House strips MAHA-hated pesticide provisions from farm bill

The House of Representatives on Thursday stripped a set of controversial provisions aimed at protecting pesticide manufacturers from the farm bill, following a Make America Healthy Again uprising that could have sunk the broader package.

The amendment led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla, to strip the language was passed by a vote of 280-142, after a bipartisan groundswell of opposition from lawmakers and MAHA advocates who said the provisions amounted to a “liability shield” to protect Bayer from allegations that its Roundup herbicide and its chemical glyphosate cause cancer. The broader farm bill cleared the House Thursday morning by a vote of 224-200.

Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, who was helping lead the push to strip the pesticide language for Democrats, said the language represented a “handout to big agriculture, to big chemical.”

“It preempts states’ rights to regulate pesticide usage or labeling [and] provides a liability shield for pesticide manufacturers,” Pingree said on the House floor. “Put simply, this language puts chemical company profits over the health of Americans.”

A litany of lawsuits over years have claimed glyphosate causes cancer and Bayer and Monsanto, which manufactured Roundup before the German pharmaceutical giant acquired it, have frequently been found liable for failing to warn of cancer risk. The Environmental Protection Agency does not classify glyphosate as a carcinogen and does not require labels to disclose cancer risk, but the World Health Organization‘s International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2015 said the chemical is “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

The language in the bill would have prohibited any states and courts from penalizing or holding “liable any entity for failing to comply with requirements that would require labeling or packaging that is in addition to or different from the labeling or packaging approved by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.”

Bayer, in a statement to CNBC, said the removal of the provisions is “a missed opportunity for Congress.”

“By taking this vote, Congress has turned their backs on U.S. farmers in an increasingly competitive global landscape by allowing blatant misinformation to undermine support for this critical provision,” the statement read. “The removal of this language could result in a patchwork of regulations creating ambiguity — at a time where clarity is needed most.”

House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson pushed back on the amendment, arguing to reporters Wednesday night that striking the provision would be “such a blow to the American farmer.” Thompson repeatedly pushed back on accusations that the language represented a liability shield, arguing it would prevent only “frivolous lawsuits” and that “bad actors” could still be sued.

Nonetheless, Thompson still celebrated the passage of the farm bill, saying in an X post that it is “a win for our farmers, ranchers, foresters, rural communities, and all Americans across our country.”

Glyphosate is the most commonly used herbicide in the U.S. The White House and the MAHA coalition that supported President Donald Trump after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dropped out of the 2024 election have suffered a rift since Trump backed glyphosate production in February.

Earlier this week, the White House argued on behalf of Bayer at the Supreme Court in a court case that could make it far harder to sue the company over cancer claims.

The farm bill now heads to the Senate.