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In 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set Maximum Contaminant Levels for six types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Policy Integrity submitted a comment letter regarding EPA’s proposal to allow certain public water systems to request an additional two years to meet the standards for perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid.

In 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) modified its Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies for mifepristone to remove an in-person dispensing requirement (2023 REMS). That action is the subject of this litigation, in which Louisiana argues that the 2023 REMS was arbitrary and capricious. Following the change in presidential administration, the FDA chose not to defend the action on the merits. Instead, in September 2025, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and then-FDA Commissioner Martin A. Makary stated that the FDA’s decision suffered from a “lack of adequate consideration” and announced that it would reconsider the 2023 REMS. Our amicus brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, explains that these statements should receive no weight in the Court’s analysis because they postdate the agency’s decision, are outside the administrative record, and are conclusory and fail to grapple with the agency’s prior findings. 

Federal agencies routinely issue rules or grant permits or licenses with implications for environmental justice. Until recently, agencies followed an established framework to consider those implications as part of their decisions. This analytical architecture has vanished under the second Trump Administration. While significant, the developments under this administration do not change the binding legal obligations that agencies face. In this fact sheet, we outline principles that may be relevant for affected parties when an agency acts without considering impacts on environmental justice.

In 2024, EPA promulgated a final rule, Phasedown of Hydrofluorocarbons: Management of Certain Hydrofluorocarbons and Substitutes Under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020. The 2024 Rule instituted leak-repair requirements for certain refrigerant-containing appliances containing hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) or equivalents. HFCs are potent greenhouse gases (GHGs). EPA now apparently seeks to categorically exempt 360,000 road and intermodal container transport refrigeration units from the 2024 Rule’s leak-repair requirements. This letter identifies three legal flaws in the Proposed Rule.

In 2024, EPA updated its emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles. These included more protective standards for smog- and soot-forming pollutants. EPA now seeks to weaken these life-saving limits on smog- and soot-forming emissions for two model years of covered vehicles, while noting that amendments to standards for future model years “will be proposed separately.” We submitted comments, along with our partners at Clean Air Task Force, Environmental Defense Fund, Montana Environmental Information Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Union of Concerned Scientists, explaining that EPA’s new claim that these estimates are too uncertain is flawed for numerous reasons.