The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act is a law passed by the

114th United States Congress The 114th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States of America federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from ...

and signed into law by

US President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

in 2016. Administered by the United States

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale ...

, which regulates the introduction of new or already existing

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., w ...

s, the Act amends and updates the

Toxic Substances Control Act The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is a United States law, passed by the 94th United States Congress in 1976 and administered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that regulates chemicals not regulated by other U. ...

(TSCA) that went into force in 1976.

History

Senators

David Vitter David Bruce Vitter (born May 3, 1961) is an American lobbyist, lawyer, and politician who served as United States Senator for Louisiana from 2005 to 2017. A Republican, Vitter served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1992 to 1999. ...

and

Frank Lautenberg Frank Raleigh Lautenberg (; January 23, 1924 June 3, 2013) was an American businessman and Democratic Party politician who served as United States Senator from New Jersey from 1982 to 2001, and again from 2003 until his death in 2013. He was ori ...

introduced a TSCA reform bill as S. 1009 on May 22, 2013, co-sponsored by a number of other senators at the United States House Energy Subcommittee on Environment and Economy. After Senator Lautenberg died, Senator

Tom Udall Thomas Stewart Udall ( ; born May 18, 1948) is an American diplomat, lawyer and politician serving as the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States senator fro ...

sponsored Senate bill 697 in 2015, to amend and re-authorize TSCA, called the ''Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act''. The House then passed H.R.2576, the TSCA Modernization Act of 2015, and was referred to the Senate. Congress passed a reconciled version of the reform bill with bipartisan support in June 2016. On Wednesday, June 22, 2016, President

signed the bill into law. Lawmakers and industry groups were largely supportive of the new law, while environmental advocates offered more mixed reactions.

Changes to TSCA

References

External links

Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act
as enacted
PDF
in the

US Statutes at Large The ''United States Statutes at Large'', commonly referred to as the ''Statutes at Large'' and abbreviated Stat., are an official record of Acts of Congress and concurrent resolutions passed by the United States Congress. Each act and resolutio ...

{{US Environmental law Acts of the 114th United States Congress United States federal environmental legislation 2016 in the environment