The Nickel Report

In September 2025, federal agencies released their “Spring 2025” Regulatory Agendas that provide an outlook for numerous upcoming regulatory actions on chemicals under the new administration that could have significant implications for the regulated community. Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP’s chemical regulatory team has provided analyses of these upcoming regulatory actions:

• Analysis of Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Regulatory Agenda
• Analysis of Per- and-Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Regulatory Agenda

PFAS

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US Department of Defense (DoD) released their unified agendas detailing upcoming actions related to PFAS. Under the new administration, EPA intends to revisit some of its significant PFAS regulations, including its Final Rule establishing near-zero drinking water standards for certain PFAS and its Final Rule requiring reporting of PFAS and PFAS-containing products under TSCA. On the other hand, EPA also intends to defend some of the major PFAS rules promulgated under the prior administration, such as the landmark Final Rule under CERCLA designating perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) as hazardous substances. Even with an administration that has an overall deregulatory approach, the regulatory agenda shows that federal agencies are continuing to take action on PFAS in the near future. Some examples of regulatory agenda items are:

• DoD proposed rule to restrict procurement of certain personal protective firefighting equipment containing PFAS and certain consumer products.
• EPA’s Office of Water proposed rule to require monitoring and reporting of PFAS in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting process.
• EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management final rule on listing of specific PFAS as Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous constituents.
• EPA’s Office of Water proposed rule to 1) rescind the regulatory determinations and maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for four PFAS while 2) extending compliance deadlines for the MCLs established for PFOA and PFOS.
• EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention proposed rule to revise its TSCA PFAS Reporting Rule.

TSCA

EPA’s regulatory agenda reflects the new administration’s prioritization of revising the prior administration’s TSCA regulations, including chemical risk management rules, the reporting rule for PFAS, and its procedures for existing chemical risk evaluations. EPA is taking action on these rules while many of them are still in litigation. EPA also aims to complete several delayed TSCA risk evaluations and risk management rules in the coming months. Some examples of regulatory agenda items are:

• Revising the procedures for chemical risk evaluations to rescind major policy changes made during the prior administration.
• Reconsideration of rules or delayed compliance dates for four final TSCA risk management rules (methylene chloride, perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene, and carbon tetrachloride).
• Final risk management rules for C.I. Pigment Violet 29 and 1-bromopropane.
• Final risk evaluations for formaldehyde, TCEP, DIDP, and DINP.
• Prioritization of five additional chemicals for risk evaluation.
• Proposed rule to allow federal agencies and contractors to continue use of certain chemicals to prevent significant disruptions to the national economy, national security, or critical infrastructure.
• Proposed revisions to the TSCA lead paint regulations.

Please contact our team for more information.