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October 15, 2024

EPA Issues Annual Progress Report on Pesticide Reregistration Performance Measures and Goals

Lisa R. BurchiBarbara Christianson

On October 3, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the availability of its progress report (Report) in meeting its performance measures and goals for pesticide reregistration during fiscal years (FY) 2020, 2021, and 2022. 89 Fed. Reg. 80558. 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 Report discusses the completion of tolerance reassessment and describes the status of various regulatory activities associated with reregistration. The 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 December 2, 2024.

For FY 2020, EPA’s completed product reregistration actions totaled 80, short of EPA’s goal of 150 actions. EPA states it was unable to achieve the 150 actions due to resource constraints and conflicting work priorities, particularly due to COVID-19 and the increased volume of actions for disinfectants and sanitizers. The table below details the actions completed in FY 2020.

Table 1. Product Reregistration Actions Completed in FY 2020
(as of December 8, 2020)

ActionsFY 2020
Product reregistration actions12
Product amendment actions3
Product cancellation actions65
Product suspension actions0
Total actions80

For FY 2021, EPA’s completed product reregistration actions totaled 89, short of EPA’s goal of 100 actions. Again, EPA states it was unable to achieve the 100 actions due to the same resource constraints and conflicting work priorities stated for FY 2020. The table below details the actions completed in FY 2021.

Table 2. Product Reregistration Actions Completed in FY 2021
(as of February 8, 2022)

ActionsFY 2021
Product reregistration actions1
Product amendment actions8
Product cancellation actions65
Product suspension actions15
Total actions89

For FY 2022, EPA’s completed product reregistration actions totaled 86, short of EPA’s goal of 100 actions. Again, EPA states it was unable to meet its goal for the same reason it did not meet its FY 2020 and FY 2021 goals (i.e.,resource constraints and conflicting work priorities, particularly due to COVID-19). The table below details the actions completed in FY 2022.

Table 3. Product Reregistration Actions Completed in FY 2022
(as of February 28, 2023)

ActionsFY 2022
Product reregistration actions1
Product amendment actions2
Product cancellation actions83
Product suspension actions0
Total actions86

EPA also states that 3,826 products had product reregistration decisions pending at the end of FY 2022, compared to 4,081 products with product reregistration decisions pending at the end of FY 2019, and 4,193 products with product reregistration decisions pending at the end of FY 2018. Regarding changes in the universe of products in product reregistration, EPA states: “[p]ending products were awaiting science reviews, label reviews, or reregistration decisions by EPA.” EPA states it did not issue any Data Call-Ins (DCI) to support product reregistration actions in FYs 2020-2022.

The number of applications for registration requiring expedited processing (i.e.,“fast-track” applications) that EPA considered and approved has dropped slightly in FYs 2021 and 2022, with 1,863, 1,656, and 1,610 in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively.