About the bill
The Better Evaluation of Science and Technology Act would require federal agencies to be more transparent about the science sources they use when crafting regulations.
“This bill requires each agency, before making a rule that would affect all Americans, to use the ‘best available’ science,” lead House sponsor Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC5) said in a press release. “No longer are rules going to be made by Federal agencies behind closed doors and unavailable to Congress and the public.”
“Since 2009, the operational cost of our nation’s regulations exceeds $100 billion annually. Many times, Congress, as well as the American people, can be left in the dark on these why these regulations were made,” Norman continued. “The BEST Act would reverse this long-standing course of action and show why and …
Sponsor and status
James Lankford
Sponsor. Senator for Oklahoma. Republican.
115th Congress (2017–2019)
This bill was introduced on March 8, 2017, in a previous session of Congress, but it did not receive a vote.
Although this bill was not enacted, its provisions could have become law by being included in another bill. It is common for legislative text to be introduced concurrently in multiple bills (called companion bills), re-introduced in subsequent sessions of Congress in new bills, or added to larger bills (sometimes called omnibus bills).
2 Cosponsors (2 Republicans)
Position statements
What legislators are saying
“Lankford Subcommittee Examines Use of Sound Science During the Creation of Regulations”
—
Sen. James Lankford [R-OK]
(Sponsor)
on Mar 9, 2017
“Congressmen Norman & Gosar Introduce Regulatory Improvement Bill”
—
Rep. Ralph Norman [R-SC5]
on Nov 2, 2017
“Reps. Gosar and Norman Introduce Bill for Transparency in Federal Rule-Making”
—
Rep. Paul Gosar [R-AZ9]
on Nov 2, 2017
History
Mar 8, 2017
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Introduced
Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber. |
Sep 24, 2020
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Reintroduced Bill —
Introduced
This activity took place on a related bill, S. 4693 (116th). |
S. 578 (115th) was a bill in the United States Congress.
A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.
Bills numbers restart every two years. That means there are other bills with the number S. 578. This is the one from the 115th Congress.
This bill was introduced in the 115th Congress, which met from Jan 3, 2017 to Jan 3, 2019. Legislation not passed by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.
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GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily from Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project.