Federal

U.S. EPA

Since the EPA's update to their PFAS Action Plan in 2020, federally-organized efforts to mitigate PFAS-related issues have progressed rapidly.  The agency continues to study methods for environmental cleanup and has published groundwater cleanup guidance for federal remediation programs. The EPA has also expanded its PFAS monitoring and testing strategies in an attempt to better assess the extent of national contamination, and also identify different types of PFAS in drinking water. The agency's National PFAS Testing Strategy released in October 2021 introduced a phased approach for identifying harmful PFAS which companies would be required to test for. The Testing Strategy aims to categorize PFAS chemicals and evaluate their toxicological data. The phases outlined in the strategy are:

Also in October 2021, the EPA released its PFAS Strategic Roadmap, which outlines the PFAS-relation actions the agency has committed to completing between 2021-2024. In line with these objectives, the EPA has been working towards creating a rule which would designate PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the Superfund law; this would allow the federal government to take action at contaminated sites, and could potentially make polluters liable for cleanup costs. 

Most notably, in March 2023 the EPA and the Biden-Harris Administration set the first ever national standard or Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for PFOA, PFOS, and a group of four other PFAS chemicals (PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS, and GenX chemicals) in drinking water. If finalized, the regulation would require public water systems to monitor levels of these chemicals and take action/notify the public if concentrations exceed safe levels. The suggested standards for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water are 4 parts per trillion (ppt) - less than 6% of their initial recommendation of 70 ppt. The EPA has grouped the other four chemicals, and their combined concentration should not exceed 1 ppt. Talking about parts per trillion may seem trivial, but if anything that should speak to how toxic these chemicals really are.

The White House

The Biden-Harris Administration has been taking steps over the course of its two years in office to address the national crisis of PFAS pollution. Under the President's plan, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a 108-page scientific report on PFAS, which summarizes existing chemical knowledge as well as environmental removal strategies, potential alternatives in industry, and knowledge gaps. Along with other federal agencies, the White House has outlined current and future PFAS-related efforts geared towards:

Congress

Congress was once the greatest source of hope with regards to passing meaningful legislation which would reduce the use of and public exposure to PFAS. In 2019, members from the U.S. House of Representatives formed the Congressional PFAS Task Force, a bi-partisan task force of congressmen and congresswomen who advocate for further PFAS legislation. More promising action ensued when the House passed the PFAS Action Act in 2021, which would have created requirements and incentives to limit PFAS in manufacturing, and tasked the EPA with making more progress. However, the bill ultimately failed when it was stalled in the Senate. Most recently, a similar upset occurred in January 2023, when Congress turned down almost all of the 50 bills targeting PFAS  were introduced at the last session. Many of the bills sought to ban PFAS in certain products, as well as enforce stricter cleanup regulations. The failure on the part of Congress to pass almost any meaningful PFAS-related legislation is a product of partisan interests and industrial lobbyists.