October, 27 2020, 12:00am EDT

WASHINGTON
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today the reapproval of three products containing the drift-prone herbicide dicamba for use on Monsanto's genetically engineered, dicamba-resistant soybeans and cotton.
The decision comes a mere four months after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit harshly revoked the EPA's 2018 approvals for two of the three dicamba products, citing the agency's failure to account for dicamba's well-documented harms and its extensive damage to U.S. agriculture. Monsanto was acquired by Bayer in early 2019.
Under today's reapproval, Xtendimax, Engenia, and Tavium products--sold by Bayer, BASF, and Syngenta, respectively--are approved for the next five years, up from the two-year approvals that have been granted previously. These products will not be able to be used past June 30 for soybeans and July 30 for cotton--dates significantly later than many cutoff dates previously imposed by states.
"Rather than evaluating the significant costs of dicamba drift as the 9th Circuit told them the law required, EPA rushed re-approval as a political prop just before the election, sentencing farmers and the environment to another five years of unacceptable damage. We will most certainly challenge these unlawful approvals," said George Kimbrell, legal director at Center for Food Safety.
Originally approved in late 2016, the user directions for these dicamba products have now undergone three rounds of changes as the off-site damage caused by the pesticides continued to devastate farm and forest land across much of the Great Plains and Midwest.
While today's registration alleges it has addressed the rampant drift problems, as the Ninth Circuit found, none of the previous changes were sufficient to reduce dicamba drift. According to agronomists, dicamba has caused the most extensive drift damage ever seen in the history of U.S. agriculture. In just four years of use, it has injured at least 5 million acres of soybeans; decimated fruit orchards and vegetable farms; and damaged trees, backyard gardens, and natural areas throughout much of rural America.
"Given EPA-approved versions of dicamba have already damaged millions of U.S. acres of crops and natural areas, there's no reason to trust that the agency got it right this time," said Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. "As the judges who tossed out the EPA's previous approval stated, the agency wrongly dismissed many of dicamba's proven harms. At this point, the EPA has shown such callous indifference to the damage dicamba has caused to farmers and wildlife alike, and has been so desperate to appease the pesticide industry, it has zero credibility when it comes to pesticide safety."
Today's announcement includes that these products can only be applied with "pH buffering adjuvants" that purportedly reduce volatilization. The downwind in-field buffer will be increased from 110 feet to 240 feet and 310 feet total in counties where some endangered plants are located.
The Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity, National Family Farm Coalition, and Pesticide Action Network North America, all parties to the prior litigation, plan to challenge today's decision.
Background
In June, the Ninth Circuit ruled that EPA unlawfully approved the dicamba products. In its 56-page decision, the court explained that EPA had failed to account for the "enormous and unprecedented damage" caused by drift of the dicamba products -- damage that has "torn apart the social fabric of many farming communities," triggering numerous disputes -- one of which resulted in a gunshot death.
The court also criticized EPA for putting out complicated usage restrictions, finding them to be so hard to follow that it was essentially impossible for farmers to properly apply the products. Following the Ninth Circuit's ruling, EPA cancelled the dicamba product registrations.
The court also found that the agency entirely failed to acknowledge other "economic costs" of dicamba. For instance, dicamba drift damage has been so ubiquitous that many farmers have felt compelled to purchase more expensive dicamba-resistant soybean seeds to avoid crop injury. As a result, small seed companies have lost business selling competing seeds that do not contain the dicamba-resistance trait.
Recent findings also suggest dicamba endangers human health. Earlier this year scientists at the National Institutes of Health found that use of dicamba can increase the risk of developing numerous cancers, including liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancers, acute and chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma. CFS warned the EPA of dicamba's cancer threat in 2017, to no avail.
CFS and many others urged the EPA as early as 2010 to reject Monsanto's petition to approve dicamba for use on the company's dicamba-resistant soybeans and cotton, warning of precisely the extensive drift damage that has now occurred, as well as the rapid emergence of dicamba-resistant weeds that is already underway on America's farmlands. The EPA ignored those warnings, relying entirely on faulty, Monsanto-generated data in concluding drift injury would not occur, and on an ineffective herbicide-resistant management plan.
EPA was originally sued by National Family Farm Coalition, Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity, and Pesticide Action Network in 2017. EPA's extension of dicamba approvals in late 2018 mooted that suit shortly before a court decision was expected. A second challenge to the extension decision culminated in the court's June 2020 ruling.
In separate actions thousands of farmers have sued Monsanto and BASF for dicamba drift damages. These cases were consolidated into class-action lawsuits that were settled earlier this year for $400 million. In a separate lawsuit, a jury awarded Missouri peach farmer Bill Bader $15 million for destructive dicamba damage to his peach orchard, and an additional $250 million in punitive damages.
Internal company memos released in the course of the Bader lawsuit revealed that even as Monsanto and BASF publicly denied that their products posed a major drift threat, they were internally projecting thousands of dicamba drift complaints over the first five years of use.
Center for Food Safety's mission is to empower people, support farmers, and protect the earth from the harmful impacts of industrial agriculture. Through groundbreaking legal, scientific, and grassroots action, we protect and promote your right to safe food and the environment. CFS's successful legal cases collectively represent a landmark body of case law on food and agricultural issues.
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Omar Condemns Millionaire Republicans for Pushing Huge Cuts to Medicaid and Food Benefits
The Minnesota Democrat slammed the GOP for pursuing massive safety net cuts "while doing nothing to rein in our nearly trillion-dollar Pentagon budget or the trillions they've handed out to millionaires and billionaires."
Sep 21, 2023
Rep. Ilhan Omar on Wednesday condemned her Republican colleagues for proposing a budget resolution that includes massive cuts to key aid programs while backing an extension of giveaways for the wealthy and large corporations.
"We are in the midst of a shutdown crisis because Republicans can't even organize their own caucus to pass funding levels that were already agreed to," Omar (D-Minn.) said during the House Budget Committee's markup of the new resolution. "And now they launch some of the most radical cuts to healthcare, to housing assistance, to food assistance, to the postal office, and nearly every program under the sun—all while doing nothing to rein in our nearly trillion-dollar Pentagon budget or the trillions they've handed out to millionaires and billionaires through the Trump tax cuts."
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Omar also slammed the resolution's call for a bipartisan commission to examine Social Security, Medicare, and other trust fund programs—a proposal that advocates warn is a ploy to fast-track benefit cuts.
"But what is the most sickening is that they entirely leave in place the Trump and Bush tax cuts to benefit them and their friends—which have cost over $10 trillion and are responsible for almost all of the increasing debt ratio," said the Minnesota Democrat. "Oh, and on top of that, they defund enforcement of high-earning tax cheats."
Omar went on to single out by name ultra-wealthy members of the House Budget Committee who would benefit from an extension of Trump-era tax provisions and any further weakening of the Internal Revenue Service.
"That includes Buddy Carter, who has vocally pushed to slash Medicaid and take away healthcare from his own constituents and is worth $33 million," said Omar. "And it includes Ralph Norman, one of the most extreme advocates of taking away food assistance from working people, who is worth a whopping $43 million."
The House Budget Committee advanced the GOP resolution in a party-line vote on Wednesday, with all of the panel's Democrats voting no.
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the committee, said in response to the vote that "just 10 days away from another Republican government shutdown, Budget Committee Republicans have revealed just how extreme their budget plan really is."
"This budget resolution is a dark vision for America," said Boyle, "one that favors the wealthy and well-connected over working families, one that makes massive cuts to the critical programs Americans rely on, and one that doubles down on the extreme demands that are driving our nation towards a shutdown."
On Wednesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) reportedly briefed his caucus on a "new plan" to keep the government open beyond September 30, a proposal that includes even steeper spending cuts than what the White House and GOP agreed to as part of their debt ceiling deal earlier this year.
Boyle said Wednesday that Democrats will remain opposed to the GOP's push for extreme cuts.
"While Republicans may not care about the costs of a government shutdown or the devastating impact of these cuts, Democrats do," said Boyle. "We will continue fighting to make sure this nightmarish vision never becomes reality, and we will continue fighting to invest in the American people so that we can lower the cost of living and grow the middle class. Instead of wasting more time on this far-right agenda, House Republicans need to do their job, honor the bipartisan budget agreement, and keep our government open."
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Progressives, Democrats Unleash on GOP Over Government Shutdown Chaos
"Extremists in Congress need to stop using our lives as bargaining chips," said AFSCME's president. "It's time for them to follow through on the promises they have already made to keep the government open."
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Just 10 days away from a potential U.S. government shutdown, calls for bipartisan action to prevent it are mounting, as is outrage over Republicans in the House of Representatives who seem content with causing chaos.
"What we want is simple: No cuts. No layoffs. No shutdown," Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said at an afternoon press conference. She described the "Republican shutdown" as "a ticking time bomb," and called out the GOP—particularly House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)—for lighting the fuse.
"And who loses from these absurd, delusional political games? Working- and middle-class families will suffer," Jayapal stressed. In addition to some CPC members, she was flanked by signs calling out McCarthy and warning that MAGA Republicans are trying to pull teachers out of classrooms, kick kids out of preschool, and slash funding for food aid.
Far-right House Republicans this week have refused to support a McCarthy-backed continuing resolution (CR) that would prevent a government shutdown for a month. The measure contains provisions also opposed by congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden—including spending cuts that conflict with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the debt limit deal Biden struck with McCarthy earlier this year.
In a Wednesday letter to McCarthy arguing that "the time has come to end partisan posturing and put forward a viable path to funding our government," 92 members of the CPC noted that the GOP has pushed for betraying the debt ceiling deal.
"We stand ready to support a bipartisan funding vehicle free of poison pill policy riders that is consistent with the agreement you struck with President Biden and which was ratified by bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate," they wrote. "If you choose not to pass a bipartisan government funding bill consistent with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, you are deliberately choosing to shut down the government."
"We can look to the Senate for an example, where senators achieved bipartisan consensus on funding and policy for all 12 of its appropriations bills," the CPC members continued. "In contrast, your House majority has been unable to pass the vast majority of its own hyper-partisan appropriations bills, despite the inclusion of extreme policy riders and draconian spending cuts designed to accommodate the far-right faction of your conference."
The CPC was far from alone in calling out the GOP on Wednesday. The Biden White House said in a lengthy statement that "extreme House Republicans are consumed by chaos and marching our country toward a government shutdown that would damage our communities, economy, and national security."
The White House highlighted impacts of the looming shutdown, from endangering disaster response and delaying infrastructure projects to undermining medical research, food safety, and environmental and public health protections.
"These consequences are real and avoidable—but only if House Republicans stop playing political games with people's lives and catering to the ideological demands of their most extreme, far-right members," the White House added. "It's time for House Republicans to abide by the bipartisan budget agreement that a majority of them voted for, keep the government open, and address other urgent needs for the American people."
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)—the nation's largest trade union of public employees—also called out "anti-worker politicians in Congress" for "going back on their word."
"They are demanding drastic cuts to the essential programs millions of families need to survive—food, housing, education, and more," he said. "And to get their way, they are using the threat of a government shutdown, which would jeopardize the livelihood of frontline federal employees as well as their families, while pausing lifesaving programs for millions of people nationwide."
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The current GOP-caused chaos on Capitol Hill was arguably predicable. As Chris Lehmann
wrote Tuesday for The Nation:
Today's shutdown battle involves little in the way of clear policy objectives beyond McCarthy's rapid capitulation to far-right House demands to launch Biden impeachment inquiries and the perennial demand for more draconian measures to police the U.S. southern border. "In many ways, the shutdown is the goal," says Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer... "Meaning, to create chaos and dysfunction has become an animating goal for the GOP, which makes negotiation much harder to achieve even within the party."
[...]
Across the past quarter-century of Republican-engineered shutdowns, the clearest lesson is that the triumph of procedural nihilism only ensures that things will get worse. Since this budget bloodsport launched in 1995, Zelizer says, "we have seen a continual ratcheting up of what the GOP is willing to do: shutdowns, debt ceiling threats, and the rest are all part of the new normal. McCarthy... accepts this and agreed to rules that made these forces stronger than ever."
Given those conditions, "small groups of centrist Democrats are holding secret talks with several of McCarthy's close GOP allies about a last-ditch deal to fund the government," Politicoreported Wednesday, citing over a half-dozen people familiar with the discussions.
"Generally, the bipartisan group is focusing on two major ideas: a procedural maneuver to force a vote on a compromise spending plan—or somehow crafting a bill so popular that McCarthy can pass it and survive any challenge from the right," according to the outlet. "That bill would likely be a bipartisan short-term patch with some disaster money, Ukraine aid, and small-scale border policies."
In the meantime, Punchbowl News' John Bresnahan reported after House Republicans' Wednesday afternoon meeting that "the current thinking in House GOP leadership" is that the chamber should focus on a defense bill Thursday and Friday, then pass a new CR Saturday.
Then, the Senate could take up the CR, amend it, and send it back to House, which "will take several days" and "sets up shutdown drama for [the] following weekend," he explained, stressing that "this is all very fluid."
On the Senate side, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that "House Republicans rejected their own extremist bill, and by rejecting it, that's a dead giveaway they're not serious about avoiding a shutdown."
"Speaker McCarthy says he wants to avoid a shutdown, he says nobody wins in a shutdown," Schumer added. "Well, then he should reach across the aisle to find an agreement that actually has the votes to pass both chambers. That's the only way—the only way—this crisis gets resolved."
This post has been updated with comment from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the Groundwork Collaborative.
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The allegations against the former Trump attorney and New York City mayor follow a $10 million sexual assault suit filed earlier this year by a former high-level employee.
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Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson alleges that Rudy Giuliani, who was serving as an attorney for then-President Donald Trump, groped her hours before the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, The Guardianreported Wednesday.
Hutchinson—a former aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who has testified before Congress about the conduct of Trump and members of his inner circle on the day of the insurrection—accuses Giuliani in her new book, Enough. Hutchinson claims the former New York City mayor touched "under my blazer, then my skirt."
"I feel his frozen fingers trail up my thigh," she writes. "He tilts his chin up. The whites of his eyes look jaundiced. My eyes dart to [Trump adviser] John Eastman, who flashes a leering grin."
"I fight against the tension in my muscles and recoil from Rudy's grip," she continues. "Filled with rage, I storm through the tent, on yet another quest for Mark."
The alleged incident took place backstage at the speech Trump delivered near the White House, in which he exhorted his supporters to march on the Capitol as part of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
Giuliani spokesperson Ted Goodman told The Guardian that "it's fair to ask Cassidy Hutchinson why she is just now coming out with these allegations from two-and-a-half years ago, as part of the marketing campaign for her upcoming book release."
"This is a disgusting lie against Mayor Rudy Giuliani—a man whose distinguished career in public service includes taking down the mafia, cleaning up New York City, and comforting the nation following September 11," Goodman added.
This isn't the first time that Giuliani has been accused of sexual misconduct. In May, Noelle Dunphy, a former head of business development for multiple Giuliani-owned companies, filed a $10 million lawsuit alleging "unlawful abuses of power, wide-ranging sexual assault and harassment, wage theft, and other misconduct."
Dunphy's suit claims Giuliani—who she said took Viagra "in preparation"—would demand "sexual gratification" from her and make her "work naked, in a bikini, or in short-shorts with an American flag on them that he bought for her."
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