House TSCA bill release delayed until next week

On Wednesday I noted that the US House of Representatives was expected to release the formal version of their TSCA reform bill this week. But the full responsible committee was tied up in Mark Ups of other bills all day yesterday, so the formal release is now planned for next Thursday, July 22nd.

A committee hearing is tentatively scheduled for the following Thursday, July 29th, and will be officially announced when the bill is introduced.

In April the House had released a "discussion draft" to coincide with the introduction of Senator Lautenberg's Safe Chemicals Act of 2010 bill. As previously noted, a series of stakeholder meetings were held following the discussion draft, and all stakeholders will be very interested to see how much of their input was incorporated into the formal bill. A good faith effort to acknowledge stakeholder concerns will help passage of the bill.

Though when that will happen is anyone's guess. It is highly unlikely to happen this session of Congress with control of possibly both houses uncertain, as I noted in a previous commentary. But no matter which party is in control of Congress, there is at least public support from all stakeholders to modernize the 34 year old law - industry to avoid a patchwork of state regulations and advocacy groups to strengthen EPA's ability to require data be submitted.