Last night, the Homeland Security Appropriations Conference Committee struck a deal to attach chemical security language to the FY 2007 DHS spending bill. The language, agreed upon by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) last week, is a retreat from stronger, bipartisan bills pending in both houses and, according to environmental groups, "turns a blind eye to removing thousands of people from harm's way with off-the-shelf technologies." News of the agreement quickly met with strong criticism from members of Congress and public interest groups.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board (SAB) recently sent a letter to the agency expressing concerns over its plans to reduce information collected under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The SAB maintains that the proposed cuts would "hinder the advances of environmental research used to protect public health and the environment." SBA sent the letter detailing its concerns to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on July 12.

Presidents of 17 Local Unions representing more than 10,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employees wrote to Senate appropriators on June 29 to protest deep cuts to EPA funding that would close the agency's libraries. The letter urges Congress to reinstate full funding to EPA libraries and explains how the cuts will impede EPA's ability to respond to public health, enforcement and homeland security emergencies and restrict public access to vital health and safety information.