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GAO Protest Further Delays Government Efforts to Clear Investigations Backlog

Client Alert | 1 min read | 04.04.17

Those hoping the Office of Personnel Management’s IDIQ contract for investigative services for the National Background Investigations Bureau will alleviate the investigations backlog for industry personnel with clearances through the Defense Security Service (DSS) will have to wait a few more months due to two GAO protests filed in February 2017, with a decision to be issued no later than May 24, 2017. The pending IDIQ contract is one of several measures the government has taken to ease the security investigations backlog, following a DSS announcement on January 6, 2017 that it would submit cleared contractor personnel with a TS (and other Tier 5) clearance for periodic reinvestigation every six years, versus the previous five-year standard. The policy extending the reinvestigation period in turn followed DoD guidance that eligible personnel should not be denied access based on an out-of-scope-investigation.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 05.28.26

PFAS Regulatory Alert: EPA Rolls Back RCRA Proposed Rule on “Hazardous Waste” but Does Not Disturb Proposed RCRA Rule on PFAS

Earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew a February 2024 Biden administration proposed rule, “Definition of Hazardous Waste Applicable to Corrective Action for Releases From Solid Waste Management Units,” under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).[1] The withdrawn proposal would have revised RCRA corrective action regulations to expressly apply the broader statutory definition of “hazardous waste,” rather than only the narrower regulatory definition. Now, EPA is maintaining the status quo for corrective action under RCRA. However, EPA’s withdrawal of its proposed RCRA hazardous waste definition makes no mention of its corresponding proposal from 2024 to list nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as RCRA hazardous constituents.[2] This disjointed withdrawal, while providing some certainty for regulated entities, does not resolve how EPA plans to address PFAS under the RCRA program....