The Price of Reform: Models for Financing a Toxic Substances Control Act 2.0

• Date: 01 May 2015

5-2015 NEWS & ANALYSIS 45 ELR 10405

The Price of Reform:

Models for Financing a Toxic

Substances Control Act 2.0

Summary

At the start of the 114th Congress, lawmakers from

both parties in the House and the Senate have voiced

support for reviewing and reforming the 39-year old

Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). A ssuming

that the diverse TSCA stakeholder community can

nd agreement on the many scientic, policy, and

legal issues implicated by TSCA reform, lawmak-

ers will still have to address two other critical issues

necessary for long-term success: (1) what levels of

initial and long-term program stang and funding

will be needed to implement a program responsible

for overseeing tens of thousands of existing chemical

substances and uses, and thousands of new chemical

substances and uses each year; and (2) what regulatory

nancing mechanism can ensure that any reformed

chemical control framework (TSCA 2.0) provides

adequate and consistent funding needed to assure the

safety of chemicals, maintain public condence, and

meet statutory deadlines? On February 5, 2015, the

American Bar Association’s Section on Environment,

Energy, and Resources, Committee on Pesticides,

Chemical Regulation and Right to Know, Special

Committee on Congressional Relations, and the Envi-

ronmental Law Institute co-sponsored a two-hour

program that brought together experts and stakehold-

ers from across the political spectrum to discuss these

and related issues. Below, we present a transcript of

the event, which has been edited for style, clarity, and

space considerations.

Panelists:

Charles Frank lin (moderator) is Senior Counsel at Akin

Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Scott Schang is Acting President of the Environmental

Law Institute (ELI)

Alexandra Dapolito Dunn is Executive Director and Gen-

eral Counsel of the Environmental Council of the States

John Broderick is a Law Fellow at ELI

Keith Matthews is Counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, former

Division Director at the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency’s Oce of Pesticide Programs

Nathan Brown is Partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer &

Feld LLP, formerly Attorney with the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration

Herb Estreicher is Partner with Keller & Heckman LLP

Other commenting participants included:

Mark Duvall, Partner, Beveridge & Diamond

Ernie Rosenberg, President and CEO, American Clean-

ing Institute

Martha Marrapese, Partner, Keller & Heckman LLP

Pat Rizutto, Chemicals Reporter, Bloomberg BNA, Inc.

Richard Denison, Lead Senior Scientist, Environmental

Defense Fund

Jim Cooper, Senior Petrochemical Advisor, American Fuel

& Petrochemical Manufacturers

David Rosker, A ssistant Chief Counsel for Environmen-

tal and Regulatory Reform, Small Business Administra-

tion Oce of Advocacy

Patricia Kablach Casano, Counsel, Government Aairs,

General Electric Company

Charles Franklin: On behalf of t he American Bar Asso-

ciation (ABA) Section of Environment, Energy, a nd

Resources (SEER), a nd the Environmental Law Institute

(ELI), welcome and good afternoon to all of you. I am

the cu rrent co-chair of the ABA SEER Special Commit-

tee on Congressional Relations, one of the ABA groups

that is sponsoring today’s Dialogue on models for fund-

ing and na ncing a reformed Toxic Substances Control

Act (TSCA).1 Joining me are Joanne elmo, Chair of the

ABA SEER Pesticides, Chemical Regulation, and Right-

to-Know Committee; and Scott Schang, Acting President

of ELI.

We have an ambitious and somewhat unusual agenda.

Suce it to say that this will not be a TSCA 101 discus-

sion. While we will start with brief presentations by sev-

eral legal experts on some core fundamentals of U.S. and

overseas chemical regulatory policy, the real focus today is

intended to be on the facilitated group discussion, build-

1. 15 U.S.C. §§2601-2692, ELR S. TSCA §§2-412.

Copyright © 2015 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.