"Republicans on Thursday voted down a proposed amendment to the Farm Bill that would have protected consumer rights to sue pesticide manufacturers over alleged harm after the US Supreme Court recently narrowed those rights.
The amendment was brought forth by Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, during a Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry hearing on the Farm Bill that highlighted several partisan disagreements.
The hearing concluded with Democrats rejecting the current Farm Bill, a massive piece of legislation renewed roughly every five years that guides the federal government’s food and farm policy.
Booker’s amendment addressed the Supreme Court’s June decision that provided a new interpretation of language within the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) — the nation’s key law regulating pesticides. That interpretation prevents people from bringing failure-to-warn claims over harms alleged to be linked to pesticides if the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not require warnings."
