***Click here for video. Click here for audio.***

WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, during a Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) questioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, Ms. Michal Freedhoff, on the status of the agency finalizing a rule on tolerances for safe uses of chlorpyrifos, a crop protection tool widely used by Midwest sugarbeet growers. The EPA responded to Senator Cramer’s November 2023 chlorpyrifos letter a day before the hearing saying the agency intends to issue a notice “as soon as possible” correcting the Code of Federal Regulations to reflect the current legal status of the chlorpyrifos tolerances.

During the hearing, Senator Cramer asked Freedhoff for clarity on the EPA restoring the tolerances of chlorpyrifos. Freedhoff acknowledged the confusion and said she met with several grower groups to discuss it. She added they will talk with pesticide companies to incorporate additional mitigations discussed in the 2020 decision, as well as some of the Endangered Species Act work needed in order to comply with the law.

“I want to ask you to drill down a little bit on some of the specifics in response,” asked Cramer. “Specifically, is the EPA beginning the process of restoring or how are you restoring these tolerances?”

“So first of all, what the Eighth Circuit did was it vacated EPA’s rule that took away the permission to use chlorpyrifos on food crops. So that decision has already happened and all of those permissions to use chlorpyrifos in food are back in effect. EPA has to write basically a technical correction to the Code of Federal Regulations,” Freedhoff said. “I think that's happening next week, but it's already in effect. I think the next thing that we're doing and the timeline on this I can't be quite as specific about is, you know, the Eighth Circuit decision, as well as a 2020 document that the agency put out on chlorpyrifos really focused on 11 uses of chlorpyrifos that had high benefits.”

“You touched on the confusion that seemed to sort of permeate the early statements,” concluded Cramer. “All I would say in wrapping up, Mr. Chairman and Madam Assistant Administrator, just be as clear as you can be. Because we are heading towards spring and the new seasons, so it's everybody from the manufacturers, the suppliers, the users themselves, the producers themselves that seek this clarity. It's critical to get it done in a timely fashion.”

Background:
Following a ruling on chlorpyrifos by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in August 2021, the EPA released a Final Rule revoking all food tolerances for chlorpyrifos. Prior to the EPA’s ban, agricultural use of the pesticide passed multiple safety reviews.

On December 15, 2022, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals heard argument in Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association et al. v. Michael Regan, filed by the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association, American Crystal Sugar Company, Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative, the North Dakota Soybean Growers Association, and several other organizations. The lawsuit alleged the EPA unlawfully banned the use of chlorpyrifos on food and feed crops in 2021. In its ruling, the Court vacated the EPA’s August 2021 Final Rule, finding the EPA’s ban to be “arbitrary and capricious.”

In November 2023, Senator Cramer led a bicameral letter to the EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), demanding the EPA abide by the ruling of the Eight Circuit and allow safe uses of the pesticide. On December 19, 2023, the EPA announced that it would allow tolerances for use of chlorpyrifos for 11 food and feed crops.