: Overseeing Implementation (by Mary Tiemann)
Regulating Pesticides (by Linda Schierow)

SUMMARY

The 105^th Congress enacted tax provisions relating to Superfund brownfields sites, transportation- and defense-related environmental provisions, a border smog bill, EPA funding as well as reinstating the tax that supports the Leaking Underground Storage Trust Fund. There were various actions on regulatory reform, the budget resolution, appropriations, highway- and defense-related environmental provisions, Superfund reform bills and underground storage tanks. It is too early to tell if these will be issues for the 106^th Congress.

Cost, Benefit, Risk. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee approved S. 981, a bill requiring evaluations of cost, benefits, and risks; related legislation, H.R. 1704, approved by House Judiciary and Government Reform, proposes establishing a congressional office to analyze regulations. The Omnibus Appropriations Act, P.L. 105-277, requires OMB to report on the costs and benefits of federal regulations and directs all agencies to assess the impact of federal regulations and policies on families.

TEA21. Transportation legislation, P.L. 105-178 (H.R. 2400), contains funding to assist states in addressing the environmental impacts of surface transportation and provisions on particulate standards.

Superfund and Hazardous Waste. To reform Superfund, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee reported S. 8; the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Water Resources Subcommittee approved H.R. 2727. Issues include liability, cleanup standards, state roles, and natural resource damage assessments, and urban waste sites, or "brownfields." The tax bill (P.L. 105-34, H.R. 2014) allows the expensing of cleanup costs at brownfields.

Defense Cleanup. Congress enacted annual FY1998 and FY1999 authorizing and appropriating legislation for the defense-related hazardous waste cleanup and other environmental programs.

EPA Budget. To fund EPA in FY1998, the President proposed $7.7 billion; Congress approved $7.4 billion. The FY1999 budget sought $7.8 billion; Congress approved $7.6 billion.

Ozone and Particulate Standards and Motor Vehicles. The TEA21 bill, P.L. 105-178, codifies certain implementation provisions on the new ozone and particulate standards. The President signed H.R. 6, a border smog bill.

Clean Water Act and Solid Waste. Key issues associated with reauthorizing the Clean Water Act include funding wastewater capital needs, regulatory reform within the act, wetlands regulation, and management of nonpoint source pollution. Solid waste issues include interstate shipment, "flow control," and the management of wastes from remedial actions at hazardous waste cleanup sites.

Underground Storage Tanks. House-passed leaking underground storage tank (LUST) legislation (H.R. 688) would require that 85% of the LUST appropriation be allocated to states. A similar Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved S. 555 awaits Senate floor action. P.L. 105-34 (H.R. 2014) reinstated the tax that supports the LUST trust fund.

MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

In the second session, the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs on March 10 approved regulatory reform legislation, S. 981, requiring evaluation of costs, benefits, and risks; the House Judiciary and Government Reform Committees have approved legislation, H.R. 1704, to establish a congressional office to analyze legislation. The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works reported legislation to reauthorize and reform the Superfund program, S. 8, on May 19, 1998 (S.Rept. 105-192). The Water Resources Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved Superfund legislation, H.R. 2727, on March 11. P.L. 105-178(H.R. 2400), the Intermodal Transportation legislation, funds state environmental programs related to surface transportation. The Senate-passed version of the FY1999 budget resolution (S.Con.Res. 86) contains provisions related to environmental funding and senses of the Senate on climate change research and the Kyoto Treaty to limit greenhouse gases. The House Budget Committee approved its budget resolution, H.Con.Res. 284, on June 5, 1998. P.L. 105-276 included $7.6 billion for EPA's FY1999 budget, about $230 million less than requested; P.L. 105-277, the Omnibus Appropriation Act, included an additional $30 million for EPA. Congress completed all actions on defense authorization and appropriations bills. The President signed EPA's FY1999 appropriation (P.L. 105-276, P.L. 105-277) and border smog legislation (P.L. 105-286).

BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS

Interest in environmental protection remained high. For the second session of the 105th Congress, two broad issues are how to reduce the costs of environmental regulations to the regulated community and how to make environmental programs more efficient and flexible.

Table 1. Major Environmental Legislation of the 105^th Congress

Environmental Protection Issues and the 106th Congress?

The 106^th Congress' agenda for environmental protection may be a combination of the unfinished work of the 105^th Congress -- discussed throughout this issue brief -- and perhaps newly emerging issues. At this point in time (November 1998), it is premature to predict congressional priorities; much depends on the yet-to-be articulated plans of the leadership and committees as well as other competing national issues.

The 106^th Congress may continue to be concerned with the costs of environmental regulation and cleanup, and with making environmental programs more efficient through regulatory reform measures. The authorization authority for the Clean Air Act expired September 30, 1998, and among the continuing issues are the use of MTBE in gasoline, sulphur in gasoline, auto emissions and inspections, emissions controls, regional haze and national parks, ozone transport and mercury emissions. Oversight of new air quality related provisions of TEA 21 is likely.

Many conclude that continued dissatisfaction with the Nation's hazardous waste cleanup law, or Superfund, especially its liability, remedy selection and natural resource damage assessment make it a logical issue for the 106^th Congress, as it was in the 105^th Congress. Unresolved solid waste management issues under the Solid Waste Disposal Act involve remediation waste, the interstate shipment of wastes and flow control, as well as the status of underground storage tanks. As it has done annually, Congress may again return to the many programs aimed at cleaning up defense-related waste and federal agency compliance with environmental laws.

Water quality issues may also garner congressional attention. Among them are major wastewater infrastructure funding needs, nonpoint source programs, and wetlands issues. The 106^th Congress may continue to oversee implementation of the drinking water and pesticides programs, also. How EPA collects data from industry and manages it is another continuing issue.

The Administration and Congress have been examining various alternative approaches to the traditional foundations of the Nation's environmental protection policy. The 106^th may continue to review ways to incorporate alternative compliance and enforcement strategies, environmental audits, voluntary programs and corporate environmental management into the fabric of traditional environmental protection policy.