Congress

Our congressional section has the latest on energy, environmental and related legislation in the House and Senate, with must-read stories on upcoming bills, amendments, hearings and floor battles.

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Our congressional section has the latest on energy, environmental and related legislation in the House and Senate, with must-read stories on upcoming bills, amendments, hearings and floor battles.

GOP Poised To Swiftly Confirm Troutman Over Democrats’ Stiff Opposition

Senate Republicans appear headed to confirm Doug Troutman to lead EPA’s chemicals office over strident objections from Democrats on the Senate environment committee due to Troutman’s industry ties, with the committee chairman also securing Troutman’s commitment to work with the committee on additional reforms to TSCA. In her opening remarks at Troutman’s Oct. 8 confirmation hearing, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, described Troutman as a “well-qualified nominee[],” adding that she supports his...

Senate Confirms Trump’s Picks For EPA’s Waste, Tribal Affairs Offices

The Senate has confirmed President Trump’s nominees to lead EPA’s Offices of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) and International and Tribal Affairs as part of a host of nominations, filling the waste office’s top spot as lawmakers and EPA officials seek to speed its efforts to remediate Superfund sites. Senators on Oct. 7 voted 51-47 along party lines to confirm 107 nominees to serve in various roles across the Trump administration. The picks included John Busterud, the former Region 9...

Grassley pushes year-round E15 in any farm aid bill

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) is pushing to ensure that any bill providing temporary aid to farmers faced with adverse market conditions due to President Trump’s tariffs also approves 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) for use year-round, a move that would eliminate the need for presidential emergency waivers allowing summertime sales of the fuel. “Any legislation with ad hoc payments to farmers should include allowing year-round, nationwide E15,” Grassley said in an Oct.1 Senate floor speech. Although ad hoc farm aid...

EPA Eyes WTE Plants As ‘Passive Receivers’ For PFAS CERCLA Waiver

EPA is suggesting waste-to-energy (WTE) plants that receive municipal solid waste as “feedstock” could qualify as another category of “passive receivers” to earn waivers from Superfund liability for PFAS contamination, a stance that appears to broaden the scope of any waiver just as officials step up their calls for Congress to legislate on the issue. But some sources say that if EPA significantly broadens the categories of passive receivers, that could undermine the Biden-era Superfund rule that the Trump EPA...

GAO Seeks Data On Nuclear Site Soil, Landfill Cleanups But DOE Defers

Congress’ watchdog is urging the Energy Department (DOE) to compile specific data on “the scope, schedule, and cost” of soil and legacy landfill cleanups at nuclear contaminated sites, saying such information would allow the department to “enhance technical and policy support provided to sites and inform prioritization decisions to reduce risk.” The Sept. 26 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) is “unable to readily identify the scope, schedule, and cost of soil and...

EPA Poised To Shut Down TSCA Program Despite Funding From User Fees

EPA’s newly released contingency plan for the looming government shutdown excludes the TSCA program from its summary list of “significant agency activities that will continue during a lapse” in funding, indicating the program will cease operating despite the user fees EPA collects for mandated activities under TSCA sections 4, 5 and 6. The contingency plan EPA released Sept. 30 indicates that Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) activities, many already behind schedule, will only fall farther behind. These include the backlogged...

Former Trump Official Seeks ‘Presumptive’ State Air Plan, Permit Approval

Clint Woods, a former Trump EPA air official who is now Indiana’s environment commissioner, is calling for EPA and Congress to pursue “presumptive” approval of state air plans and permits if the agency takes too long to act, one idea among many that Woods is floating as the administration and Republicans seek to ease Clean Air Act compliance. In written testimony submitted to the House Energy & Commerce Committee environment subcommittee at a hearing Sept. 16, Woods broadly supported draft...

Chemical Industry Urges TSCA ‘Adjustment’ To Preempt State PFAS Rules

Chemical sector groups are urging lawmakers to make an “adjustment” to TSCA in order to preempt state PFAS rules in Minnesota, Maine and other states, one of a series of actions they are seeking as part of the Trump administration’s broad effort to target state laws “adversely affect the national economy.” “One potential adjustment to TSCA’s preemption provision is that states could be preempted from enacting or enforcing state PFAS in products laws to the extent EPA has concluded that...

Longer Timelines For DOD PFAS Cleanups May Boost Transparency Bills

The Defense Department’s (DOD) quiet release of an updated schedule showing delays for PFAS cleanup work could fuel support for pending legislation included in the House version of the fiscal year 2026 defense policy bill that would require greater public transparency from the department on its PFAS cleanup efforts. Reacting to findings that DOD has extended the timeline for cleaning up PFAS contamination at numerous sites, Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI), co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force, says...

GAO Urges DOE To Step Up Efforts To Determine PFAS Cleanup Needs

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is pressing the Energy Department (DOE) to step up efforts -- and set a deadline -- for surveying the more than 100 sites it has yet to investigate for historical and current uses of PFAS, data GAO says will be key to prioritizing cleanups and estimating costs. GAO points out that while DOE policy memos direct all of DOE’s sites to characterize per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) use, they lack clear deadlines for completing such...

Padilla Eyes Relief For PFAS Passive Receivers As Bill Remains Uncertain

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), a member of the Senate environment committee, is signaling he is leaving the door open to supporting a bill limiting Superfund liability for a narrow set of “passive receivers” of PFAS contamination, a sign that any effort to enact such protections could win bipartisan support though the panel has yet to advance legislation. Padilla “recognizes the importance of this issue and wants to work with other [Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW)] members to develop legislation...

EPA GHG Reporting Rollback Could Drive Multiple State, Other Programs

EPA’s proposal to virtually eliminate its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) is sparking warnings that such a step would create new pressures for multiple differing GHG reporting requirements, including at the state level, alongside new difficulties in asserting environmental performance in domestic or foreign markets. Those fears supplement prior concerns that ending EPA’s program would complicate industry’s ability to claim tax credits for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and clean hydrogen production. EPA’s proposal is also sparking claims by the...

Senate rejects Whitehouse bid to debate power plant CRA resolution

The Senate has rejected on procedural grounds a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R), ranking Democrat on the environment committee, that would have rescinded EPA’s rule increase Indiana’s power plant emissions limits, the first of several such resolutions offered by Whitehouse. Senators Sept. 16 voted 51-47 rejecting a motion to proceed to a vote on the resolution, S.J. 60. The measure would have disapproved a relatively obscure EPA rule approving an increase in Indiana’s interstate ozone...

Senate Backs Key Trump Environment Picks Under New Confirmation Rules

Republican senators have voted along party lines to confirm a block of Trump administration picks for sub-cabinet level positions at EPA and other agencies as part of a large block of nominees that were approved under new GOP-backed rules allowing such votes. Senators on Sept. 18 voted 51-47 along party lines to confirm 48 of President Donald Trump’s nominees, including Jessica Kramer to serve as assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Water and Katherine Scarlett to lead the White House...

Bipartisan House Group Floats Permitting Bill ‘Framework,’ Advancing Talks

A bipartisan House group is floating an environmental permitting bill “framework” that draws provisions from pending plans addressing transmission, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA), a plan that could advance talks on the issue even as many are skeptical that lawmakers can reach a final deal. The framework , released Sept. 18 by the House Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of 49 House lawmakers -- 23 Republicans and 26 Democrats -- includes several key...

House GOP Seeks To Ease Air Permitting As Democrats Balk At Draft Bills

House Republicans’ new bills to ease Clean Air Act requirements for states and industry are running into resistance from Democrats concerned that the measures are too broad and will create new waiver authorities that the Trump administration might abuse, even though some Democrats might agree with elements of the package. At a Sept. 16 House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, Republicans on the environment subcommittee threw their weight behind the bills that are aimed at easing air permitting and other...

House GOP Targets EPA Criminal Enforcement Amid Continuing Indictments

As the Trump administration scales back civil environmental enforcement, House Republicans are suggesting that EPA and the Justice Department (DOJ) should halt existing criminal prosecutions and possibly revisit past settlements in cases against small businesses, particularly producers of devices that disable mandatory vehicle emissions controls. During a Sept. 16 hearing before the House Oversight Committee’s federal law enforcement subcommittee, GOP lawmakers lambasted the Biden EPA for their criminal prosecutions of small defeat device producers, saying criminal enforcement should be limited...

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