[Legislative Day] Up On The Hill

The National Pest Management Association’s Legislative Day in  February provided attendees with the opportunity to meet with their senators and congressmen and discuss pressing regulatory issues affecting the pest management industry. About 400 members of the pest management industry attended the event.

Attendees heard from speakers such as TV personality Ann Coulter, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer and former Independent Counsel investigator Ken Starr.

As part of Legislative Day, attendees from throughout the U.S. traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with their senators and congressmen. In these meetings PCOs urged their respective legislators to sponsor/cosponsor the Clean Water Act-FIFRA Harmonization Act and to contact EPA in support of the Endangered Species Counterpart Regulations.

CWA-FIFRA HARMONIZATION ACT. In the last few years, with the rise of mosquito-borne diseases, a significant growth market for the pest control industry has been mosquito control.

However, an impediment to mosquito control has been the ongoing conflict between the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Federal, Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

The dispute stems from a March 2001 court case titled Headwater, Inc. v. Talent. In this case, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that FIFRA was irrelevant in a situation where an Oregon irrigation district was applying an aquatic herbicide to clear weeds from its canals. The court said that the statute of standing is the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the court required the district to obtain a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit prior to continuing the herbicide application. NPDES permits are obtained through EPA or the authorized state agency (the agency with primary authority on water issues). During the past two years, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has broadened this theory to cover applications of pesticides to, near or above bodies of water.

Similar cases have been decided in the East but the outcomes were more favorable to industry. For example, the U.S. District Court for the Southern New York District issued a ruling in November 2002, saying that Congress did not intend for CWA to conflict with FIFRA.

Legislative Day attendees asked that Congress consider and approve legislation making clear that applicators applying pesticides registered under FIFRA according to label directions do not have to obtain an NPDES permit under the CWA.

CLASS ACTION REFORM. The other significant issue PCOs asked their legislators to support was class action reform. H.R. 1115, S. and S. 1751 are bills that would move large, multi-state class-action lawsuits to federal court to prevent "venue shopping" by trial lawyers looking for more sympathetic state courts.

Small businesses often are named as defendants in multi-state class-action lawsuits not because of any wrongdoing, but as a way for attorneys to pick a favorable state court to hear the case. "We’re in favor of good, common sense class-action liability reform," said Gene Harrington, manager of government affairs, NPMA. "This type of legislation is more fair to businesses and it ensures that justice is actually being served."

Last August, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Class Action Fairness Act of 2003, but the bill later stalled in the Senate. But, after months of negotiation, it appears a compromise is near and the legislation has a chance of winning approval this Congress, Harrington says.

The author is Internet editor of www.pctonline.com.