[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18839]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 18839]]

              REGULATORY OPENNESS AND FAIRNESS ACT OF 1999

  Mr. BURNS. Mr. President I rise today to speak on the Regulatory
Openness and Fairness Act of 1999, of which I am an original cosponsor.
  This legislation will ensure that the Food Quality Protection Act 
(FQPA) will carry out its original intent while protecting agricultural 
producers from unnecessary regulations. The FQPA, enacted in 1996, was 
put in place to ensure that highest level of food safety. This is a 
necessary and worthwhile goal. However, the EPA currently makes rulings 
that are based on data without a sound science base. Instead, 
assumptions are based on propaganda and worst-case scenarios.
  This legislation requires EPA to modernize the laws governing 
pesticide use, using science-based data and evaluations. This will 
ensure that American consumers will continue to receive the world's 
safest food supply, and still allow those agricultural producers that 
provide food and fiber the means to do so.
  This bill will also require EPA to establish and administer a program 
for tracking the effect of regulatory decisions of U.S. agriculture as 
compared to world trends. Producers in other countries often do not 
face the regulatory nightmare American producers do. This will provide 
a measure for that different and the impact it has on agricultural 
producers in the U.S.
  Additionally, this bill will establish a permanent Pesticide Advisory 
Committee including food consumers, environmental groups, farmers, non-
agricultural pesticide users, food manufacturers, food distributors, 
pesticide manufacturers, federal and state agencies. Such a diverse 
group will serve all interests and maintain a safe food supply.
  I thank Mr. Hagel for sponsoring this fine bill and look forward to 
working with him in its passage. Through it we can work for the good of 
agriculture and food consumers alike.

                          ____________________