On February 14, 2019, the Senate approved S. 483 to reauthorize the Pesticide Registration Improvement Extension Act (PRIA 4). The Senate bill did not have the specific categories and timelines of earlier reauthorization language, referring instead to more general legislative language that the Senate approved during the Farm Bill authorization in 2018. Legislation in this new session of Congress was necessary since PRIA was not reauthorized as part of the appropriations language approved by Congress to end the government shutdown. More information on the Senate bill is available in our blog item “PRIA Not Extended in Appropriations Bill; PRIA 4 Bill Passed by Senate.”
When, on February 25, 2019, the House of Representatives also approved S. 483, the legislation included the specific timelines and PRIA categories which appeared in the original PRIA 4 proposal. This meant that either the different language in the legislation would need a House-Senate conference, or, the Senate could simply vote again and approve the House version of S. 483. That is the course of action taken by the Senate, which then approved the amended text (the House approved language) of S. 483 on February 28, 2019.
The legislation now awaits signature by the President, and then PRIA 4 will become law. It extends PRIA through fiscal year (FY) 2023. The legislation raises the industry registration fees and refines some of the categories of actions from PRIA 3 (specific legislative text is available here).