This afternoon, March 31, 2011, the US House of Representative voted 292 - 134 in favor of HR 872 which would eliminate the NPDES permit for pesticide applications.  Thank you for all the calls that IFCA members made to your US representatives to ask for a YES vote. 

We had great support from our Illinois Congressional delegation on this issue, and we'll post the voting summary as soon as it is available.  Congressman Tim Johnson, Aaron Schock, Bobby Schilling, Jerry Costello and John Shimkus were all co-sponsors of this legislation and deserve a special thank-you.  Now the bill moves to the US Senate where we'll have to work even harder to secure its passage.  The compliance date for this regulation has been postponed to October 31, 2011, but as everyone knows things rarely move quickly in Washington so we'll be working diligently to keep this legislation moving.  It's not too early to put in a word with our Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk to let them know you support HR 872.  There is no need to have both a license from the IL Dept of Ag and a permit from the Illinois EPA to apply a pesticide according to its label directions, that's the simple message. 

 

The legislative staff at our national associations in D.C. including Crop Life America, Ag Retailers Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Corn Growers working overtime on HR 872 and will continue to do so as it move to the US Senate.  This is why it's important to belong to organizations that represent our best interests, so that we can be effective in influencing public policies that impact our industry.  They deserve our thanks too!