§5508 Environmental Education Advisory Council and Task Force

Summary

Creates a National Environmental Education Advisory Council of 11 people and a Federal Task Force on Environmental Education. The Advisory Council must advise and make recommendations to the Administrator about the Agency’s environmental education work. It is the Administrator’s only official advisory group for those matters. The Office of Environmental Education will give the Council staff help. One member is an ex officio representative of the Secretary. The Council’s 11 members are chosen to represent schools, colleges, nonprofits, State education and natural resource agencies, business and industry, and senior Americans (one classroom teacher is required). Members must reflect different regions, include minorities, and have scientific, policy, and other relevant backgrounds. Members serve 3-year terms, except those filling a vacancy only serve the rest of that term. The first members’ terms end in a staggered way: four end 3 years after November 16, 1990, four end 2 years after that date, and three end 1 year after that date. Members may be paid for their work up to the daily equivalent of the GS–18 annual pay rate and can get travel expenses as allowed under section 5703(b) of title 5. The conflict-of-interest rule in 18 U.S.C. 208(a) does not apply when members act on matters affecting the employers they represent under this rule. The Council is not subject to the automatic termination rule in 5 U.S.C. 1013(a). The Federal Task Force must advise the Administrator on putting the law into action and coordinate with other federal agencies. Its members include the Departments of Education, Interior, and Agriculture; the Environmental Protection Agency; NOAA; the Council on Environmental Quality; the Tennessee Valley Authority; and the National Science Foundation. The EPA chairs the Task Force. The Administrator may invite other agencies to take part. After public review and comment, the Advisory Council must send Congress a report within 24 months of November 16, 1990 and every two years after that. The report must cover the state and quality of environmental education nationwide; work done under the law in the prior two years; main obstacles and recommendations; needed skills, education, and training and steps to provide them; and the state of and coordination for senior Americans’ environmental education. The Task Force must review and comment on the Council’s draft report.