House and Senate negotiators have agreed on a plan to update a 40-year-old law regulating the safety of chemicals.The bipartisan legislation would update the Toxic Substances Control Act, which became law in 1976. The original act gave the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to require testing and reporting of potentially harmful chemicals.But as NPR's Jon Hamilton reports, the law didn't apply to most chemicals already on the market:"It assumed that thousands of untested chemicals already in use were safe."The new legislation, if it becomes law, would require the EPA to begin evaluating those untested older chemicals. It would also allow federal regulations to pre-empt those adopted by states, even if the state regulations are more stringent."The compromise bill — which the House and Senate are expected to vote on as soon as next week — is not universally supported. A group of House Democrats said in a statement that the legislation is "significantly weaker" than a previous
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