For instance, the Association Health Care bill has been pending for 12 years now, continually passing in the House, but getting stuck in the Senate. This year, it’s only four votes short of breaking the Senate.
The bill (S. 1955) allows small businesses and professional associations to get together to purchase insurance, helping to represent a small business as a large business by giving it strength in numbers through the association.
On the pesticide front, “The Pest Management and Fire Suppression Flexibility Act” – S. 1269 and H.R. 1749, aiming to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to clarify certain activities the conduct of which does not require a permit – is important to our industry, pointed out Gene Harrington, director of government affairs for the National Pest Management Association. Basically, this exempts federally regulated pesticides from the Clean Water Act, which forces people to get permits to apply a pesticide to or near water, regardless of EPA approval of the products and ignoring the fact that applicators are applying products according to label instructions. “The cost to get these permits and then conduct expensive water monitoring is wasteful because these products are already approved by the Environmental Protection Agency,” Harrington explained. “Also, people can file suits against lawn care operators if they believe they are violating the Clean Water Act, so the passing of this law will mean the industry isn’t subject to nuisance litigation.”
Then, D.C. Legislative and Regulatory Services’ Laurie Flanagan, a PLANET lobbyist, addressed water concerns, mainly urging attendees to support the development of a water caucus. “There is no exchange on Capitol Hill about water right now,” Flanagan said. “We want to encourage them to form a water caucus to have one form of dialogue and group of legislators dedicated to this issue who can vote jointly and discuss water-related topics in a bipartisan way.”