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Senate TSCA Reform Bill Still On Track for Senate Floor Vote

The Senate’s TSCA reform bill, S.697, remains on track for a Senate floor vote in October.  Other priorities, however, may still get in the way, including a highway funding bill.  And, even if S.697 succeeds in the Senate, it will have to be reconciled with the narrower House TSCA reform bill, H.R. 2576, before TSCA reform can be enacted this year.

The key point of contention with S.697 is its preemptive scope.  Senator Boxer, in particular, repeatedly has expressed concerns about S.697’s preemption provisions potentially curtailing states’ rights to enact and enforce their own toxics laws.  The preemption provisions of H.R. 2576 are narrower in scope.

The two bills have contrasting approaches in other provisions as well. For example, S.697 would amend TSCA’s Section 5 (new chemicals) and Section 6 (existing chemicals); H.R. 2576 would only amend amend provisions for regulation of existing chemicals and would leave current TSCA Section 5 intact.

With other proposed legislation on the Senate’s agenda, it will remain to be seen whether TSCA reform will stay on the Senate’s radar this legislative session.

 

 

 

 

Ms. Grimaldi maintains a diverse environmental law practice focusing on chemical and product regulation and litigation defense. Her practice areas include Proposition 65, California's Safer Consumer Products Regulations, California's Rigid Plastic Packaging Container Act and the federal Toxic Substances Control Act. Ms. Grimaldi graduated from the University of California Hastings College of the Law magna cum laude and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Bacteriology from University of California, Davis. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a research assistant in laboratories at the University of California, San Francisco Cancer Research Institute and at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.