Pingree leads successful U.S. House vote to crack down on toxic chemicals

The U.S. House voted Friday to pass a comprehensive legislative package that would crack down on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a class of chemicals known as PFAS that are said to cause serious health problems.

Used in tape, nonstick pans and other everyday substances, PFAS have been linked to cancer, decreased fertility, developmental delays and other conditions and have been found in high concentrations in sources of public drinking water and other sites around the country.

The PFAS Action Act includes a series of provisions designed to mitigate their harm. It cleared the House with support from 223 Democrats and 24 Republicans. One hundred and fifty seven Republicans voted against it, as did one Democrat and Michigan independent Rep. Justin Amash. Twenty-four lawmakers did not vote.

Both Maine Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden supported passage of the bill. In a speech on the House floor earlier this week, Pingree urged her colleagues to take action.

Pingree said that, in Maine, “PFAS contamination has been found in our public water supplies, soil, and agricultural and in animal products.”

“Once in the environment, PFAS will never break down, that’s why they’re called forever chemicals, so cleanup is essential to protect people and our environment,” she continued. “I urge my colleagues to join me in taking action for the health of our communities and our environment.”

According to data from the Environmental Working Group, mearly 300 military sites across the county have PFAS contamination and as many as 110 million Americans are drinking PFAS-contaminated water.

In a statement after the vote, Golden said, “Folks in our state have been harmed by ‘forever chemicals’ for years now. Maine is taking decisive action to protect our citizens but the federal government has repeatedly failed to do its part. That would change with the legislation we passed today.”

Friday’s vote came after supporters of the legislation suffered a stinging setback last month, when key PFAS provisions were struck from the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) before it was signed into law.

Opposition to those provisions from Senate Republicans prompted House Democrats to call the PFAS bill to the floor this month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday.

“Last year, our members worked relentlessly to pass bold legislation to tackle the PFAS crisis,” Pelosi said on the House floor. “Unfortunately, at the end of the year, the Senate GOP refused to join the House to secure full, robust protections against PFAS chemicals and key provisions were cut from the NDAA.”

The “Senate GOP obstruction,” she said, “is why we are here today.”

The NDAA does take some steps to address PFAS. It includes provisions that require the U.S. military to transition off of PFAS-laden fire-fighting foam by 2024, ban the foam in exercises and training and test PFAS levels in military firefighters’ blood.

But supporters said the PFAS Action Act passed Friday goes much further.

The bill would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to list certain PFAS chemicals as hazardous substances under the EPA’s Superfund program, which would accelerate cleanup of contaminated sites. That would be a “significant first step while we allow the EPA to study the remaining compounds — which needs to start now,” said bill sponsor Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.).

An amendment authored by Pingree and House colleague Rep. Abigail Spanberger would also expand the EPA’s Safer Choice label to additional household products, including carpet, rugs, clothing, and upholstered furniture certified not to contain PFAS. According to Pingree, “This change will prompt manufacturers to develop safer alternatives and help consumers find and buy healthier products.”

The bill would also create a national drinking standard for certain PFAS chemicals, help people understand water testing results, prevent new PFAS chemicals from being approved and more.

An uphill battle

Despite its bipartisan support in the House, the bill faces an uphill battle.

First, it must pass the GOP-controlled Senate, where hundreds of House-passed bills are languishing on the desk of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told Bloomberg News that the legislation had “no prospects in the Senate.”

If it passes the Senate, then it would move to the White House, which issued a veto threat on Tuesday.

The act would “create a considerable litigation risk, set problematic and unreasonable rulemaking timelines and precedents and impose substantial unwarranted costs on federal, state and local agencies and other key stakeholders in both the public and private sectors,” the Trump administration said.

The EPA is already “taking extensive efforts” to address PFAS across the nation, it added — an assertion underscored by the EPA in a statement released on the same day as the White House veto threat.

But critics say the EPA’s “action plan” doesn’t go far enough to contain and clean up PFAS and are skeptical the agency will put public health over corporate profits.

“Companies and regulators have known about the risks of products like Teflon, Scotchgard, and yes, GORE-TEX for decades but have failed to take action to protect or inform the American people,” Pingree said.

Photo: Evidence of PFAS in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula | Susan Demas, Michigan Advance