Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Berg voted in favor of an act to limit overreaching EPA regulations on farmer’s use of pesticides. 

H.R. 872, the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011, amends the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and Clean Water Act (CWA) to exempt pesticides used according to the label from the need for a duplicative CWA permit.  

Berg serves as a co-sponsor to H.R. 872, which passed by a vote of 292-130.

Yesterday, Congressman Berg spoke on the House floor in favor of this legislation, stating that H.R. 872 would help to “protect American farmers from the overreaching of EPA regulations.”

Congressman Berg’s full remarks may be viewed here, and are as follows:

I rise today to strongly urge my colleagues to pass this legislation to protect American farmers from overreaching of EPA regulations. If this ruling were to stand, the EPA would have full discretion over controlling a buffer zone for chemicals on crops near water sources.

Now, I’ve talked with farmers in North Dakota, and they rely on the use of herbicides like Roundup to produce a good crop and to prevent weeds from growing.  Most of central North Dakota sits in a rich area known as the Prairie Pot Hole region.  Many of these farmers plant on land that is within the EPA’s buffer zone.  This ruling could prevent these farmers from raising a good crop in this land.

If this ruling goes into effect, it will require over 6 million new permits, and those will need to be issued to hundreds of thousands of farmers.  If they don’t comply, they will face a fine of up to $37,000 per day per incident.

We know that overregulation hurts American businesses.  Overregulation hurts family farms.  I strongly urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.

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