Ed Markey: “today Congress stands ready to reform the last of the core four environmental statutes. It may do so with a stronger…”

“today Congress stands ready to reform the last of the core four environmental statutes. It may do so with a stronger bipartisan vote than any other major environmental statute in recent American history. For a generation, the American people have been guinea pigs in a terrible chemical experiment. Told that all the advances in our chemistry labs would make us healthier, happier, and safer, American families have had to suffer with decades of a law that did nothing to ensure that was true. That is because when the industry successfully overturned the EPA's proposed ban on asbestos, it also rendered the Toxic Substance Control Act all but unusable. Children shouldn't be unwitting scientific subjects. Today we have a chance to protect them by reforming this failed law. As ranking Democrat on the Senate subcommittee of jurisdiction, I was one of a handful of Members who participated in an informal conference with the House. With Senators Udall, Boxer, and Merkley, I have prepared a document that is intended to memorialize certain agreements made in the bicameral negotiations that would typically have been included in a conference report. In our work with the House, we truly did take the best of both bills when it came to enhancing EPA's authority to regulate chemicals. The degree to which States will be preempted as the Federal Government regulates chemicals has been a source of considerable debate since this bill was first introduced.…”