Subject: Pesticide PAC Contributions Influence Congress

From: [email-masked] (Nigel Allen)
Date: 28 Oct 1994 02:52:41 -0400

Here is a press release from the Environmental Working Group.
I downloaded the press release from the PR On-Line BBS in Maryland
at 410-363-0834. I do not work for or belong to the EWG.

 Pesticide PAC Contributions Fuel Congressional Action to Weaken
Pesticide Laws Says Environmental Working Group
 To: National Desk, Environment and Political writers
 Contact: Kelsey Wirth, 202-667-6982, Lisa Glantz, 202-483-0664, or
          Sharon Fischman, 202-547-9009, all of the Environmental
          Working Group

   WASHINGTON, Oct. 27  --  Pesticide company political action 
committees (PACs) doubled their campaign contributions to 
Congress after a high-stakes federal court loss in 1992 
threatened to ban dozens of cancer-causing pesticides.
   Most of the pesticide PAC cash has gone to members of Congress
who have co-sponsored the pesticide industry's bill to weaken
federal pesticide law.
   In the first 18 months of the current (103rd) Congress,
representatives and senators accepted over $3.1 million in
contributions from 44 pesticide PACs that are associated with
companies belonging to the main pesticide trade association (the
American Crop Protection Association).  That is nearly twice as
much campaign cash as those same PACs contributed in comparable
18-month periods in each of the last two congresses.
   In total, since 1989, the pesticide PACs have given
representatives and senators over $8.2 million.
   These were among the findings of "The Pesticide PACs: Campaign
Contributions and Pesticide Policy," a report prepared by the
Environmental Working Group (EWG) and released here today by EWG,
Citizen Action, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
   "The pesticide industry suffered a major court loss in 1992 and
is fighting to have Congress overturn it," said EWG analyst Kelsey
Wirth, principal author of the study.  "The dramatic doubling of
pesticide PAC contributions is clearly part of the industry's
strategy with Congress.  Unfortunately, it's working."  Over half
of the House of Representatives -- 224 members -- now co-sponsor
the pesticide industry bill and 17 senators sponsor the measure.
   In 1992 the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an
environmental group, and other public interest organizations won a
court case that forced the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to enforce the so-called Delaney Clause, a law that prohibits
use of carcinogenic pesticides when they concentrate in processed
foods.  After the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case,
chemical companies turned to Congress to repeal the Delaney Clause
and otherwise weaken federal pesticide law.
   Two weeks ago, the EPA and NRDC announced a settlement that will
phase out the registration of dozens of cancer-causing pesticides
or some uses of them.  The settlement will only bring more industry
pressure to bear on Congress to keep dangerous pesticides on the
market, the report said.
   "We're not saying that the pesticide industry is buying votes in
Congress," said EWG President Ken Cook.  "Why buy when you can
rent?"
   The study also found that members of committees overseeing
pesticide legislation received significantly more money from
pesticide PACs than those PACs gave to the average representative
or senator.  Pesticide PACs gave members of the House Agriculture
Committee twice as much campaign cash as they gave to the average
House member, and 40 percent more to Senate Agriculture Committee
members than they gave the average senator.
   The report says that citizens and voters "need to send a clear
message to those in Congress who are taking money from the
pesticide PACs and siding with them against consumers on vital
legislation."
   "Give back that pesticide PAC cash and don't take it again," the
authors say.  "And support legislation that will get dangerous
pesticides out of our food and our tap water -- legislation that
will put the health of our children above the profits of pesticide
companies," the report concludes.
    ------
   The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit environmental
research organization based in Washington, D.C.  Previous EWG
reports on pesticide policy include "Pesticides in Children's Food"
(July 1993), "Washed, Peeled -- Contaminated" (March 1994), and
"Tap Water Blues" (October 1994).

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