Michal I. Freedhoff
Senior Policy Advisor
Overview
Michal Ilana Freedhoff, Ph.D. is a senior policy advisor in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office and a member of its Public Policy & Regulation Group. Dr. Freedhoff focuses her practice on major environmental and energy issues in the U.S. Congress and executive branch.
Dr. Freedhoff has 25 years of government management, regulatory and investigative experience spanning a range of policy areas, including the regulation of chemicals and pesticides, sustainability, Clean Air Act policy, automobile efficiency and emissions standards, consumer product and automobile safety, climate change, civilian nuclear safety and homeland security.
Dr. Freedhoff's environmental experience spans a wide range of policy areas, and she is known for her ability to find win-win solutions that appeal to a wide range of bipartisan lawmakers, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and industry stakeholders. She was a principal drafter and negotiator of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, a bipartisan effort to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the first major environmental legislation signed into law since 1990. She also worked on the 2019 legislation to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) contamination; the 2020 American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act addressing hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs); the 2009 "Cash for Clunkers" program; the fuel economy provisions in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act; and a law requiring the creation of an online database of potential consumer product safety defects.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Dr. Freedhoff was the assistant administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP). She previously served as minority director of oversight for the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, where she led congressional negotiations with the State of California on vehicle fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards, ultimately achieving a compromise, and helped create bipartisan legislation to regulate PFAS chemical contamination.
Dr. Freedhoff began her congressional service as a science and engineering fellow in the office of Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and later became his policy director. In those roles, she served as a staff member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources, Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
Representative Experience
- Named as Acting Assistant Administrator as part of the Day 1 team at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), nominated by President Joe Biden in April 2021 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate by voice vote in June 2021, to lead an office of approximately 1,100 people responsible for the regulation of toxic chemicals and pesticides
- Led EPA's implementation of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); promulgated rules to address risks of lead-based paint and other toxic chemicals (i.e., asbestos, methylene chloride, trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE) and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)) while ensuring the continued availability of chemicals needed for semiconductor, battery, refrigerant and other key manufacturing sectors; established sustainable approaches to review new chemicals under TSCA that resulted in demonstrably faster reviews, prioritizing the development of review approaches for new chemistries needed in the battery, semiconductor and other sectors; advanced policies and regulations to ensure the safety of new per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) needed for key manufacturing sectors and vastly expand the amount of data about historically and currently used PFAS available to EPA and the public; advanced the creation of scientific tools to incorporate general population, aggregate and cumulative exposures into TSCA risk evaluations
- Oversaw the development and implementation of a transformational strategy to comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in EPA's pesticide decisions, gaining the support of environmental organizations, pesticide companies and other agricultural stakeholders; the strategy reversed EPA's 50-year-long failure to address a complex challenge that caused significant and costly litigation (and adverse decisions) against EPA; helped lead negotiations to resolve a long-standing ESA lawsuit covering thousands of pesticide products and oversaw approaches to resolving the entirety of the ESA pesticide litigation against EPA by 2024 as the strategy was refined and implemented
- Led efforts to address human health risks associated with a number of pesticides, including the exercise of EPA's emergency authority for the first time in approximately 40 years to suspend a pesticide registration (DCPA), the faster implementation of farmworker protections for several high-risk organophosphate pesticides, the promulgation of a rule to codify farmworker protections and the advancement of human health protections and help with the development of policies for a number of high-profile pesticides (i.e., chlorpyrifos, acephate, ethylene oxide and endocrine disruptors)
- Oversaw pollution prevention and sustainability efforts, including participation in the development of domestic approaches and U.S. international negotiation positions to reduce the use of and pollution from plastics; the award of pollution prevention grants and advancement and recognition of green chemistry standards and practices; and the development of approaches to reduce climate pollution associated with construction
- Directed U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works oversight of nominations and agency implementation of laws and policy under committee jurisdiction
- Led efforts to write and negotiate bipartisan legislation to regulate, research, monitor for and remediate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) chemical contamination, some of which was enacted into law in 2019
- Coordinated and assisted complementary oversight efforts among other committees, senators, representatives and non-governmental environmental and ethics organizations
- Conceived of and led congressional efforts aimed at negotiating a compromise on vehicle fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards with the State of California; was directly involved in the development of the resulting voluntary agreement between four automakers and California
- Oversaw Sen. Ed Markey's (D-Mass.) work on the Superfund and Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Waste Management and Regulatory Oversight; led key Senate and bicameral conference negotiations that enabled Senate consideration and subsequent enactment of the re-authorization of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); supervised the planning of subcommittee hearings; oversaw the preparation of an investigative report about and legislation to improve the management of asbestos in schools
- Other significant legislative accomplishments include the 2010 House of Representatives' passage of comprehensive chemical and drinking water security legislation and a bill to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA); vehicle technology and emissions provisions in the Waxman-Markey climate bill; the 2009 negotiation and enactment of the $3 billion "Cash for Clunkers" program; the creation of an online, searchable database of adverse incidents potentially caused by defective consumer products enacted as part of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Reform Act of 2008; provisions to require 100 percent scanning of inbound maritime cargo for radiation and to create strong whistleblower protections for rail and mass transit security workers enacted as part of the 911 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007; provisions to require increased fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks enacted as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007; provisions to improve the security of nuclear facilities and materials that could be used to construct a dirty bomb; improve whistleblower protections for employees and contractors of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that were included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005
Credentials
- University of Rochester, Ph.D., Physical Chemistry
- University of Rochester, M.S., Physical Chemistry
- McGill University, B.Sc., Chemistry