Melanie Benesh

She/her/hers
Vice President, Government Affairs

Melanie Benesh provides legislative and regulatory analysis of federal food, cosmetics, farm and chemical law. At Georgetown University Law Center, she was a Cutler Salzburg Fellow and served on the Georgetown Journal of International Law. After college, Benesh worked as a research assistant studying fair trade coffee in Chiapas, Mexico, and later as a community organizer for Voces de la Frontera in Milwaukee. She currently co-teaches a course on public interest advocacy as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

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In The News

That resulted in the ultimate lack of regulation and has left us scrambling to try and address this issue now. This was really a preventable crisis.

Person Mentioned
Melanie Benesh
The New York Times

This is really the culmination of state action to drive PFAS out of the marketplace and, particularly, to drive PFAS out of food packaging, where alternatives have existed for a long time.

Person Mentioned
Melanie Benesh
CNN

This is a historic, important, really health-protective rule that the agency is putting forward. It’s about as low as the EPA could possibly go.

Person Mentioned
Melanie Benesh
Washington Post

This is a really historic moment. There are many communities that have had PFAS in their water for decades who have been waiting for a long time for this announcement to come out.

Person Mentioned
Melanie Benesh
PBS

The administration should be extending the ban to commercial uses and is catering to the wishes of the chemical industry.

Person Mentioned
Melanie Benesh
CNN

We are really trying to get the full scope of the problem, and it seems like the Pentagon has that data. The results also would be of interest to ordinary people and communities that are worried about water contamination but may not have lawyers able to wrangle with the Pentagon and certainly don't have the money to pay for this kind of information.

Person Mentioned
Melanie Benesh
Associated Press

The Trump administration will be partly to blame when the next worker is injured or dies as a result of being exposed to this extremely dangerous chemical. The EPA was catering to the wishes of the chemical industry.

Person Mentioned
Melanie Benesh
Associated Press

This new rule makes it more difficult for industry to resume some abandoned uses of asbestos, but that is a half step at best. An outright ban is the only way the public can trust industry will never again be able to use this dangerous material that has literally killed tens of thousands of Americans.

Person Mentioned
Melanie Benesh
The Hill

If EPA is serious about protecting Americans from asbestos exposure, EPA should quickly release its full risk assessment under [the Toxic Substances Control Act] and issue a total ban on all uses of asbestos. That is the only way to ensure this deadly carcinogen can never be allowed on the market again.

Person Mentioned
Melanie Benesh
The Washington Post