House Appropriations Committee Advances Bill To Keep Public In Dark About Pesticide Risks
Today, the House Appropriations Committee voted by party line to approve a Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations bill, inclusive of language (Sec. 453) that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from improving the rules for warning labels on pesticides. The legislation heads to the House floor after August recess.
The move comes as Roundup manufacturer Bayer pushes to pass the Cancer Gag Act, which would shield pesticide corporations from health related lawsuits. The Cancer Gag Act was introduced in twelve states this year to robust opposition; it failed in nine and passed in two (the bill is still pending in North Carolina). Reintroduction of the federal Cancer Gag Act, introduced last year as the Agricultural Uniformity Labeling Act, is expected this year.
Food & Water Watch Senior Food Policy Analyst Rebecca Wolf issued the following statement:
“Today’s despicable vote to further defund the government will undermine public health. There is hardly a family in America untouched by cancer, a disease repeatedly linked to industrial agriculture. Today’s vote gives Big Ag their cake and lets them eat it too — enabling pesticide corporations to profit off dangerous chemicals and preventing the public from being any the wiser about the risks to their own health.
“The Senate must reject this bill out of hand; commit to funding the federal government without hamstringing the EPA; and stand firmly against efforts to pass the Cancer Gag Act in any way, shape or form.”
The appropriations bill language is one of several ways Cancer Gag Act supporters are seeking to pass pesticide immunity language through Congress. Bayer’s push to limit liability comes as the corporation has spent over $11 billion settling more than 100,000 cancer lawsuits related to their Roundup product, whose active ingredient glyphosate was determined to be "probably carcinogenic to humans" by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. Pesticide residue has been widely detected in Americans, with some studies finding residue in 100% of U.S. urine samples.