[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 97 (Friday, May 21, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27594-27596]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-10743]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[EPA-HQ-OPP-2021-0293; FRL-10023-74]


Nominations to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and 
Rodenticide Act Scientific Advisory Panel; Request for Comments

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice provides the names, addresses, and professional 
affiliations of persons recently nominated to serve on the Scientific 
Advisory Panel (SAP) established under the Federal Insecticide, 
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The Panel was created on 
November 28, 1975, and made a permanent Panel by amendment to FIFRA, 
dated October 25, 1988. The Agency, at this time, anticipates selecting 
new members to serve on the panel because of the upcoming expirations 
of membership terms. Current members of the SAP are eligible for 
reappointment during this period. Therefore, the appointments completed 
over the next year may include a mix of newly appointed and reappointed 
members. As additional background, the biographies of current SAP 
members are available on the FIFRA SAP website at: https://www.epa.gov/sap. Public comments on the current nominations are invited, as these 
comments will be

[[Page 27595]]

used to assist the Agency in selecting the new members for the 
chartered SAP.

DATES: Comments identified by docket ID number EPA-HQ-OPP-2021-0293, 
must be received on or before June 21, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by docket identification 
(ID) number EPA-HQ-OPP-2021-0293, using the Federal eRulemaking Portal 
at https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for 
submitting comments. Do not electronically submit any information you 
consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Comments submitted to the 
EPA, including any personal information that is in the body of the 
submission, will be publicly posted to https://www.regulations.gov and 
are also made available for in-person viewing at the EPA Docket 
Center's Reading Room. There are some exceptions. Please see additional 
instructions on commenting or visiting the docket, along with more 
information about dockets generally, available at http://www.epa.gov/dockets.
    Please note that due to the public health concerns related to 
COVID-19, the EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC) and Public Reading Room are 
closed to visitors with limited exceptions. The EPA/DC staff continue 
to provide remote customer service via email, phone, and webform. For 
the latest status information on EPA/DC services and docket access, 
visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven Knott, M.S., Designated Federal 
Officer (DFO), Office of Program Support, Environmental Protection 
Agency; telephone number: (202) 564-0103; email address: 
knott.steven@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. General Information

A. Does this action apply to me?

    This action is directed to the public in general. This action may, 
however, be of interest to persons who are or may be required to 
conduct testing of chemical substances under the Federal Food, Drug, 
and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) and FIFRA. Given other entities may also be 
interested, the Agency has not attempted to describe all the specific 
entities that may be affected by this action. If you have any questions 
regarding the applicability of this action to a particular entity, 
consult the DFO listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

B. What should I consider as I prepare my comments for EPA?

    1. Submitting CBI. Do not submit CBI information to EPA through 
regulations.gov or email. If your comments contain any information that 
you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected, please contact the DFO 
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT to obtain special 
instructions before submitting your comments.
    2. Tips for preparing your comments. When preparing and submitting 
your comments, see the commenting tips at https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets#tips.

II. Background

    The FIFRA SAP serves as a scientific peer review mechanism of EPA's 
Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) and is 
structured to provide independent scientific advice, information, and 
recommendations to the EPA Administrator on pesticides and pesticide-
related issues as to the impact of regulatory actions on health and the 
environment. The FIFRA SAP is a federal advisory committee established 
in 1975 under FIFRA that operates in accordance with requirements of 
the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. Appendix). The FIFRA SAP 
is composed of a permanent panel consisting of seven members who are 
appointed by the EPA Administrator from nominees provided by the 
National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation 
(NSF). Members serve staggered terms of appointment, generally of three 
to six years duration. FIFRA established a Science Review Board (SRB) 
consisting of at least 60 scientists who are available to the FIFRA SAP 
on an ad hoc basis to assist in reviews conducted by the FIFRA SAP. As 
a scientific peer review mechanism, the FIFRA SAP provides comments, 
evaluations, and recommendations to improve the effectiveness and 
quality of analyses made by Agency scientists. Members of the FIFRA SAP 
are scientists who have sufficient professional qualifications, 
including training and experience, to provide expert advice and 
recommendations to the Agency.

III. Charter

    A Charter for the FIFRA SAP, dated October 17, 2020, was issued in 
accordance with the requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 
Public Law 92-463, 86 Stat. 770 (5 U.S.C. Appendix). The Charter 
provides for open meetings with opportunities for public participation.

IV. Nominees

A. Qualifications of Members

    Members are scientists who have sufficient professional 
qualifications, including training and experience, to provide expert 
comments on the impact of pesticides on human health and the 
environment. In accordance with section 25(d)(1) of FIFRA, the 
Administrator shall require nominees to the FIFRA SAP to furnish 
information concerning their professional qualifications, including 
educational background, employment history, and scientific 
publications. No persons shall be ineligible to serve on the FIFRA SAP 
by reason of their membership on any other advisory committee to a 
federal department or agency, or their employment by a federal 
department or agency (except the EPA). FIFRA further stipulates that 
the Agency publish the name, address, and professional affiliation of 
the nominees in the Federal Register.

B. Applicability of Existing Regulations

    With respect to the requirements of section 25(d) of FIFRA that the 
Administrator promulgate regulations regarding conflicts of interest, 
FIFRA SAP members are subject to the provisions of the Standards of 
Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch at 5 Code of 
Federal Regulations Part 2635, conflict of interest statutes in Title 
18 of the United States Code, and related regulations. Each nominee 
selected by the Administrator, before being formally appointed, is 
required to submit a Confidential Financial Disclosure Form, which 
shall fully disclose, among other financial interests, the nominee's 
sources of research support, if any.

C. Process of Obtaining Nominees

    The Agency, at this time, anticipates selecting new members to 
serve on the panel to address upcoming expirations of membership terms.
    On February 5, 2021, in accordance with the provisions of section 
25(d) of FIFRA, EPA requested that the NIH and the NSF nominate 
scientists to fill vacancies occurring on the FIFRA SAP. The Agency 
requested that NIH and NSF nominate experts in the fields of ecological 
and human exposure assessment, including expertise in environmental 
fate and transport of chemicals, mathematical biostatistics, New 
Approach Methodologies (NAMs), including in vitro to in vivo 
extrapolation (IVIVE), and expertise in toxicology, including 
carcinogenicity and physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling 
(PBPK).

[[Page 27596]]

Experts with specific experience in risk assessment, dose response 
analysis, cheminformatics, bioinformatics, and genomics are preferred. 
Nominees should be well published and current in their fields of 
expertise.
    NIH and NSF responded, providing the Agency with a total of 25 
nominees. One nominee, Dr. Jeffrey Bloomquist, Ph.D., of the University 
of Florida is a member of the FIFRA SAP with a current term ending in 
2022. Therefore, he is not considered further at this time. Of the 
remaining 24 nominees, 10 are interested and available to actively 
participate in FIFRA SAP meetings (see Unit IV.D.).
    The following 14 individuals are not available to be considered 
further for membership at this time:

    1. Joseph Braun, Ph.D., Brown University, Providence, Rhode 
Island.
    2. Brenda Eskanazi, Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley, 
Berkeley, California.
    3. Elaine Faustman, Ph.D., University of Washington, Seattle, 
Washington.
    4. Phillipe Grandjean, Ph.D., Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public 
Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
    5. Paul Hollenberg, Ph.D., University of Michigan Medical 
School, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
    6. Mary K. O'Rourke, Ph.D., University of Arizona, Tucson, 
Arizona.
    7. Angela Peace, Ph.D., Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.
    8. Kenneth Portier, Ph.D., Independent Consultant, Atlanta, 
Georgia.
    9. Jason Rohr, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, 
Indiana.
    10. Nathaniel Scholz, Ph.D., NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science 
Center, Seattle, Washington.
    11. Ronald Tjeerdema, Ph.D., University of California-Davis, 
Davis, California.
    12. Tim Verslycke, Ph.D., Gradient Corp., Boston, Massachusetts.
    13. Christopher P. Weis, Ph.D., National Institute of 
Environmental Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland.
    14. William Wuest, Ph.D., Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.

D. Interested and Available Nominees

    The following are the names, addresses, and professional 
affiliations of current nominees being considered for membership on the 
FIFRA SAP. Selected biographical data for each nominee is available in 
the public docket at www.regulations.gov (docket identification (ID) 
number EPA-HQ-OPP-2021-0293) and through the FIFRA SAP website at 
https://www.epa.gov/sap. The Agency, at this time, anticipates 
selecting new members to fill upcoming vacancies occurring on the 
Panel:

    1. Dana Barr, Ph.D., Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.
    2. Veronica Berrocal, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, 
California.
    3. Asa Bradman, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 
California.
    4. Glenn Allen Burton, Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 
Michigan.
    5. Celia Chen, Ph.D., Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.
    6. Richard DiGiulio Ph.D., Duke University, Durham, North 
Carolina.
    7. Valery Forbes, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 
Minnesota.
    8. Cheryl A. Murphy, Ph.D., Michigan State University, East 
Lansing, Michigan.
    9. Virginia Rauh, Ph.D., Columbia University, New York, New 
York.
    10. Lisa M. Sweeney, Ph.D., UES, Inc., Dayton, Ohio.

    Authority: 7 U.S.C. 136 et. seq.; 21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.; 5 
U.S.C. Appendix.

    Dated: May 17, 2021.
Michal Freedhoff,
Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Chemical Safety and 
Pollution Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2021-10743 Filed 5-20-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P


