Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), along with 15 Senate colleagues, are challenging the EPA to abandon its proposed mitigation measures targeting 11 rodenticides. In a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, the senators urged Regan to consult the businesses and individuals who rely on rodent control products when developing rules that affect their operations. “As written, the proposed mitigation measures will place severe restrictions on product users and result in crop damage and livestock loss, jeopardize the safety of the food supply, weaken public health protections, and make it more difficult for people to protect their homes and properties from rodents,” the letter says. The EPA’s proposed mitigation measures would classify most rodent control products as restricted-use pesticides and require users to become licensed, state-certified applicators. It would prohibit surface application methods for protecting crops and require growers to conduct carcass searches for two weeks after application.
In addition to Senators Grassley, Ernst, and letter author Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) the letter was signed by Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), James Risch (R-Idaho), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), John Thune (R-S.D.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
