Maine – many States are still fighting for their lives
Sat 7:21 am +00:00, 21 Feb 2026Rep. Pingree (Maine) just introduced an amendment to the Farm Bill that would strip the sections granting pesticide immunity and preemption of states’ rights.
Pingree is also teaming up with Rep. Thomas Massie (Kentucky) on a bipartisan bill to reverse yesterday’s Executive Order on glyphosate. More later on that.
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Rep. Pingree’s amendment is now the mechanism for getting rid of the pesticide liability protection and the attempt to preempt state and local restrictions on pesticide use. Please make more calls and ask the person at the other end of the line to support the Pingree “Protect Our Health amendment.”
And call for a recorded vote. With 25 Dems and 28 Repubs on the Agriculture Committee, how can anyone possibly tell whether an unrecorded voice vote is for or against each provision, when it is determined by the loudness of the response? In other words, a voice vote, when things are close, is not a true vote.
There is one more thing I ask you to mention during your call. Section 12006 of the Farm Bill would preempt state laws that are kinder to livestock, like California’s Prop. 12, which requires that livestock be given sufficient room to move around while they are raised. Besides being kinder to animals (getting them out of CAFOs or crates that don’t let them move), laws like Prop. 12 allowed small farmers to compete with the big guys on hog farms and some other livestock operations. It has thrown a lifeline to them. Section 12006 should be removed from the Farm Bill (HR 7567) as well.
EMERGENCY: Tell Congress that the Farm Bill shouldn’t give LEGAL IMMUNITY to all pesticide companies!
Congress’s draft Farm Bill (H.R. 7567) currently contains provisions that would give pesticide companies SWEEPING IMMUNITY from lawsuits. This would apply even when these companies conceal risks or fail to warn people about the serious harms that their products cause, like cancer and infertility. It would block courts from hearing the facts and tie the hands of farmers and families, leaving no pathway to justice and accountability. There are also provisions in the Farm Bill that would take away state and local rights to protect people from pesticides. These provisions are harmful to our health and freedom, and must not be included in the final bill.
The good news: Representative Chellie Pingree from Maine just introduced an amendment to strip this language from the bill. Congress needs to:
- VOTE YES on the Pingree Protect Our Health Amendment, which would remove this harmful language from the Farm Bill. No pesticide immunity. No federal preemption – states’ ability to set safety standards that may be stricter than federal standards should not be taken away. Protect public health and protect local control.
- STAND by their votes, by holding a recorded vote on this issue. The public deserves transparency. We deserve to know whether our representatives are standing up for public health or standing up for pesticide profits. Without a recorded vote, we’ll never know.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
A vote is coming up next week, so we have a very short window to make a difference. * We need as many people as possible to call members of the House Agricultural Committee today, Monday and possibly Tuesday.
Who to call
If you see your own representative from the district you live in on the list below, call them. If you don’t see your own representative, call the offices highlighted in blue. The BLUE offices are HIGH PRIORITY offices to call! You can call more than one office, and you can call each office more than once.
Below is Representative Chellie Pingree’s press release:
https://pingree.house.gov/
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), a longtime organic farmer and senior member of the House Agriculture Committee, announced today that she will be introducing an amendment to the Farm Bill that fights back against chemical companies and protects the health of Americans. Republicans’ Farm Bill includes provisions that would shield chemical manufacturers like Bayer from lawsuits and would preempt state and local warning label laws or usage regulations. The Pingree Protect Our Health Amendment would remove this harmful language from the Farm Bill. In January, Pingree successfully got a similar provision taken out of the FY2026 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill.
On Wednesday, President Trump signed an Executive Order to increase domestic production of glyphosate—a widely used weedkiller that has been linked to multiple health issues, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Outside of the upcoming Farm Bill fight, Pingree and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) have joined forces to introduce the No Immunity for Glyphosate Act, which would undo Trump’s recent Executive Order.
The U.S. Supreme Court also recently agreed to take up an appeal by the manufacturer of Roundup, supported by the Trump Administration, over lawsuits that allege it failed to warn consumers about the product’s dangers.
Pesticides in the United States are regulated under a combination of federal, state, and local laws. Debates over state and local authority to regulate pesticide use have been litigated for decades, particularly in cases involving widely used chemicals such as Roundup and paraquat, which have been linked to serious health harms. Many states, cities, and counties have adopted measures to restrict pesticide spraying near schools, homes, and public spaces, citing the heightened vulnerability of children to toxic exposure and risks to brain development, reproduction, and long-term health.
Seven states—Maine, Alaska, Hawaii, Maryland, Utah, Nevada, and Vermont—do not preempt local governments from regulating pesticide use within their jurisdictions. In Maine alone, there are more than 30 state and local regulations related to pesticide use and warning requirements that would be undermined or preempted under this Republican pesticide provision in the Farm Bill.
I spoke about these issues on Good Morning CHD today, and at the bottom of the screen are links to relevant blog posts.
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