NACD Position
To ensure the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is improved in a way that recognizes the unique role of chemical distributors in the chemical supply chain.
Talking Points
NACD supports:
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Modernizing TSCA to assess the safety of chemicals through a risk-based approach;
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Prioritizing chemical reviews to ensure the safety of the chemicals of highest concern are assessed. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) focus should be on chemical substances, not mixtures unless assessing the underlying chemical components is insufficient;
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Ensuring TSCA reform provides a nationwide approach to chemical management and, while respecting states’ rights, provides EPA final authority when it makes determinations; and
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Chemical manufacturers providing chemical hazard information and end users providing use information. Due to their unique position in the supply chain, distributors should have a limited role in these enhanced requirements.
Background
EPA regulates industrial chemicals through the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act. In recent years, health and environmental organizations have criticized our nation’s chemical laws as ineffective and advocated strengthening them. Among these laws, TSCA has received the most public attention.
Many states are responding to the perception that TSCA fails to protect the public from toxic chemical exposures. Some have banned certain chemicals in the name of consumer safety. California enacted a comprehensive chemicals management plan known as Green Chemistry and is finalizing the regulations to implement this program. In Europe, the comprehensive REACH (Registration, Evaluation,
Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) program took effect in 2007. Also, EPA has significantly increased its activities under its current TSCA authority.
The Time to Act is Now
Responding to these pressures, and believing public confidence is eroding in the safety of chemicals currently in use, industry has advocated modernizing TSCA to provide EPA with the tools and guidance to prioritize and conduct chemical risk assessments. A coalition of more than 180 industries – known as the American Alliance for Innovation and representing virtually the entire value chain – formed together to work collaboratively to that end.
In 2013, former Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) joined with Senator David Vitter (R-La.), the ranking
Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, to craft a bipartisan bill that was co-sponsored by a dozen Democrats and a dozen Republicans spanning the ideological spectrum.

The bill has stalled in the Senate due to opposition by Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), in part due to the bill’s provision that allows EPA action to preempt state law. After Lautenberg’s death, Senator Tom
Udall (D-N.M.) took up his mantle to continue efforts to reform the law.
This year, House Energy and Commerce’s Environment and the Economy Subcommittee Chairman John
Shimkus (R-Ill.) drafted a bill to modernize TSCA. Chairman Shimkus is working to gain the support of
Democrats for his draft bill, which is similar to the Senate version, but improves various sections. NACD
Chairman Roger Harris testified earlier this year before the subcommittee in support of the draft bill and articulated the unique role played by distributors in the supply chain.