Senators working to craft a long-sought compromise on Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) legislation announced May 6 that they have reached an unspecified compromise on “key sticking points” that were holding up agreement, and are planning on working with House lawmakers to finalize the deal.
“We have negotiated in good faith and are extremely pleased that we have reached an agreement on key sticking points of the TSCA reform bill,” said Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK) and panel ranking member Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) in a May 6 press release.
Details of the deal were unavailable at press time and it is not clear when a final bill will be released, but the lawmakers say they “look forward to finalizing the deal with House negotiators.”
Both the Senate's TSCA reform bill, S. 697, and the narrower House bill, H.R. 2576, were approved with broad support in floor votes last year, though the two measures have major differences.
For example, the bills differ greatly on how to treat states' restrictions on chemicals that were previously not subject to federal TSCA regulations but which EPA later asserts authority over.
S. 697 would “grandfather,” or preserve, states' existing chemicals laws as of its passage, but any such restrictions enacted after TSCA reform is implemented would be preempted as soon as EPA defines and publishes the scope of a safety assessment and safety determination under its TSCA section 6 authority to review existing chemicals' risks.
However, the House bill -- which is shorter than the Senate bill -- takes a narrower approach and only preempts new state restrictions when EPA uses its TSCA authority to restrict the same substance. It would also include a grandfathering clause similar to the Senate bill, and would preserve state toxic tort claims even after EPA takes final action on regulating a chemical, unless they “actually conflict” with the new federal requirement.
Both chambers approved their respective bills last year and since then lawmakers have been working to reconcile the significant differences between the measures and craft a final compromise bill that will go before both chambers in order to enact a long-sought overhaul of the chemicals law. Normally, a formal conference committee would convene to negotiate the compromise language. But for TSCA reform, lawmakers and their staff members mounted informal talks in hopes of resolving their conflicting approaches without a formal committee.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) told InsideOSHAOnline last month that “ongoing and fragile negotiations” were continuing between House and Senate lawmakers on trying to craft a final compromise TSCA reform bill, adding that EPA has been offering its support in the long-running bid for a deal.
In response to Boxer and Inhofe's May 6 announcement, Dr. Richard Denison, Environmental Defense Fund lead senior scientist, said, “We welcome the announcement that Senators Inhofe and Boxer have found common ground on chemical safety reform legislation. We look forward to seeing the details and are more hopeful than ever that Congress will be able to move quickly to pass comprehensive, health-protective reform legislation and send it to the president’s desk.”