Washington D.C.- 60 Members of Congress, led by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), today sent a letter to Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt, requesting information on the steps the EPA is taking to protect Americans, bees and other pollinators from harmful pesticides.

The letter notes that last year, “EPA scientists concluded that the agency should ban chlorpyrifos, a commonly used pesticide, on farms across the country due to significant evidence of the harmful effects it has on farmworkers and young children.”  Research shows that prenatal exposures to chlorpyrifos  are associated with reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention disorders and delayed motor development.  In March, the Trump Administration reversed this decisionand instead chose to keep this pesticide on the market. Chlorpyrifos was previously banned for household use in 2000.

According to news reports, EPA Administrator Pruitt met with Dow CEO Andrew Liveris on March 9th, just 20 days before reversing the Administration’s decision on pesticides. The Members wrote,

“Given the precedent this action has created at EPA, we are deeply concerned that your agency has adopted a new standard of pesticide review and will start making pesticide registration determinations based on recommendations from pesticide manufacturers instead of basing agency decisions on sound, independent science.”