Amend or Keep TSCA As Is?

There is an ongoing debate on the status of the TSCA, which was first introduced in 1976 and gives EPA the "authority to require reporting, record-keeping and testing requirements, and restrictions relating to chemical substances and/or mixtures. 

Over the years, it has been amended and in October 2025, the Senate committee on Environment & Public Works held a meeting titled, "Examining the Beneficial Use and Regulations of Chemicals."

The day before the hearing, the American Chemical Council made its opinion known.

ACC is urging Congress to act now to make strategic changes to TSCA, including improvements to cut the backlog of new chemistries stalled in EPA review. While ACC commends EPA for recent steps to improve throughput, the backlog of new chemical reviews remains a significant barrier to American innovation and manufacturing dominance. This bottleneck limits access to advanced chemistries critical for breakthroughs in AI, health care, and national security, sectors where American leadership is vital. 

On Nov. 5, 2025, the EPA announced its intent to reconsider the December 13, 2024,  rule under section 8(d), requiring manufacturers (including importers) of 16 chemicals to report data from unpublished health and safety studies to the EPA. 

"The agency is reconsidering this rule to ensure it aligns with Executive Orders and Administration policies, including  Executive Order 14219 “Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Deregulatory Initiative”  and the EPA’s Powering the Great American Comeback Initiative Pillar I: Clean Air, Land, and Water for Every American. " 

On December 17, 2025, Toxic-Free Future, Safer States, and more than 250 state, local, and national public health and environmental groups sent a joint letter to Congress this week, "urging lawmakers to reject the chemical lobby’s efforts to weaken the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the main federal law governing chemicals made, imported, or used in the U.S."

The group made the following statement:

EPA Administrator Zeldin has publicly stated that he wants EPA “to get out of the way” of industry. At the same time, chemical industry lobbyists have called for changes that would significantly limit EPA’s authority to fully review new chemicals before they enter the market. One industry demand is a return to a so-called “shot clock” approach, imposing rigid deadlines on EPA’s new chemical reviews, even when companies have failed to provide sufficient health and safety data.

These changes would dismantle the protections Congress put in place less than a decade ago and that have prevented harmful chemicals, including new PFAS, from entering the market.