Not 'Til the Fat Lady Sings TSCA's Next Act

摘要

When President Obama signed the new chemical safety legislation into law on June 22, 2016, he formally ended decades of stalemate and conflict over whether and how to fix a broken system. He was also inaugurating an era-perhaps equally long-of sparring over how to ensure that the new statute actually does improve the regulation of chemicals. The bill the president enacted, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, was the product of three years of tortuous, and often tortured, negotiations. Even its name was controversial. Advocates for and against the bill disagreed over whether the measure was a fitting legacy for Senator Lautenberg, who had long fought for greater environmental protection. (The senator's widow was a dogged advocate for the bill, mostly behind the scenes.).