This bill — known as the HONEST Act — would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from proposing, finalizing, or publishing regulations or assessments based on science that isn’t transparent or reproducible. All scientific and technical information used by the EPA to support their action would have to be based on the best available science, specifically identified, and publicly available online in a way that allows for independent analysis and reproduction of the research results.
Personal, commercial or financial information, and trade secrets could be redacted before it becomes publicly available, and to view redactions a person would have to sign a confidentiality agreement with the EPA.
Among the EPA actions covered by this bill include a risk, exposure, or hazard assessment, criteria document, standards and limitations, regulations, regulatory impact analyses, and guidances. This bill’s requirements wouldn’t apply retroactively to existing regulations or assessments.
This bill’s acronym stands for the Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act.