U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., and Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have reintroduced a bill that would ban non-essential per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in products, the lawmakers announced March 19.
The Forever Chemical Regulation and Accountability Act would give manufacturers 10 years to phase out non-essential uses and environmental release of PFAS and search for alternatives, per a bill summary. Additionally, manufacturers would be required to submit their 10-year phase-out plans to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and these plans would be publicly available.
The legislation would also expand reporting and recordkeeping requirements for manufacturers and would mandate that the EPA make the reports public.
Furthermore, the proposed statute would give the EPA greater enforcement authority, including suspending or revoking permitted activities related to PFAS production, issuing civil and criminal penalties, issuing subpoenas and ordering corrective actions.
The bill would also allow EPA to collect fees and establish and oversee two accounts to fund the agency’s implementation.
Federal agencies, including the EPA, would be mandated to comply with all PFAS regulation laws on the state, interstate and local level in addition to federal. The bill would also prohibit states from imposing less stringent requirements, but it would allow them to establish stricter requirements than the federal government's.
On the bill’s accountability side, the proposed legislation would prevent large corporations from using bankruptcy proceedings to avoid liability for claims related to bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals, including PFAS.
The bill would also allow citizen suits against manufacturers as well as the federal government, including the EPA, for alleged violations of the legislation.
The bill would establish a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study to review PFAS’ persistence, bioaccumulation and human health risk, according to McCollum’s press release.
Manufacturers could volunteer to submit their PFAS-laced waste to NASEM, and NASEM officials would identify current PFAS uses and provide guidance on essential and nonessential uses of the toxic substances. The EPA would use NASEM’s guidance to order chemicals deemed nonessential to be phased out.
“Protecting our environment and Americans from toxic hazards like PFAS is a matter of public health — especially when PFAS is commonly used in household products and can be found in our water systems,” Durbin said in a statement. “With the Forever Chemical Regulation and Accountability Act, we can work toward phasing out the unnecessary uses of PFAS, protecting consumers and our environment from the hazards of these chemicals.”
The bill builds on Minnesota’s “Amara’s Law,” McCollum said in a statement. The state law aims to ban products intentionally made with PFAS by 2032. The law’s first phase went into effect in January 2025, prohibiting the sale or distribution of products in 11 categories containing intentionally added PFAS in the state.
Most recently, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency adopted the state’s PFAS reporting and fees rule in an effort to curb the so-called forever chemicals in products.
Currently, the MPCA is developing new rules and guidelines for determining unavoidable PFAS uses in products, with comments due on March 29.
“Minnesotans know all too well the threat that PFAS contamination poses to the health and safety of our communities,” McCollum said in a statement. “I’m proud to partner with Senator Durbin to reintroduce our legislation which will set a ten-year national deadline to eliminate PFAS wherever possible.”
Kegan Brown, an attorney at Lowenstein Sandler, said in an emaill that the bill will likely be subject to “considerable debate and refinement” in Congress.
“Given that the proposed reporting obligations and phaseouts are not limited to ‘intentionally added PFAS’ or specific segments (i.e., consumer products), as is the case with many state PFAS statutes, this bill has the potential to affect a wide range of products and impose considerable burdens on the private sector,” Brown said. “I would expect many constituencies to reach out to their elected representatives to modify this bill to more modest requirements and timeframes.”
McCollum and Durbin previously introduced theirs bills in April 2024, but never made it out of House and Senate committees.
