Congressional critics and firefighter safety advocates say the newly enacted National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 sidestepped tougher limits on so-called “forever chemicals,” leaving the Department of Defense free to continue buying PFAS-treated firefighting gear despite mounting health concerns.
President Donald Trump signed the FY 2026 NDAA into law on December 18, 2025, authorizing defense spending while renewing debate over per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, chemicals widely used for water and oil resistance but linked by researchers to cancer and other illnesses.
The final law includes provisions directing the Department of Defense to update guidance and report annually to Congress on PFAS contamination and cleanup, and it grants the Pentagon authority to “destroy or dispose of a perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substance using innovative technologies” approved by regulators.
It does not, however, impose any new restrictions on PFAS-treated textiles, including firefighter turnout gear purchased by the military.
Advocates say that omission is the heart of the controversy.
Earlier proposals and past NDAAs included incentives or conditional timelines to move away from PFAS in protective equipment once alternatives became available. Those measures did not survive conference negotiations in 2025, leaving no new mandate for PFAS-free gear in the final statute.
Frank Ricci, a retired New Haven, Connecticut, fire battalion chief and lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court’s Ricci v. DeStefano (2009) decision, criticized the move in a December 17 statement to The Dallas Express, arguing that reform has been slow and shaped by industry influence.
Ricci said, “Any measure to ban the purchase of contaminated gear is a step in the right direction— this should have occurred years ago,” before accusing the International Association of Fire Fighters of failing to act sooner and saying, “Now the IAFF wants to rewrite history, only you can fool the spectators, you can’t fool the players.”
Diane Cotter, a New Hampshire-based anti-PFAS advocate whose husband, a firefighter, was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer after decades in a Massachusetts fire department, said the final NDAA deliberately avoided new limits on PFAS in military textiles.
In an email to The Dallas Express, Cotter wrote that “the final conference version of the FY 2026 NDAA explicitly blocked language that would have imposed any new restrictions on PFAS in textile products procured by the U.S. military, including firefighter turnout gear.”
Cotter noted that while the law extends timelines for phasing out PFAS-containing firefighting foam, “no equivalent mandate or timeline exists for turnout gear.” She said existing incentives and reporting requirements from prior NDAAs remain, but “no new enforcement or ‘PFAS-free’ requirement was added.”
Industry organizations have argued that immediate bans could disrupt supply chains or compromise performance standards.
The manufacturer Milliken’s website states, “Transitioning away from PFAS in personal protective equipment is a big challenge. PFAS chemistries are great at resisting heat, water, and oil, which makes them ideal for protective gear. Finding alternatives that keep these protective qualities without sacrificing performance is difficult.”
Military leadership at the Pentagon has slow-rolled other PFAS restrictions.
Earlier NDAAs required the Pentagon to remove aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) from its facilities and discontinue its use in portable firefighting equipment due to PFAS concerns.
“The Department used a waiver in August 2024 to push the deadline back a year, and moved the deadline back to October 2026 by using its second and final waiver,” the legal blog Bick Law LLP said in September.
It is unclear what the price tag for a full transition of the federal firefighting gear stock to PFAS-free gear would be. However, the ongoing transition away from AFFF foam containing PFAS was estimated by the Government Accountability Office to cost $2.1 billion in 2024.
Nevertheless, some government bodies and manufacturers have already embraced PFAS-free gear, despite the Pentagon’s lagging behind.
The Austin City Council approved a plan to phase out firefighting equipment and materials that contain PFAS in 2024, KUT News reported.
Ricochet Manufacturing markets PFAS-free gear and holds contracts with state agencies and the United States Air Force, according to the company website.
Health advocates like Cotter counter that the absence of new restrictions leaves military firefighters behind civilian departments that have begun transitioning away from PFAS-treated gear, even as federal law acknowledges the risks through cleanup and reporting requirements.
The Pentagon’s annual PFAS reports to Congress, required under the NDAA, are expected to detail funding and progress on interim remedial actions at military installations, but critics say reporting without procurement reform falls short of protecting firefighters’ health.
The Pentagon and IAFF were contacted for comment, but neither responded by publication time.
