The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Majority Leader, U.S. Senate
317 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Harry Reid
Minority Leader, U.S. Senate
522 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader Reid,
Our organizations represent millions of people with learning and developmental
disabilities, along with their families, physicians, teachers and therapists. We are
encouraged that you have made reform of our broken chemical safety policy a top
priority this year, and appreciate the work you are doing to revise the Toxic
Substances Control Act (TSCA). As scientific evidence clearly demonstrates,
beginning in utero, the developing brain is extremely vulnerable to harm from toxic
chemicals, even at miniscule levels of exposure. We now know that certain
chemicals commonly found in products are increasing children’s risks for
neurodevelopmental disabilities, including autism, ADHD and lowered IQ.
While both the Senate and House bills to reform TSCA contain serious flaws, we
believe the TSCA Modernization Act of 2015 (H.R. 2576) can be readily amended to
provide a clear and effective framework that protects public health, and especially
children’s health, from toxic chemical exposures. That is not true of Senate Bill 697,
which would require extensive changes throughout to improve it sufficiently.
We ask that you bring the House bill to the Senate floor, and make the following
changes to ensure real reform that protects American families:
 EPA should have a clear mandate to review at least 10 chemicals per year, and
focus its resources on the chemicals of greatest concern to public health. Remove
the caveat that this very modest schedule is “subject to the availability of
appropriations.” Cap the number of industry-initiated reviews.
 Industry fees should pay for the entire TSCA program, not just reviews of
chemicals that industry selects.

The provision in HR 2576 that requires expedited action for Persistent,
BioAccumulative Toxins (PBTs) is essential to protecting brain development;
many of these extremely harmful chemicals are found in umbilical cord blood
and breast milk. However, HR 2576 includes an “out” by which industry can pay
to remove a PBT chemical from expedited action, and instead have it undergo a
lengthier assessment. This not only would squander EPA resources, it also fails
to protect vulnerable populations from the worst chemicals. The option to pay to
get a chemical off the PBT list should be deleted from the bill.
 Clearly establish that EPA will regulate chemicals based solely on protecting
public health, rather than doing what is “cost-effective” for industry.
With these essential changes, HR 2576 will provide a meaningful approach to
assessing chemical safety and addressing toxic chemicals. On the other hand, S. 697
would require EPA to wade through new layers of onerous, bureaucratic process
before getting this critical work underway; S. 697 would establish a low priority
category that gives thousands of chemicals a “pass” without adequately assessing
their safety, putting the public at continued risk of harm; and S. 697 would block the
states from taking action on a toxic chemical for years while waiting for the federal
government to determine next steps.
Our learning and developmental disabilities organizations are keenly aware of the
importance of this debate and what kind of TSCA reform emerges from it. We ask
that you use your leadership to bring the House bill, with the critical changes
outlined above, to the Senate floor this fall. We believe this is the best path to real
reform that protects our families and future generations from toxic chemicals that
contribute to serious disease and disability.
Thank you,