Sponsors (4)
The bill reduces regulatory burdens and short-term uncertainty for industry and agencies by restricting EPA's use of IRIS evaluations, but does so at the cost of weaker science-based protections that raise public health risks and may shift cleanup and health costs to states and taxpayers.
Utilities, energy companies, and other regulated businesses face fewer science-based constraints when EPA issues rules and permitting decisions, reducing compliance costs and permitting delays for industry.
Federal agencies and taxpayers face reduced risk of regulation that relies on contested or changing IRIS toxicity values, lowering regulatory uncertainty and the chance of rules being overturned or revised frequently.
Communities — including urban and rural residents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities — may face higher exposure to hazardous air pollutants because EPA cannot base air toxics assessments or mapping tools on IRIS health risk evaluations, weakening science-based protections and delaying safeguards.
Removing a scientific basis for regulations increases the likelihood of legal challenges, creates uneven protections across states, and shifts cleanup and health costs onto states and taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Forbids the EPA Administrator from using IRIS program assessments to support rulemaking, enforcement, permitting, or air-toxics mapping and screening.
Bars the EPA Administrator from relying on any assessment produced by the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program to develop or issue rules, carry out regulatory, enforcement, or permitting actions, or to inform air toxics assessments and related mapping or screening tools. The restriction applies notwithstanding other law, effectively preventing federal regulatory actions from being based on IRIS assessments for the listed purposes.
Official title: Prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from using assessments generated by the Integrated Risk Information System as a tier 1 data source in rulemakings and other regulatory, enforcement, or permitting actions, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 18, 2025 by John Neely Kennedy · Last progress February 18, 2025