ISSAlert January 22, 2018

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Government Shutdown Impacts EPA Product Registrations

As you are no doubt aware, the Senate failed to pass legislation last Friday that would have provided for a temporary extension of the budget until Feb. 16 resulting in the federal government shutting down for the first time in more than four years.

One of the byproducts of the government shutdown and failure to temporarily extend the budget is the suspension of funding to EPA under the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA) which impacts the registration of pesticide products including disinfectants and sanitizers. 

Under the law, upon expiration of PRIA, maintenance fees are suspended (although they have already been invoiced for 2018), and registration fees are reduced by 40%.  However, the registration timelines under which EPA is required to process product registrations also disappear.  In addition, once the government re-opens, ISSA will work with other industry groups to ensure PRIA 4 (currently pending before Congress) is part of any agreed to spending deal or if there is a short-term spending deal, that PRIA 3 is re-instated retroactive to January 19. 

ISSA has made an inquiry with EPA for additional information on the impact the government shutdown will have on product registrations and will pass along the information as we received it from EPA.

A measure to provide temporary spending through Feb. 8 is on the Senate floor, and House members are on standby, unable to take advantage of their scheduled recess week until they know whether they’ll need to vote on reopening the government.  The Senate reconvened at 10 a.m. Eastern today and is expected to vote on the matter shortly.