"A host of agency appointees will be free to reconnect with past industry clients on upcoming consequential regulatory matters."
"Ethics guardrails around President Donald Trump’s chemical appointees at EPA are expiring as the agency plows ahead on his deregulatory agenda.
“Cooling off” or recusal periods — typically the year after political officials enter government service and are barred from talking to their former clients — for top officials in EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention began ending in January. More will lapse later this summer and fall, a review of ethics documents obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News shows.
So goes one of the few restrictions on leadership within EPA’s chemicals office, which members of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement have slammed as too close to the industry insiders they are meant to regulate.
“We need to stop pretending these rules are adequate, and address the fact that people who have been lobbying to expose people to more known carcinogens should not be the ones overseeing regulations designed to safeguard public health,” said Alexandra Muñoz, an independent toxicologist and MAHA activist. “No impartiality determination can change that fundamental conflict.”"
Kevin Bogardus and Ellie Borst report for E&E News March 6, 2026.
