House strips controversial pro-pesticide policies from farm bill

The House on Thursday voted to strip pro-pesticide policies, which have been a source of controversy and GOP infighting , from the farm bill.

The amendment to take the provisions out of the farm bill, which sets the nation’s agriculture policy for five years, was adopted in a 280-142 vote.

It was led by Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) and was expected to get significant bipartisan support.

One controversial measure the amendment addressed would have made it harder for Americans to sue pesticide makers, preventing states and courts from penalizing the companies for failing to include warnings on their labels about health effects that go beyond those formally recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The amendment also dealt with two other provisions that would have barred localities from adding regulations that go beyond those imposed by states or the EPA, as well as block the need for additional permits for pesticide use.

The policies received significant pushback from both Democrats and Republicans aligned with the “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement — and complicated the farm bill’s path.

In the days leading up to the bill’s passage, Luna said on the social platform X “we will slaughter the farm bill” unless the provisions were removed.

House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) defended the provision, arguing that  states want to go and “have something that is specific to their state, maybe it’s based on the ecology of their state, or whatever it might be, they just have to submit it to the EPA, and the EPA will add it into the labeling.”

The Supreme Court this week took up a similar issue and could rule that existing laws already bar failure-to-warn lawsuits if the EPA does not recognize a particular health impact.

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