Sponsor
Andrew S. Biggs
Representative · R-AZ
Representative · R-AZ
The bill centralizes and clarifies HHS/CDC administration and creates a national toxic‑exposure registry to improve tracking, but risks losing ATSDR's specialized expertise and statutory roles—potentially slowing responses, reducing community supports, and imposing transition costs.
States and patients with chronic conditions gain a national registry of serious diseases and persons exposed to toxic substances, improving the ability to track exposures and long-term health outcomes.
State and local public-health partners and health systems face clearer program administration as certain programs and statutory references are consolidated into CDC/HHS, reducing interagency confusion and simplifying oversight.
State and local governments and health systems have up to a one-year wind‑up period to transfer records and obligations, lowering the chance of abrupt disruptions to programs and contracts during the transition.
State and local public-health agencies, hospitals, and exposed patients could lose specialized ATSDR toxic‑exposure expertise, degrading disease surveillance, exposure assessment, and policy guidance.
Local and state responders and affected communities may face weakened statutory roles for exposure assessment and public‑health follow‑up (including deletions in environmental statutes), increasing the risk of slower or less effective responses to contamination events.
Communities exposed to toxic substances—including patients with chronic conditions, people with disabilities, and rural areas—could see reduced research, outreach, remediation support, and slower identification of exposure‑related illnesses if ATSDR programs end or are diminished.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Abolishes ATSDR after one year and transfers its CERCLA registry duties and related assets/roles into HHS/CDC, while removing ATSDR references across federal law.
Abolishes the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) one year after enactment and requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to transfer key ATSDR functions, records, assets, and personnel within HHS before that date. It moves the statutory responsibility to maintain national disease and exposure registries into HHS (and directs specific program placement within CDC), removes ATSDR from numerous statutory cross-references, deletes selected CERCLA and Solid Waste Disposal Act provisions, and creates a wind‑up period for concluding the Agency’s affairs. The bill primarily rewrites federal statutory references to ATSDR across multiple laws, reallocates the CERCLA registry authority to HHS (with state cooperation), narrows several required consultations and program roles where ATSDR had been listed, and eliminates a few statutory subsections. No new funding lines or new program authorizations are specified; the Secretary of HHS is authorized to transfer assets, personnel, funds, and records within HHS as needed prior to abolition.
Official title: To abolish the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Andrew S. Biggs · Last progress January 3, 2025