STAND. COM. REP. NO. 798

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.C.R. No. 13

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 13 entitled:

 

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ENCOURAGING THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO ENACT FEDERAL LEGISLATION TO MODERNIZE THE TOXIC SUBSTANCES CONTROL ACT OF 1976 TO STRENGTHEN CHEMICALS MANAGEMENT THROUGH POLICY REFORMS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to urge the United States Congress to enact federal legislation to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 in order to strengthen chemicals management.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Loretta Fuddy, Department of Health; and Arvid Youngquist, The Mestizo Association.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the American Chemistry Council.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 was intended to authorize the United States Environmental Protection Agency to protect public health and the environment from toxic chemicals.  However, in the thirty-five years since the enactment of that Act, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has required chemical companies to test only about two hundred of those chemicals for health hazards, has issued partial restrictions on only five chemicals, and has been unable to complete assessments for chemicals of the highest concern.  Your Committee further finds that the Act has been widely recognized as being ineffective and obsolete due to legal and procedural hurdles that prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from taking quick and effective regulatory action to protect the public against well-known chemical threats.  This measure aims to move the United States Congress to take action to remedy the ineffectiveness of this Act, which has fallen far short of its original intent of protecting the health and safety of many.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 13, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 13, S.D. 1.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Energy and Environment,

 

 

 

____________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair