Passing the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act in 2022

Extending Regulatory and Business Predictability

Pesticides are a broad range of important products including crop protection products, mosquito and pest control, disinfectants, water treatment chemicals, materials preservatives and more.

Pesticides must be registered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which carefully reviews the risks and benefits of each product before it can be legally offered for sale in the United States. Pesticides are regulated by EPA under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act – FIFRA.

The registration process begins with the submission of an application package by the pesticide registrant – a company that manufactures or formulates pesticides. EPA examines the ingredients of the pesticide; the ways and places the product will be used; the amount, frequency, and timing of its use; and storage and disposal practices.

EPA also assesses the potential impacts to human health to ensure there is reasonable certainty of no harm to people and no unreasonable adverse effects to the environment, including non-target and endangered species.

EPA’s regulatory process is rigorous, taking up to 8-10 years before a new product is registered for sale and use. EPA’s evaluation includes scientific reviews of product data, the impact on people, the environment, animals, and its effectiveness against pests and pathogens.

Passage of the first Pesticide Registration Improvement Act in 2004 ensured that EPA has the resources to review and approve pesticide registration actions on predictable timelines, so companies can bring innovative new products and product uses to the marketplace.

Other key aspects of PRIA include continued funding for farmworker education and protection programs, and for important training programs. And, to ensure PRIA is working properly, the legislation requires EPA to report to Congress on its progress for completing its reviews and other defined actions on established timelines.

PRIA Brings Business Certainty that Serves Many Stakeholders

The benefits delivered by PRIA extend far beyond pesticide manufacturers. Whether the customer is a consumers, business, institution, utility, or government, each stakeholder relies on the availability of EPA-registered pesticides.

Products protect homes, pets, yards, landscapes, sports fields, trees, structures, highway and utility rights of way, ground transportation routes and shipping lanes. Public health, institutional and medical professionals can count on products to provide potable drinking water, clean swimming pools, disinfected and rodent free spaces and surfaces in hospitals, restaurants, airplanes, and school cafeterias.

Predictable access to products also ensures products are available to protect pets from insect-borne diseases and parasites. Innovative pest solutions also help protect military personnel from dangerous and nuisance pests when deployed overseas or stationed at home. Timely access to pesticides helps farmers and ranchers raise healthy crops to feed people and animals here in the U.S. and for export.

Reauthorizing the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA) is critical to a broad array of stakeholders. Businesses need predictable review timelines to make critical short- and long-term planning decisions that keep the supply of new and existing pesticide products available in the marketplace for consumers, professionals, and growers. For example, a crop protection company relies on EPA’s predictable timelines for review to help ensure a product is available in the market in time for a specific growing season. Similarly, antimicrobial product companies relied on PRIA predictability to bring disinfectant products that could kill the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 to the market.

PRIA’s predictable timelines for the industry support new product research and development, delivering important pest solutions for known and emerging pests and pathogens.

Before PRIA was first enacted in 2004, the review process lacked predictability, making it difficult to get products to market. PRIA has provided predictable timelines for industry that spurred new research and development, new products for growers, consumers, public health professionals, funds for completion of various registration activities including tolerance reassessment and registration review, and funds for pesticide safety education for farmworkers. These achievements were realized due to the stable and predictable funding that PRIA provides to EPA, and the law’s provisions for reporting and oversight from Congress. PRIA has resulted in process improvements and strong stakeholder engagement.

PRIA in Practical Terms

PRIA establishes service fees, paid by registrants, for most pesticide registration actions handled by EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP). PRIA provides necessary funding stability for OPP over a five-year period and improves predictability in the registration process by establishing decision review time periods for more than 200 pesticide product registration actions. Further, it also sets the target for collection of maintenance fees that companies pay annually to OPP to maintain product registrations. PRIA provides business certainty for the regulated community and allows EPA to fulfill the requirements set under PRIA and FIFRA.

Support for PRIA is Broad and Non-Partisan

PRIA was first enacted in 2004 through the work of a unique coalition consisting of the registrant community — including both agricultural and non-agricultural uses, antimicrobial companies, large and small companies, biotech companies, and biopesticide manufacturers — and environmental non-governmental organizations. The law has been reauthorized three times since 2004.

The regulatory certainty provided in PRIA is essential to the businesses engaged with pesticides and to the many end users of the products.

It is vital that Congress look to build upon the bipartisan approach that has seen PRIA passed unanimously in every reauthorization. In that respect, we support passage of the bipartisan version of PRIA 5 during 2022 in the 117th Congress.