[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8310]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   REDUCING IMPACT ON DISEASE CONTROL

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 953, the 
Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act, which eliminates the need to apply for 
additional permits for using pesticides already approved for widespread 
use under current law.
  The permitting process places an unnecessary compliance burden on 
farmers who simply want to protect their crops using already available 
pesticides that have been determined to have minimal or no 
environmental impact in their original testing process.
  But of greater concern is the impact on disease control. This 
bureaucratic red tape can have the severe unintended consequence of 
raising the difficulty for local mosquito control districts, and 
others, and increase the likelihood that mosquito-transmitted diseases 
can spread.
  The Zika virus, which reached epidemic levels last year, remains a 
serious threat in the United States, with 119 cases still in place and 
over 400 cases in U.S. territories. We are not out of the woods yet.
  This duplicative process hamstrings health officials and agencies who 
are responsible for suppressing these viruses and maintaining public 
safety.
  This legislation provides critical protections of our Nation's food 
supply, as well as increasing our ability to combat public health 
crises, such as the Zika virus.
  H.R. 953 passed the House last year with bipartisan support, and I 
encourage my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to do so once 
again.

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