 Introduction
to Laws and Regulations
Laws and regulations are a major tool in protecting the
environment. Congress passes laws that govern the United
States. To put those laws into effect, Congress authorizes
certain government agencies, including EPA, to create
and enforce regulations. Below, you'll find a basic description
of how laws and regulations come to be, what they are,
and where to find them, with an emphasis on environmental
laws and regulations.
1. Creating a Law
Step 1: A member of Congress proposes a bill. A
bill is a document that, if approved, will become law.
To see the text of bills Congress is considering or has
considered, look
on the Library of Congress' Thomas Web server.
Step 2: If both houses of Congress approve a bill,
it goes to the President who has the option to either
approve it or veto it. If approved, the new law is called
an act, and the text of the act is known as a public statute.
Some of the better-known laws related to the environment
are the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Safe
Drinking Water Act.
For more information on how bills are written and passed,
go to the Library
of Congress' Thomas Web server.
A list of the major laws related to EPA appears below.
Step 3: Once an act is passed, the House of Representatives
standardizes the text of the law and publishes it in the
United States Code. The U.S. Code is the official record
of all federal laws.
The United States Code database is available from the
Government Printing Office. GPO is the sole agency authorized
by the federal government to publish the U.S. Code. The
U.S. Code database contains the text of laws in effect
as of January 2, 2001.
Cornell
University also offers their own U.S. Code
database.
2. Putting the Law to Work
So now that the law is official, how is it put into practice?
Laws often do not include all the details. The U.S. Code
would not tell you, for example, what the speed limit
is in front of your house. In order to make the laws work
on a day-to-day level, Congress authorizes certain government
agencies--including EPA-- to create regulations.
Regulations set specific rules about what is legal and
what isn't. For example, a regulation issued by EPA to
implement the Clean Air Act might state what levels of
a pollutant--such as sulfur dioxide--are safe. It would
tell industries how much sulfur dioxide they can legally
emit into the air, and what the penalty will be if they
emit too much. Once the regulation is in effect, EPA then
works
to help Americans comply with the law
and to enforce it.
3. Creating a Regulation
First, an authorized agency--such as EPA--decides that
a regulation may be needed. The agency researches it
and, if necessary, proposes a regulation. The proposal
is listed in the Federal Register so that members of
the public can consider it and send their comments to
the agency. The agency considers all the comments, revises
the regulation accordingly, and issues a final rule.
At each stage in the process, the agency publishes a
notice in the Federal Register. These notices include
the original proposal, requests for public comment,
notices about meetings where the proposal will be discussed
(open to the public), and the text of the final regulation.
(The Federal Register also includes other types of notices,
too.)
Federal
Register notices related to the environment are available
on EPA's Web site. Most of these are notices
issued by EPA.
A complete record of Federal Register notices issued
by the entire federal government is available from the
Government Printing Office.
Twice a year, each agency publishes a comprehensive
report that describes all the regulations it is working
on or has recently finished. These are published in
the Federal Register, usually in April and October,
as the Unified Agenda of Federal and Regulatory and
Deregulatory Actions.
Once a regulation is completed and has been printed
in the Federal Register as a final rule, it is "codified"
by being published in the Code of Federal Regulations
(CFR). The CFR is the official record of all regulations
created by the federal government. It is divided into
50 volumes, called titles, each of which focuses on
a particular area. Almost all environmental regulations
appear in Title 40. The CFR is revised yearly, with
one fourth of the volumes updated every three months.
Title 40 is revised every July 1.
The full text of CFR Title 40: Protection of Environment
is retrievable by chapters, subchapters, and parts in
portable document format (pdf).
A searchable database containing the complete Code of
Federal Regulations is available from the Government
Printing Office.
4. Carrying Out the Law
(This list originally appeared in "Creating a Healthier
Environment: How EPA Works For You," published
by EPA as part of the Winter 1995 issue of EPA Journal.)
Among the environmental laws enacted by Congress through
which EPA carries out its efforts are:
1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
1947 Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide
Act
1948 Federal Water Pollution Control Act (also known
as the Clean Water Act)
1955 Clean Air Act
1965 Shoreline Erosion Protection Act
1965 Solid Waste Disposal Act
1970 National Environmental Policy Act
1970 Pollution Prevention Packaging Act
1970 Resource Recovery Act
1971 Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act
1972 Coastal Zone Management Act
1972 Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act
1972 Ocean Dumping Act
1973 Endangered Species Act
1974 Safe Drinking Water Act
1974 Shoreline Erosion Control Demonstration Act
1975 Hazardous Materials Transportation Act
1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
1976 Toxic Substances Control Act
1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
1978 Uranium Mill-Tailings Radiation Control Act
1980 Asbestos School Hazard Detection and Control Act
1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation,
and Liability Act
1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act
1984 Asbestos School Hazard Abatement Act
1986 Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act
1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know
Act
1988 Indoor Radon Abatement Act
1988 Lead Contamination Control Act
1988 Medical Waste Tracking Act
1988 Ocean Dumping Ban Act
1988 Shore Protection Act
1990 National Environmental Education Act
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