On the recordDecember 18, 2015
last night was a historic moment in the Senate. After years and years of negotiations and collaboration, after working with stakeholders across the country, we made tremendous progress toward historic, bipartisan environmental reform. The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act passed the Senate on a unanimous voice vote, with 60 bipartisan cosponsors and with overwhelming support. This is a great milestone. First, I want to thank Senator Vitter. Senator Vitter and I introduced this legislation for one basic reason: to fix our Nation's broken chemical safety law. I remember that over 2 years ago we had a very quiet dinner, and we walked away from that dinner saying: We are going to form a team, and we are going to get this done. It was after Frank Lautenberg had passed away, and Senator Vitter is a man of his word. We stuck to it, and we are making significant historic progress. I thank him for that. There were times when the bill was stalled from even getting introduced, and Senators like Tom Carper stepped in and helped us get back on track. I thank Senator Carper for that. His early leadership as an original cosponsor of this bill got us off on the much needed right foot. Other moderates joined in, and we had some momentum building up. This has been a long road to get here today.…
Source
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