Legislative History
The Environmental Quality Improvement Act of 1970 started out as H.R. 4148 in the U.S. House of Representatives Public Works Committee in April 1970. It was taken up by the U.S. Senate Public Works Committee in October 1969 and went to a joint conference between the houses in March 1969. The bill passed the Senate with a vote of 80 to 0 on March 24 and the House on March 25 with a vote of 358 to 0. The lack of any nay votes shows there was broad support for the passage of this bill.
The bill also had six amendments from the years 1973 to 1984 but the amendments mostly dealt with providing additional funding in various years over the amount specified by NEPA. The amounts ranged from a low of an additional $44,000.00/ year for 1982-1984 to a high of $3,000,000/year additional funds for 1980 and 1981. Besides providing additional funds, Pub. L. 98-581 (10-30-1984) amended the Environmental Quality Improvement Act to create a fund called the Office of Environmental Quality Management Fund (42 US Code 4375(a)). The fund was established to finance study contracts that are sponsored by both the OEQ and at least one other Federal agency. The fund can also fund Federal Interagency environmental projects such as a task force that the OEQ is participating in. The fund is allowed to receive advance payments from other agencies to finance the proposed study, project or activity.
Read more about this topic: Environmental Quality Improvement Act
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