Members of Congress continued to examine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on multiple fronts on Capitol Hill this month, as new legislation would direct EPA to designate the chemicals as “hazardous substances” under the Superfund law, while a group of lawmakers formed their own task force that will focus on PFAS policy.
Sponsored by a trio of Michigan lawmakers (Democratic Reps. Debbie Dingell and Dan Kildee, and Republican Fred Upton), the PFAS Action Act (H.R. 535) is somewhat of a successor to separate legislation the three introduced last fall. But while the earlier bill only would have required EPA to make a determination of whether to designate PFAS as a hazardous substance, the new measure would direct the agency to take that step within one year.
Also this month, all three of those lawmakers agreed to be charter members of a new House PFAS task force that will attempt to steer Capitol Hill’s conversations on public health threats related to the chemicals. In all, a total of 20 lawmakers have joined the task force so far.
Members of the bipartisan task force announced several priorities when forming the group this month, such as:
- Holding informational events to increase the awareness about PFAS among lawmakers and their staff;
- Crafting legislation to address PFAS contamination;
- Meeting with congressional and committee leaders to ensure PFAS is adequately addressed; and
- Seeking additional federal funding to clean up PFAS contamination.
The informal task force will have no official standing in the House’s organizational structure, so any legislative proposals developed by the group will still have to proceed through the normal committee process.
PFAS is a broad class of nonstick chemicals that are increasingly discovered throughout the environment, especially in communities adjacent to defense facilities where the substance was a component of firefighting foam. EPA is in the process of developing a PFAS action plan that could include designating the substances as hazardous under Superfund, but the ongoing government shutdown has slowed work on the plan.