42 U.S.C. § 6939g — Hazardous waste electronic manifest system

(a) Definitions. (1) "Board" means the advisory board created by (f). (2) "Fund" means the fund created by (d). (3) "Person" includes an individual, corporation (including a Government corporation), company, association, firm, partnership, society, joint-stock company, trust, municipality, commission, Federal agency^*, State^*, State subdivision, or interstate body. (4) "System" means the electronic manifest^* system created by (b). (5) "User" means a hazardous-waste generator or transporter, a treatment^*, storage, recycling, or disposal^* facility owner^* or operator, or another person who must use a manifest to track shipment, transport, and receipt of hazardous waste^* or other material sent offsite, and who either (A)(i) chooses the system to complete and send an electronic manifest, or (ii) submits a paper manifest or its data for processing under Administrator^* regulations. This section does not define "manifest," "hazardous waste," or "other material." (b) Establishment. Within 3 years after October 5, 2012, the Administrator must establish a system usable by any user. (c) User fees. (1) Consistent with (4), the Administrator may charge reasonable service fees needed to pay development, operation, maintenance, and upgrade costs, including processing paper-manifest data after operation begins. (2) The Administrator must collect fees before service or as reimbursement and deposit them in the Fund. (3)(A) With information-technology vendors, the Administrator must set a fee structure through the contract process in (e) that recovers full system-service costs, including contractor costs for materials, consulting, overhead, information technology, information management, fee collection, reporting, accounting, and project^* management, plus direct and indirect Government personnel costs. (B) With the Board, the Administrator must raise or lower fees so Fund collections are sufficient but no more than reasonably needed for current and projected costs and, as practicable, unused balances do not accumulate. The second requirement does not apply to up to $2 million accumulating during the first 3 years of operation. Adjustments occur after development costs are recovered, to remove that fee component, and periodically after accepted annual accounting or audit findings show a significant fiscal-year difference between fees and service expenditures. (4) Fees may be collected and obligated only to the extent provided beforehand in appropriations Acts. (d) Fund. (1) The Treasury revolving fund consists of amounts deposited under (c)(2)(B). (2) Only as appropriations allow, the Treasury Secretary^* must transfer requested appropriated amounts to the Administrator for system costs. Fees are available, subject to appropriations Acts, without fiscal-year limitation. The Administrator must ensure the Fund is used only for establishing, operating, maintaining, upgrading, managing, supporting, and overseeing the system. (3) Every 2 fiscal years the Administrator must report to the four listed House and Senate committees an accounting of fees paid and disbursed, financial statements required by the Chief Financial Officers Act and Government Management Reform Act, and actual Fund expenditures for (c)(1) costs. The Fund is treated as an Executive-agency component for 31 U.S.C. 3515(c). The annual audit must examine fees collected and disbursed, whether the fee structure meets current and projected costs, user use, and whether the system is self-supporting and improves shipment tracking and data transmission. EPA’s Inspector General must conduct the audit and report findings and recommendations to the Administrator. (e) Contracts. After consulting Transportation, the Administrator may contract with suitable entities for system services. A contract may last no more than 10 years. To the maximum practicable extent, it must be performance-based, state objective outcomes, and set standards measuring success and payment entitlement, with success primarily measured by a system that meets users’ needs, attracts enough participation and fees to remain viable, lowers administrative burden, and supplies waste-receipt data for section 6922(a)(6) reports. Each contract must state the contractor fee structure and fixed share of monthly fee revenue used to repay development, operation, and maintenance costs. If future-year funding is insufficient, the Administrator may cancel or terminate the contract; the cancellation amount must be negotiated when awarded. The Federal Government owns the system whether or not there is a contract. (f) Advisory Board. Within 3 years after October 5, 2012, the Administrator must establish a 9-member board: the Administrator or designee chairs it, and 8 members appointed by the Administrator include at least 2 information-technology experts, at least 3 experienced users or user representatives, and at least 3 State representatives responsible for processing manifests. The Board meets yearly to discuss and evaluate the system and advise the Administrator. (g) Regulations. Within 1 year after October 5, 2012, after consulting Transportation, the Administrator must issue regulations. They may ease the change from paper to electronic manifests and require paper copies or data for processing. They must preserve paper-manifest-level ability to track legal accountability of the person certifying accuracy and the person acknowledging receipt; State access to printed copies when electronically submitted; and access to publicly available manifest information. Electronic-manifest regulations take effect in each State on their stated date. The Administrator carries them out unless a fully authorized State program does so instead. (h) Certain States. If the generating State or destination State requires manifest tracking, the receiving facility must complete its facility section, sign and date its certification, and send the final manifest copy for processing, regardless of where the facility is located. (i) Start-up. $2 million is authorized for each fiscal year 2013–2015 for start-up work, offset by user-fee collections so appropriated amounts are fully offset.