by Sabine Martin, Des Moines Register newspaper

An Iowa bill pushed by agricultural chemical companies and their stakeholders to limit lawsuits appears to be dead this session, Republican House leadership said Thursday.

The high-profile legislation, Senate File 394, would have shielded pesticide and herbicide manufacturers from lawsuits claiming they failed to warn users of potential health risks, including cancer, if their products’ labeling complied with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said Thursday there isn’t enough support in the caucus for the bill to meet the Iowa Legislature’s second funnel’s end-of-week deadline.

“I’m not sure that the bill is being totally digested from the perspective of just the labeling,” Grassley told reporters. “This product has been following all of the EPA-approved labeling, and so it’s more about a labeling bill, but I think some of the narrative that’s been out there maybe distracts from that, and I think the caucus is just in a position where they’re not sure they can support it at this point in time.”

Asked about reviving the bill later in the session, Grassley said, “There’s still more session to go, but right now, where we sit today, I don’t see the support.”

The Senate’s close 26-21 vote to advance the bill to the House last week, including six Republican Senators siding with Democrats in opposition to the legislation, marked wavering support from the majority compared to last year’s 30-19 Senate vote on the same legislation.

The bill was included in a renewed national ad and lobbying campaign from the Modern Ag Alliance, a coalition of over 90 agricultural stakeholders, founded by agricultural chemical manufacturer Bayer, to pass several similar bills in other states.

Bayer, which manufactures glyphosate, the active ingredient in the popular herbicide Roundup, has been at the center of the bill’s discussion after facing thousands of lawsuits linking cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer to Roundup.

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