WASHINGTON, D.C.— Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL-03) joined Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO-04) and Rep. Tracy Mann (R-KS-01) in pushing back on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent proposed revisions to the interim decision for atrazine, a critical crop protection tool.
Atrazine is an herbicide used to protect corn, sorghum, sugarcane, and a variety of other crops from damaging weeds. For nearly 60 years, atrazine has been a reliable and proven herbicide for effective and efficient sustainable farming practices.
On January 30, 2022, the EPA released proposed revisions to the previous atrazine decision that included new labeling and mitigation requirements. The EPA decided to reduce the aquatic ecosystem CE-LOC from 15 parts per billion (ppb) to 3.4 ppb, a decision based on invalid studies and questionable conclusions. This change contradicts previous scientific evidence and will have widespread impacts on the use and effectiveness for atrazine. In addition, the EPA proposed an unworkable list of mitigation measures that producers would be required to implement when using atrazine.
America’s producers rely on crop protection tools such as atrazine to help them provide the safest, most abundant, and most affordable food, fiber, and fuel supply in the world.
“I’m proud to join my colleagues in this critical effort to address the EPA’s overreach on this matter,” said Rep. Cammack. “As the only Florida Republican on the House Agriculture Committee, I know how badly our farmers are hurting right now while facing labor shortages, rising fertilizer prices, inflation, and more. Restricting the use of atrazine—a trusted and proven herbicide—will only exacerbate the current state of the agricultural economy by placing more red tape and marking it harder for our growers to produce these essential crops.”
“We are alarmed by the agency’s departure from sound science by changing the concentration equivalent level of concern, and also with the mitigation measures in the proposed revisions,” the members wrote. “We know that the EPA asked the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to consult on a proposed ‘picklist’ of mitigation measures a producer would be required to implement when using atrazine; however, it is abundantly clear that the EPA did not incorporate any of USDA’s feedback in these revisions.”
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https://cammack.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-cammack-joins-reps-hartzler-mann-colleagues-pushing-back-epas-new-atrazine
