On January 6, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the extension of the review period for confidential business information (CBI) claims for specific identities of all active chemical substances listed on the confidential portion of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory submitted to EPA under TSCA. 90 Fed. Reg. 645. As reported in our February 7, 2024, blog item, EPA previously extended the review period by one year, to February 19, 2025. According to EPA, several issues and factors caused delays that prevented EPA from completing its review within the five-year period and are going to prevent completion within the previous one-year extension. These issues include “a large universe of claims to review (more than 4,805 chemical substances in 5,787 often-complex submissions) and concurrent activities to update the public portion of the TSCA Inventory,” consistent with the requirements of TSCA Sections 8(b) and 14. EPA notes that adapting and maintaining its information technology (IT) systems to complete these reviews “has continued to contribute to delays in reviewing these CBI claims.” EPA states that the very large file size and other features of certain submissions caused IT difficulties that halted the CBI review process for about nine months while available resources were prioritized to address more critical IT needs. A lack of requested appropriated funds in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 resulted in insufficient contract resources to address IT system issues in addition to not allowing EPA to maintain the necessary staffing to make progress on these reviews. EPA was delayed in commencing Review Plan reviews for approximately six months to a year as a result of the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Environmental Defense Fund v. EPA, 922 F.3d 446 (D.C. Cir. 2019), which resulted in a need for additional rulemaking activity to add a reporting requirement. According to EPA, the additional reporting requirement “created confusion among some reporting entities, further slowing the review process.” The review period is now extended to February 19, 2026.