For the past several months, the Senate Environment and Public
Works ("EPW") Committee has been reviewing
recommendations on how to overhaul the Superfund process as set
forth in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation,
and Liability Act ("CERCLA") to expedite the early stages
of the Superfund process.
During an April 9, 2025 Committee hearing, senators from both
parties expressed their support for the effort, although each party
differed in their approach to streamlining the process. Republican
lawmakers, led by chairman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), focused on
the pre-clean up procedural requirements imposed by CERCLA. Capito
criticized that CERCLA "prioritizes process over results"
and that the EPA's "entangled web of bureaucracy, work
groups, task forces and committees . . . too often slow
progress." In contrast, ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse
(D-RI) said that "speed must not come at the cost of
efficacy" and argued that the Trump
