Barbara Boxer

Taking action to address this serious problem will benefit us, will benefit us and future generations, will actually reduce energy costs in the long-term for our people, make us energy independent, and create millions of jobs.

The body of evidence is overwhelming. The world's leading scientists agree.

Whatever is more convenient for the minority leader. If the minority leader wishes to speak now, I will defer and take my 8 minutes later. Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I will let the Senator from California go ahead.

But at the end of the day, the people are going to be on the side of making sure products are safe for pregnant women, for children, for infants, for firefighters whom they revere.

If someone cannot answer that question with an affirmative response, then they are putting the special interests before the health of the people.

And of course, that is the essence of Senator Lautenberg's bill, which is to make sure that these are safe before they are routinely used.

You do not see a conflict of interest?

But you were assessed a $56,000 fine, were you not?

So, they took no responsibility.

If I could just talk about California for a minute.

I do not believe that you should have to risk the long-term health effects of being exposed to these dangerous chemicals and because there are certain people in this society who seem to put their business interests ahead of safety.

The author said you did. Who is a better source?

Well, I think if you are going to say that you complied you should have mentioned that.

I think the right thing to do is to say I am not going to use it any more.

For this phony group that said they posed as a fire safety group.

I urge this Committee to strongly consider legislation that would reduce our children's exposure to flame retardant chemicals.

Thank you so very much.

You ought to take a little lesson in ethics if you do not see it.

At some point there are going to be issues where there are just clear differences.

I have a lot of questions, so if I run out of time I am going to take a second round.

So, our society is being exposed to these chemicals and the most vulnerable, the fetuses, are getting exposed. And it is very serious.

To address these shortcomings, in September 2009 the EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson, announced a set of administration principles to update and strengthen TSCA.

I wanted to make a point that a study by researchers at UC, University of California San Francisco, detected certain PBDEs, PCBs, pthalates, pesticides, perchlorate, and other chemicals in the blood of 99 to 100 percent of pregnant women…

I just wanted to make a note here that I am a very strong supporter of bipartisanship, and this Committee has shown we can do it.

There is a difference here which involves how much you want to protect public health versus how much you want to balance that with protecting chemical companies.