Federal lawmakers are being asked to consider two dueling pieces of legislation: one that protects the right of Americans to sue a pesticide maker if exposure to the company’s product harms their health, and one that protects chemical companies from those very types of lawsuits.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) today introduced the Pesticide Injury Accountability Act of 2025. The proposed bill would amend the existing Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) law to ensure that agrochemical manufacturers can be held accountable if their products harm human health.
“If passed, the law would turn the tables on efforts by Bayer and a coalition of agricultural organizations as they push for state-by-state legislation blocking individuals from being able to file lawsuits in state courts accusing the companies of failing to warn of the risks of their products,” investigative reporter Carey Gillam wrote in The New Lede.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee approved an appropriations bill with a clause that would make it more difficult for states to regulate pesticides or for people harmed by agrochemicals to sue the companies that make them, according to the Center for Food Safety.
The clause limits the use of federal funds to regulate pesticides by restricting regulators’ ability to create new rules or require warnings stronger than those already approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Hellbound and Down 