A Senate effort to reform the decades-old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is scheduled for a hearing next week in the House.
The controversial legislation, which was introduced in May by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), will likely get a hearing by the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. While the bill would give the EPA more power to review and regulate chemicals that pose a hazard to human health and the environment, its detractors worry that it would usurp the ability of states to enact their own, more restrictive laws and that it would not adequately protect certain especially vulnerable groups, like pregnant women.