TSCA Reform Advocates Eye State-EPA Models To Guide Preemption Debate

摘要

Proponents of reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) are weighing existing legislative models to help inform how to structure the bill's provisions on EPA and state partnerships on chemicals management and the extent to which the measure should preempt state programs - a major point of contention in the reform debate. During a recent hearing of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW) on a revised bipartisan TSCA reform bill introduced this month by Sens. David Vitter (R-LA) and Tom Udall (D-NM), Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), raised the issue of possible legislative models for managing the balance between EPA and states. Disputes over the extent of preemption have long served as a central hurdle in advancing a toxics law reform bill.