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As the federal government endures another prolonged shutdown, uncertainty is rippling through every agency, with the impact clearly visible at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). With only a fraction of staff on duty and most routine operations halted, the chemical and pesticide regulatory landscape faces a new round of challenges in both the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) and the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP). EPA’s September 29, 2025, contingency plan...

On October 9, 2025, as part of the reauthorization mandates of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act of 2022 (PRIA 5), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of two reports prepared from the result of third-party audits that evaluated pesticide registration processes and functions conducted by EPA. According to EPA, the first report provides the results of the audit that focused on assessing the operational performance of EPA’s Office of Pesticide...

Given the cancellation of an expected meeting between President Trump and the congressional Democratic leadership, it appears there will not be any agreement about appropriations for fiscal year (FY) 2026 before the start of the new FY. Absent enacted funding past September 30, 2025, a federal shutdown will begin at 12:01 a.m. (EDT) on October 1, 2025. Now What? There was hope for a Continuing Resolution (CR) of some length that would have allowed negotiations to continue about funding the new...

On August 14, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of its Pesticide App for Label Mitigations (PALM), which is described as an “easy-to-use, mobile-friendly tool to serve as a one-stop shop that helps farmers and applicators use EPA’s mitigation menu to reduce pesticide exposure to nontarget species from agricultural crop uses.” According to EPA, this new tool will allow farmers to access quickly mitigation information from the final Insecticide...

Mr. Kyle Kunkler has been appointed the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticides at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP). Since February 2020, Kunkler has been directing government affairs for the American Soybean Association (ASA) in Washington, D.C., with a focus on the biotech and crop protection portfolio. Kunkler, before joining ASA, spent three years with the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), managing...

On June 12, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of updated refined interim core maps that identify areas that EPA states are important to 12 threatened or endangered (listed) species and their critical habitats as designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). These refined interim maps are based on information developed by FWS and were developed by EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP), the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), and...

On April 29, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of its final Insecticide Strategy (Strategy), available here. EPA states in the Strategy that it is “intended to create a consistent, reasonable, transparent, and understandable approach to assess potential impacts and identify mitigations to reduce potential population-level impacts to listed species from the use of agricultural insecticides.” Specifically, EPA states that the Strategy identifies...

On April 18, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced updates to its pesticide registration tracking app, MyPest. EPA states MyPest allows registrants of pesticide products to monitor the status of their pesticide registration submissions in real time. The launch of the latest version of MyPest includes updates to an enhanced dashboard page with information about the registrant’s cases and products, the ability to view detailed information of each application, and the...

On November 6, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of updates to suggestions it provides to registrants when they develop benefits information for new conventional pesticide registrations and new outdoor uses of conventional pesticides. EPA states the updated document may assist registrants to ensure they submit useful and complete benefits-related information and thus save EPA’s review time for new pesticide registrations and outdoor uses. As background,...

On January 11, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is implementing a new policy regarding the evaluation and registration of new conventional pesticide active ingredients (AI) to comply further with the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (ESA Policy). EPA also issued a Question and Answer document regarding its ESA Policy. Effective immediately, EPA will evaluate the potential effects of new conventional AIs on federally threatened or listed endangered...