On March 22 2018 the US Congress passed an omnibus spending bill – later signed by President Trump – which largely preserved the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) 2017 budget. This is in marked contrast to the budget proposed by Trump earlier in 2018, which would have cut EPA funding by $2.5 billion in 2019, representing a 23% reduction in the agency's operating budget. In addition to generally preserving the EPA's budget, the spending bill extended the applicability of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act to September 30 2018. The act provides the framework for pesticide registration fee collection and helps to fund the Office of Pesticide Programmes. The spending bill continued a trend in recent congressional spending bills by recognising emissions from biomass material as 'carbon neutral' and directing the EPA, the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture to make US policy on biomass emissions consistent with this position.
For further information on this topic please contact Samuel B Boxerman or Jim Wedeking at Sidley Austin LLP by telephone (+1 202 736 8000) or email ([email protected] or [email protected]). The Sidley Austin LLP website can be accessed at www.sidley.com.
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