WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee postponed Sept. 6 a scheduled mark-up of a bill that would slow the Environmental Protection Agency's review of thousands of pesticides under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA).
The action likely kills any chance of Congress this year adopting the legislation, which was backed by U.S. farm groups and the pesticide industry.
A spokesman for the House Agriculture panel said the mark-up was postponed due to staff scheduling conflicts and would be rescheduled. But lobbyists said chances of that are slim, with Congress facing a heavy workload before it adjourns in early October ahead of the autumn elections.
The bill, sponsored by California Republican Richard Pombo and co-sponsored by more than 200 other members, would give chemical makers more time to produce information about the safety of their pesticides.
Under FQPA, the EPA must review some 9,000 pesticides to determine whether they pose a health risk for children. Critics say the agency has moved too quickly to phase out some of the most popular and widely used crop chemicals, based on computer models that do not include real-world data. The FQPA has already claimed many uses of the pesticide chlorpyrifos (Dursban) and prompted the elimination of indoor uses of diazinon prior to its reassessment.
A 1999 study by the American Farm Bureau Federation estimated that a ban on organophosphates and related chemicals would slice U.S. total net farm income by $1.8 billion annually.
Environmental groups have pushed to block the bill, contending it was delaying tactics by industry to curb EPA from banning chemicals that could affect the developing nervous system of children.
Industry support for the bill has waned in recent weeks in favor of reintroducing it at the beginning of the next Congress in January. With House elections a few weeks away, one lobbyist said some members did not want to wade into the politically charged issue of kids' health versus chemical companies.
The bill is also before the U.S. House Commerce Committee, which is considering holding a hearing on the EPA's implementation of the FQPA. That panel is not expected to mark up the bill.