/>iOn July 17, 2025, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced legislation that would establish a private right of action for injuries caused by pesticides (S.2324). The introduction of S.2324, the Pesticide Injury Accountability Act of 2025, if enacted, is intended to allow cases against pesticide manufacturers for alleged harm caused by their pesticide products. In his press release, Booker states: “Rather than providing a liability shield so that foreign corporations are allowed to poison the American people, Congress should instead pass the Pesticide Injury Accountability Act to ensure that these chemical companies can be held accountable in federal court for the harm caused by their toxic products.”
Specifically, the legislation would amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) by adding the following language:
“Sec. 34. PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION FOR INJURIES CAUSED BY PESTICIDES.
(a) IN GENERAL.— Any person the property or person of which is injured by a pesticide may bring a civil action in Federal district court against a registrant of the pesticide for monetary damages for injury to the property or person caused by the pesticide.
(b) RECOVERABLE DAMAGES.— Monetary damages that may be recovered in a civil action under subsection (a) — (1) include compensatory and punitive damages, at the discretion of the court; and (2) do not include attorney’s fees or court costs.
(c) EFFECT.— Nothing in this section shall preempt any State law claim.”
More information regarding the Senate legislation is available here.
Commentary
Senator Booker has introduced FIFRA amendments in past years that offered a much larger list of “reforms” to the way pesticides are regulated. In 2023, he introduced S.269, and in the previous session of Congress, S.3263 in 2021. Both of those bills were over 40 pages long and offered changes to many parts of the current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulatory program. Of particular note, those previous bills would have called for the immediate suspension of a pesticide if it was not allowed to be used in any member of the European Union (EU) or Canada, amending FIFRA to include:
The Administrator shall immediately suspend the registration of any active ingredient or pesticide product that is banned or otherwise prohibited from entering the market by the European Union, 1 or more countries in the European Union, or Canada.
Under the language of the earlier bills, it was not clear what would happen to a pesticide used on a crop grown in the United States but not grown in the EU or Canada (e.g., since Canada is not a cotton-producing region, a cotton insecticide could be “otherwise prohibited” there). The intent of this earlier language as described by supporters is that pesticides banned by another country — especially in the EU where they are believed to use a more protective regulatory standard — should not be used in the United States. That earlier legislation would have allowed continued use of the pesticide banned in the EU or Canada if the “decision [to prohibit use] was clearly erroneous,” but it was not clear if a prohibition due to what crops are grown in which regions would be considered an “error.”
The legislation introduced in 2025 is much more limited in scope and does not include the many specific directives about how to amend the current pesticide regulatory framework that were part of the earlier proposals. S.2324 would be an important change to current law and is among the long-desired changes to FIFRA sought by critics of the current law.
This “private right of action” to challenge EPA decisions under the current law has been considered by Congress in past legislative debates. When FIFRA amendments in 1988 and 1996 were approved as part of legislation considered by the Agriculture Committees of the House and Senate, the private right of action was considered and not included. Given the current composition of Congress, this latest version of FIFRA amendments introduced by Senator Booker is unlikely to become law.
