Federal PFAS Research Evaluation Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 7348 To provide for the National Academies to study and report on a Federal research agenda to advance the understanding of PFAS, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 25, 2020 Mrs. FLETCHER (for herself, Ms. SLOTKIN, and Mr. POSEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology A BILL To provide for the National Academies to study and report on a Federal research agenda to advance the under- standing of PFAS, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal PFAS Re- 4 search Evaluation Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress finds the following: 7 (1) Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl sub- 8 stances (PFAS) are a group of man-made chemicals 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:18 Jul 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7348.IH H7348 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 7348 IH that have been used in a wide range of products 1 since the 1940s including firefighting foam, car- 2 peting, packaging, and cookware. There are more 3 than 5,000 types of registered PFAS compounds. 4 This chemical class is not currently regulated at the 5 Federal level. 6 (2) PFAS have been detected in air, water, soil, 7 food, biosolids, and more. They accumulate and re- 8 main in the body for a long time, and can lead to 9 serious health effects including cancer, low infant 10 birthweight, liver and kidney issues, reproductive 11 and developmental problems, and more. 12 (3) There remains much unknown about PFAS 13 toxicity, human and environmental health effects, ex- 14 posure pathways, as well as effective removal, treat- 15 ment, and destruction methods, and safe alternatives 16 to PFAS. 17 (4) There is currently no cohesive, interagency 18 effort to address PFAS, and no Federal agency is 19 focused on a multidisciplinary, cross-sector ap- 20 proach. Rather, there are fragmented efforts at var- 21 ious agencies that have failed to address the full 22 scope of challenges presented by PFAS. 23 (5) Regulatory action and cleanup depend on 24 scientific analysis of toxicity data, decision making 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:18 Jul 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7348.IH H7348 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 7348 IH on how best to deal with the thousands of PFAS, 1 and understanding the significance of the many ex- 2 posure pathways that exist. A consensus study by 3 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, 4 and Medicine would help inform decisions by Federal 5 and State Governments, industry, and other stake- 6 holders on how to best address PFAS. 7 SEC. 3. NATIONAL ACADEMIES REPORTS. 8 (a) RESEARCH ASSESSMENTS OF PFAS EXPOSURE 9 AND TOXICITY.— 10 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 11 the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator 12 of the Environmental Protection Agency, in con- 13 sultation with the Director of the National Science 14 Foundation, the Secretary of Defense, the Director 15 of the National Institutes of Health, and other Fed- 16 eral agencies with expertise relevant to under- 17 standing PFAS exposure and toxicity, shall enter 18 into an agreement with the National Academies to 19 conduct a two-phase study and submit reports in ac- 20 cordance with this subsection to identify research 21 and development needed to advance human exposure 22 estimation and toxicity and hazard estimation of in- 23 dividual or total PFAS. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:18 Jul 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7348.IH H7348 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 7348 IH (2) PHASE I STUDY AND REPORT ON HUMAN 1 EXPOSURE ESTIMATION.— 2 (A) IN GENERAL.—The phase I study re- 3 quired to be conducted under paragraph (1) 4 shall, at a minimum— 5 (i) consider life-cycle information on 6 the manufacture, use, and disposal of 7 PFAS-containing products to identify ex- 8 posure sources and potential exposure 9 pathways for the public; 10 (ii) evaluate the fate and transport of 11 PFAS and their breakdown products; 12 (iii) if feasible, estimate exposure to 13 individual or total PFAS to determine rel- 14 ative source contributions for various expo- 15 sure pathways (such as air, water, soil, or 16 food); 17 (iv) determine environmentally rel- 18 evant PFAS; and 19 (v) identify research needed to ad- 20 vance exposure estimation to individual or 21 total PFAS. 22 (B) REPORT.—Not later than 270 days 23 after the date on which the agreement described 24 in paragraph (1) is finalized, the National 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:18 Jul 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7348.IH H7348 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 7348 IH Academies shall submit to Congress a report 1 containing the findings and recommendations of 2 the study described in subparagraph (A) and 3 shall make such report available on a publicly 4 accessible website. 5 (3) PHASE II STUDY AND REPORT ON PFAS 6 TOXICITY AND HAZARD ESTIMATION.— 7 (A) IN GENERAL.—The phase II study re- 8 quired to be conducted under paragraph (1) 9 shall, at a minimum— 10 (i) review animal and human toxicity 11 information on the environmentally rel- 12 evant PFAS identified in the Phase I re- 13 port under paragraph (2) and develop an 14 approach for conducting a hazard assess- 15 ment of these PFAS; 16 (ii) give consideration as to whether 17 chemical category-based approaches for as- 18 sessing toxicity would be appropriate for 19 evaluating PFAS as a group; and 20 (iii) identify research needed to ad- 21 vance toxicity and hazard assessment of in- 22 dividual or total PFAS. 23 (B) REPORT.—Not later than 270 days 24 after the date on which the Phase I report is 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:18 Jul 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7348.IH H7348 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 7348 IH submitted to Congress under paragraph (2), the 1 National Academies shall submit to Congress a 2 report containing the findings and recommenda- 3 tions of the study described in subparagraph 4 (A) and shall make such report available on a 5 publicly accessible website. 6 (b) RESEARCH ASSESSMENT OF MANAGEMENT AND 7 TREATMENT ALTERNATIVES FOR PFAS CONTAMINATION 8 IN THE ENVIRONMENT.— 9 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 10 the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator 11 of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Di- 12 rector of the National Science Foundation, in con- 13 sultation with the Secretary of Defense and other 14 Federal agencies with expertise relevant to the devel- 15 opment of PFAS alternatives and the management 16 and treatment of PFAS, shall jointly enter into an 17 agreement with the National Academies to conduct 18 a study and submit a report in accordance with this 19 subsection to better understand the research and de- 20 velopment needed to advance the understanding of 21 the extent and implications of environmental con- 22 tamination by PFAS, how to manage and treat such 23 contamination, and the development of safe alter- 24 natives. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:18 Jul 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7348.IH H7348 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 7348 IH (2) SCOPE OF STUDY.—The study described in 1 paragraph (1) shall, at a minimum, include the fol- 2 lowing: 3 (A) An assessment of the current research 4 on such issues. 5 (B) A description of the research gaps re- 6 lating to such issues. 7 (C) Recommendations on how the Federal 8 Government can address the research needs 9 identified pursuant to subparagraph (B). 10 (D) Recommendations on how research can 11 best incorporate considerations of socioeconomic 12 issues into the development of research pro- 13 posals and the conduct of research. 14 (3) REPORT.—Not later than 540 days after 15 the date on which the agreement described in para- 16 graph (1) is finalized, the National Academies shall 17 submit to Congress a report containing the findings 18 and recommendations of the study described in 19 paragraph (2) and shall make such report available 20 on a publicly accessible website. 21 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 22 authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section— 23 (1) to the Administrator of Environmental Pro- 24 tection Agency, $3,000,000; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:18 Jul 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7348.IH H7348 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 7348 IH (2) to the Director of the National Science 1 Foundation, $1,000,000. 2 SEC. 4. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN. 3 Not later than 180 days after submission to Congress 4 of latest of the National Academies reports under section 5 3, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology 6 Policy, in coordination with all relevant Federal agencies, 7 shall submit to Congress an implementation plan for Fed- 8 eral PFAS research, development, and demonstration ac- 9 tivities. In preparing such an implementation plan, the Di- 10 rector shall take into consideration the recommendations 11 included in the reports in section 3. 12 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 13 In this Act: 14 (1) NATIONAL ACADEMIES.—The term ‘‘Na- 15 tional Academies’’ means the National Academies of 16 Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 17 (2) PFAS.—The term ‘‘PFAS’’ means per- and 18 polyfluoroalkyl substances. 19 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:18 Jul 17, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H7348.IH H7348 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS