"WASHINGTON -- Senators traded some jabs at a hearing on chemical safety legislation Wednesday, but it seems likely that the bill will advance out of the Environment and Public Works Committee.

The hearing focused on legislation that Sens. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and David Vitter (R-La.) introduced last week to reform the 39-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act, the law currently governing American chemical safety policy. Their bill is named after the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who had long crusaded to update the act.

The current law has long been criticized in and out of Congress for being out-of-date and too weak to adequately regulate the slew of chemicals now on the market. But the Udall-Vitter bill, which has more than a dozen bipartisan co-sponsors, has been touted as the first reform bill in decades that has a chance of passing."

Kate Sheppard reports for the Huffington Post March 18, 2015. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Bipartisan bill to overhaul how chemicals are regulated faces uphill battle in Senate" (AP) [3]