Appropriations Rider Latest Win in Pesticide Industry’s Campaign to Avoid Cancer Liability

The House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee passed a budget package on Tuesday that would cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by 23% for the 2026 fiscal year. House Republicans tacked on several riders, including one to limit the EPA’s ability to update pesticide labels and give user guidance.

The rider would prevent the EPA from adopting any new pesticide warning labels that contradict the findings of two specific EPA pesticide health assessments, one of which is only required every 15 years for pesticides. This language may seem redundant or innocuous, but in practice, it could make it harder for the EPA to update pesticide warning labels to the latest science. EPA’s pesticide review process has been criticized for favoring industry over public health and permitting pesticides in the U.S. that are banned elsewhere.

Republican support for the rider connects to a larger lobbying campaign by pesticide corporations aimed at avoiding health-related lawsuits.  Since 2018, agrichemical goliath Bayer has paid more than $10 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits alleging that the active ingredient in its popular Roundup weed killer, glyphosate, causes cancer. These cases allege that Bayer failed to warn consumers about the risks of using its glyphosate-based weed killers, a legaroundl liability Bayer is trying to eradicate through the courts and new legislation.