On May 11, Bob Helland, director of congressional and federal affairs, attended a congressional hearing before the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee entitled "Pesticide Registration under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act: Providing Stakeholders with Certainty through the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act". The purpose of the hearing was to discuss reauthorization of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA).

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004 established a new system for registering pesticides, called PRIA. The new section 33 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) created a registration service fee system for applications for specified pesticide registration, amended registration, and associated tolerance actions. PRIA required EPA to make a determination on the registration application within decision times specified. Fees covered 90 different categories of registration applications. PRIA also provided funding for worker protection activities.

PRIA fees help expedite bringing new active ingredients and new uses to market. The significance of PRIA to golf course management is that it provides superintendents with reliable access to the inputs they need for sustainable course management.  As the EPA notes, the goals of PRIA are to “create a more predictable evaluation process for affected pesticide decisions, and couple the collection of individual fees with specific decision review periods”.

PRIA is a program that enjoys the bipartisan support of Congress as well as the regulated community. It needs to be renewed by the end of this fiscal year (Sept. 30) and much of the testimony focused on the need for the Senate to swiftly consider reauthorization legislation that adequately funds the program. PRIA reauthorization legislation, H.R. 1029, the “Pesticide Registration Enhancement Act of 2017”, already passed the House of Representatives earlier this year.

Jay Vroom, president and CEO of CropLife America, testified that while industry fees have been “substantial,” Congress has underfunded the program over the past four years and that has coincided in part with a period where the pace of new product approval has slowed. 

Senators also discussed the potential impact of proposed budget cuts for both the EPA and the USDA in the upcoming fiscal year with Rick Keigwin, acting director of the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Program, and Sheryl Kunickis, Ph.D., director of the USDA’s Office of Pest Management Policy. Both indicated their departments would do their best to meet their missions no matter what the funding level.

Why this matters to golf

Golf is an industry that relies on a reliable, science-based review of pesticides. GCSAA will continue to monitor developments in Congress and provide updates.