Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
June 03, 2015 02:00 AM

House committee approves updated TSCA

Gayle S. Putrich
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo Instagram account
    U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo promised to continue pushing for consideration of existing state laws involving chemicals as part of the updated federal regulation.

    WASHINGTON — The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday voted unanimously to send to the full U.S. House of Representatives floor a bill (HR 2576) that would update 40-year-old U.S. chemical regulation laws.

    Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), who offered and withdrew an amendment that would have attempted to address concerns that some existing state laws could be pre-empted by the changes to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), abstained from the 47-0 vote.

    If signed into law, among its many changes the bill would:

    • Require safety reviews for all chemicals on the market in the United States, including on those grandfathered under the current federal law.

    • Require the EPA to review and approve new chemicals before entering the U.S. market.

    • Require the EPA to take into consideration the latest science to determine impacts on human health and the environment.

    • Offer chemical companies the chance to jump the line and demand an EPA review of their product, to be completed within three years, at the company's expense.

    • Allow for, but set limits on, confidential business information (CBI) claims.

    • Preserve the private right of action for negligence.

    Members from both sides of the political aisle acknowledged that the issue of state law pre-emption remains a major sticking point on getting TSCA reform passed after decades of attempts. The attorneys general of 12 states, including California, New York, Oregon, Massachusetts and Washington, have voiced concerns more than once that changes to the federal chemical regulations should not pre-empt the state laws that have been passed over the years while Congress failed to update TSCA.

    California's Proposition 65 is perhaps the most famous of these statutes, requiring businesses to notify citizens when significant amounts of certain chemicals are present in products, workplaces, public spaces or released into the environment. Bisphenol A and PVC have both come under Prop 65 attack in recent years.

    “We really need to have a good solid federal law. I just want these states to be able to be assured that they can implement their laws,” Eshoo said Wednesday. “These are large delegations with a lot of votes.”

    California and New York together have 65 seats in the House, enough to derail a close vote. 

    The amendment would have clarified the circumstances under which federal law would take precedence over state law, and offered guidelines for instances “when it's impossible to comply with both state and federal law,” Eshoo said. She withdrew the amendment amid promises from committee chairman Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and the bill's sponsors that meetings to hammer out possible pre-emption language could be held before the bill is taken up on the House floor, which is expected sometime this month.

    “It is an issue that we need to address before the bill goes to the floor, particularly if we're going to continue to have bi-partisan support on the floor,” said Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), an original co-sponsor of the measure. 

    The question of pre-emption has also hindered TSCA reform progress in the Senate, where Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) wants several changes before she will support the bill, including all possibilities of pre-emption removed from the bill and the naming of specific chemicals as toxic in the legislation, including asbestos.

    The Senate version of the bill (S 697) was approved for the floor by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on a 15-5 vote on April 28. The full Senate has not yet taken up the bill, though its sponsors are pressuring Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to do so as bipartisan co-sponsorship — 39 senators, 20 Republicans and 19 Democrats — continues to rise.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    MAPP survey shows ‘struggling' plastics processing sector
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified