TSCA Reform - 10 Years Later

Welcome

Madison Calhoun, Educational Programming Attorney; Senior Manager, Educational Programs, Environmental Law Institute
Cecilia Diedrich, Staff Attorney, Environmental Law Institute

Setting the Stage
An Overview of Today’s Program

Oh, what a difference a decade makes! The bipartisan 2016 Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act Amendments enacted extensive changes to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that many hoped would set the law on a new course, address its widely recognized challenges, and accelerate U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actions to address public health threats. Since then, four administrations have put their mark on implementation of the amended law. The past 10 years have seemed like a roller coaster of competing legal interpretations of some of the Lautenberg Amendments' most significant provisions, scientific debate and analyses, rulemakings, delays in meeting TSCA deadlines, and major milestones. This short overview will set the stage for our day-long deep dive into an exploration of TSCA’s most consequential issues.

Lynn L. Bergeson, Managing Partner, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.

Panel 1
Risk Evaluation

This panel will focus on EPA’s most recent risk evaluations and how they compare with prior administrations’ risk evaluation approaches. We will examine recent changes in direction of the controversial formaldehyde risk evaluation, as well as EPA’s proposed Risk Evaluation Framework Rule and its implications for protecting human health. We will also explore how EPA is considering aggregate and cumulative exposure pathways, what measures EPA and other stakeholders can take to instill greater public confidence in the outcome of risk evaluations, and much more.

Mark N. Duvall, Principal, Beveridge & Diamond, Moderator
Rashmi Joglekar, Ph.D., Science Policy Director, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University
Kelly Lester, Senior Attorney, Earthjustice
Judah Prero, Counsel, Arnold & Porter
Kimberly Wise White, Ph.D., Vice President, Regulatory & Scientific Affairs, American Chemistry Council

Panel 2
Risk Management
This panel will address the past, present, and future of risk management under TSCA. With all five final risk management rules in litigation, a debate is underway over whether these rules go too far or not far enough and how much risk reduction we can expect in future rules. The panel will explore what can be learned to date from the pending cases and speculate on how the courts and EPA may reshape future TSCA Section 6 rulemakings. The panel will address recurring policy and legal issues, such as the role of Section 6 in assuring workplace protection and addressing environmental releases from facilities, as well as how EPA can keep pace with TSCA’s statutory deadlines for proposed and final rules.

Martha E. Marrapese, Partner, Wiley Rein, Moderator
Keith Bradley, Partner, Squire Patton Boggs
Michal I. Freedhoff, Ph.D., Senior Policy Advisor, Holland & Knight
Reagan Giesenschlag, Director, Chemicals, Materials, and Sustainability Policy, National Association of Manufacturers
Randy Rabinowitz, Executive Director, OSH Law Project
Marissa Smith, Ph.D., Senior Regulatory Toxicologist, Washington State Department of Ecology (joining virtually)
Robert Sussman, Principal, Sussman & Associates

Keynote Address
Ten Years of Progress Under the Lautenberg Act: What We Intended and What Has Been Achieved
A Guided Discussion

The Honorable Lynn R. Goldman, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health and Dean Emerita, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University, Discussion Host
The Honorable Tom Udall, former Ambassador of the United States to New Zealand; former Senator for New Mexico (2009-2020) (joining virtually)
Bonnie Lautenberg

Panel 3
New Chemical Review

Questions over EPA’s implementation of the Lautenberg Amendments to TSCA Section 5 new chemical review rose quickly and have not abated. Spirited debate continues over how well the program is working, what challenges persist, and what changes may be needed to improve and hasten new chemical review. Environmental advocates have questioned whether the program is doing enough to ensure that new chemicals are safe. This panel will explore the reasons underlying the debate, the long-term impacts of decisions on new chemicals, whether there is a need to “fix” the program and what that would mean, how “reasonably foreseen” future circumstances are identified and addressed in the new chemical review process, the impacts of significant new use rules, and the role pre-market review of new chemicals plays in protecting public health and the effects on innovation and safer chemicals, among other key issues.

Greg Schweer, Owner, Greg Schweer Environmental Consulting, LLC, Moderator
Lawrence E. Culleen, Senior Counsel, Arnold & Porter
Maria Doa, Ph.D., Senior Director, Chemicals Policy, Environmental Defense Fund
Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., Director of Chemistry, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.
Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, Supervising Senior Attorney, Earthjustice
Bill Walsh, Fund Director, Safer Chemistry IMPACT FUND

Panel 4
Ten Years of Lautenberg: Where Are We?
Where are we after 10 years of the 2016 Lautenberg Amendments? Unsurprisingly, views vary widely on whether we are on the right track in achieving Congress’ goals, whether amending TSCA was successful, whether EPA’s efforts over the past decade are achieving the law’s public health goals, and whether, as we look back 10 years, we need to reimagine our core approach to chemical regulation or stay the course. This discussion will be a high point of the program, as diverse stakeholders steeped in TSCA debate these questions.

Jeremy Bernstein, Publisher, Inside EPA, Moderator
Grant Cope, Environmental Health Policy Lead, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research
Gerald (Jerry) Couri, Senior Policy Director, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers
The Honorable Lynn R. Goldman, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health and Dean Emerita, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University
Michael Gruber, Chief Operating Officer, Household and Commercial Products Association
Ryan Jackson, Vice President, Federal Affairs, American Chemistry Council
Dimitri J. Karakitsos, Partner, Holland & Knight
Robert Sussman, Principal, Sussman & Associates
Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, MPH, Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health and Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University (joining virtually)

Panel 5
TSCA Reform Redux: Change Beyond Fee Reauthorization?
TSCA’s fee authorization lapses in a few short months and the need for congressional action has invited animated debate over whether broader legislative action is or is not warranted. Discussion drafts outlining legislative reforms are circulating, and stakeholders are sharply divided over whether legislative intervention is needed at all, let alone on how best to modify TSCA yet again. This panel will explore these issues. Panelists maintain very different views on these pivotal questions, guaranteeing a spirited discussion capping off a day of hot debate.

Pat Rizzuto, Chemicals Reporter, Bloomberg Law’s Environment Desk, Moderator
Liz Hitchcock, Director, Federal Policy, Toxic-Free Future
Daniel Savery, Senior Legislative Representative, Earthjustice
Karyn Schmidt, Principal, Squire Patton Boggs
Ryan N. Schmit, Of Counsel, Bergeson & Campbell, P.C.

Concluding Remarks and Adjournment

Jordan Diamond, President, Environmental Law Institute