Sheldon Whitehouse

And bioaccumulation can be a very powerful and concentrating force if the ultimate animal to which the human is exposed is at the top of the food chain.

So reforming that administrative process is something that is underway within EPA?

What is going to happen to this process so that an evaluation moment by somebody in Government takes place before a chemical gets dispersed into the environment with the nominal word approved attached to it, which I think led a lot of…

Particularly when you have what the Administrator referred to as a real emergency going on, the time at that point for the RRT process to go through a scientific evaluative process of determining what the toxicity consequences are off of…

I can't think of another circumstance in which a regulatory agency approved something for use without actually coming to a formal decision that it is safe to be used and without any process other than that the manufacturer provides some…

It may be appropriate to differentiate within that list, and it may be important to have somebody other than the manufacturer in a basically unreviewed disclosure of certain toxicity data come to a decision about the safety or not of the…

But what a lay person would consider to be an approval, that this particular chemical is safe for use in these circumstances, never anywhere in this process that I can see actually gets done.

That is why the National Contingency Plan explicitly states that having a product on the product schedule does not constitute approval by the EPA.

It could be as toxic as all get-out, and it still goes on the list as long as it meets the 45 percent effectiveness threshold.

But there is no testing of any kind that is done about its toxicity or its health effects at that time by EPA?

I thank the witnesses for being here.

If a dispersant cannot meet minimum toxicity standards, then the dispersant should not be used on an oil spill.

We owe this to the communities along the Gulf Coast, but we also owe it to all Americans to assure them that we are prepared the next time such a disaster strikes.

However, it is unclear if this will limit the damage from the spill or cause even greater harm.

When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, it took 11 lives and triggered a chain of events that have led to what may be the largest and most destructive environmental disaster in our history.

I applaud Senator Lautenberg's efforts in drafting a more reasoned alternative to the House bill.

Well, these two witnesses have been very helpful and very informative.

I would also suggest that there is a floor below which that executive policymaking discretion cannot go.

The fundamental principle is that the administrative agencies must further the policies crafted by Congress.

The situation at MMS, as Senator Whitehouse has pointed out, is a good example of this form of capture.

I appreciate Senator Feingold's statement, and that will be added to the record without objection.

This problem of agency capture deserves a great deal more attention than it is presently getting.

It is, thus, a vast and vital consequence that regulatory agencies retain their integrity.

The hearing of the Subcommittee will come to order.

I wanted to first commend the Senator from Louisiana for her tenacity on the subject... I wish her success and pledge her my complete support.