[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 40, Volume 23]
[Revised as of July 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 40CFR154.27]

[Page 49-50]
 
                   TITLE 40--PROTECTION OF ENVIRONMENT
 
         CHAPTER I--ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED)
 
PART 154_SPECIAL REVIEW PROCEDURES--Table of Contents
 
                          Subpart B_Procedures
 
Sec. 154.27  Meetings with interested persons.

    (a) In the Special Review process, to assure openness and 
responsiveness, no person or party outside of government will be 
afforded special or preferential access to Agency Special Review 
decisionmakers or to the Agency's Special Review process. At the same 
time, however, Agency personnel are free to meet and otherwise 
communicate with persons or parties outside of government, including 
registrants and manufacturers, users, trade unions, environmental groups 
and other interested persons, to obtain information, exchange views, 
explore factual and substantive positions, or discuss regulatory options 
concerning Special Review decisions.
    (b) Meetings between EPA and any person or party outside of 
government will not result in undue delay in reaching Special Review 
decisions. During such meetings, the Agency will not commit to take any 
particular action concerning a pending decision. The Agency may receive 
and consider information and recommendations from persons or parties 
outside of government; however, the Agency will make the final 
administrative decision on a wholly independent basis and in accordance 
with law.
    (c) Any interested person may ask to meet with Agency officials to 
discuss factual information available to the Agency, to present any 
factual information, to respond to presentations by other persons, or to 
discuss what regulatory actions should be taken regarding a pesticide 
which is or may be the subject of a Special Review. If, at its 
discretion, the Agency holds such meetings with any person outside of 
government concerning a use of a pesticide product, the Agency will 
prepare and file in the docket a memorandum of such meeting, meeting the 
requirements specified in Sec. 154.15(b)(7).
    (d) Meetings described in this section may include meetings held 
after issuance of a Notice of Special Review with any registrant who 
proposes to change voluntarily the composition, packaging, and labeling, 
or other terms and conditions of registration of his pesticide product 
in a way which he believes would reduce the risks of use of the product 
so that it would no longer meet or exceed the risk criteria of Sec. 
154.7. Meetings for this purpose will be most helpful and productive for 
both registrants and the Agency if they are requested by registrants 
shortly after the issuance of the Notice of Special Review.

[[Page 50]]

    (e) If the Agency meets with any person or party outside of 
government concerning a pending Special Review decision, the Agency will 
not issue a final Special Review decision until 30 days after inclusion 
of a memorandum concerning that meeting in the public docket. During 
those 30 days, any person or party may submit written comments to the 
Agency regarding the subject matter of the meeting in question. The 
Agency may issue a final Special Review decision without allowing this 
30-day period if expedited action is necessary to protect public health 
or the environment, or if the Agency has invited other parties with 
potentially opposing viewpoints to the meeting in question (e.g., 
registrants, users, labor, and environmental groups).
    (f) The Agency may decline to meet subsequently with any person or 
party who asserts unreasonable confidential business information claims 
pursuant to Sec. 154.15(c) for the purpose of circumventing the 
docketing procedures described in Sec. 154.15(b).