U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) Assistant Administrator Alexandra Dapolito Dunn issued the following statement in response to President Donald Trump signing into law S. 483, the “Pesticide Registration Improvement Extension Act of 2018,†also known as PRIA 4:
“Since 2004, PRIA has been a key statute to ensuring timely review by EPA of pesticide registrations. PRIA 4 is supported by farmers and ranchers, environmental justice and worker protection organizations, and a broad array of manufacturers. EPA looks forward to implementing the new law to further the agency’s mission of protecting human health and the environment.â€
PRIA 4 reauthorizes and update s the fee collection provisions and authorities available under the “Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act†and addresses worker protection matters. Key elements of PRIA 4 include the following:
- Registration fees and maintenance fees that supplement appropriations to provide resources necessary for the timely review of new pesticide tools and reevaluation of currently registered pesticides
- Elimination of the appropriations constraint on spending maintenance fees (“1-to-1†provision), which has resulted in an inability of the EPA to fully spend maintenance fees collected from industry to support critical activities.
- Expedited review time frames and additional financial incentives for the development and submission of reduced risk pesticides.
- Registration service fee set-asides of $2 million dollars for worker protection activities, partnership grants, and pesticide safety education programs.
Establishment of new maintenance fee set-asides, including:
- $500K annually for develop and finalize rulemaking and guidance for product performance data requirements for certain invertebrate pests of significant public importance. The guidelines will benefit companies developing new public health and consumer pest control products by giving them clear guidance on how to conduct efficacy testing to satisfy registration requirements; and
- $500K annually to support Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) audits of laboratories that conduct studies in support of pesticide product registrations.
- Reporting requirements on the effectiveness of worker protection and pesticide safety education activities, the number of GLP inspections conducted, and progress in priority review and approval of new pesticides to control public health pests that may transmit vector-borne disease, among other reporting requirements.
