SEPA Amendment Dropped from House Education Reauthorization Bill

For the past six months, the industry has been waiting to see if the School Environment Protection Act (SEPA) would survive the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee, which has been vowing to defeat the measure. The industry got its answer on Friday, Nov. 30, when the amendment died in committee, erasing the compromise on integrated pest management (IPM) in schools that had been reached between Senators, industry organizations and the activist community.

The amendment was sponsored by Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) and required schools to adopt pest management programs and parent/staff notification when certain pesticides applications are used (see story, http://www.lawnandlandscape.com/news/news.asp?ID=587&AdKeyword=SEPA). SEPA was included in the Senate Education Reauthorization bill on June 19, 2001 by unanimous consent, but there was no similar language in the House's version of the bill and the final version of the legislation had to be approved by a Senate-House conference committee to remain alive.

Upon hearing the news, representatives from the American Crop Protection Association (ACPA) and Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment (RISE), voiced their concern that a more onerous and unworkable anti-pesticide measure will be approved.

"ACPA and RISE are disappointed to learn of the decision to drop the SEPA amendment in the Education Conference Committee today," stated presidents Jay J. Vroom (ACPA) and Allen James (RISE). "Our organizations had worked hard to advocate a compromise approach for legislative action dealing with pesticides in schools and had hoped that the concerns of House members regarding provisions in the Senate version could have been addressed, resulting in a final affirmative outcome this year.

"However, we…are prepared to re-engage with interested Senate and House offices and other stakeholders…to seek a new approach and new vehicle to address the issues that still remain," Vroom and James continued.

James also explained that once an amendment is dropped from proposed legislation, it can not be reinstated. So the only option for RISE is to try to revisit the issue with Congress in the next legislative session, which starts in the spring.

"There is no next step," he remarked. "For the purposes of this measure, it's all over now. Without this amendment there will be no federal regulations for IPM in schools."