H.R. 1029 would modify the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), the law that regulates the distribution, sale, and use of pesticides, with the aim of strengthening the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ability to evaluate and regulate pesticides. Under FIFRA, the EPA is required to evaluate the safety of new pesticides entering the market by conducting risk assessments and must periodically re-evaluate the health and environmental effects of pesticides. The EPA charges fees to pesticide manufacturers and distributors to cover the agency’s costs of performing those registration and reregistration activities.
The legislation 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. Additional fees would lead to a net reduction in spending over the next five years of $1 million for related activities; such spending is subject to appropriation. CBO estimates that enacting the bill would reduce direct spending by $24 million over the 2018-2022 period, but would have no significant net effect on direct spending over the 2018-2027 period.
Because enacting the bill would affect direct spending, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. Enacting the bill 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.
The bill 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).
