The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new interagency Memorandum of Understanding on September 22, 2026 to strengthen scientific coordination and expand the evidence available to EPA’s ongoing registration review of glyphosate under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Under the MOU, the agencies will exchange scientific information, identify research gaps, and expand research into glyphosate’s potential human health effects; EPA retains sole authority for registration decisions under FIFRA, and the agreement creates no new authority for either agency.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said: “Americans have a right to know what the best science tells us about the chemicals they encounter in their food, workplaces, and environment. We are bringing the scientific resources of HHS to the table to answer unresolved questions, strengthen the evidence, and give EPA the data it needs to conduct a rigorous review. We will ask the hard questions, demand sound science, and follow the evidence wherever it leads. This partnership advances President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again agenda by putting the health of the American people first.”
A Joint Working Group Spanning Six Agencies
Under the MOU, HHS and EPA will establish a joint technical working group bringing together experts from EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs and HHS components including the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), National Toxicology Program, National Cancer Institute, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, and the FDA. The group will identify priority scientific questions, coordinate research and information-sharing, and align its work with EPA’s registration-review schedule. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said: “FIFRA requires us to reexamine registered pesticides on a recurring cycle against the best available science, and that is exactly what we are doing with glyphosate. This agreement with Secretary Kennedy and HHS gives our scientists access to research capacity at HHS that addresses potential gaps in the record. EPA will weigh what that work produces the way we weigh any other scientific evidence. We will evaluate the relevant evidence, address important scientific questions, and show our work, providing insight into how the science informs our decisions, as we always do, to conduct the most transparent and thorough review possible.”
Where the Research Will Focus
The partnership will prioritize toxicology of glyphosate formulations and surfactants, occupational epidemiology, human exposure and biomonitoring, and dietary exposure — including an emerging area of interest, the microbiome. As part of its registration review, EPA will systematically evaluate relevant peer-reviewed research published since its previous assessment, screening studies against the same criteria applied to any other published literature. EPA’s human health risk assessment will address exposure to glyphosate-based formulations, dietary exposure (including preharvest applications), and occupational exposure, evaluating available cancer, genotoxicity, reproductive, and developmental evidence. Under FIFRA and the Food Quality Protection Act, EPA must determine there is a reasonable certainty of no harm from aggregate dietary exposure, with particular attention to infants and children; the working group will help identify data gaps that may warrant additional research, testing, or monitoring.
Transparency and Timeline
HHS and EPA intend, consistent with applicable law, to make working-group materials available on a rolling basis in Docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0361 as they’re finalized, while protecting confidential business and other protected information. HHS will designate a senior NIEHS official to coordinate its participation, and EPA will designate senior Office of Pesticide Programs officials for its side. EPA is currently updating its glyphosate human health risk assessment and carcinogenicity evaluation, with completion anticipated in early 2027; the agency recently released a public-comment open-literature search protocol to inform that updated assessment. The MOU creates no new authorities, and each agency will continue operating under its existing statutory authority.
