H.R. 6409 FENCES Act - Clean Air Act Amendment on Foreign Emissions
Summary
H.R. 6409, the FENCES Act, proposes to amend Section 179B of the Clean Air Act to clarify that emissions emanating from outside the United States qualify for nonattainment relief regardless of whether they result from human activity. The bill adds Section 179C to prohibit sanctions and fees under Sections 179 or 185 for Severe, Extreme, or Serious nonattainment areas if states demonstrate air quality deficiencies were caused by foreign emissions, exceptional events, or mobile source emissions. States would need to satisfy the EPA Administrator that areas would achieve attainment absent foreign emissions.
What changed
H.R. 6409 would add Section 179C to the Clean Air Act establishing that no sanctions or fees under Sections 179 or 185 shall apply to states classified as Severe, Extreme, or Serious nonattainment areas for ozone or particulate matter if the state demonstrates the deficiency or failure to attain was caused by emissions from outside the nonattainment area, exceptional events as defined under Section 319(b)(1), or mobile sources. The bill further clarifies that Section 179B relief applies regardless of whether foreign emissions result from human activity.
Affected parties include states with nonattainment areas for ozone or particulate matter under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), as well as emission sources within those areas. States seeking relief would need to make demonstrations to the EPA Administrator. The bill could reduce compliance costs and regulatory burden for states and industries in areas affected by transboundary air pollution, such as wildfire smoke or industrial emissions from other countries.
What to do next
- Monitor legislative progress of H.R. 6409
- Assess potential impacts on state nonattainment planning if bill is enacted
- Prepare to support state demonstration requests for foreign emissions exemptions
Archived snapshot
Apr 13, 2026GovPing captured this document from the original source. If the source has since changed or been removed, this is the text as it existed at that time.
IB
Union Calendar No. 514 H. R. 6409
119 CONGRESS TH2 ESSION
[Report No. 119-594]
To amend the Clean Air Act to clarify standards for emissions emanating from outside of the United States, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
D 3, 2025 ECEMBERMr. Pintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the FLUGERCommittee on Energy and Commerce A 9, 2026 PRILAdditional sponsors: Mr. C and Mr. C DRENSHAW SRANK A 9, 2026 PRILCommitted to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed
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A BILL
To amend the Clean Air Act to clarify standards for emis- sions emanating from outside of the United States, and for other purposes.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ''Foreign Emissions and 4 Nonattainment Clarification for Economic Stability Act'' 5 or the ''FENCES Act''. 6
SEC. 2. EMISSIONS BEYOND CONTROL. 7
(a) C C .--Sec-8 LARIFICATION OF MISSIONS OVERED tion 179B of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7509a) is 9 amended-- 10 (1) by inserting ''(regardless of whether such 11 emissions result from human activity)'' after ''but 12 for emissions emanating from outside of the United 13 States'' each place it appears; and 14 (2) in subsection (d), by inserting ''(regardless 15 of whether such emissions result from human activ-16 ity)'' after ''but for emissions emanating from out-17 side the United States''. 18 (b) D .--Section 179B of the Clean Air 19 EESIGNATIONS Act (42 U.S.C. 7509a) is further amended by adding at 20 the end the following: 21 ''(e) D .--Notwithstanding any other 22 ESIGNATIONS provision of law, an area within a State may not be des-23 ignated as a nonattainment area with respect to any new 24 or revised primary or secondary national ambient air qual-25
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ity standard for a pollutant if such State establishes to 1 the satisfaction of the Administrator that such area would 2 be in attainment with such national ambient air quality 3 standard for such pollutant but for emissions emanating 4 from outside of the United States (regardless of whether 5 such emissions result from human activity).''. 6 (c) A S F 7 EPPLICABILITY OF BANCTIONS AND GEES IF C .--The Clean Air Act (42 8MISSIONS EYOND ONTROL U.S.C. 7401 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 9 179B the following new section: 10
''SEC. 179C. APPLICABILITY OF SANCTIONS AND FEES IF 11 EMISSIONS BEYOND CONTROL. 12
''(a) I .--Notwithstanding any other pro-13 N ENERAL vision of this Act, with respect to any nonattainment area 14 that is classified under section 181 as a Severe Area or 15 an Extreme Area for ozone or under section 188 as a Seri-16 ous Area for particulate matter, no sanction or fee under 17 section 179 or 185 shall apply with respect to a State (or 18 an area or source therein) on the basis of a deficiency de-19 scribed in section 179(a), or the failure to attain a na-20 tional ambient air quality standard for ozone or particu-21 late matter by the applicable attainment date, if the State 22 demonstrates that the State would have avoided such defi-23 ciency, or such standard would have been attained, but 24 for one or more of the following: 25
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''(1) Emissions emanating from outside the 1 nonattainment area. 2 ''(2) Emissions from an exceptional event (as 3 defined in section 319(b)(1)). 4 ''(3) Emissions from mobile sources to the ex-5 tent the State demonstrates that-- 6 ''(A) such emissions are beyond the control 7 of the State to reduce or eliminate; and 8 ''(B) the State is fully implementing such 9 measures as are within the authority of the 10 State to control emissions from the mobile 11 sources. 12 ''(b) N S .-- 13O EFFECT ON RNDERLYING UTANDARDS The inapplicability of sanctions or fees with respect to a 14 State (or an area or source therein) pursuant to sub-15 section (a) does not affect the obligation of a State, area, 16 source, or other entity under other provisions of this Act 17 to establish and implement measures to attain a national 18 ambient air quality standard for ozone or particulate mat-19 ter. 20 ''(c) P D .-- 21ERIODIC ENEWAL OF EMONSTRATION For subsection (a) to continue to apply with respect to 22 a State (or an area or source therein), the State involved 23 shall renew the demonstration required by subsection (a) 24 at least once every 5 years.''. 25
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To amend the Clean Air Act to clarify standards 119Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the United States, and for other purposes. for emissions emanating from outside of the 2 ATHState of the Union and ordered to be printed D CONGRESS S ESSION H. R. 6409 A BILL [Report No. 119-594]
Union Calendar No. PRIL
9, 2026
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