Steven Knott
Chief of Peer Review and Ethics Branch
Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20460-0001

Submitted via regulations.gov

Re: Nominations to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act Scientific Advisory Panel; EPA-HQ-OPP-2022-0602

Dear Mr. Knott:

CropLife America (CLA) and the Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment (RISE) appreciate the opportunity to provide comments in response to the July 28, 2022 notice announcing the nominations for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP).

CLA and RISE conducted a review of the 24 nominees to serve staggered terms of appointment on the FIFRA SAP. We strongly believe the FIFRA SAP is critical to supporting the integrity of FIFRA as this Panel provides independent scientific advice, information, and recommendations to the EPA Administrator on pesticides and pesticide-related issues. We support a FIFRA SAP that includes accomplished scientists with extensive knowledge and experience that represent a vast range of scientific disciplines with an appropriate balance amongst the different scientific and engineering fields to fulfill the remit of the Panel.

Since the purpose of the FIFRA SAP is to provide independent scientific advice to EPA, it is essential the Agency critically review and exclude scientists from the Panel that have conflicts of interests or established biases which could preclude their ability to act impartial in matters before the FIFRA SAP. More specifically, EPA is legally obligated to exclude scientists from the SAP whose conflicts of interest or established biases would preclude their ability to act impartially.

The Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) imposes strict conflict of interest requirements on the SAP selection process. To meet the requirements established by FACA, the SAP shall be composed of impartial experts capable of providing independent review. The Office of Government Ethics advises against the participation of SAP panel members whose participation will create even the “appearance of loss of impartiality.” If a conflict exists between a panel candidate’s private financial interests and duties as a panel member, EPA should seek instead to appoint another nominee. Members may also be excluded if they have taken a position that suggests an established position or implicates an inability to render impartial advice such as public statements on the issue and evidence of financial conflicts of interest. Therefore, based on our review of the nominees, along with the selection criteria and applicable regulations for the FIFRA SAP, RISE and CLA respectfully oppose the nomination of Dr. Beate Ritz and request the Agency further review the nomination of Dr. Dana Barr and Dr. Jakub Kostal for reasons outlined below.

Read the comments submitted by CropLife America and RISE.