Description:
As ordered reported by the House Committee on Agriculture on March 19, 2015
H.R. 897 would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and states authorized to issue permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) from requiring a permit for some discharges of pesticides. Specifically, public and private entities would no longer need to obtain an NPDES permit for certain discharges of pesticides if their use is authorized under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, or in cases where the discharge is regulated as a stormwater, municipal, or industrial discharge under the Clean Water Act.
Based on information from EPA, CBO estimates that enacting this legislation would have no significant effect on the federal budget. Any administrative savings to EPA that might result from issuing fewer permits would be negligible because EPA has delegated the authority to issue most NPDES permits to states.
Pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply to H.R. 897 because enacting the bill would not affect direct spending or revenues.
H.R. 897 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
