Sponsor
Richard Joseph Durbin
Senator · D-IL
Senator · D-IL
The bill significantly tightens federal PFAS regulation—phasing out many consumer uses, speeding enforcement, increasing transparency, and funding remediation research—trading faster exposure reductions and clearer national standards for substantial compliance costs, legal risks, administrative burdens, and some implementation gaps or delays due to exemptions and centralized decision-making.
Consumers (including children) will see many PFAS-containing consumer products (carpets, food packaging, apparel, furniture, cosmetics, juvenile products) phased out within 1–5 years, reducing routine exposure to PFAS.
Communities near PFAS sources (urban and rural) will get faster enforcement authority, injunctions, and stronger penalty tools to stop harmful uses and speed cleanup, improving local health protections.
The public and regulators gain much greater transparency because manufacturers' reports, phaseout plans, and research findings are publicly posted and subject to comment, improving information about PFAS uses and releases.
Manufacturers, importers, retailers, and consumers face substantial compliance and reformulation costs as many PFAS-containing products are banned or phased out, which may raise prices and reduce product availability.
Small manufacturers and small businesses are particularly at risk of disproportionate costs, technical capacity shortfalls, and potential closures from tight phaseout timelines and reformulation requirements.
The bill creates a fee-funded mechanism with potentially large default fees (up to $100,000) and shifting of costs onto regulated entities or consumers if EPA misses deadlines, risking disproportionate financial burdens.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Directs a National Academies review to define essential PFAS uses, gives EPA enforcement tools to limit nonessential PFAS uses, and creates two Centers of Excellence for PFAS science and remediation.
Official title: Phase out production of nonessential uses of perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substances, to prohibit releases of all perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substances, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 19, 2026 by Richard Joseph Durbin · Last progress March 19, 2026
Creates a multi-part federal effort to limit and phase out nonessential uses of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The bill directs EPA to contract with the National Academies to define “essential use” and identify nonessential PFAS uses to prioritize for phaseout, gives EPA enforcement authority (civil and criminal) to suspend or revoke PFAS uses and levy penalties, and establishes two Centers of Excellence at universities (one paired with a DOE national lab and one rural center) to advance PFAS detection, remediation, and safer alternatives.