On their own comprehensive pfas action plan. And we must listen to science rather than regulating new devices and dreams out of existence. Heres the bottom line. We cannot ignore the benefits that some pfas chemicals have given to humankind. I strongly urge the adoption of the balderson amendment and i yield back the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman yields. The gentleman from ohio is ecognized. I thank my friend for his words. Madam chair, i reserve. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from new york is recognized. Mr. Tonko i yield back. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from ohio is recognized. Thank you, madam chair. I am prepared to close. The chair the gentleman is recognized to close. Thank you. Madam chair, my closing statement would be the administration has demonstrated that one of its Top Priorities is the research and necessary regulation of pfas. Its ongoing commitment to Public Safety is responsible. Congress should allow the e. P. A. To complete its work before casting such a wide net when labeling 5,000plus pfas as hazardous. Mr. Balderson this is an opportunity for congress to be proactive rather than reactive. I invite you to join me in supporting thoughtful action to ensure safety of the American Public and our environment. I urge a yes vote on my amendment. I yield back. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from ohio. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. Thehe opinion of the chair, noes have it. The noes have it. The amendment is not agreed to. Mr. Balderson mr. Tonko madam chair, i ask for a recorded vote. The chair pursuant to clause 6 of rule 1, further proceedings on the amendment offer 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from will be postponed. It is now in order to consider amendment number 7 printed in art b of house report 116366. For what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition . Mr. Delgado madam speaker, i have an amendment at the desk. The chair the clerk will designate the amendment. The clerk amendment number 7 printed in part b of house report 116366 offered by mr. Delgado of new york. The chair pursuant to House Resolution 779, the gentleman from new york, mr. Delgado, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from new york. Mr. Delgado thank you, madam speaker. Today i am pleased to offer this bipartisan amendment to strengthen this legislation aimed at addressing pfas contamination in our communities. Right now communities in upstate new york continue to struggle with the impacts of pfas contamination in Drinking Water. Residents are living every day with the impacts of pfos contamination. Which we know include thyroid disease, birth defects, auto immune disorders autoimmune disorders and cancer. Last year emily, who now lives with her family, testified before the energy and Commerce Committee about her experiences with contaminated water in her home in petersburg, new york. Emily spoke about her experiences of being unable to drink the water from her faucet, having to sell her home and then test her blood. As well as the blood of her children for pfoa. What emily described is all too common in my district and it it is and it is representative of the experiences of communities across the country. This is why pfos has been a priority of mine and so many in this chamber on both sides of the aisle. The pfos action act is a critically important bill. My bipartisan amendment will strengthen this legislation and address another element of this crisis. Increcked discharge indirect discharge. My amendment, which pulls from the pfas Transparency Act, would make it illegal for an Industrial Facility to introduce pfas into a Sewage Treatment system without first disclowes disclosing information about that substance. Right now, right now companies can tap into a public waste Water Infrastructure and introduce pfas into our Sewage Systems regardless of the local Treatment Plants ability to effectively treat the contamination. Most municipal water Treatment Plants are not equipped to effectively treat for pfas contamination, which makes indirect discharges extremely hazardous, particularly when not disclosed. The pfas Transparency Act establishes a commonsense requirement that Industrial Facilities disclose this information to Treatment Systems beforehand. Meaning more transparency and accountability for our communities. Id like to take this moment to recognize my coleads on this measure, representatives pappas and rouda. We introduced this pfas Transparency Act alongside the bipartisan clean water standards for pfas act of 2020, which would require the e. P. A. To review pfas discharges under the clean water act and issues regulations to address harmful discharges of pfas into our nations waterways. These bills together take important steps to increase our understanding of pfas in waste water and address harmful discharges in our water system, both direct and indirect. I urge this house to stand with our communities facing unthinkable consequences of pfas contamination. Thank you. I urge a yes vote on this amendment and i reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from illinois for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition . Mr. Shimkus thank you. I rise to claim time in opposition of this amendment and i reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. Mr. Delgado how much time do i have remaining . The chair the gentleman has two minutes remaining. Mr. Delgado id like to yield a minute to my good friend, congressman tonko. The chair the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. One minute. Mr. Tonko thank you, madam chair. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Under the clean water act, Many Industries discharge directly to municipal Sewage Treatment plants rather than discharge directly to surface waters. To address this practice, the clean waters act established a Pretreatment Program which allows Sewage Treatment plants to work with industrial discharge connections to ensure that any Industrial Chemicals are properly treated, or that these chemicals do not disrupt the normal functioning of the Sewage Treatment plants. However, a Pretreatment Program is only effective if the Sewage Treatment plant knows what chemicals are being introduced into their Sewage Treatment systems. Yet there is no current clean water act requirement that requires industrial discharges to tell the municipality that it plans to release pfas related chemicals into the sewage system. The amendment offered by the gentleman from new york, mr. Delgado, would address this current loophole. I support this amendment and i appreciate the work, the good work that the gentleman from new york has done not only for the residents of his congressional district, but for the residents of this country. This is an important amendment, i appreciate the hard work hes done, the sensitivity shown, and i yield back. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from new york is recognized. Mr. Delgado thank you. I reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. Mr. Shimkus id like to reserve the time. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. Mr. Delgado im prepared to close. The chair the gentleman from new york. Mr. Delgado im prepared to close. The chair the gentleman is ecognized. Mr. Delgado madam chairwoman, im prepared to close and i want to use this opportunity to strengthen our defenses against these dangerous forever, forever chemicals. And protect our Drinking Water for generations to come. I urge a yes vote on this important bipartisan amendment. I yield back. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The question is the gentleman from illinois. Is recognized. Mr. Shimkus thank you, madam chairman. I yield myself the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Shimkus this amendment makes it illegal for an Industrial Facility to introduce pfas into a Sewage Treatment system without first disclosing information about that substance. This amendment effectively would create an entirely new and duplicative Regulatory Program under the clean water act. This amendment is an ad hoc attempt at regulating pfas without any consideration of whether or how these requirements would duplicate or mesh with the implementation of the e. P. A. Pfas action plan or similar already existing regulatory requirements under the clean water act. The committee of jurisdiction for this provision is the transportation and infrastructure committee. And they have held no hearings and conducted no stakeholder or Scientific Community engagement or consultation on this issue. As a result, this amendment is nothing more than an automatic reaction to regulate in a vacuum without risk information, without understanding of its consequences. I urge a no vote on this amendment and i yield back the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from new york. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. He amendment is agreed to. It is now in order to consider amendment number 8 printed in 366. B of house report 116 for what purpose does the gentlewoman from maine seek recognition . Ms. Pingree madam chair, i have an amendment at the desk. The chair the clerk will designate the amendment. The clerk amendment number 8 printed in part b of house report 116366 offered by ms. Pingree of maine. The chair pursuant to House Resolution 779, the gentlewoman from maine, ms. Pingree, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. The chair recognizes the gentlewoman from maine. Ms. Pingree thank you, madam chair. First, i want to thank chairman pallone and congresswoman dingell for their leadership on pfas issues. And thank you to congresswoman spanberger who is also a sponsor of this amendment with me. I rise today in support of my amendment to h. R. 535, the pfas action act of 2019. This bipartisan bill would take muchneeded and longoverdue action on these forever harmful chemicals. These pervasive and dangerous chemicals pose serious risks to both human health and to our environment. And the delay in taking action on them has been inexcusable. They are known hormone disrupters and studies link exposure to them to kidney and testicular cancer, to thyroid disease and other Health Problems. Pfas chemicals are concentrated in human and animal blood and tissue and can remain there for years. Its estimated that 99 of americans have pfas in their blood. In my home state of maine, pfas was first discovered from the ground water at former military installations from Fire Fighting foam, but pfas has also been found in our public water supplies, in soil, in animal products, and household products like cookware and carpets. A 2015 review by the Environmental Working Group showed the majority of pfas in homes comes from its presence in carpets and textiles. The u. S. Centers for Disease Control named carpet as the number one source of pfas exposure for infants and toddlers who, as you can imagine, spend a lot of time playing, lying and crawling on carpets. My amendment would expand the Environmental Protection agencys safer choice label to additional household products, including carpets, rugs, clothing or furniture certified to not contain pfas. This change would prompt manufacturers to develop safer alternatives and help consumers find and buy healthier products for their homes. I urge my colleagues to join me in taking action for the health of our communities and the environment and vote yes on my amendment. I reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. The gentlewoman reserves the balance of her time. For what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition . Mr. Shimkus thank you. I claim time in opposition and i reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentlewoman from maine is recognized. Ms. Pingree id like to yield a minute of my time to mr. Tonko of new york. The chair the gentlewoman yields one minute of her time to the gentleman from new york, mr. Tonko. Mr. Tonko thank you, madam chair. I thank the gentlewoman from maine for yielding. I support the pingreespanberger amendment, which would expand the voluntary label for pfas products to include carpets, rugs and furniture. The pfasfree label created under this bill was developed by representative soto to help consumers who are trying to protect themselves from pfas risks. I thank mr. Soto for his work on that provision. Expanding that label to cover carpeting, rugs, clothing and furniture makes great sense. Recent data suggests that those Consumer Products can be a significant source of pfas exposure and that pfasfree products are available on the market, currently consumers have no clear way to know which russian have pfas and which do not rugs have pfas and which do not. Manufacturers taking steps to produce these items without pfas have no way of distinguishing their products in the marketplace. This amendment will give them that tool. I congratulate both representatives pingree and spanberger for their sensitivity to consumers by placing this amendment before us. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment and the overall bill. With that, i yield back. The chair the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentlewoman from maine is recognized. Ms. Pingree i thank mr. Tonko and i reserve. The chair the gentlewoman reserves the balance of her time. Mr. Shimkus id like to reserve. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentlewoman from maine is recognized. Ms. Pingree i am prepared to close and i think i have the right to close. So i reserve. The chair the gentleman from illinois has the right to close. Ms. Pingree oh, he has the right to close . Ok. Then im prepared to close. Just in closing, consumers have the right to know what harmful chemicals are in their homes and they should have the ability to choose products that keep their families and their environments safe. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on my amendment. And yield back my time. The chair the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. The gentleman from illinois is recognized. Mr. Shimkus thank you, madam chairman. I yield such time as i may consume. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Shimkus thank you, madam chair. This amendment expands e. P. A. Safer Choice Program to include carpets, rugs, clothing, furniture that do not contain pfas. The safer Choice Program was not meant to cover products like this and will be extremely expensive and time consuming to do so. Revisions to the program of this type are not consistent with the intent of the program and would require significant changes to the program to effectively implement it. To establish this standard, e. P. A. Would have to hold listening sessions and develop and propose and finalize changes to the safer choice standard public involvement, choice, choice standard, public involvement would have to be substantial. A labeling indicating the absence of pfas does not necessarily mean a safer product. Which undermines the purpose of the e. P. A. Program. In addition, when b. P. A. Was used in baby bottles, companies and retailers who made bottles with other substances had no problem labeling their products as b. P. A. Free. In some ways this is a taxpayer funded campaign for companies not scrg to advertise for themselves. A better way would be to have a collaborative between the e. P. A. , Consumer Product safety commission, and the food and Drug Administration to make recommendations on how to convey any risks from these products. This is not the right way the right way to address this issue. I urge a no vote on theament. I yield back my time. The chair the question on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from maine. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. He amendment is agreed to. It is now in order to consider amendment number 9 printed in 356. B of house report 116 for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition . Mr. Kildee i have an amendment at the desk. The chair the clerk will designate the amendment. The clerk amendment number 9 printed in part b of house report 116366 offered by mr. Kildee of michigan. The chair pursuant to House Resolution 779, the gentleman from michigan, mr. Kildee, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan. Mr. Kildee thank you, madam chair. I yield myself such time as i may consume. E community i represent is oscota, a small town in the northern part of my district once home to the wordsmith air force base and even though that base closed more than two decades ago, the community is dealing with pfas contamination from the base leaching into their Drinking Water and the nearby lakes. For years i have