[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 135 (Tuesday, September 13, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5534-S5535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-61. A resolution adopted by the Commission of Wayne 
     County of the State of Michigan relative to support of an 
     integrated network of high-speed trains and expanded Amtrak 
     service as a key to economic development, job creation and 
     fuel consumption reduction; to the Committee on Commerce, 
     Science, and Transportation.
       POM-62. A joint resolution adopted by the Senate of the 
     State of California urging Congress to enact federal 
     legislation to modernize the federal Toxic Substances Control 
     Act of 1976 by strengthening chemical management through 
     specified policy reforms; to the Committee on Environment and 
     Public Works.

                     Senate Joint Resolution No. 3

       Whereas, children and pregnant women are uniquely 
     vulnerable to the health threats of toxic chemicals, and 
     early life chemical exposures have been linked to chronic 
     disease later in life; and
       Whereas, a growing body of peer-reviewed scientific 
     evidence links exposure to toxic chemicals to many diseases 
     and health conditions that are rising in incidence, including 
     childhood cancers, prostate cancer, breast cancer, learning 
     and developmental disabilities, infertility, and obesity; and

[[Page S5535]]

       Whereas, the President's Cancer Panel report released in 
     May 2010 states ``the true burden of environmentally induced 
     cancers has been grossly underestimated,'' and the panel 
     advised the President of the United States ``to use the power 
     of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins 
     from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health 
     care costs, cripple our nation's productivity, and devastate 
     American lives''; and
       Whereas, workers in a range of industries are exposed to 
     toxic chemicals which pose threats to their health, 
     increasing worker absenteeism, workers' compensation claims, 
     and health care costs that burden the economy; and
       Whereas, a recent national poll found that 78 percent of 
     American voters were seriously concerned about the threat to 
     children's health from exposure to toxic chemicals in day-to-
     day life; and
       Whereas, states bear an undue burden from toxic chemicals, 
     including health care costs and environmental damages, 
     disadvantaging businesses that lack information on chemicals 
     in their supply chain, and increasing demands for state 
     regulation; and
       Whereas, the federal Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 
     (TSCA; 15 U.S.C. Sec. 2601 et seq.), the primary governing 
     federal statute, was intended to authorize the federal 
     Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect public 
     health and the environment from toxic chemicals; and
       Whereas, when TSCA was passed, about 62,000 chemicals in 
     commerce were ``grandfathered in'' without any required 
     testing for health and safety hazards or any restrictions on 
     usage; and
       Whereas, in the 35 years since the enactment of TSCA, the 
     EPA has required chemical companies to test only about 200 of 
     those chemicals for health hazards and has issued partial 
     restrictions on only five chemicals; and
       Whereas, TSCA has been widely recognized as ineffective and 
     obsolete due to legal and procedural hurdles that prevent the 
     EPA from taking quick and effective regulatory action to 
     protect the public against well-known chemical threats; and
       Whereas, a strong uniform federal standard would be 
     beneficial to both consumers and businesses; and
       Whereas, in January 2009, the United States General 
     Accounting Office (GAO) added the EPA's regulatory program 
     for assessing and controlling toxic chemicals to its list of 
     ``high risk'' government programs that are not working as 
     intended, finding that the EPA has been unable to complete 
     assessments of chemicals of the highest concern. The EPA 
     requires additional authority to obtain health and safety 
     information from the chemical industry and to shift more of 
     the burden to chemical companies to demonstrate the safety of 
     their products. TSCA does not provide sufficient chemical 
     safety data for public use by consumers, businesses, and 
     workers and fails to create incentives to develop safer 
     alternatives; and
       Whereas, the National Conference of State Legislatures 
     unanimously adopted a resolution in July 2009 that 
     articulated principles for the reform of TSCA and called on 
     Congress to act to update the law; and
       Whereas, in August 2010, the Environmental Council of the 
     States (ECOS), the national association of state 
     environmental agency directors, unanimously adopted a 
     resolution entitled ``Reforming the Toxic Substances Control 
     Act,'' which endorsed specific policy reforms; and
       Whereas, ten states have come together to launch the 
     Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse (IC2) to coordinate state 
     chemical information management programs, and a coalition of 
     13 states issued guiding principles for TSCA reform; and
       Whereas, seventy-one state laws on chemical safety have 
     been enacted and signed into law in 18 states with broad 
     bipartisan support over the last eight years; and
       Whereas, California's policy leadership on chemical 
     management, although outstanding, cannot substitute for 
     congressional leadership to reform TSCA, a reform which all 
     parties agree is urgently needed; and
       Whereas, TSCA is the only major federal environmental 
     statute that has never been updated or reauthorized; and
       Whereas, legislation to substantially reform TSCA was 
     introduced during the 109th Congress in 2005, the 110th 
     Congress in 2008, and again in the 111th Congress in 2010; 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of 
     California, jointly, That the California State Legislature 
     urges the President and the 112th Congress of the United 
     States to enact federal legislation to modernize the federal 
     Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 by strengthening 
     chemical management through policy reforms that would do all 
     of the following:
       (a) Require producers and importers to perform 
     comprehensive toxicity testing on their products and to fully 
     disclose the results of their testing.
       (b) Require producers and importers to disclose the 
     identities of chemicals in their products.
       (c) Require immediate action to reduce or eliminate the 
     worst chemicals, including persistent, bioaccumulative, and 
     toxic chemicals, which are known as PBTs, and other priority 
     toxic chemicals, to which there is already widespread 
     exposure.
       (d) Preserve the authority of state and tribal governments 
     to operate chemical management programs that are more 
     protective than the programs established by the federal 
     government.
       (e) Establish health safety standards for chemicals that 
     rely on the best available science to protect the most 
     vulnerable, including children and the developing fetus.
       (f) Support those chemical manufacturers that are striving 
     to establish that all existing and new chemicals are not 
     harmful to human health, and to provide essential health and 
     safety information on chemicals to inform the market, 
     consumers, and the public.
       (g) Reward innovation by fast-tracking the approval of new, 
     demonstrably safer chemicals, and invest in green chemistry 
     research and workforce development to boost American business 
     and spur jobs making safer alternatives.
       (h) Promote environmental justice by developing action 
     plans to reduce disproportionate exposure to toxic chemicals 
     in ``hot spots'' communities;
       Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies 
     of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the 
     United States, to the President pro Tempore of the United 
     States Senate, to the Speaker of the House of 
     Representatives, to each Senator and Representative from 
     California in the Congress of the United States, and to the 
     author for appropriate distribution.

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