iOn February 14, 2017, Rep. Rodney Davis [R-IL-13] introduced H.R. 1029, the "Pesticide Registration Enhancement Act of 2017" (PRIA 4), in the House of Representatives. On that same day, the House of Representatives referred the bill to the House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The bill intends "to amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act to improve pesticide registration and other activities under the Act, to extend and modify fee authorities, and for other purposes". The House Committee on Agriculture is scheduled to discuss H.R. 1029 tomorrow Thursday, February 16th at 10:00am.
Changes Under PRIA 4
If passed, PRIA will be reauthorized from fiscal years 2017 through 2023. The bill authorizes $31 million in maintenance fees per year, which is an increase from $27.8 from fiscal years 2013-2017. Of these fees, a $500,000 set-aside will support Good Laboratory Practices Inspections between fiscal years 2017 and 2023. An additional yearly set-aside of $500,000 between fiscal years 2017 and 2021 will support expedited rulemaking and guidance development for certain product performance data requirements, including products claiming efficacy against invertebrate pests of significant public health or economic importance. Between fiscal years 2017 and 2023, a set-aside between 1/9 and 1/8 of the maintenance fees collected in said year will be used to support the review of inert ingredient applications. The bill eliminates the $800,000 yearly set-aside to support information technology related activities.
PRIA 4 will increase registration service fees for some of the fee categories and fees will range from $277 to $753,082 per application. PRIA 4 will also increase the number of fee categories from 189 to 212. Some of the changes to the fee categories include:
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additional experimental use permit categories in RD, AD, and BPPD;
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additional end-use product and manufacturing use categories in RD and AD;
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additional amendment categories in RD, AD, and BPPD;
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additional PIP categories;
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revisions to AD categories for consistency with 158W; and
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new inert ingredient safener categories and adjusting decision review times for six inert ingredient categories.
Background
In 2004, Congress passed the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act of 2003 (PRIA), which created a registration fee system for pesticide registrations, amendments, and related tolerances. PRIA fees were authorized twice since inception, under PRIA 2 and PRIA 3. The most recent reauthorization, under PRIA 3, will expire on September 30, 2017.
H.R. 1029 is available at the following link:
https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr1029/BILLS-115hr1029ih.pdf
