By Jacob Barron

The House Energy & Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy voted unanimously to advance the SPI-backed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Modernization Act of 2015Thursday.

The bill would prevent a patchwork of overlapping and conflictual state-level rules governing chemical production and use. It would modernize the system by which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assesses risks, and also establish protections for companies’ confidential business information (CBI).

Only one amendment was added during Thursday’s markup, a small technical fix put forth by Subcommittee Ranking Member Paul Tonko (D-NY) that was added without objection. The final vote in favor of advancing the TSCA Modernization Act was 21-0. The bill now heads to the full Committee for consideration.

The original TSCA was enacted in 1976 and hasn’t been substantially amended since. The TSCA Modernization Act is one of two bipartisan efforts put forth by the 114th Congress to update the nearly 40-year-old legislation, the other being S. 697, the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, which was passed out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in April.

SPI has made TSCA reform a significant priority and continues to engage legislators and industry partners as we pursue reform that updates the regulatory infrastructure without overburdening the plastics industry with overly-rigid rules and reporting requirements.

Recommended Posts

  • Advocacy

    The Resin Tax Moving Through Congress Threatens the Plastics Supply Chain and Whole Economy

    September 23, 2021 The U.S. Congress is considering a proposal to extract 20 cents per pound on plastic resins produced domestically. There are strong economic arguments against such a proposal, specifically how it affects jobs, consumption, and disposable income.

  • Advocacy

    PLASTICS Research Working Group: Finding Meaning in the Literature

    September 10, 2021 Earlier this year, I proposed to form an internal working group at PLASTICS to review a wide variety of literature on plastics research and create a catalog of objective and positive plastics research in response to the onslaught of biased criticisms against a material that has made tremendous positive contributions to society.

  • Advocacy

    So, You Want to Stop Making Plastics. What Happens Afterward?

    April 1, 2020 When hearing about challenges related to littered plastics in the environment, it is understandable that the knee-jerk reaction is to ask why everything isn’t just made from other materials, or whether a ban on plastics production would force the industry to recycle more. But it’s a lot like when a child proposes that the solution to global warming is eliminating cars: it’s overly simplistic, fails to understand how the economy works, and reveals an incomplete understanding of a complicated issue.
More Posts
;