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.
Visit our Regulations page
for a more in-depth analysis of the regulatory process.
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.
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For more information on how bills are written and
passed, go to the Library of Congress' Thomas
Web server.
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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.
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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.
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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.)
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.
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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