H.R. 1029 would modify the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the law that regulates the distribution, sale, and use of pesticides. Under FIFRA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to evaluate the safety of new pesticides entering the market (known as pesticide registration) by conducting risk assessments and must periodically re-evaluate the health and environmental effects of pesticides (known as reregistration). The EPA charges fees to pesticide manufacturers and distributors to cover the agency’s costs of performing those registration and reregistration activities.
The act would extend the agency’s authority to charge those fees—currently set to expire in 2018—and also would increase the total amount of fees that the agency is allowed to charge. CBO estimates that the collection of additional fees would be offset by additional spending, resulting in no significant net effect on direct spending, or spending subject to appropriation, over the 2018-2027 period.
Because enacting H.R. 1029 would affect direct spending, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. Enacting the legislation would not affect revenues.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 1029 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
H.R. 1029 would impose intergovernmental and private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). CBO estimates that the cost of those mandates would fall below the annual thresholds for intergovernmental and private-sector mandates established in UMRA ($78 million and $156 million in 2017, respectively, adjusted annually for inflation).
