Tennessee Lawmakers Postpone Pesticide Bill Until 2026

Chemical companies seeking legal immunity from Roundup-related lawsuits will have to wait a year to get their way in Tennessee.

The House Judiciary Committee opted Tuesday to postpone legislation until 2026 enabling Bayer/Monsanto to avoid liability in lawsuits connected to cancer claims. Republican Rep. Clay Doggett of Pulaski called for the delay less than a week after the full Senate passed its version of the bill.

“I felt like there was a lot of stakeholders, there was a lot of questions that we had that didn’t get answered,” Doggett said Tuesday.

Germany-based Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto, recently agreed to pay nearly $2.1 billion to a man who claimed he contracted non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma from Roundup. Some 170,000 similar lawsuits have been filed against the chemical company.

Under the legislation, though, as long as a pesticide manufacturer’s federally-approved label doesn’t warn of a disease, they couldn’t be held liable for causing an illness.