CBO Estimates Senator Lautenberg's TSCA Reform Bill Would Cost $128 Million over the Next Five Years

TSCA Reform:

On Tuesday, October 2, the Congressional Budget Office published its evaluation of the costs of implementing the amended version of S.847, The Safe Chemicals Act of 2011, which is Senator Lautenberg’s latest attempt to amend the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).  Readers will recall that the Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works passed the amended bill on July 25, sending it to the full Senate for a vote.  Our blog post on that version of the bill is available here.

The CBO press release says the following:

“S. 847 would modify the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the law that regulates the manufacture, importation, and processing of chemicals, with the aim of shifting the burden from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to chemical manufacturers to prove that substances are safe before they enter the marketplace. This new responsibility for chemical manufacturers would be accomplished primarily by increasing the amount of information about chemical toxicity and usage that they would be required to submit to EPA. Enacting this legislation also would require EPA to undertake other activities that would encourage and support the development of safer alternatives to existing hazardous chemical substances.

CBO estimates that implementing this legislation would cost $128 million over the next five years, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts, as EPA would incur additional administrative costs to meet the new requirements imposed by S. 847.

Enacting S. 847 could affect direct spending and revenues because the bill would increase some existing civil and criminal penalties for violations of TSCA, establish some new civil and criminal penalties for violations related to that act, and authorize EPA to charge fees to chemical manufacturers. Therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures apply to S. 847. CBO estimates that any changes in revenues and direct spending would not be significant.

A copy of the CBO report is available here.