[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 7620]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              REGULATORY FAIRNESS AND OPENNESS ACT OF 1999

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                            HON. ALLEN BOYD

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 27, 1999

  Mr. BOYD. Mr. Speaker, crop protection tools are necessary for family 
farmers to provide a safe and reliable food supply to the consumer and 
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must use sound science to 
evaluate and determine which products are dependable and safe. If this 
is not accomplished, safe and useful crop protection products will be 
unavailable for use by the family farmer and the quality and 
affordability of wholesome food supply will be jeopardized.
  For this reason, I joined several of my colleagues today in 
introducing the Regulatory Fairness and Openness and Act of 1999. This 
bipartisan legislation will give EPA the ability to address potential 
problems with the registration and re-registration processes for crop 
protection tools during the implementation of the Food Quality 
Protection Act of 1996. This bill ensures that the EPA has the 
capability to adequately evaluate and analyze all available, accessible 
data and information and to use the best science to determine which 
crop protection tools will be available for the family farmer. This Act 
does not change the FQPA standards for pesticide evaluations, it 
clarifies the processes employed for evaluation in order to allow for 
full and scientifically correct compliance with the requirements of the 
FQPA.
  Without the Regulatory and Openness Act of 1999, many crop protection 
tools will be eliminated for use by agriculture, putting the farmers in 
the United States at a competitive disadvantage with foreign imports. 
These imports do not have to meet the strict regulatory requirements 
that our farmers must follow.
  Further, if the EPA eliminates crop protection tools without allowing 
time for the development of new alternatives, family farmers will lose 
crops to pest infestations and the consumer will lose the quality and 
quantity of food available to them. This bill encourages and supports 
research into expanded information gathering on the use of crop 
protection tools and research into the development of new alternatives 
for managing pests in agriculture.
  I urge my colleagues to support this very important legislation. The 
Regulatory Fairness and Openness Act of 1999 is important not only for 
agricultural America, but for all Americans. Through complete and 
thorough risk assessments of crop protection tools using actual and 
relevant data and sound science, the EPA and family farmers can 
continue to provide our country's citizens with the safest, most 
abundant food supply in the world.

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