Congressional leaders at work on reconciling TSCA reform bills.

Quickly reconciling the recently passed House and Senate bills overhauling the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is reportedly a top priority for congressional leaders this year. Earlier this month, Bloomberg BNA reported that House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), chairman of the energy committee’s Environment and the Economy Subcommittee, would be meeting privately to set the subcommittee’s agenda, including how to reconcile the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (S. 697) and the TSCA Modernization Act (H.R. 2576). Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, also told reporters that he was meeting with Rep. Upton to discuss the same topic.

Asked when final legislation might come before Congress, Sen. Inhofe suggested as early as this month or next month. He also noted that priorities for reconciliation include “making sure the EPA does what they’re supposed to be doing in pre-classifying chemicals.” Rep. Upton told Bloomberg BNA that reconciling the two bills is “high on both of our agendas,” and Rep. Shimkus said he was “pretty optimistic.”

It remains unclear, however, if both chambers will hold a formal conference committee or find a compromise in private that would then be approved by the House and Senate.

The bills are supported by a broad range of industry stakeholders, including the 3M, American Apparel & Footwear Association, American Chemistry Council, BASF, Dow Chemical, DuPont, and the National Retail Federation.

However, state and territorial environmental regulators have taken a more critical position. Last week, the Environmental Council of States released an analysis of the two bills highlighting provisions and sections that should be added or retained during reconciliation. Although not an official position of the organization, ECOS said the analysis is meant to be “a guide to selected issues of interest” to state environmental agencies. The analysis focuses mainly on preemption issues, including timing, grandfathering, and waivers, as well as the requirement that EPA share Confidential Business Information (CBI) data with states, and largely favors the Senate bill. However, the analysis also strongly advocates eliminating several provisions from the Senate version, including those authorizing a “regulatory pause” on state action and industry requests for safety determinations.

Yesterday, Chemical Watch reported that the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA) sent a letter to key members of Congress expressing its preference for certain features of the House bill. SOCMA, the trade group for specialty chemical manufacturers, cited the House version’s stronger protections for the confidentiality of chemical identity. The trade group argued that the Senate version would have the perverse effect of discouraging submitters of Premanufacture Notices (PMNs) from conducting health and safety studies, which would trigger the disclosure of chemical identity information. SOCMA also wrote in support of the House bill’s provisions on fees, which are linked to recovering costs for the TSCA Section 5 program and do not apply to businesses that are exempt from submitting data, whereas the Senate bill authorizes fees for exemption requests. In addition, the letter urged Congress “to resist calls to adopt an approach that would prevent a [PMN] submitter from commencing manufacture until EPA issued its determination, even if EPA missed its 90/180-day deadline.”