The Republicans on the House Appropriations committee passed three amendments on Tuesday, in a straight-line party vote, that will extend near-complete liability protection to pesticide manufacturers from injuries caused by their products, similar to the legal immunity the vaccine industry currently has.  

Yet last Thursday Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, introduced the Pesticide Injury Accountability Act. which would protect the right to sue for people injured by pesticides.

This action follows intense efforts by the pesticide industry to pass state laws that limit lawsuits by injured people against pesticide manufacturers.

The last thing we need are more laws allowing gigantic industries to escape accountability for the consequences of their actions. Liability shields transfer 100% of the risk from a product to the injured party, and destroy one of the primary ways we have to compel companies to assure their products are safe. It also further erodes our Seventh Amendment right to a trial by jury in any dispute worth more than $20. 

Dozens of pesticides have been associated with autism and other neurological disorders. 

Sen. Booker’s bill would amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act of 1972 (FIFRA) to create a federal right of action for anyone who is harmed by a toxic pesticide. If passed, the law would allow individuals to bring cases in federal court when state laws prevent such lawsuits, while also preserving the right to sue in state courts where permitted.

Is Sen. Cory Booker more MAHA than the GOP members of the House Appropriations Committee? 

Sure looks that way. 

Take Action

Use the panel to the right to send your member of the US House of Representatives a message saying that you do not want these amendments to become law, and that you want to preserve your current rights to sue for pesticide injuries, and that you want to see the Pesticide Injury Accountability Act pass.

Please call your member of the US House and let him or her know that you do not want these amendments to become law and that you want our current rights to sue for vaccine injuries and that you want to see the Pesticide Injury Accountability Act pass.

Look up your Representative here:

https://www.house.gov/

“CHD opposes any liability shield for any industry that has a direct impact on the health of the American people,” said Mary Holland, CEO of Children's Health Defense, in a statement. "Granting blanket immunity to corporations who have a fiscal responsibility to their shareholders, and not a responsibility to consumer safety, is one of the most dangerous propositions imaginable.

“Pesticide manufacturers should not have the power to silence the people who feed America, yet that’s exactly what’s happening — as these corporations are working to block those that their products have harmed from seeking justice in the courts,” Joe Maxwell, president of farmer advocacy group Farm Action, said in a statement.