End Dates for State Regulatory Discretion due to COVID-19

By [ Kaela Martins ]
05/12/2020

As states begin to open their doors for business or are preparing to do so, many regulatory discretion policies are still in place. The end dates for these policies vary greatly, as many states have not set an end date, while others will be ending soon.

Back on March 26, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued their enforcement discretion policy, providing enforcement discretion on violations of routine compliance monitoring, sampling, integrity testing, laboratory analysis, training and reporting or certification obligations. The EPA has not set a termination date to this policy. They will post a notification here at least 7 days prior to the end date. Five states including Arizona and South Carolina have tied termination of their enforcement discretion policies with the EPA’s yet to be determined date.

Some states, like New York and Arkansas, will be exercising enforcement discretion for many months to come. New York’s termination date for exercising discretion on signature procedures for hazardous waste and low-level manifests and non-hazardous waste shipping papers, is September 7, 2020. Arkansas is extending enforcement flexibility and assistance until March 2021. A handful of states including Alaska and Illinois have not set termination dates for their discretion policies.

Some states limited their discretion or flexibility until the end of April or mid-May, which is in line with their reopen dates. Florida, for example, ended their extension of certain regulatory deadlines on May 8, 2020. This is in line with the lifting of their stay at home order, which expired a couple days prior, and allows businesses to reopen with some restrictions. Texas ended their requests for enforcement direction on April 30, 2020, and similarly to Florida has reopening restrictions.

While many states have provided some enforcement leniency, some states like Colorado and Montana have continued their regulatory programs with no changes. For a full list of states and retail-relevant policies on enforcement discretion, including termination dates, visit the Retail Compliance Center's Compliance & Enforcement Status of State Regulations table.

This is a changing situation and it is possible that not all actions are included here. If you know of any changes that aren’t included, please send a note to kaela.martins@rila.org.