To VI HSE Committee,

We just learned of Dr. Nancy Beck’s appointment as EPA’s Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. In a recent statement (attached) to a Senate hearing on use of science in the rulemaking process, Ms. Beck advocates for relying upon highest quality peer-reviewed science available, and weight of evidence methodology in the regulatory decision process for chemicals. She has been instrumental in leading discussions among allied industry groups with respect to comments on the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act revisions to TSCA.

BECK IS HEAVY ON TSCA, LIGHT ON PESTICIDES: Nancy Beck, the Trump administration’s pick for the number two spot in EPA’s chemicals and pesticides office, has a track record that is long on work with industrial chemicals but light on pesticides. Beck will leave her position as the American Chemistry Council’s senior director for regulatory science policy to become deputy assistant administrator of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, POLITICO confirmed.

Beck, who got a doctorate in environmental health from the University of Washington, has been at ACC since 2012. Previously, she spent a decade as a toxicologist and policy analyst at the Office of Management and Budget, where a review of meeting records found her work focused largely on industrial chemicals. Before that, she did a two-year stint as a policy fellow at EPA.

That EPA has chosen someone with a deep background in industrial chemicals comes as little surprise, as the agency looks to implement the update to the Toxic Substances Control Act that Congress passed last year. Her background aside, many of Beck’s views and her recent calls for sound science to be the basis of agency decision-making will likely sit well with many in the pesticide industry, who raised concerns about just that during the Obama administration. She laid out her thoughts on science in the rulemaking process in testimony before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in early March.

FYI,

Rich

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