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Executive Order 13045--Protection of Children From Environmental Health
Risks and Safety Risks
[Federal Register: April 23, 1997 (Volume 62, Number 78)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Page 19883-19888]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr23ap97-130]
[[Page 19883]]
_______________________________________________________________________
Part V
The President
_______________________________________________________________________
Executive Order 13045--Protection of Children From Environmental Health
Risks and Safety Risks
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 19885]]
Executive Order 13045 of April 21, 1997
Protection of Children From Environmental Health
Risks and Safety Risks
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy.
1-101. A growing body of scientific knowledge
demonstrates that children may suffer
disproportionately from environmental health risks and
safety risks. These risks arise because: children's
neurological, immunological, digestive, and other
bodily systems are still developing; children eat more
food, drink more fluids, and breathe more air in
proportion to their body weight than adults; children's
size and weight may diminish their protection from
standard safety features; and children's behavior
patterns may make them more susceptible to accidents
because they are less able to protect themselves.
Therefore, to the extent permitted by law and
appropriate, and consistent with the agency's mission,
each Federal agency:
(a) shall make it a high priority to identify and
assess environmental health risks and safety risks that
may disproportionately affect children; and
(b) shall ensure that its policies, programs,
activities, and standards address disproportionate
risks to children that result from environmental health
risks or safety risks.
1-102. Each independent regulatory agency is encouraged
to participate in the implementation of this order and
comply with its provisions.
Sec. 2. Definitions. The following definitions shall
apply to this order.
2-201. ``Federal agency'' means any authority of the
United States that is an agency under 44 U.S.C. 3502(1)
other than those considered to be independent
regulatory agencies under 44 U.S.C. 3502(5). For
purposes of this order, ``military departments,'' as
defined in 5 U.S.C. 102, are covered under the auspices
of the Department of Defense.
2-202. ``Covered regulatory action'' means any
substantive action in a rulemaking, initiated after the
date of this order or for which a Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking is published 1 year after the date of this
order, that is likely to result in a rule that may:
(a) be ``economically significant'' under Executive
Order 12866 (a rulemaking that has an annual effect on
the economy of $100 million or more or would adversely
affect in a material way the economy, a sector of the
economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the
environment, public health or safety, or State, local,
or tribal governments or communities); and
(b) concern an environmental health risk or safety
risk that an agency has reason to believe may
disproportionately affect children.
2-203. ``Environmental health risks and safety risks''
mean risks to health or to safety that are attributable
to products or substances that the child is likely to
come in contact with or ingest (such as the air we
breath, the food we eat, the water we drink or use for
recreation, the soil we live on, and the products we
use or are exposed to).
Sec. 3. Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and
Safety Risks to Children.
[[Page 19886]]
3-301. There is hereby established the Task Force on
Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children
(``Task Force'').
3-302. The Task Force will report to the President in
consultation with the Domestic Policy Council, the
National Science and Technology Council, the Council on
Environmental Quality, and the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB).
3-303. Membership. The Task Force shall be composed of
the:
(a) Secretary of Health and Human Services, who
shall serve as a Co-Chair of the Council;
(b) Administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency, who shall serve as a Co-Chair of the Council;
(c) Secretary of Education;
(d) Secretary of Labor;
(e) Attorney General;
(f) Secretary of Energy;
(g) Secretary of Housing and Urban Development;
(h) Secretary of Agriculture;
(i) Secretary of Transportation;
(j) Director of the Office of Management and
Budget;
(k) Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality;
(l) Chair of the Consumer Product Safety
Commission;
(m) Assistant to the President for Economic
Policy;
(n) Assistant to the President for Domestic
Policy;
(o) Assistant to the President and Director of the
Office of Science and Technology Policy;
(p) Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers; and
(q) Such other officials of executive departments
and agencies as the President may, from time to time,
designate.
Members of the Task Force may delegate their
responsibilities under this order to subordinates.
3-304. Functions. The Task Force shall recommend to the
President Federal strategies for children's
environmental health and safety, within the limits of
the Administration's budget, to include the following
elements:
(a) statements of principles, general policy, and
targeted annual priorities to guide the Federal
approach to achieving the goals of this order;
(b) a coordinated research agenda for the Federal
Government, including steps to implement the review of
research databases described in section 4 of this
order;
(c) recommendations for appropriate partnerships
among Federal, State, local, and tribal governments and
the private, academic, and nonprofit sectors;
(d) proposals to enhance public outreach and
communication to assist families in evaluating risks to
children and in making informed consumer choices;
(e) an identification of high-priority initiatives
that the Federal Government has undertaken or will
undertake in advancing protection of children's
environmental health and safety; and
(f) a statement regarding the desirability of new
legislation to fulfill or promote the purposes of this
order.
3-305. The Task Force shall prepare a biennial report
on research, data, or other information that would
enhance our ability to understand, analyze,
[[Page 19887]]
and respond to environmental health risks and safety
risks to children. For purposes of this report, cabinet
agencies and other agencies identified by the Task
Force shall identify and specifically describe for the
Task Force key data needs related to environmental
health risks and safety risks to children that have
arisen in the course of the agency's programs and
activities. The Task Force shall incorporate agency
submissions into its report and ensure that this report
is publicly available and widely disseminated. The
Office of Science and Technology Policy and the
National Science and Technology Council shall ensure
that this report is fully considered in establishing
research priorities.
3-306. The Task Force shall exist for a period of 4
years from the first meeting. At least 6 months prior
to the expiration of that period, the member agencies
shall assess the need for continuation of the Task
Force or its functions, and make appropriate
recommendations to the President.
Sec. 4. Research Coordination and Integration.
4-401. Within 6 months of the date of this order, the
Task Force shall develop or direct to be developed a
review of existing and planned data resources and a
proposed plan for ensuring that researchers and Federal
research agencies have access to information on all
research conducted or funded by the Federal Government
that is related to adverse health risks in children
resulting from exposure to environmental health risks
or safety risks. The National Science and Technology
Council shall review the plan.
4-402. The plan shall promote the sharing of
information on academic and private research. It shall
include recommendations to encourage that such data, to
the extent permitted by law, is available to the
public, the scientific and academic communities, and
all Federal agencies.
Sec. 5. Agency Environmental Health Risk or Safety Risk
Regulations.
5-501. For each covered regulatory action submitted to
OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
(OIRA) for review pursuant to Executive Order 12866,
the issuing agency shall provide to OIRA the following
information developed as part of the agency's
decisionmaking process, unless prohibited by law:
(a) an evaluation of the environmental health or
safety effects of the planned regulation on children;
and
(b) an explanation of why the planned regulation is
preferable to other potentially effective and
reasonably feasible alternatives considered by the
agency.
5-502. In emergency situations, or when an agency is
obligated by law to act more quickly than normal review
procedures allow, the agency shall comply with the
provisions of this section to the extent practicable.
For those covered regulatory actions that are governed
by a court-imposed or statutory deadline, the agency
shall, to the extent practicable, schedule any
rulemaking proceedings so as to permit sufficient time
for completing the analysis required by this section.
5-503. The analysis required by this section may be
included as part of any other required analysis, and
shall be made part of the administrative record for the
covered regulatory action or otherwise made available
to the public, to the extent permitted by law.
Sec. 6. Interagency Forum on Child and Family
Statistics.
6-601. The Director of the OMB (``Director'') shall
convene an Interagency Forum on Child and Family
Statistics (``Forum''), which will include
representatives from the appropriate Federal statistics
and research agencies. The Forum shall produce an
annual compendium (``Report'') of the most important
indicators of the well-being of the Nation's children.
6-602. The Forum shall determine the indicators to be
included in each Report and identify the sources of
data to be used for each indicator. The
[[Page 19888]]
Forum shall provide an ongoing review of Federal
collection and dissemination of data on children and
families, and shall make recommendations to improve the
coverage and coordination of data collection and to
reduce duplication and overlap.
6-603. The Report shall be published by the Forum in
collaboration with the National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development. The Forum shall present
the first annual Report to the President, through the
Director, by July 31, 1997. The Report shall be
submitted annually thereafter, using the most recently
available data.
Sec. 7. General Provisions.
7-701. This order is intended only for internal
management of the executive branch. This order is not
intended, and should not be construed to create, any
right, benefit, or trust responsibility, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or equity by a party
against the United States, its agencies, its officers,
or its employees. This order shall not be construed to
create any right to judicial review involving the
compliance or noncompliance with this order by the
United States, its agencies, its officers, or any other
person.
7-702. Executive Order 12606 of September 2, 1987 is
revoked.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
April 21, 1997.
[FR Doc. 97-10695
Filed 4-22-97; 8:49 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P
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