This news update on TSCA Reform is brought to you by BNA.
March 14 –The lead Senate proponents of reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act have been meeting regularly but do not yet have a time frame for attempting to move legislation, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) told Bloomberg BNA March 13.
Udall, the lead Democrat working on TSCA reform, said he has been tracking House legislation to reform the statute and said he feels “very positive” about the prospects of passing legislation to reform the 1976 law.
“The fact that things are advancing is a good thing,” Udall said. “I don’t think we agree with everything that’s in the House bill.”
The New Mexico Democrat took the lead in working with Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) in developing a revised version of bipartisan legislation to reform TSCA. Vitter and the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) introduced a bipartisan bill–the Chemical Safety Improvement Act (S. 1009)–to modernize the law in May 2013 shortly before Lautenberg’s death.
Udall said there was not yet a time frame for introducing a revised version of the Chemical Safety Improvement Act.
Efforts in the House have picked up speed in recent weeks. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) introduced a discussion draft of legislation to reform TSCA that would provide the Environmental Protection Agency with additional ways to obtain toxicity data and other information on chemicals in commerce and would direct the EPA to evaluate the safety of those chemicals
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