Zeldin and Kennedy Make a Major PFAS Announcement and Host a Technology Roundtable, May 18, 2026
May 18, 2026 · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · 0:53:41
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What happened
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a major announcement on the administration’s efforts to combat per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on Monday, May 18, 2026, and hosted a roundtable with companies offering technologies to capture and destroy PFAS, according to the EPA’s description of the event. Assistant Administrator Jess Kramer, the agency’s PFAS lead as she was introduced, opened the program by previewing a new funding announcement and two proposed rules going out for public comment to update drinking-water requirements for several PFAS.
Zeldin announced, as he stated it, nearly $1 billion in grant funding for small and disadvantaged communities — bringing the total available under that program to $5 billion over five years — alongside roughly $4 billion available through the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds and $6.5 billion in low-cost financing through WIFIA. On the rules, he argued, as he stated it, that the Biden EPA had unlawfully combined steps the Safe Drinking Water Act requires be taken in sequence for PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA and the indexed PFAS, and that his EPA would redo the process with public comment on the threshold question first. The event also covered the agency’s PFAS OUT strategy and a forthcoming proposed rule on PFAS discharges to waterways, as the speakers described them.
Why it matters
This is the Zeldin EPA’s flagship PFAS package — funding, drinking-water rules and source controls presented together, with the HHS Secretary at the table — and the funding and rulemaking figures the Administrator stated here are the commitments the agency’s PFAS record will be tracked against.
Scoreboard watch
Scoreboard watch: the nearly $1 billion in PFAS grant funding and the two proposed drinking-water rules Zeldin announced on May 18, 2026, with the totals he stated ($5 billion over five years under the grant program; roughly $4 billion in Drinking Water State Revolving Funds; $6.5 billion through WIFIA). Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.
Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Administrator Zeldin Makes Major PFAS Announcement and Hosts Roundtable with Secretary Kennedy” (event May 18, 2026; uploaded May 19, 2026, embedded above; remarks as delivered by Administrator Zeldin, Secretary Kennedy, Assistant Administrator Kramer, and the roundtable panelists).
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