ACI and member companies lobby Congress in push for improving TSCA

Written on: March 24, 2026 by SprayTM

Members of the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) advocated late last week for proposed legislation to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). 

ACI, the trade association for the cleaning product supply chain, led a coalition of 26 attendees representing 15 member companies in a Congressional fly-in to share with members of the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Environment and Public Works Committees the real-world impact of challenges imposed by the current TSCA statute. Companies across the cleaning product industry are experiencing bottleneck reviews of new chemicals, leading to delays in getting safer, more sustainable chemistries and products to market.  

“ACI and its member companies want to see targeted, bipartisan refinements that preserve TSCA’s strong health protections, while promoting science-based decisions and a system that encourages safer innovation rather than delaying it,” said Blake Nanney, ACI’s Director of Government Affairs. 

ACI advocates met with 15 Congressional offices, highlighting how specific areas where proposed bills by both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate would streamline new chemistry review under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): 

• Focus evaluations on credible risks – prioritize exposure pathways that are more likely than not to occur, so EPA resources target the highest-risk situations.  

• Clarify “conditions of use” – ensure reviews reflect intended and credibly foreseeable uses and appropriately recognize effective exposure controls that protect workers and communities.  

• Create priority review pathways for safer substitutes and Safer Choice-aligned chemistries – accelerate review for innovations that demonstrably reduce hazard/exposure compared with legacy substances. 

• Strengthen risk management by emphasizing measures that reduce risk to the extent reasonably feasible – drive real-world protections while minimizing unintended consequences.  

• Allow appropriate treatment of chemically equivalent substances – avoid duplicative reviews where EPA has already assessed equivalent substances, while preserving EPA oversight.  

• Reinforce coordination and scientific rigor – improve predictability through clearer timelines, earlier engagement, stronger interagency coordination, and fit-for-purpose peer review.