HB 896 - SB 880
FISCAL NOTE
Fiscal Review Committee
Tennessee General Assembly
February 20, 2025
Fiscal Analyst: Christine Drescher | Email: christine.drescher@capitol.tn.gov | Phone: 615-741-2564
HB 896 - SB 880
SUMMARY OF BILL: Prohibits an agency from disseminating, proposing, or finalizing any
regulatory action for a substance, mixture, or chemical related to drinking water, water pollution
control, hazardous substances, contaminated site remediation, air quality, or solid or hazardous
waste handling, unless the information relied on to support the action is based upon the best
available science which indicates that exposure to the substance, mixture, or chemical is causally
linked to manifest bodily harm in humans.
FISCAL IMPACT:
NOT SIGNIFICANT
Assumptions:
• As used in the proposed legislation, “best available science” means science that is reliable,
unbiased, and reasonably applied to the agency’s regulatory action and involves the use of
supporting studies that are sound, objective, independently verified, and published in a
refereed journal.
• The term “regulatory action” means a risk, exposure, or health advisory, remediation
standard, designation or determination, public notice, legislative rule, guidance document,
or other similar administrative action or scientific or technical assessment or conclusion.
• The provisions of the proposed legislation are only applicable to regulatory actions that are
adopted on or after July 1, 2025, and that are more stringent than federal regulations.
• The extent to which this prohibition affects any future regulations cannot be reasonably
known; however, there will be no regulatory actions that currently exist that will be
impacted as a result of the proposed legislation and it is assumed that agencies will be able
to comply with the requirement to utilize the best available science within existing
resources, without a significant increase in expenditures.
CERTIFICATION:
The information contained herein is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.
Bojan Savic, Executive Director