EPA Issues Annual Progress Report on Pesticide Reregistration Performance Measures and Goals
On April 6, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the availability of its progress report in meeting its performance measures and goals for pesticide reregistration during fiscal year 2017 (2017 Report). Section 4(l) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) requires EPA to publish information about EPA’s annual achievements in this area. The 2017 Report discusses the completion of tolerance reassessment and describe the status of various regulatory activities associated with reregistration. The 2017 Report also provides the total number of products reregistered and products registered under the “fast-track” provisions of FIFRA. The report is available at EPA-HQ-OPP-2014-0125. Comments can be submitted on or before June 5, 2020.
EPA’s completed product registration actions totaled 255, short of EPA’s goal of 600 actions. The table below details the actions completed in FY 2017.
Table 1.—Product Reregistration Actions Completed in FY 2017 (as of September 30, 2017)
| Actions | FY 2017 |
|---|---|
| Product reregistration actions | 14 |
| Product amendment actions | 113 |
| Product cancellation actions | 128 |
| Product suspension actions | 0 |
| Total actions | 255 |
EPA also states that there were 4,370 products had product reregistration decisions pending at the end of FY 2017, compared to 4,621 products with product reregistration decisions pending at the end of FY 2016, and 5,133 products with product reregistration decisions pending at the end of FY 2015. Regarding changes in the universe of products in product reregistration, EPA states: “an increase or decrease can be due to fluctuations in numbers of products associated with product-specific Data Call-Ins (PDCIs).”
The number of applications for registration requiring expedited processing (i.e., “fast track” applications) that EPA considered and approved has been more consistent in recent years, with 2,223, 2,422, and 2,574 in 2015, 2016, and 2017 respectively.