Sponsor
Andrew S. Biggs
Representative · R-AZ
Representative · R-AZ
The bill increases transparency, standardization, and oversight of EPA chemical toxicity assessments via central databases and new documentation/reporting rules, improving decisionmaking but risking politicization, delays, subjective judgments, and added administrative costs.
State and local governments, and hospitals/health systems will face clearer, standardized scientific standards for toxicity values with required documentation of uncertainty and ranges, improving transparency for decisionmakers.
Regulators and the public will get a central chemical-assessment database retaining IRIS assessments and tracking updates, providing a single repository for toxicity values and changes over time.
Hospitals, urban and rural communities may see toxicity values that better reflect available science and different exposure scenarios because program offices must consider multiple datasets and weight-of-evidence.
State and local governments and hospitals/health systems could face politicized or fragmented hazard evaluations if assessments are shifted out of IRIS to program offices, producing inconsistent toxicity values across programs.
Urban and rural communities and hospitals/health systems may experience delays or duplication in evaluations if coordination among program offices fails, potentially slowing regulatory actions that protect public health.
Utilities, state and local governments could face increased uncertainty because requiring program offices to choose among multiple point estimates and risk-representation approaches introduces subjective judgment.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Moves some chemical assessments from IRIS to EPA program offices, requires scientific standards and toxicity-value publication, and creates a central chemical assessment database.
Official title: To direct that certain assessments with respect to toxicity of chemicals be carried out by the program offices of the Environmental Protection Agency, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Andrew S. Biggs · Last progress January 3, 2025
Replaces and expands EPA research and assessment rules by rewriting the agency's statutory provision on coordinating chemical research and assessments. It shifts some chemical hazard and dose-response assessments out of the centralized IRIS process into relevant EPA program offices, requires specific scientific standards and weight-of-evidence approaches, mandates program offices to assign and publish toxicity values (including ranges and uncertainty), and creates/maintains an inter-office chemical assessment database with biennial certifications to congressional committees that covered assessments met the new scientific standards.