Ed Markey: “I also wish to spend a couple of minutes talking about another issue that is a relic of the Cold War era, and that is…”

“I also wish to spend a couple of minutes talking about another issue that is a relic of the Cold War era, and that is TSCA, the legislation that deals with toxic chemicals within our country. There was a law passed 40 years ago to deal with toxic chemicals in our country, but ultimately that law never worked. When we look back, it is like a political, environmental Edsel, still sitting in the garage 40 years later but not useful in protecting American families from the chemicals in our society--asbestos and hundreds and thousands of others. It is just not usable. Congress stands ready right now, thank God, to reform the last of the ``core four'' environmental statutes that have yet to be modernized. I hope we will do so with a stronger bipartisan vote than on any major environmental statute in recent American history, and that we do so soon. This historic vote to comprehensively reform the Toxic Substances Control Act comes after years of hard work by many Senators on both sides of the aisle. We worked for some months to reconcile the two bills, and all of us were driven by the same reason. Since it was written four decades ago, TSCA has sat there untouched. It is a statute that simply does not work to protect anyone. Ever since industries successfully challenged EPA's proposed asbestos ban, EPA has not been able to effectively use the authority Congress intended it to have. In conference, we truly did take the best of both bills.…”