On January 22, 2025, in a House Subcommittee on the Environment hearing, the president of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) urged Congress to immediately make specific improvements to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) program to end industry uncertainty.

 

The hearing, titled “A Decade Later: Assessing the Legacy and Impact of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act,” had four witnesses:

• Chris Jahn, President and CEO, ACC
• Geoff Moody, Senior Vice President, Government Relations and Policy, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers
• Dr. Richard Engler, PhD, Director of Chemistry, The Acta Group
• Dr. Maria Doa, Senior Director, Chemicals Policy, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)

TSCA directs the EPA to identify and regulate chemicals in commerce that present an “unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment.” The Act governs “chemical substances” and “mixtures” while excluding other items like food, pesticides, and certain chemicals specifically addressed by other statutes. The process under the Act requires the EPA to regulate a particular chemical once it reaches an “unreasonable risk” determination. TSCA grants the EPA broad authority to regulate the manufacture (including importation), processing, distribution, sale, use, and disposal of chemical substances, chemical mixtures, and articles containing chemical substances. The EPA must review existing chemicals to determine whether they present an unreasonable risk by conducting a risk evaluation.

“After years of discussion in Congress around reform, President Obama signed the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act into law June 22, 2016.The legislation marked the first major overhaul of TSCA since its passage, and it enjoyed bipartisan support,” states the hearing memo. “It included many significant changes to the EPA’s regulation of new and existing chemicals and collection of information.

“Despite these reforms, the EPA has reported difficulty implementing the Lautenberg Act and has struggled to meet statutorily mandated timeframes for both new chemical reviews and risk evaluations for existing chemicals. Manufacturers and processors have also expressed frustration with EPA’s approach to risk evaluations, new requirements governing data manufacturers must submit to EPA, and increased user fees, among other issues.”

Jahn concluded his testimony at the hearing by asking Congress to consider the following recommendations to improve TSCA’s functionality:

• “A 90-day shot-clock for new chemicals reviews: EPA should implement a shot-clock counting down the number of days it takes the Agency’s to complete new chemical reviews. The shot-clock should include an enforcement mechanism when EPA misses the 90-day deadline to review new chemicals coming to the market.”
• “Use the best available science when assessing existing chemicals in commerce: Regulations for existing chemicals need to be risk-based and appropriately scoped, must rely on the best available science and weight-of-scientific evidence and recognize the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) when evaluating workplace exposure.”