[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21577-21578]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   MICROBEAD-FREE WATERS ACT OF 2015

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1321, which was received 
from the House.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 1321) to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and 
     Cosmetic Act to prohibit the manufacture and introduction or 
     delivery for introduction into interstate commerce of rinse-
     off cosmetics containing intentionally-added plastic 
     microbeads.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, across the country, many State and 
local governments, including counties in New York, have moved to ban 
products that contain plastic microbeads.
  Because of their leadership and because of the advocacy from 
scientists and others who have shown us the damage that microbeads can 
do, Congress came together to unanimously ban plastic microbeads from 
rinse-off cosmetic products.
  This is a great bill, and it shows that we can pass smart 
environmental legislation here in Washington.
  Plastic microbeads are the tiny pieces of plastic that we often see 
in toothpaste, hand lotion, or various other personal care products.
  When we brush our teeth and wash our face, most of us don't consider 
these acts to be harmful in any way.
  But plastic microbeads are smaller than 5 millimeters in size, which 
means they are too small to be captured by the filtration systems in 
our water treatment centers.
  So these plastic microbeads end up leaching into our lakes, our 
rivers, our streams, our bays, and even our drinking water supplies.
  It might be surprising that a piece of plastic so small can cause 
such outsized damage.
  But we have heard from a wide range of constituents and business 
groups that all recognize the damage, and all recommended that Congress 
act to remove plastic microbeads from the marketplace.
  We have heard it from the fishing industry, from the tourism 
industry, from the culinary industry. Even the cosmetics industry is 
supportive of this ban. Many cosmetics companies have already 
voluntarily stopped using microbeads themselves.
  When tiny plastic microbeads get into the water, they attract 
pollutants that are already in the water, and they concentrate these 
pollutants to potentially dangerous levels.
  Fish don't know what microbeads are, so they eat them and end up 
ingesting all of the pollutants stuck on the microbeads.
  This disrupts the food chain, it contaminates huge portions of the 
wildlife population, and it hurts our commercial and recreational 
fishing industries, because they can't sell--and we can't eat--fish 
that are filled with toxic plastic.
  Many of our counties, cities, and States took the lead on this issue, 
and they should be commended for that. But local action isn't enough to 
solve a nationwide problem like this--not when so many communities in 
different States are connected by the same bodies of water--because no 
one is immune when our waterways are contaminated.
  Congress had a responsibility to act--to stop the flow of microbeads 
into our waterways.
  And today we are doing our job in passing this Federal ban on these 
products.
  The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 will prohibit the manufacture 
of rinse-off cosmetic products containing plastic microbeads starting 
in 2017 and will ensure that they are off retail shelves by 2018.
  And while this bill preempts States from regulating rinse-off 
products containing plastic microbeads differently from the Federal 
ban, individual States will still have the ability to restrict 
microbeads in other types of products.
  Additionally, the preemption language in this bill restricts their 
manufacture and distribution in interstate commerce and should not 
prevent

[[Page 21578]]

States or local governments from regulating how microbeads are disposed 
of under laws such as the Clean Water Act.
  States can also co-enforce the Federal ban by enacting identical 
laws.
  This is a great bipartisan bill. And it is a smart step forward, as 
we look for new ways to protect our environment.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill 
be read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 1321) was ordered to a third reading, was read the 
third time, and passed.

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