What’s up with the pesticide liability shield (Section 453 of the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill)?

This Appropriations bill that included this rider was expected to be voted on by the full House this month, but so far it has not been put before the House for a vote.

Rumor has it that Section 453 will be removed from this bill, but is likely to wind up in another bill, possibly the Farm Bill.

The Farm Bill is supposed to be passed every 5 years and is a large and very expensive bill that allots money for 16 federal nutrition programs—the largest being SNAP (food stamps) which provides funds for about 14% of Americans for food purchases. It also allots a great deal of money for farm subsidy programs and many other things.

Five years ended in 2023 but this huge bill was not completed that year, nor in 2024, and it may not be completed this year either. Instead there have been continuing resolutions that keep funding the same programs as before.

What is different this year is that many of the traditional Farm Bill expenditures were included in the One Big Beautiful Bill, so most of the Farm Bill spending has already been decided. With the big items out of the way, it is less crucial to pass the rest of the bill this year.

If the pesticide liability shield is not placed in what remains of the Farm Bill this year, where might it go? I don’t think it can be passed as a standalone bill—it is too unpopular with constituents. Because of you, this bill has become kryptonite.

If placed in a must-pass bill, the members of Congress can use the excuse that they were against it, but it passed because other things in the bill had to pass.

At this point it is unclear what will happen, but the amount of constituent interest has definitely had an effect. My guess is that this bill will quietly disappear. But you never know—$17 billion can buy a lot of votes.

The lies that Bayer has generated to support the bill continue. Check out this website:

https://www.protectingamericainitiative.com/news/rep-simpson-leading-on-securing-american-agriculture

Rep. Simpson, the snake that fronted for this bill, is recast as a hero, though it is unclear what he did that was heroic. And it is critical that we save America from Chinese pesticides and buy German ones instead. All our lobbyists and affiliated organizations support a pesticide bill, dontcha know?

I don’t think I posted my slide deck on this subject, so here it is. More Bayer lies are at the end.