Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Science Advisory Board (SAB): Statutory Role and Selected Issues

Updated July 11, 2025

Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Science Advisory

Board (SAB): Statutory Role and Selected Issues

The extent to which scientific and technical information

may be used to support the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency’s (EPA’s) implementation of federal environmental

pollution control statutes is a perennial issue of

congressional oversight. Due to the complexity of the

scientific and technical information EPA must evaluate, in

1978, Congress directed EPA to establish an independent

Science Advisory Board (SAB) to advise the agency on the

adequacy of the scientific and technical bases of its actions.

This In Focus summarizes the statutory authority for the

SAB; its operations, activities, and funding; and selected

issues that have arisen since its establishment.

In addition to the SAB, EPA maintains nearly two dozen

advisory committees—including the Clean Air Science

Advisory Committee (CASAC); the Federal Insecticide,

Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act Scientific Advisory Panel;

and the Toxic Substances Control Act Science Advisory

Committee on Chemicals—that have specific advisory

objectives. This In Focus does not discuss these advisory

committees in detail.

Statutory Authority

In the 1970s, Congress enacted multiple Environmental

Research, Development, and Demonstration Authorization

Acts (ERDDAAs) to authorize EPA’s research activities

separately from its regulatory activities. Section 8 of the

ERDDAA of 1978 (P.L. 95-155; codified at 42 U.S.C.

§4365) directed EPA to establish the SAB, “which shall

provide such scientific advice as may be requested” by

EPA. Section 8 provided that the SAB consist of at least

nine members with the requisite education, training, and

experience to evaluate scientific and technical information

on matters referred to the SAB.

Section 8 requires EPA to make available to the SAB for

review any proposed environmental criteria document,

standard, limitation, or regulation, along with the scientific

and technical background information on which such

proposed action is based. The SAB may provide advice and

comments to EPA on the adequacy of the scientific and

technical basis of the proposed action. Since 2022, the SAB

has referred proposed actions to a work group to discuss

whether they may warrant SAB review. The work group

has forwarded proposed actions that rely upon scientific

information considered to be “influential, ... precedential,

novel, or controversial/contested” and that has not

otherwise been adequately screened for SAB review.

Section 3 of the ERDDAA of 1981 (P.L. 96-569) amended

Section 8 of the ERDDAA of 1978 to add specific

congressional committees as entities in addition to EPA that

may request scientific advice from the SAB. H.Rept. 96-

959 states that the amendment would “allow Congress to

request scientific advice from the EPA Science Advisory

Board without the SAB being obligated to seek permission

from the Administrator of EPA before providing such

advice to the Congress.”

Section 12307 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 farm

bill; P.L. 113-79) amended Section 8 of the ERDDAA of

1978 to require EPA and the SAB to establish a standing

agriculture-related advisory committee to provide scientific

and technical advice to the Board relating to matters

determined “to have a significant direct impact on

enterprises that are engaged in the business of the

production of food and fiber, ranching and raising livestock,

aquaculture, and all other farming- and agriculture-related

industries.” This standing committee is the only one EPA

and the SAB were explicitly directed to establish.

Because the SAB is a federal advisory committee, it must

comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA;

5 U.S.C. §1001 et seq.). Some FACA requirements are

discussed below in the context of the SAB’s operations and

activities. For more information about FACA requirements,

see CRS Report R44253, Federal Advisory Committees: An

Introduction and Overview, by Meghan M. Stuessy.

Board Operations and Activities

To be formally established, all federal advisory committees

subject to FACA must submit charters to the General

Services Administration (GSA; 5 U.S.C. §1008). Charters

provide certain information, such as a description of the

federal advisory committee’s objectives and scope of

activities, its specific duties, estimated meeting frequency,

and general operating guidelines. FACA also requires the

federal agency for which the advisory committee is

established to file the charter with its Senate and House

committees of jurisdiction and the Library of Congress. A

committee cannot meet or take action without filing a

charter, and the charter must be refiled every two years (5

U.S.C. §1013(b)(2)).

EPA filed the SAB’s most recent charter with Congress in

September 2023. According to this charter, the SAB

consists of approximately 45 members; the number of

members may be adjusted to “provide leadership to SAB

committees and panels.” Most SAB members serve as

Special Government Employees (SGEs)—agency

employees that perform temporary duties, with or without

compensation, for not more than 130 days during any

period of 365 consecutive days (18 U.S.C. §202). Per its

charter, the SAB generally meets six to eight times per year.

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Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Science Advisory Board (SAB): Statutory Role and Selected Issues

The SAB charter provides for the establishment of advisory

committees, including the aforementioned standing

agriculture-related committee. Such committees may not

work independently of the SAB and must report their

recommendations and advice to the SAB for full

deliberation, discussion, and approval. SAB committees are

to be chaired by an SAB member and may be augmented

with individuals who are not SAB members. Including the

Agricultural Science Committee, the SAB has seven

standing committees and a number of ad hoc committees

and panels for specific tasks.

Within EPA, the Office of the Administrator is responsible

for the SAB Staff Office. The office initially manages

requests from the agency and specific congressional

committees for scientific and technical advice, oversees the

formation of the SAB and its committees, and provides

policy, technical, and administrative assistance for

conducting meetings and preparing reports. The SAB Staff

Office announces SAB meetings in the Federal Register

and allows the public to participate in the advisory process,

for example, by providing opportunities to present oral

statements at meetings or provide written comments for

consideration by SAB members.

To comply with FACA, each SAB meeting must be

attended by a Designated Federal Officer who has the

authority to adjourn a meeting if that is determined to be in

the public interest (5 U.S.C. §1009(e)). For more

information, see the GSA’s FACA database entry for the

SAB.

Funding

Through the regular annual appropriations process,

Congress appropriates funds for administering and

operating the SAB and the CASAC within EPA’s

Environmental Programs and Management account. Over

the past 10 fiscal years, enacted appropriations for this

program activity have ranged from a high of $5.1 million

(nominal dollars) in FY2015 to a low of $3.2 million

(nominal dollars) in FY2019. For FY2025, EPA allocated

$3.4 million (nominal dollars) for the SAB and the

CASAC.

Selected Issues

Committee Request Procedures

The ERDDAA of 1978 authorizes the SAB to provide

scientific and technical advice to certain congressional

committees if requested. The process by which the SAB

receives and responds to such requests has generated

interest. In 2015, the Government Accountability Office

(GAO) examined EPA’s procedures for processing

congressional requests and recommended that the agency

take additional steps to improve its procedures for

processing congressional committee requests to the SAB.

According to GAO, EPA implemented its

recommendations, with one exception. Specifically, GAO

determined that its recommendation for the EPA

Administrator “to document procedures for reviewing

congressional committee requests to determine which

questions should be taken up by the SAB and criteria for

evaluating such requests” was not implemented.

SAB Membership

Since the SAB’s establishment, some policymakers have

scrutinized its composition for independence and potential

bias. To ensure SAB’s independence and avoid conflicts of

interest, EPA has established policies and procedures for

selecting board members and panelists and resolving

potential conflicts of interest. In 2019, GAO examined

EPA’s process for appointing advisory committee members

and recommended that the agency document rationales for

proposed membership to the SAB and the CASAC, and

periodically review the quality of financial disclosures of

advisory committee members. According to GAO, EPA

implemented GAO’s 2019 recommendations.

In March 2025, EPA dismissed all of the SAB members

and announced that the agency would reconstitute the SAB

at a later time. Previously, in 2021, EPA dismissed all of

the SAB members and subsequently reestablished the SAB

with new membership. Also, in 2017, EPA dismissed

certain members of the SAB and later replaced them with

new ones. The composition of the SAB may affect the

range of viewpoints that may be expressed for scientific and

technical issues under consideration and, therefore, may

affect the advice EPA receives from the SAB.

SAB Priorities

Given that most requests to the SAB for scientific and

technical advice originate from EPA, topics that the SAB

meets to discuss generally reflect EPA priorities—which

depend on the Administration in office. For example,

during the first Trump Administration, the SAB issued

various reports on methodologies to evaluate costs and

benefits associated with regulatory actions. During the

Biden Administration, the SAB issued various reports on

methodologies to evaluate potential cumulative impacts

from exposure to multiple environmental stressors and to

consider environmental justice issues in agency

decisionmaking. To date, the second Trump Administration

has not reconstituted the SAB. It remains to be seen what

topics might be forwarded to the SAB for scientific and

technical advice if the SAB were reconstituted.

Some stakeholders have questioned the extent to which

EPA adopts SAB recommendations. EPA actions are

generally informed by scientific and technical information;

yet, the agency’s actions are not solely based on such

information. Recommendations by the SAB are not binding

on EPA. EPA is generally directed under the authorities it

administers to consider other information, such as cost,

when proposing or taking regulatory actions.

Jerry H. Yen, Analyst in Environmental Policy

Angela C. Jones, Analyst in Environmental Policy

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Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Science Advisory Board (SAB): Statutory Role and Selected Issues

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