{"id":5330,"date":"2016-06-07T17:51:06","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T22:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/?p=5330"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:01:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:01:50","slug":"congress-passes-strong-tsca-reform-first-major-environmental-legislation-in-over-two-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2016\/06\/07\/congress-passes-strong-tsca-reform-first-major-environmental-legislation-in-over-two-decades\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress passes strong TSCA reform, first major environmental legislation in over two decades"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D.,\u00a0<\/em>is a Lead Senior Scientist.<\/p>\n

Today, the truly remarkable happened:\u00a0 The U.S. Senate passed the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act with strong bipartisan support and sent it to the President, who is expected to sign it into law.\u00a0 The bill came to the Senate floor tonight by unanimous consent and passed on a voice vote.\u00a0 Senate passage follows the House\u2019s passage of the same bill by a margin of 403-12 on May 24.<\/p>\n

What a long, strange trip it\u2019s been.\u00a0 There were many false starts and blind alleys along the way, and more twists and turns than the Steel Dragon 2000<\/a>.\u00a0 It took years of work by many Members and their incredibly dedicated staff to reach this accomplishment.<\/p>\n

From the outset, it seemed that this effort would succeed only by finding a bipartisan path forward, and then working to both move and improve the bill.\u00a0 For EDF, that strategy seemed essential to building both the support and the momentum needed to get a bill of this magnitude to the President\u2019s desk and signed into law.\u00a0 The late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, the bill\u2019s namesake, started us down this path:\u00a0 He had the political courage to reach across the aisle and the foresight to envision getting to this moment. \u00a0<\/p>\n

It continued with the willingness of his odd bedfellow, Sen. David Vitter, to co-sponsor with Sen. Lautenberg the first bipartisan bill \u2013 and then agree to make changes to improve the legislation and address key concerns.\u00a0 After Lautenberg\u2019s death, Sen. Tom Udall\u2019s willingness to step up was vital, as was Sen. Jim Inhofe\u2019s willingness to make the bill a priority when he became chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and to co-lead further negotiations that led to more improvements and increased support.<\/p>\n

Many other members engaged in both improving and moving this legislation over the last few years.\u00a0 In the Senate, Tom Carper, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff Merkley, Cory Booker, Ed Markey, Dick Durbin and Barbara Boxer each provided critical help at key points along the way.\u00a0 The House process was much quicker but equally bipartisan.\u00a0 Representatives Fred Upton, Frank Pallone, John Shimkus, and Paul Tonko worked to get a bill through the House, and Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Diana DeGette and Gene Green joined them to help get a final deal through the bicameral negotiations.<\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Obama Administration lent a big helping hand at several key points.\u00a0 Their 2009 Essential Principles for TSCA Reform <\/a>set important benchmarks for reform.\u00a0 Former Administrator Lisa Jackson, in a memo issued her first day on the job<\/a>, made clear that TSCA failed to provide the agency with the tools needed to do its job and that reform was a key priority.\u00a0 That commitment was renewed by Gina McCarthy, and Assistant Administrator Jim Jones and many other EPA staff provided critical technical assistance all along the way.\u00a0 Just before House passage, the White House issued a strong Statement of Administration Policy<\/a> calling the bill \u201clandmark reform\u201d that \u201cis a clear improvement over the current TSCA and represents a historic advancement for both chemical safety and environmental law.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already blogged <\/a>about how this bill, though it gives no one everything they want, stands to markedly improve the status quo under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).\u00a0 I\u2019ve also provided more detailed analyses here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, in many ways the real work now begins:\u00a0 Implementing the new law will take the same level of hard work and dedication it\u2019s taken to get us to this point \u2013 and that will be a real challenge in an area fraught with contention and conflict.<\/p>\n

But one step at a time.\u00a0 And today\u2019s step was a huge one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D.,\u00a0is a Lead Senior Scientist. Today, the truly remarkable happened:\u00a0 The U.S. Senate passed the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act with strong bipartisan support and sent it to the President, who is expected to sign it into law.\u00a0 The bill came to the Senate floor tonight by unanimous …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,114108],"tags":[56107],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-tsca","tag-lautenberg-act"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t