Volume 162, No. 87 covering the 2nd Session of the 114th Congress (2015 - 2016) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“FRANK R. LAUTENBERG CHEMICAL SAFETY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY ACT” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E821 on June 3, 2016.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
FRANK R. LAUTENBERG CHEMICAL SAFETY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY ACT
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HON. KEITH ELLISON
of minnesota
in the house of representatives
Friday, June 3, 2016
Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I support the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act because too many Americans are getting sick from dangerous, unregulated chemicals found in the products we use every day. This bill would protect public health by making long-overdue chemical safety reforms.
Today, industries can release hundreds of chemicals each year into our homes and workplaces without any federal requirement to consider their safety. Research has linked chemicals used in everyday products, such as household cleaners, clothing, and furniture, to serious illnesses like cancer, infertility, diabetes and Parkinson's. But currently, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)--our broken chemical safety law--gives the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) little power to do anything about these dangers. Under TSCA, only a small fraction of the thousands of chemicals used in our products have ever been reviewed for safety.
The law is so weak that the EPA couldn't even regulate asbestos. In 1989, after 10 years of research and more than 100,000 pages of administrative record supporting action, the EPA issued a rule under TSCA to ban most uses of asbestos. But two years later, the EPA's regulation was overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals; while acknowledging that ``asbestos is a potential carcinogen at all levels of exposure,'' the Court ruled that the agency's administrative record failed to demonstrate that the regulation was the ``least burdensome alternative,'' as required under the law. Since the court's ruling, the burden to regulate most toxic substances under TSCA has been insurmountable.
The reforms in the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act would help keep our communities safer by requiring reviews for chemicals in use today, mandating greater scrutiny of new chemicals, and removing barriers that have prevented the EPA from regulating highly toxic substances in the past, such as asbestos.
This reform is an urgently needed next step, but there are still problems with this bill and more work should be done to protect our communities. Provisions in this bill sought by the chemical industry create unprecedented state preemption standards and put limitations on the EPA's ability to monitor chemicals in imported products. Federal policy should be seen as a floor, not a ceiling, when it comes to establishing standards for public health and safety. We must support states, like my home state of Minnesota, that have led the way in creating chemical safety standards that protect their residents. Last year in Minnesota, we took an important step toward protecting children and firefighters' health when the legislature passed a law to prohibit four toxic flame retardants (Deca, HBCD, TCEP and TDCPP) from children's products and upholstered furniture.
Policies that preempt state action or restrict EPA's ability to monitor imported products threaten public health and safety. We need to fight back against these bad policies as we continue our efforts to reform TSCA. For my part, I will continue to be an advocate for reform that protects public health, not the chemical industry.
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