[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 505 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 505

To direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency not 
to act under section 6 of the Toxic Substances Control Act to prohibit 
   the manufacturing, processing, or distribution of certain fishing 
                           sinkers or lures.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 6, 1995

  Mr. Harkin introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency not 
to act under section 6 of the Toxic Substances Control Act to prohibit 
   the manufacturing, processing, or distribution of certain fishing 
                           sinkers or lures.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Common Sense in Fishing Regulations 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) millions of Americans of all ages enjoy recreational 
        fishing; fishing is one of the most popular sports;
            (2) lead and other types of metal sinkers and fishing lures 
        have been used by Americans fishing for hundreds of years;
            (3) the Administrator of the Environmental Protection 
        Agency has proposed to issue a rule under section 6 of the 
        Toxic Substances Control Act, to prohibit the manufacturing, 
        processing, and distribution in commerce in the United States, 
        of certain smaller size fishing sinkers containing lead and 
        zinc, and mixed with other substances, including those made of 
        brass;
            (4) the Environmental Protection Agency has based its 
        conclusions that lead fishing sinkers of a certain size present 
        an unreasonable risk of injury to human health or the 
        environment on less than definitive scientific data, conjecture 
        and anecdotal information;
            (5) alternative forms of sinkers and fishing lures are 
        considerably more expensive than those made of lead; 
        consequently, a ban on lead sinkers would impose additional 
        costs on millions of Americans who fish;
            (6) in the absence of more definitive evidence of harm to 
        the environment, the Federal Government should not take steps 
        to restrict the use of lead sinkers; and
            (7) alternative measures to protect waterfowl from lead 
        exposure should be carefully reviewed.

SEC. 3. FISHING SINKERS AND LURES.

    (a) Directive.--The Administrator of the Environmental Protection 
Agency shall not, under purported authority of section 6 of the Toxic 
Substances Control Act (15 U.S.C. 2605), take action to prohibit or 
otherwise restrict the manufacturing, processing, distributing, or use 
of any fishing sinkers or lures containing lead, zinc, or brass.
    (b) Further Action.--If the Administrator obtains a substantially 
greater amount of evidence of risk of injury to health or the 
environment than that which was adduced in the rulemaking proceedings 
described in the proposed rule dated February 28, 1994 (59 Fed. Reg. 
11122 (March 9, 1994)), the Administrator shall report those findings 
to Congress, with any recommendation that the Administrator may have 
for legislative action.
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