Congressional Hearing Amplifies CCI’s Call for Improvements to TSCA Implementation

In a U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment hearing held January 22, 2025, titled “A Decade Later: Assessing the Legacy and Impact of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act,” lawmakers sought evidence of current Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) implementation success and failure, and expert recommendations on improvements needed. Witness testimony and lawmaker statements at the hearing amplified the issues that the Coalition for Chemical Innovations (CCI) has been advocating since forming in 2021 — that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is stifling innovation, undermining sustainability efforts, constricting supply chain flexibility, and hindering economic growth by interpreting TSCA in overly restrictive ways that lead to delaying and sometimes preventing the commercialization of new, innovative chemicals.

Witness testimony from the hearing and witness biographies are available at https://energycommerce.house.gov/events/environment-subcommittee-a-decade-later-assessing-the-legacy-and-impact-of-the-frank-r-lautenberg-chemical-safety-for-the-21st-century-act. Key segments from the hearing are noted below.

Environment Subcommittee Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA) stated in his opening remarks: “[O]ur economic competitiveness and national security depend on our ability to innovate and bring new technologies to market safely and efficiently. […] New chemicals and new uses for existing chemicals must undergo EPA review. If these reviews don’t take place in a timely manner, our international competitors could gain an edge and more production would likely shift overseas.”

Ranking Member of the full Energy and Commerce Committee Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) stated: “[O]ver the last four years, the EPA has worked to get back on track. The Biden EPA […] went back to scientific integrity as a basis for its actions and its critical mission to protect public health and the environment. […] But despite these significant improvements during the Biden administration, the TSCA office still faces its fair share of challenges.”

Environment Subcommittee Vice-Chair Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) stated: “Nobody opposes pragmatic regulations, but the EPA, under the previous administration, regularly delayed approval for new chemicals beyond when they were legally obligated to do so. These delays, well, they threaten American leadership on chemical research and development and they impose massive costs on the American economy.”

Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., Director of Chemistry at The Acta Group (Acta^®) and a witness at the hearing, testified: “Since 2016, the program is stifling innovation, impeding commercialization of new chemistry and driving sustainable chemistries out of the U.S., in part, because since 2016, the EPA’s taken a hazard-based approach to chemicals, rather than the risk-based approach that TSCA envisions. […] Congress needs to change TSCA to give clear direction and set performance expectations so that EPA’s making decisions based on the best available science and reasoned predictions and assumptions.” (Dr. Engler is a science and regulatory advisor to CCI.)

The CCI website includes three white papers that offer detailed proposals to improve the TSCA new chemicals program: Meaning of Reasonably Foreseen in TSCA Risk Decisions, Consideration of Risk Reduction in New Chemicals Review; and EPA Use of Reasonably Available Information; as well as videos and infographics that provide real-world examples of the cost to the economy and the environment of EPA’s current interpretation of TSCA Section 5.

CCI applauds the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment’s focus on the critical need for changes that will improve the process by which new chemicals are evaluated for commercialization, and CCI will continue its efforts to gather and supply data-driven analysis to support the arguments for amending TSCA Section 5.

The Coalition for Chemical Innovations (CCI) is a group of diverse stakeholders within the chemical industry, including chemical manufacturers, processors, distributors, and users. CCI’s mission is to educate decision makers, including Congress, EPA, other federal agencies, and related stakeholders on the true costs of these policies and to outline common-sense policy changes to prevent the further stifling of chemical innovation by EPA’s implementation of TSCA Section 5.

For more information, including an executive summary, white papers, and research findings, visit the CCI website: https://chemicalinnovations.org/. For more information about CCI, contact CCI Manager Julianne Ogden at (202) 833-6581 or jogden@bc-cm.com.