EXPERTS Act of 2025

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3210 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3210

    To amend title 5, United States Code, to require disclosure of 
    conflicts of interest with respect to rulemaking, and for other 
                               purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 19, 2025

  Ms. Warren (for herself, Mr. Welch, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Schiff, Mr. 
   Sanders, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Booker, Mr. Merkley, Ms. 
 Hirono, Mr. Lujan, Mr. Markey, and Mr. Kim) introduced the following 
 bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland 
                   Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
    To amend title 5, United States Code, to require disclosure of 
    conflicts of interest with respect to rulemaking, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Experts Protect Effective Rules, 
Transparency, and Stability Act of 2025'' or the ``EXPERTS Act of 
2025''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Congress is dependent on providing discretion to 
        executive officials and agencies (including independent 
        agencies) to implement its statutes. Congress provides 
        appropriate oversight of the use of this discretion.
            (2) Regulatory legislation is often phrased in broad terms, 
        with an intelligible principle, to empower agencies to address 
        issues, such as those presented by technological, scientific, 
        or social developments that were not precisely foreseen when 
        the legislation was enacted, and to draw upon the agency's 
        specialized knowledge, experience, and responsibility for 
        implementing the statute.
            (3) Such broad authorizing language is often necessary to 
        empower the administering agency to take effective action when 
        new or unforeseen issues arise, provided that the rule does not 
        exceed clear limits in statute nor implement it in an 
        impermissible manner.
            (4) A rule that an agency has adopted to implement a 
        broadly worded regulatory statute should generally not be held 
        to be invalid on the basis that Congress has not addressed the 
        agency's proposed course of action in specific terms.
            (5) A rule that an agency has adopted to implement a 
        regulatory statute should generally not be held to be invalid 
        on the basis that the agency has not previously adopted a 
        similar rule or scheme of regulation.
            (6) The expectation that a rule will have broad economic, 
        political, or social significance, should not, standing alone, 
        negate application of the principle stated in paragraph (1), 
        (2), or (3).

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) agency economic analyses of regulatory actions commonly 
        underestimate the benefits of regulatory actions that protect 
        public health and safety and overestimate the costs of 
        regulatory action to industry;
            (2) agency regulatory actions often fail to adequately 
        consider the distributional effects and social equity impact of 
        regulatory action; and
            (3) an agency shall prioritize the statutory direction of 
        Congress when taking regulatory action.

SEC. 4. DISCLOSURE OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST.

    Section 553 of title 5, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) by striking ``After notice required'' and 
                inserting ``(1) After notice required'';
                    (B) in the first sentence of paragraph (1), as so 
                designated, by inserting ``, subject to subsections (f) 
                and (h),'' after ``the agency shall''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(2) In the case of any submission under paragraph (1) by an 
interested person that includes a scientific, economic, or technical 
study or research (or a citation thereto) that the interested person 
funded directly or indirectly, or the nonpublic results of any 
scientific, economic, or technical study or research that the 
interested person funded directly or indirectly, the interested person 
shall disclose to the agency the following:
            ``(A) The amount of any funds that were received by the 
        person who conducted the study or research.
            ``(B) The entity that provided the funds referred to in 
        subparagraph (A).
            ``(C) Any entity that was allowed to review or revise the 
        study or research, and the extent of that review or revision.
            ``(D) Any financial relationship between the person who 
        conducted the study or research, and any person that would be 
        affected by the proposed rule.''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(f) With respect to any submission by an interested person under 
subsection (c) or any other submission by an interested person relating 
to a proposed rule or final rule that includes a scientific, economic, 
or technical study or research by the interested person not published 
in a publicly available peer-reviewed publication, or any result of a 
scientific, economic, or technical study or research by the interested 
person not published in a publicly available peer-reviewed publication, 
the interested person, in making that submission, shall disclose to the 
agency--
            ``(1) the source of any funding for the study or research, 
        as applicable;
            ``(2) any entity that sponsored the study or research;
            ``(3) the extent to which the findings of the study or 
        research were reviewed by a person that may be affected by the 
        rule making to which the submission relates;
            ``(4) the identity of any person identified under paragraph 
        (3); and
            ``(5) the nature of any financial relationship, including a 
        consulting agreement, the support of any expert witness, and 
        the funding of research, between any person that conducted the 
        study or research and any interested person with respect to the 
        rule making to which the submission relates.''.

SEC. 5. INCREASING DISCLOSURES RELATING TO STUDIES AND RESEARCH.

    Section 553 of title 5, United States Code, as amended by section 4 
of this Act, is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(g) With respect to a study or research that is submitted by an 
interested person to an agency under subsection (c), the agency shall 
ensure that the study or research is available to the public (including 
on the internet website of the agency and on the public docket of the 
agency for the rule making) unless disclosure is exempted or excluded 
under section 552.
    ``(h)(1) If a study or research submitted by an interested person 
to an agency under subsection (c) presents a conflict described in 
paragraph (2), the agency shall disclose the conflict to the public on 
the internet website of the agency and on the public docket of the 
agency, and by publication in the Federal Register, unless disclosure 
is exempted or excluded under section 552.
    ``(2) A conflict described in this subsection means a study or 
research for which--
            ``(A) not less than 10 percent of the funding for the study 
        or research is from an entity subject to the jurisdiction of 
        the agency with respect to that rule making; or
            ``(B) an entity subject to the jurisdiction of the agency 
        with respect to that rule making that is regulated by the 
        agency conducts, reviews, or revises the study or research.
    ``(i) In the case of a violation of the requirement to make a 
disclosure under subsection (c)(2) or subsection (f) with respect to a 
submission or under subsection (h) with respect to a conflict related 
to a submission referred to under subsection (g), the agency may 
exclude from consideration or otherwise disregard the submission, and 
the agency has no obligation to respond to the submission, except that 
the submission may be remade with required disclosures during the 
opportunity for participation referred to in subsection (c)(1). Nothing 
in this subsection may be construed to affect the level of deference 
(in accordance with applicable law) accorded to agency action by a 
court reviewing such action.''.

SEC. 6. DISCLOSURE OF INTER-GOVERNMENTAL RULE CHANGE.

    With respect to any material provided to the Office with regard to 
a regulatory action for purposes of centralized review of regulatory 
actions, the agency shall--
            (1) not later than the date on which the agency publishes a 
        general notice of proposed rule making required under section 
        553(b) of title 5, United States Code, with respect to the 
        action, place in the rule making docket--
                    (A) the substance of any change between the text of 
                any draft regulatory action that the agency provided to 
                the Office and the text published in the general notice 
                with respect to the action; and
                    (B) a statement regarding whether any change 
                described in subparagraph (A) was made as a result of 
                communication with--
                            (i) the Office;
                            (ii) another agency; or
                            (iii) any other Federal official; and
            (2) not later than the date on which the agency publishes 
        the regulatory action in the Federal Register, place in the 
        rule making docket--
                    (A) the substance of any changes between the text 
                of the regulatory action that the agency provided to 
                the Office and the text of the regulatory action that 
                the agency published in the Federal Register; and
                    (B) a statement regarding whether any change 
                described in subparagraph (A) was made as a result of 
                communication with--
                            (i) the Office;
                            (ii) another agency; or
                            (iii) any other Federal official.

SEC. 7. JUSTIFICATION OF WITHDRAWN RULES.

    (a) In General.--If an agency withdraws a regulatory action after 
providing the action to the Office under section 6(a)(3) of the 
Executive Order 12866 (5 U.S.C. 601 note; relating to regulatory 
planning and review) (or, if the agency does not provide the regulatory 
action to the Office under that section, after publishing the general 
notice of proposed rulemaking with respect to the action under section 
553(b) of title 5, United States Code), the agency shall publish in the 
Federal Register, on the public docket of the agency, and on the 
internet website of the agency a statement regarding the decision by 
the agency to withdraw the action.
    (b) Contents.--A statement required under subsection (a) with 
respect to a decision by an agency to withdraw a regulatory action 
shall include, at a minimum--
            (1) a detailed explanation of the reasons that the agency 
        withdrew the action; and
            (2) an explanation regarding whether the decision by the 
        agency to withdraw the action w