Bicameral, bipartisan deal reached on TSCA reform.

Today, a bipartisan group of lawmakers announced that a deal was reached to modernize the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), with changes to reconcile the House and Senate legislation “pretty much agreed to,” according to Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Jim Inhofe (R-OK).

House Democrats Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Paul Tonko (D-NY) immediately responded by criticizing the deal as “weaker than current law.” The Representatives blamed House Republicans for “walk[ing] away from a bipartisan deal we agreed to last month.” Earlier this week, 40 House Democrats sent a letter urging Rep. Pallone to support a proposal backed by the Humane Society of the United States to reduce animal testing.

While no details on the content of the deal were released, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) said the legislative language would be released within a few days.

Sen. Inhofe said the negotiated bill could pass both chambers of Congress by the end of next week.

Supreme Court denial upholds FTC on substantiating claims in advertising.

Green marketers take note: the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) won a recent victory at the Supreme Court on deceptive advertising, which means companies cannot advertise health benefits for their products without sufficient evidence.

On May 2, the Supreme Court denied POM Wonderful’s petition for certiorari, bringing to an end a six-year-long wrangle with the FTC over advertisements that claimed the company’s pomegranate juice was clinically proven as effective in fighting heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction.

The Supreme Court’s denial leaves in place the January 2015 decision [PDF] from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the Commission’s decision that POM misled consumers in violation of the FTC Act. Specifically, the D.C. Circuit upheld the Commission’s findings as to (1) establishment and efficacy claims made in POM’s advertising, as well as (2) inadequate substantiation for those claims.

The D.C. Circuit also affirmed the FTC’s cease and desist order [PDF], which requires POM to substantiate any future disease treatment and prevention claims with at least one randomized, well-controlled human trial, while other health benefit claims must be supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence.

In a statement, FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez lauded the Supreme Court’s move, saying the conclusion of the case “makes clear that companies like POM making serious health claims about food and nutritional supplement products must have rigorous scientific evidence to back them up.”

Senators reach deal on TSCA reform.

Senators central to the effort to modernize the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) have reportedly reached a deal that will allow the stalled legislation to move forward. Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Jim Inhofe (R-CA) and Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who has been a fierce critic of the Senate proposal, announced on Friday that they had “reached an agreement on key sticking points of the TSCA reform bill.” The content of the agreement has not yet been made public, but according to Politico’s Morning Energy, it involves “some resolution on Senate language calling for state action on high-priority chemicals to be paused while EPA performs a risk review.” A Senate aide told Politico that the final text will take most of this week to finalize.

The next step will be to win House approval before both chambers get the chance to vote on the negotiated legislation. A bi-partisan group of House Energy and Commerce Committee members also released a statement on Friday, calling the deal “an important step forward” and calling for “keeping the momentum going.”