S. 454 · 115th Congress
Commonsense Legislative Exceptional Events Reforms Act of 2017
Key: what the circles and colors mean
Each circle is a bill. The ring fills as it moves through Congress:
Under the number: the Yea · Nay count of its final (or latest) recorded vote. On a member's page, the small badge is how that member voted: Y Yea / Aye, N Nay / No, P Present, – Not voting.
Gold and violet are only for Yea and Nay; they never mean a party. A member's party is the letter on their photo.
Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 115th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.
R
FlakeSponsor2 cosponsors · 2 R
2 signed on when it was introduced; the rest joined later. Cosponsors who withdrew aren't shown.
Commonsense Legislative Exceptional Events Reforms Act of 2017
What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in Senate · Feb 27, 2017
Commonsense Legislative Exceptional Events Reforms Act of 2017
This bill amends the Clean Air Act to revise the criteria used by the Environmental Protection Agency in reviewing state air quality monitoring data influenced by exceptional events. Currently, an exceptional event affects air quality, is not reasonably controllable or preventable, and is caused by a natural event or by human activity that is unlikely to recur at a particular location. This bill allows an exceptional event to include a meteorological event involving high temperatures or lack of precipitation.
Under current law, states may petition the EPA to exclude air quality monitoring data that are affected by an exceptional event in determining whether there were exceedances or violations of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The bill requires the criteria used by the EPA in determining whether an exceptional event was demonstrated by a state to be specific in order to minimize the discretion of the EPA in approving or disapproving the demonstration.
The EPA must make a determination within 90 days after the submission of a petition by a state of an exceptional event demonstration. The demonstration is approved if the EPA does not make a determination by that deadline.
A determination must be based on a preponderance of the evidence and give substantial deference to the findings of the state exceptional event demonstration. An appeal process for reviewing a disapproval of a demonstration is established.
Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov
About this bill and sources
Official title: Commonsense Legislative Exceptional Events Reforms Act of 2017
Latest action (Feb 27, 2017): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Policy area: Environmental Protection · Origin: Senate · Introduced: Feb 27, 2017
Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)
No recorded floor vote found.