Key House Democrats ready to back overhaul of chemical safety laws
A sweeping overhaul to safety laws governing chemicals in consumer products, named to honor the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, could be on President Obama's desk by the end of the week now that key House Democrats, including New Jersey Rep. Frank...
Key House Democrats ready to back overhaul of chemical safety laws A sweeping overhaul to safety laws governing chemicals in consumer products, named to honor the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, could be on President Obama's desk by the end of the week now that key House Democrats, including New Jersey Rep. Frank... Check out this story on northjersey.com: http://northjersy.news/2gpg4Lp
Special to The Record Published 3:00 p.m. ET May 23, 2016
A sweeping overhaul to safety laws governing chemicals in consumer products, named to honor the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, could be on President Obama's desk by the end of the week now that key House Democrats, including New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, have signed onto a deal.
The overhaul has divided interest groups, with the Environmental Defense Fund calling it "the most important environmental legislation in more than two decades" while other groups said it could weaken protections in states that already have tough laws.
"Our concern is we shouldn't be sacrificing safety in New Jersey for more safety in Texas," said Jeff Tittel, state executive director of the Sierra Club.
In the months before he died in 2013, Lautenberg, a Democrat, was working with Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana to rewrite the Toxic Substances Control Act, a 1976 law that both environmentalists and chemical companies say is deeply flawed.
His widow, Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg, continued to push for the changes, and was praised by Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of Newark at a bipartisan press conference last week as acting as the "101st senator" on the bill.
The new bill gives the Environmental Protection Agency more power to ensure that existing chemicals used in consumer products are tested for safety, something that current law does not require. Other changes include requiring new chemicals to be proven safe before are introduced in products; easier rules for banning chemicals that are unsafe and special protections for products aimed vulnerable populations such as babies and pregnant mothers.
The House passed an overhaul last June, but the Senate passed a different measure in December. A joint House-Senate conference committee has been working out differences. Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, walked away from the talks last week, criticizing an agreement Senate Democrats – including Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, who opposed the earlier version that passed the Senate -- had supported.
On Monday, however, Pallone joined Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer in a joint statement saying the bill gave EPA important new powers, and that recent changes did more to protect states with tougher rules than the federal government.
"It is not the bill Democrats would have written on our own, but it is a long-overdue step forward to protect families and communities from toxic substances," the joint statement said.
Many attempts to pass federal laws have been derailed by disputes over whether states could impose tougher restrictions than the federal government, or if federal action preempts state action. According to Vitter's office, the agreement reached on chemicals is that states can regulate a chemical until the EPA decides to take that specific chemical up. After EPA begins a review, states can ask for a waiver to keep their rules in place until the review is complete.
Booker, who has said he became a vegetarian, and then a vegan, after learning about the treatment of animals grown for food, praised negotiators for retaining a provision he had crafted that restricted animal testing.
"Why be cruel to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of animals, vicious cruelty to them, when there's perfectly, scientifically reliable other ways to do it and not inflict animal cruelty?" Booker said.
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