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H.R. 953: Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2017

May 24, 2017 at 5:10 p.m. ET. On Passage of the Bill in the House.

This was a vote to pass H.R. 953 (115th) in the House.

H.R. 953 amends the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (also known as the Clean Water Act of CWA) to clarify that it is the intent of Congress that pesticides registered and properly used under FIFRA do not require an additional CWA permit for their use in or around navigable waters.

FIFRA governs the sale and use of pesticides in the U.S. through registration and labeling, in order to “protect human health and the environment from unreasonable adverse effects of pesticides.” FIFRA requires all pesticides be labeled indicating approved uses and restrictions. The objective of the CWA is to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s water.” It does this through prohibiting the discharge of a pollutant without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

In 30 years of administering the CWA, the EPA had not required an NPDES permit for the application of a pesticide when the pesticide is applied in a manner consistent with FIFRA. In the 1990s, citizen suits began being filed contending that an NPDES permit is necessary when applying a FIFRA-permitted product into a body of water. This resulted in numerous court decisions that created confusion regarding pesticide use under the CWA.

A 2006 EPA rule codified the long-standing interpretation that the application of a FIFRA-approved pesticide did not require an NPDES permit. However, this rule was vacated in 2009 by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which required the EPA to develop and implement a new NPDES permitting process under the CWA to cover pesticide use. Rather than defending EPA’s long held position, the Obama Administration decided to institute a duplicative permitting process.

The new permitting process has increased the administrative and monetary burden on pesticide applicators, sometimes imposing as much as $50,000 in compliance costs annually for small businesses and local governments.

This legislation, which is consistent with EPA’s 2006 rule, eliminates the duplicative NPDES permit requirement for the application of pesticides.

Source: Republican Policy Committee

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Totals

All Votes R D
Aye 61%
 
 
256
231
 
25
 
No 39%
 
 
165
1
 
164
 
Not Voting
 
 
9
5
 
4
 

Passed. Simple Majority Required. Source: house.gov.

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Notes: The Speaker’s Vote?
The Speaker of the House is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings, except when such vote would be decisive.” In practice, this means the Speaker of the House rarely votes and only does so when it is politically useful. When the Speaker declines to vote, he or she is simply omitted from the roll call by the House Clerk. (See House Rules, Rule I(7).)
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