EPA's toxicology database blocked from pollution rules
S. 623 — No IRIS Act of 2025 · Filed by John Kennedy (R-LA) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 18, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill prohibits the EPA from using assessments from its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program as a basis for developing environmental regulations, enforcement actions, or permitting decisions. IRIS is the EPA's primary scientific database for assessing health risks from chemical exposure; blocking its use would prevent the agency from relying on its own toxicological research to justify pollution controls, emissions limits, or cleanup requirements.
Why we flagged it
The bill functions as a targeted deregulation mechanism by disabling the EPA's primary scientific assessment tool. Rather than openly repealing environmental rules, it prevents the agency from using its own risk research to justify new or existing protections—a structural approach to blocking health-based regulation.
What the text implies
- IRIS assessments underpin not only new EPA rules but also existing regulations and enforcement actions; blocking IRIS use may create legal vulnerability for current pollution controls, potentially opening them to challenge or rescission.
- The bill does not prohibit EPA from using OTHER data sources (industry studies, peer-reviewed literature, international assessments); however, IRIS is the agency's integrated, peer-reviewed, publicly transparent database—replacing it with alternative sources may reduce scientific rigor and public scrutiny.
- Air toxics mapping and screening tools (e.g., NATA, Risk Screening Environmental Indicators) rely on IRIS data; blocking IRIS use may degrade the EPA's ability to identify pollution hotspots and prioritize enforcement in communities with high chemical exposure.
- The bill's scope covers 'regulatory, enforcement, or permitting actions'—this includes not only new rules but also permit denials, enforcement settlements, and remediation standards, potentially paralyzing EPA action across multiple programs.
- IRIS assessments are used by state environmental agencies, tribes, and international bodies; a federal prohibition may create a patchwork where EPA cannot coordinate with state/tribal regulators who still rely on IRIS data.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens lose access to EPA's primary scientific tool for protecting public health from chemical exposure. By blocking IRIS-based regulations, the bill prevents the EPA from issuing pollution controls, emissions limits, and cleanup standards grounded in the agency's own toxicological research, shifting risk from regulated industries onto the public.
Who stands to gain
- chemical manufacturers
- petroleum refineries
- industrial polluters subject to EPA air toxics and water quality standards
- companies facing EPA enforcement actions or permit denials based on health-risk assessments
Named in the bill
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 Republicans.
- Feb 18, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Feb 18, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
15 lobbying clients named this bill on 25 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $47,480,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 17 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 95% of bills with at least one filing.
John Kennedy, the sponsor, reported $113,800 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $37,710,000 on 2 filings
- Dow Chemical Company Dba Dow — $2,740,000 on 2 filings
- American Chemistry Council — $2,570,000 on 1 filing
- Covestro LLC — $1,020,000 on 3 filings
- National Mining Association — $820,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 22, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (581 characters) on Sep 5, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 22, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-21.
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