Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist.
Environmental Defense Fund welcomes today’s announcement that 14 additional Senators – 7 Democrats and 7 Republicans – have cosponsored the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (S. 697). This brings the total number of Senators cosponsoring the legislation to 36, more than a third of the full Senate.
The Lautenberg Act would reform our nation’s badly broken 40-year-old chemical safety law, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans lending their names to this legislation not only affirms strong bipartisan support, but demonstrates Congress’ growing recognition that reform of TSCA is urgent, and that this bill is a solid compromise that represents our best chance in a generation to significantly improve public health protections from toxic or untested chemicals.
Today’s announcement was made possible by a breakthrough in negotiations immediately preceding the April 28 markup of the legislation in the Environment and Public Works Committee, which led the Committee to approve the revised bill on a strong 15-5 bipartisan vote.
Today’s announcement in turn signifies that it is now time to move the legislation to the Senate floor.
Adding their names today to the 22 earlier cosponsors of the Lautenberg Act are:
| Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) | Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) |
| Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) | Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) |
| Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) | Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) |
| Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) | Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) |
| Sen. John Isakson (R-GA) | Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) |
| Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) | Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) |
| Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) | Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) |