Congress Should Ban Glyphosate, Not Bail out Bayer!

In 2020, Bayer agreed to pay roughly $10 billion in a landmark settlement with Roundup-exposed cancer victims. Yet tens of thousands of additional claims remain unresolved. Bayer is on the hook for billions of dollars more for acting with “malice, oppression or fraud” to hide the fact that the glyphosate-based herbicide the company acquired when it bought Monsanto causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Members of Congress are taking notice, but so far, none have introduced legislation to ban glyphosate and many are actually trying to help Bayer escape liability!

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Ban Glyphosate, Not Bail Out Bayer!

What has Congress done since 2015, when the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) unanimously determined that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen?

In 2016, Congressman Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) hosted a Congressional briefing featuring independent scientists who explained how glyphosate is linked to cancer and other health issues. An organic farmer who also spoke at the briefing explained how to farm successfully without using carcinogenic herbicides.

In April 2017, Democratic leaders on the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee echoed Congressman Lieu’s statement in a letter  to the Republican Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman. The leaders demanded hearings on whether Monsanto had colluded with unscrupulous U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees to interfere in the regulatory process by, among other things, removing members from a Scientific Advisory Panel because they were expected to offer evidence of glyphosate’s risks, accepting “scientific” papers on glyphosate that were ghostwritten by Monsanto and blocking other executive branch agencies from monitoring and studying glyphosate.

In March 2017, Congressman Lieu demanded a Congressional hearing  in response to “[r]eports suggest[ing] that a senior official at the EPA worked to suppress a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services review of glyphosate, and may have leaked information to Monsanto.”

In 2018, a hearing on these issues was held in the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Science, Space & Technology. The Democratic members of the committee published a minority report on the hearing, “Spinning Science & Silencing Scientists: A Case Study in How the Chemical Industry Attempts to Influence Science.” The report found:

“There is significant evidence that Monsanto launched a disinformation campaign to undermine IARC’s classification of glyphosate as a probable carcinogen . . . Monsanto engaged in a decades-long concerted effort to fend off any evidence suggesting potential adverse human health effects from glyphosate and more recently to undermine IARC’s findings. They ghost wrote scientific articles on glyphosate, established front groups to help amplify their anti-IARC message and scientific evidence they did not like, and they attempted to silence scientists who reached conclusions questioning glyphosate’s safety.”

In 2019, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) became the first presidential candidate and federal legislator to call for a ban on Roundup. 

In 2019, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) introduced the Keep Food Safe from Glyphosate Act to ban the practice of spraying glyphosate as a pre-harvest drying agent and require the EPA to restore the permissible level of glyphosate residues on oats to the original level of 0.1 parts per million.

That bill garnered seven cosponsors, but hasn’t been introduced since.

In 2023, Congressmen Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) and Jim Costa (D-Calif.), two members of the House Agriculture Committee, introduced the so-called Agricultural Labeling Uniformity Act to prevent any “court from … imposing … any requirements for, or penalize or hold liable any entity for failing to comply with requirements with respect to, labeling or packaging that is in addition to or different from the labeling or packaging approved by the Administrator [of the Environmental Protection Agency]… including any requirements relating to warnings on such labeling or packaging.”

This bill to relieve Bayer of liability for failure to warn customers that Roundup causes cancer (which Monsanto and the EPA have known since the 1980s), has seven cosponsors and has been incorporated into the House of Representatives’ 2024 Farm Bill.

It will surprise no one to that each and every Member of Congress who put their name on this #BayerProtectionAct has taken campaign cash from the company:

Congressman Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) is a cheap date. Bayer gives him $3000, he saves them billions in jury awards to Roundup-exposed cancer victims.

As a Democrat, Congressman Jim Costa (D-Calif.)’s price was slightly higher. Bayer gave him $3500 to deprive Roundup-exposed cancer victims of their day in court.

Congressman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) also took a (legal) bribe from Bayer–$7,500 in 2024.

Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (D-IL13) took $2,667.

Congressman Brad Finstad (R-MN01) took $2500.

Congresswoman Angie Craig (D-MN02) took $3,667.

Congressman Tracey Mann (R-KS01) kept his hands clean of Bayer’s blood money by taking (legal) bribes from political action committees that Bayer donated to (including Save America) rather than taking money directly from the foreign company.

Congressman Don Davis (D-NC) did the same, taking money from Supporting House Problem Solvers, a PAC that Bayer funds.

Bayer is a German company with Nazi roots. As a foreign corporation, it’s not allowed to make political contributions. Buying Monsanto changed all of that. Now that it has a U.S. subsidiary, it too can buy politicians just like American companies do.

Bayer is now one of the top companies engaged in the legal bribery we call lobbying and campaign contributions. Bayer spends more money influencing the U.S. Congress than most American businesses, ranking 59th among 7,866 corporations buying influence on Capitol Hill.

Let’s make Bayer the number-one company that Members of Congress are hearing complaints about!

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to ban glyphosate, not bail out Bayer!

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