PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy and Power.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Nov 4, 2011
Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Act - Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a long-term national-scale mercury monitoring program that monitors long-term changes in: (1) mercury levels in air and watersheds, and (2) mercury and methylmercury levels in water and soil and in aquatic and terrestrial organisms.
Requires the Administrator to: (1) select multiple monitoring sites representing different U.S. ecoregions that include national parks, wildlife refuges, national estuarine reserves, and other sensitive ecological areas in which substantive changes are expected from reductions in domestic mercury emissions; (2) establish and publish standardized measurement protocols for the program; and (3) establish a centralized database for environmental mercury data.
Establishes a Mercury Monitoring Advisory Committee to advise the Administrator on the establishment, site selection, measurement, recording protocols, data integration, standardization protocols, reporting, funding, and operation of the program.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Requires the Administrator to report on the program every two years and include, every four years, an assessment of the reduction in mercury deposition rates that must be achieved in order to prevent adverse human and ecological effects.
People & committees
Rep. Pingree, Chellie [D-ME-1] · D–ME
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy and Power.
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Aug 14, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze H.R.3391 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine H.R.3391 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine H.R.3391 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine H.R.3391 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.