Policy Watch: US Treasury targets private school DEI programs

US Treasury moves to strip tax-exempt status from private universities with DEI programs

The US Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service announced a proposed rule last week that would remove 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from private schools that consider “race, color, or national or ethnic origin” in admission or scholarship decisions. The rule would go into effect after May 31, 2027.

“Under President [Donald J.] Trump, this Administration is standing up for America’s students by ensuring racial discrimination has no place in American education,” Treasury secretary Scott Bessent says in a statement.

The Treasury and IRS say the rule would affect an estimated 18,000 private educational institutions in the US. If finalized, the rule would apply to tax-exempt private primary and secondary schools, colleges, universities, professional schools, and trade schools. But the rule would not apply to religious schools that select students “based on genuine religious affiliation or membership.”

“The Treasury Department’s proposal to revoke tax-exempt status from schools that ensure equal opportunity for and provide targeted aid to Black students and students from other underrepresented racial groups represents yet another move by this administration to twist the very meaning of racial discrimination to justify its own discriminatory practices,” NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund president Janai Nelson says in a statement.

The action is a follow-up to President Trump’s March 26 executive order requiring federal contractors and subcontractors, including colleges and universities, to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. The administration has targeted DEI programs in other ways, including a General Services Administration (GSA) proposal requiring recipients of federal funding to comply with federal antidiscrimination laws, and a January 2025 executive order that requires federal contractors to verify that they’re not operating any DEI programs. The Trump administration says that DEI programs violate antidiscrimination laws.

In support of its provisions, the proposed rule cites the 2023 Supreme Court decision (PDF) ruling that Harvard College and the University of North Carolina acted illegally by using affirmative action programs as part of their admissions policies.

The proposal is open for public comment until Nov. 3.

—Leigh Krietsch Boerner

Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva to pay $455 million in North Carolina PFAS settlement

Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva agreed on Sept. 10 to pay $455 million over 15 years to North Carolina and local governments to settle per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)–related claims. North Carolina values the agreement at $590 million, which includes a $135 million reserve fund, and, in a Sept. 10 press release, calls it the largest environmental damages recovery in state history.

The settlement resolves litigation over PFAS and other historical discharges from Fayetteville Works, a chemical manufacturing site formerly operated by DuPont and now owned by its spin-off Chemours. Of the $455 million payment, $75 million will go to the state and $380 million to 11 local governments. The companies will divide the payment under an existing agreement governing their legacy PFAS liabilities, with Chemours responsible for half. Of the total settlement, Chemours says that roughly $18 million will cover some PFAS contamination unrelated to Fayetteville Works, including that from the use of aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF.

The $135 million reserve, funded by DuPont and Corteva, will support Chemours’s remaining obligations under a 2019 consent order with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). In its Sept. 10 press release, the state says Chemours has spent nearly $1.2 billion complying with that order “to stop discharging contaminants from its Fayetteville Works facility into the Cape Fear River and air,” including installing treatment and pollution-control systems and offering filtration to about 10,500 households.

“This settlement marks further progress under the Strengthening the Long-Term Pillar of Chemours’ Pathway to Thrive strategy and ongoing efforts to address legacy liabilities and community concerns,” Chemours says in a press release.

The agreement comes after a separate federal settlement announced in June under which Chemours agreed to pay more than $450 million in penalties and other relief over alleged PFAS and other environmental violations at facilities in three states, including Fayetteville Works.

Additionally, in August, a federal judge ruled in a separate case brought by North Carolina residents that Chemours and sister company E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company are responsible for chemical trespass involving PFAS contamination of residents’ properties. A trial is set for March to determine damages and address other issues.

—Joe Beeton, special to C&EN

EU chemicals agency says glyphosate is not carcinogenic, despite new data

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) this week reaffirmed that the controversial herbicide glyphosate should not be classified as cancer causing under European Union law.

ECHA’s Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) launched a reassessment of glyphosate last year after the emergence of new data from the Ramazzini Institute’s high-profile Global Glyphosate Study. The 2025 study found dose-related increases in rare cancers, including early-life leukemia, in rats exposed to glyphosate via drinking water at or below doses considered safe by the EU’s regulatory agencies.

At a Sept. 8 meeting, the RAC confirmed that the study “does not change the conclusions” of its 2022 assessment of glyphosate, in particular its decision that the substance “does not warrant a classification for carcinogenicity.”

ECHA says the committee’s decision was based in part on concerns about the 2025 study’s design and experimental setting. The RAC found shortcomings related to dose spacing, randomization, historical control data, histopathological evaluation, and statistical assessment of the findings, the agency tells C&EN in an email.

The RAC’s 2022 assessment, by contrast, “is based on a large number of scientific studies which have been evaluated using a careful weight of evidence assessment,” the agency says.

Companies that manufacture and sell glyphosate secured a further 10 years of access to the EU market in 2023, despite a long-running dispute among the bloc’s member countries over whether to follow the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s classification of the compound as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The authorization runs until Dec. 15, 2033.

ECHA says it will publish the RAC opinion within 2 months and share it with the commission and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). EFSA plans to carry out its own risk assessment of glyphosate in due course.

Industry and environmental groups contacted by C&EN did not respond to requests for comment on the RAC’s decision by publication time.

—Vanessa Zainzinger, special to C&EN