Notice2025-14474
Guidance on Referrals for Potential Criminal Enforcement
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
July 31, 2025
Issuing agencies
Environmental Protection Agency
Abstract
This notice describes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) plans to address regulatory offenses that give rise to criminal liability under the recent executive order on Fighting Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 145 (Thursday, July 31, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 145 (Thursday, July 31, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36044-36045]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-14474]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
[FRL 12865-01-OECA]
Guidance on Referrals for Potential Criminal Enforcement
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
ACTION: Notice.
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[[Page 36045]]
SUMMARY: This notice describes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA
or Agency) plans to address regulatory offenses that give rise to
criminal liability under the recent executive order on Fighting
Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael R. Fisher, Office of Criminal
Enforcement and Forensics and Training, Office of Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance, Mail Code 2232A, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20460; telephone
number: (202) 564-1063; email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6f09061c070a1d410206040a2f0a1f0e41080019"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="35535c465d50471b585c5e50755045541b525a43">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On May 9, 2025, the President issued
Executive Order (``E.O.'') 14294, Fighting Overcriminalization in
Federal Regulations. 90 FR 20363 (published May 14, 2025). Section 7 of
E.O. 14294 provides that within 45 days of the order, and in
consultation with the Attorney General, each agency should publish
guidance in the Federal Register describing its plan to address
criminally liable regulatory offenses.
Consistent with that requirement, EPA advises the public that by
May 9, 2026, the Agency, in consultation with the Attorney General,
will provide to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
(``OMB'') a report containing: (1) a list of all criminal regulatory
offenses \1\ enforceable by Agency or the Department of Justice
(``DOJ''); and (2) for each such criminal regulatory offense, the range
of potential criminal penalties for a violation and the applicable mens
rea standard \2\ for the criminal regulatory offense.
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\1\ ``Criminal regulatory offense'' means a Federal regulation
that is enforceable by a criminal penalty. E.O. 14294, sec. 3(b).
\2\ ``Mens rea'' means the state of mind that by law must be
proven to convict a particular defendant of a particular crime. E.O.
14294, sec. 3(c).
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This notice also announces a general policy, subject to appropriate
exceptions and to the extent consistent with law, that when the Agency
is deciding whether to refer alleged violations of criminal regulatory
offenses to DOJ, officers and employees of EPA should consider, among
other factors:
<bullet> the harm or risk of harm, pecuniary or otherwise, caused
by the alleged offense;
<bullet> the potential gain to the putative defendant that could
result from the offense;
<bullet> whether the putative defendant held specialized knowledge,
expertise, or was licensed in an industry related to the rule or
regulation at issue; and
<bullet> evidence, if any is available, of the putative defendant's
general awareness of the unlawfulness of his conduct as well as his
knowledge or lack thereof of the regulation at issue.
EPA has historically considered each of these factors as a matter
of formal policy \3\ and in practice, not only in referring alleged
violations of criminal regulatory offenses to DOJ, but also in deciding
whether to open a formal investigation in the first place.
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\3\ ``The Exercise of Investigative Discretion'' (1994) (<a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/exercise.pdf">https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/documents/exercise.pdf</a>).
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This general policy is not intended to, and does not, create any
right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in
equity by any party against the United States, its departments,
agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other
person.
Henry Barnet,
Director, Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training.
[FR Doc. 2025-14474 Filed 7-30-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
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