Effective immediately, following a February 25 memo from EPA Administrator Wheeler, the decision for whether or not the agency’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) will review a regulatory action by EPA will rest solely with the SAB’s chairman. Within the memo, Wheeler stresses the importance of engaging with the SAB early, echoing the administrator’s comments from an SAB meeting this past summer.
The new review process laid out within the memo calls for a monthly meeting between the SAB chair and EPA staff where briefings will be provided on recent regulatory actions the agency has taken. This information will be used by the chair to determine the need for a review by the full board. Administrator Wheeler does state that the chair may “appoint up to eight additional SAB members with expertise on the proposed regulatory action(s) to attend the meeting and provide advice,” however these members are not permanent additions and may vary depending on the proposed actions. If the chair determines that a further review of the regulatory action is warranted, they must then identify “specific topics within the rule, a timeline for review, and whether it is best reviewed by the full SAB, standing committee or ad hoc committee.”