Date: January 21, 2026
To:
The Honorable Brett Guthrie
Chair
House Committee on Energy & Commerce
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Frank Pallone
Ranking Member
House Committee on Energy & Commerce
2125 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Guthrie and Ranking Member Pallone:
On behalf of Moms Clean Air Force, a community of over 1.6 million moms, dads, and caregivers fighting to protect children’s health, I am writing to express serious concerns with the recently released draft bill to revise the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
Chemical safety is deeply personal for parents. Our children are exposed to chemicals every day through toys, cleaning supplies, and household products—not to mention dust, air, and water. Because their brains and bodies are still developing, our infants and children are uniquely vulnerable to harm from toxic exposures. As parents, we want our children to be safe, but we lack the time and resources to turn every purchase into a chemistry project, and in any case there is no transparency: plastic toys and other products do not come with ingredient lists. We can’t control what’s used in schools or childcare settings, and we can’t opt out of exposure in our communities. We rely on the government to ensure that the chemicals we—and our children—encounter in our homes, schools, and neighborhoods are safe.
The Toxic Substances Control Act was meant to fill that void. Updated by Congress in 2016, the bipartisan Lautenberg Amendments require EPA to evaluate chemicals for unreasonable risks of injury to human health or the environment, make an affirmative determination of safety before new chemicals are put on the market, and consider impacts to potentially exposed or susceptible populations like workers, children, and pregnant mothers. While implementation hasn’t been perfect, these changes signaled an important shift towards protecting public health.
Unfortunately, the new discussion draft represents a dangerous step backwards. For example, this bill:
- narrows the scope of what EPA can include when evaluating chemical safety,
- makes it extraordinarily difficult to declare chemicals unsafe despite the scientific evidence,
- allows EPA to make health and safety decisions based on polluters’ costs and profits,
- fails to consider the actual risks we face, by all-but-eliminating any consideration of aggregate exposures,
- gives the chemical industry a prominent seat at the decision-making table, and
- imposes draconian procedures for EPA staff who don’t approve new chemicals within 90 days—even when the delays are due to industry foot-dragging and when the health and safety repercussions are significant, involving toxic and persistent chemicals that poison the planet for decades or centuries.
EPA would allow chemicals approved for use in industrial settings—with proper safety precautions in place—to be used across the board, including in our homes and schools. The bill prioritizes industry profits over sound science and public health.
We urge the committee to protect American children and families from toxic chemicals and to leave the Lautenberg Act intact.
Sincerely,
Dominique Browning
Co-Founder and Director, Moms Clean Air Force
On behalf of 1.6 million members