Barbara Boxer

This doesn't add one dollar, so don't make like it does.

If we can add a section that addresses asbestos that is killing people, 10,000 a year, if we can add a section that says, without any further costs, we can look at these cancer clusters, if we can add a section that says, we need deadlines…

This legislation will help our communities investigate and address devastating disease clusters as quickly as possible.

Not all genius resides in a quiet room in the Capitol.

This is simply saying that if the National Academy of Sciences has found that chemicals are particularly harmful and dangerous, why do we need to just reinvent the wheel?

I believe if these amendments had passed this would be on the way to being one heck of a bill.

I want to respond to this, my colleague said I wasn't part of the process.

If you don't feel emotional when faced with a widow, there is something wrong with you. I urge a no vote.

Let me say, Senators, the fact of the matter is that the original bill that we had hearings on is gone, it is away, it is dead and gone.

Our fundamental responsibility is to them. It is not to the chemical companies, and it is not to special interests.

It will authorized Federal agencies to form partnerships with States and academic institutions to investigate and help address disease clusters.

It will increase assistance to areas impacted by potential disease clusters.

There are deadlines to get it to that point, but there is no timeline.

This is an opportunity to add to the improvements that Senators Whitehouse, Merkley, and Booker made along with Senators Vitter and Udall.

I think that will be the subject of great debate as we move forward. I hope you are right.

Why don't we help local communities deal with cancer clusters? And so this is an opportunity to add that to this bill. And I hope we will say yes to that.

This amendment is identical to legislation I previously introduced with Senator Crapo, who is also a co-sponsor of this amendment, to help communities determine whether there is a connection between clusters of cancer, birth defects and…

We all know it would be 100 to nothing if you asked 100 people.

I really look forward to making this chemical safety bill better and better. But if we can't support these perfecting amendments today, I intend to vote no on final passage.

The old bill had, as Senator Whitehouse called it, a death zone.

You know when our States act, we all benefit.

Asbestos, a lethal substance, is still legal in the U.S., even though it has been banned in most developed nations.

For every life lost from an asbestos-caused disease, a shattered family is left behind.

Let the States do what they do best, which is protect their people until the EPA has completed their work on a chemical.

I also don't understand why in the new Vitter substitute there is not even a mention of asbestos.