User Fees for the Administration of the Toxic Substances Control Act

As permissible under section 26(b) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA or the Act), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) is proposing to set user fees applicable to any person required to submit information to EPA under the TSCA section 4 or a notice, including an exemption or other information, to be reviewed by the Administrator under TSCA section 5, or who manufactures (including imports) a chemical substance that is the subject of a risk evaluation under TSCA section 6(b). This notice of proposed rulemaking provides a description of proposed TSCA fees and fee categories for fiscal years 2019, 2020, and 2021, and explains the methodology by which the proposed TSCA user fees were determined and would be determined for subsequent fiscal years. In proposing these new TSCA user fees, the Agency also proposes amending long standing user fee regulations governing the review of premanufacture notices, exemption applications and notices, and significant new use notices. After implementation of final TSCA user fees regulations, certain manufacturers and processors would be required to pay a prescribed fee for each notice, exemption application and data set submitted or chemical substance subject to a risk evaluation in order for EPA to recover certain costs associated with carrying out certain work under TSCA. With this action, EPA is also proposing standards for determining which persons qualify as small business concerns and thus would be subject to lower fee payments.