Legislation Proposing Major Changes to FIFRA Introduced in House, Senate

While unlikely to get serious consideration in Congress this year, new legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate would make comprehensive updates to the 1996 law governing pesticide use in the United States, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

Introduced on August 4 by U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, and U.S. Representative Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act of 2020 (PACTPA) would ban organophosphate, neonicotinoid and paraquat pesticides, create a petition process to EPA for individual citizens, and alter the process for emergency exemptions, among other changes.

The bill would enable local communities to enact policies without being vetoed or preempted by state law and would suspend the use of pesticides deemed unsafe by the European Union and Canada, pending EPA review, and would require the EPA administrator to make a finding within 90 days on petitions filed to designate chemicals as “dangerous.” ASTA will be closely tracking the bill. More information can be found here.