Contact: Javaneh Nekoomaram- On Sept. 18, Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) released her own draft of Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform to the public. Her draft is a “counterproposal” in response to the draft bill that Senate Committee Ranking Member David Vitter (R-LA) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) have been negotiating for over a year in a bipartisan manner. Along with her “redline” draft proposal, Sen. Boxer also published a http://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=e0825888-3310-40b7-8080-08132bdb3f77
critique of the Vitter TSCA draft.
The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) was passed in 1976 to protect the public by regulating chemicals that may be harmful to human health and the environment. Given that the core provisions of the law have not been updated since its passage, stakeholders and Congress alike have advocated for reform in order to address the inefficiencies of the current regulations. Congress has introduced both the Chemical Safety Improvement Act (Senate) and the Chemicals in Commerce Act (House) in a bipartisan effort to modernize TSCA that promotes innovation, creates consistency among the states through federal preemption, and boosts the economy.
In May 2013, the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Sen. Vitter introduced the Chemical Safety Improvement Act, or CSIA (S. 1009). CISA marked an end to a multi-year partisan fight on chemical management reform, and secured 25 cosponsors from across the aisle. The CSIA has remained in the Senate EPW Committee and has been a major source of contention between Chairwoman Boxer and Ranking Member Vitter for a number of issues, notably, the bill’s preemption language. ACA has supported the CSIA since its introduction because of its strong federal preemption provisions, treatment of mixtures, and protections for confidential business information.
Before the release of Sen. Boxer’s TSCA reform draft, Senators Vitter and Udall had been working hard to craft a compromise draft that addresses concerns from both industry and environmental groups. Within the past week, they were also successful in securing another cosponsor for CSIA, Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) making the total number of cosponsors 26 — 13 Republicans and 13 Democrats. A premature release of their confidential draft along with Sen. Boxer’s amendments to their draft signified a lack of a “good faith effort to reach consensus,” according to Senator Vitter. Senator Boxer has argued that her revisions to the draft strengthen public health protections for vulnerable subpopulation, strengthen the safety standard, and tighten timelines for EPA to act.
A few highlights from Sen. Boxer’s new draft include:
- Changing the safety standard from “no unreasonable risk of harm to human health or the environment” to “no harm”;
- Making the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's determinations of “low priority” chemicals subject to judicial review and citizen suits;
- Imposing user fees;
- Making storage near a drinking water source a factor in establishing the priority of a chemical in consideration of the West Virginia chemical spill;
- Including mixtures in the TSCA inventory; and
- Providing no preemption of state laws.
Read on at:
http://news/industry-news/item/1591-tsca-reform-update-sen-barbara-boxer-releases-her-draft.html