3M (MMM) elevated Kevin Dowling, its head of U.S. government affairs, to report directly to CEO Bill Brown, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the change. The move comes as the company continues to face regulatory and legal fallout tied to its historic production of PFAS, which are known as “forever chemicals.”
Dowling previously served as a senior aide steering policy for Lee Zeldin during his time in Congress and later worked at Venn Strategies before joining 3M (MMM) in 2024.
The shift in 3M’s lobbying and public-policy operation follows intensified scrutiny of PFAS, chemicals linked to cancer, fertility issues and immune-system effects. The Biden administration had set strict drinking-water limits, but the EPA under President Trump has delayed compliance deadlines, withdrawn some standards and asked a court to void others, citing flaws in how they were crafted. At the same time, the agency has kept certain PFAS classified as hazardous under Superfund law, a designation business groups say could saddle companies with tens of billions in cleanup costs.
The EPA is also reconsidering a rule that would have required PFAS manufacturers to file a decade’s worth of environmental and health data, proposing a scaled-back reporting requirement instead.