EPA Releases Pesticide Registration Analysis

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took a major step to evaluate key pesticide registration functions by releasing two evaluations of EPA programs. The effort supports the agency’s work to provide more regulatory certainty for companies that make pesticides and the businesses that use them to control pests and ensure our country’s food supply.

The first report provided the results of a third-party audit focused on assessing the operational performance of the agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) and provided recommendations for improvement. The second report evaluated OPP’s training and education gaps to support implementation of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA 5). The agency shared the information to help improve the registration process for pesticide registrants and other stakeholders. 

In December 2022, PRIA 5 was reauthorized with new mandates designed to enhance the efficiency, transparency, and accountability of EPA’s pesticide registration process. PRIA 5 called for a third-party process assessment to evaluate and improve OPP’s operational performance, as well as the training needs and potential gaps in existing materials. The results of these assessments is what the EPA released.

Additionally, PRIA 5 provided for an independent workforce assessment to evaluate the adequacy of staffing resources implementing PRIA. The workforce assessment is tentatively scheduled to be conducted next year.  

One of EPA’s top priorities is reducing the backlog of pesticide regulatory actions pending review. Since Jan. 20, EPA has decreased this backlog by over 5,000 actions.    

EPA is reviewing the reports to consider how to best implement the recommendations and remains committed to further process improvements and IT efforts to modernize key pesticide registration functions, reduce the pesticide registration backlog, and implement gold-standard science.