by
Government Affairs Team
| Mar 26, 2018
On March 19-20, Bob Helland, GCSAA director of congressional and federal affairs, participated in the National Pest Management Association (NPMA)'s Legislative Day activities in Washington, D.C. The NPMA supports the pest management industry and its commitment to protecting public health, food and property. GCSAA shares many of the same advocacy goals of the NPMA. Helland was there to make sure that members of Congress and their staffs understood the perspective of golf course management and to build stronger relations with NPMA and its members.
NPMA members focused on the following critical issues in meetings with members of Congress concerning the structural pest management industry:
- Bring clarity to the FIFRA/ESA intersection, fix the broken pesticide consultation process.
- Pesticides, NPDES permits and Waters of the United States.
- Relationship between the EPA and state-lead agencies regarding pesticide regulation.
Some of these same issues will be a focal point for discussion during National Golf Day on April 25.
In advance of the Congressional meetings with NPMA attendees, Helland joined discussions on how to message the concerns on how pesticides are being regulated and how that impacts those industries that rely on them. GCSAA shares NPMA's concerns that the pesticide registration process mandated by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is being hurt by decisions being made in the courts and at the local level. GCSAA supports efforts to restore the cooperative federalism balance under FIFRA in order to ensure a review process that protects public health while taking into account the economic, social and environmental costs and benefits of the use of any pesticide.
Helland joined NPMA members for a day of meetings before the United States Senate. Helland met with staffers in the offices of Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Robert Portman (R-OH) and Jerry Moran (R-KS). He also spoke directly with Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, and his staff about NPMA's critical issues.
Helland will continue to advocate, directly and with industry partners, to make sure the decisions being made in Washington take into account what superintendents do at their courses.