中国含硫石膏板惹祸，美国国会遇立法难题

    弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员马克•华纳参与起草了参议院的补充法案，他的女发言人拒绝就此回答问题，只向我们提供了之前的新闻稿。华纳在新闻通稿中表示，该法案的通过意味着“更多的弗吉尼亚人将不需要去经历类似的梦魇。”

    就连第一个提出这项法案的里格尔说到此事也吞吞吐吐。本刊曾要求他就此发表评论，但里格尔的办公室没有做出答复。

    只有佛罗里达州民主党参议员比尔•内尔森表示，许多议员都觉得通过点儿什么比根本没有就此立法强。内尔森的发言人布莱恩•格利说：“这项法案不够完善，但这是当前环境下我们能争取到的最好结果。我们不能让这些公司置身事外，我们得继续对中国企业施压。而这项法案就是我们施压的途径。”

    此外，对于新法案指定的ASTM委员会能否停止内耗并消除利益冲突，福尔曼的看法并不乐观。对此他应该心知肚明，因为他就是该工作组的成员。

    ASTM制定过数千种建筑产品的标准。福尔曼说，这个组织当初可以把毒石膏板问题交给其他下属机构来解决。ASTM内部设有空气质量问题、环境危险、强腐蚀性及有害化工产品等诸多委员会。

    但它决定让包括了诸多石膏板制造厂家在内的石膏板行业委员会来给自己的产品挑毛病。福尔曼说：“我觉得这是个错误。这个问题在政界成了烫手山芋。但我们没办法回到过去，也没办法改变历史，所以只能走一步说一步。”（财富中文网）

    译者：郑涛

    A spokeswoman for Sen. Marker Warner (D-Va.), who was also involved in drafting the Senate substitute bill, declined to answer questions on the record. She instead only provided the previous news release, where Warner said the bill's passage means "more Virginians will not have to go through similar nightmares."

    Even Rigell himself, the Virginia Beach congressman who first introduced the legislation, was reluctant to talk. His office did not respond to requests for comment.

    A spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said only that many lawmakers felt passing something was better than no drywall legislation at all. "It's not a perfect bill, but it's the best we could do under the circumstances," said Nelson spokesman Bryan Gulley. "We can't let these companies off the hook, we've got to keep the heat up on the Chinese. So this bill is a way of keeping up that pressure."

    Meanwhile, Foreman, the construction consultant, is not optimistic that the ASTM drywall committee designated by the new law can overcome its in-fighting and conflicts of interest. He would know: he sits on the committee.

    Foreman said that early on, ASTM – which develops a range of standards for thousands of building products – could have assigned the contaminated drywall issue to another working group. ASTM has committees that deal with air quality issues, with environmental hazards, with caustic or damaging chemicals, among others.

    But the organization decided to let the drywall committee – which includes numerous drywall manufacturers themselves – attempt to identify the flaws in their own product.

    "That was a mistake, I feel. It became a political hot potato," Foreman said. "But we can't go back and rewrite history, so we are where we are."