The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 10-9 to approve the Toxic Right-to-Know Protection Act (S. 595) on July 31. The act would reverse a December 2006 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule change to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) that significantly reduced toxic release reporting requirements for polluting facilities.

Introduced by Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) in February, the bill was approved along party lines. Republican senators voiced concern over the impact of the regulatory burden on small businesses. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) was the most vocal opponent of the bill, originally submitting a series of amendments, each of which was designed to substantially weaken the bill's effect in restoring the TRI program. After Inhofe's first amendment met with defeat, he withdrew the remaining amendments. However, Inhofe appears ready to resubmit the amendments before the full Senate should S. 595 reach the Senate floor.

A House companion bill, H.R. 1055, has not moved from the Energy and Commerce Committee since being introduced by Reps. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Hilda Solis (D-CA) in February. The Senate committee vote may provide the momentum to prompt corresponding action in the House, although the House bill has yet to be scheduled for a vote in committee.

Three hundred and five organizations publicly supported the passage of the Toxic Right-to-Know Protection Act in a July 30 letter to Congress, and there has been strong, decades-long public support for the TRI program, a small, yet powerful tool of pollution information and reduction.