Coalition Supports Pesticide Fee Increases

WASHINGTON – In an unusual cooperative effort and after months of intensive negotiations, a broad coalition of 30 industrial, environmental and agricultural groups has agreed to support a federal legislative proposal to raise more than $200 million to fund pesticide regulation and registration programs.

The Pesticide Registration Improvement Act, sponsored by Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), uses a legislative approach generally consistent with the Food and Drug Administration’s prescription drug fee authority to generate user fee-derived funds to improve and expedite pesticide regulation and the registration process. The bill would raise $85 million to $90 million in new enhanced registration and service fees during the next five years. It also would extend pesticide product maintenance fees for five years, generating an additional $116 million.

“The Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) sees this package as a win-win-win,” observed CSPA President Christopher Cathcart. “It is a win for EPA in getting long-term funding; a win for industry in getting predictable and shorter timeframes for review of pesticide applications that are judicially enforceable; and a win for the environmental community in shorter timeframes for reduced risk pesticides and early, stable funding for tolerance reassessment.”

Specifically, predictability and shorter timeframes are essential in the battle against insect-borne diseases such as West Nile virus, Lyme disease and hantavirus, Cathcart added. “This year alone there have been more than 5,700 cases of West Nile virus reported to the Centers for Disease Control, resulting in 110 deaths,” he outlined. “This legislation will help our industry’s efforts to develop innovative products.”

Funds raised by the proposal would provide immediate and predictable funding to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs. The bill would also ensure that the Food Quality Protection Act's (FQPA) 2006 deadlines for completing pesticide tolerance reassessment of all food use pesticides and re-registration eligibility decisions are met.