TSCA Legislation Passes US House of Representatives

On June 23rd, the US House of Representatives passed the TSCA Modernization Act of 2015 (H.R. 2576) a historic milestone in the effort to reform the nation’s chemical control law on two levels. This vote is the first ever by the entire House chamber on Toxic Substances Control Act reform, but it is also remarkable to see such broad support for a piece of environmental legislation.  In his remarks supporting passage of this critical legislation, the bill’s author, Congressman John Shimkus (R, Illinois-15), stated, “Mr. Speaker, the TSCA Modernization Act has been a long time in the making.  We actually started work on it during the last Congress. We’ve held a total of eight hearings and received testimony from a broad range of stakeholders, including the Administration. But most importantly, we’ve worked with each other, Member to Member across the aisle.  The bill before you, Mr. Speaker, reflects lessons learned over the course of the last three years in which we’ve worked on TSCA reform. First, the bill is clear and understandable. Despite the highly technical nature of chemical regulation, Members can pick up this bill, read it from beginning to end, and understand what it does and how it works. Second, the bill does not try to be all things for all people. Major sections of TSCA are not amended at all. For example, we leave the process for new chemical review in TSCA Section 5 unchanged because it’s working pretty well right now, and changes could make it worse. The heart of the bill is our approach to regulating chemicals already on the market. Thousands of these chemicals have been in commerce for many years, pose no known risks, and really don’t need to be regulated at all. We leave those alone. But we do allow some existing chemicals to be scientifically evaluated for risk and, if necessary, to have that risk managed through a rule by EPA. Chemicals may be chosen for risk evaluation in one of two ways. Either EPA may select a chemical for risk evaluation based on what EPA knows may pose an unreasonable risk, or the manufacturer may designate a chemical for EPA to evaluate for risk.” SGIA continues to follow the progress of the landmark and critical legislation.