House Republicans fail at second attempt to deregulate toxic chemicals

Last week, the Chairman of the Indiana Senate Environmental Affairs Committee did not call House Bill 1399 down for a vote. The bill sought to carve out thousands of PFAS chemicals from being defined as such, effectively exempting those chemicals from any future state regulation. Since HB 1399 was not granted a committee vote, the bill was effectively dead. Yet, due to an arcane legislative process that allows any language that passed one Chamber, but failed in the other, to be brought back during the final negotiations of session, the language to deregulate thousands of PFAS chemicals in Indiana was added into an unrelated House Bill 1329 Wednesday during a 90-second conference committee. After much negotiation, determination, and reason, less than 48 hours later the chemical companies’ PFAS carve-out was removed and will no longer move forward this session.

State Rep. Maureen Bauer (D-South Bend) issued the following statement:  

“Last week, a provision to establish unprecedented protections for chemicals that the Indiana General Assembly has previously acknowledged cause harm to human health, was effectively off the table after failing to gain support in the Senate. The Chairman’s decision to not call a vote on the bill was seen as a win for the state of Indiana, and the majority of individuals who showed up to testify against the legislation.

“Any future attempt to create a loophole for the chemical industry would be an attempt to mislead the public that lawmakers are sworn to represent. PFAS have been found in a number of everyday household items like clothing, food packaging, and juvenile products. It is my belief that the public has the right to know what their personal risks are as a consumer of goods that contain PFAS. Currently, there is no requirement in Indiana for manufacturers to inform the public that a product contains PFAS, or to warn people about the risks that repeated exposure to PFAS causes like fertility issues, developmental delays in infants, and cancer.

“I have devoted my career as a legislator to protecting the public from toxic PFAS chemicals. In particular, I have fought to ensure that we take every step to reverse cancer as the leading cause of line-of-duty death among the fire service by authoring HEA 1219 last year.

“Any future attempt to renew this fight to conceal or mislead the public about their exposure to toxic chemicals will be met with broad opposition.

“From moms to scientists; wildlife organizations to environmental groups; pediatricians to youth organizers, expert after expert warned about the harm that the deregulation of PFAS will cause for years to come. I will continue to devote my time in the legislature to defeating bad legislation that will mislead the public and harm the health and wellbeing of Hoosiers.”