While America’s farmers struggle to navigate corporate monopolies and rising input costs, a quiet clause buried on page 196 of a House spending bill could lock pesticide safety to foreign-controlled science—and tie the hands of U.S. regulators.
Welcome to Section 453 of the FY2026 Interior Appropriations Bill.
A Clause Only Monsanto Could Love
In the July 15, 2025, subcommittee markup, House appropriators advanced a provision that reads like it came straight from a Bayer-Monsanto lobbying memo. Section 453 states:
“None of the funds made available by this or any other Act may be used to… take any regulatory action… inconsistent with… [a] human health assessment performed pursuant to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).”
Translation? The EPA is banned from using new science—whether peer-reviewed cancer studies or international health agency reclassifications—unless those findings align with the original FIFRA assessments, many of which are based on industry-submitted data.
It’s not just a freeze. It’s regulatory gag order.
And the timing isn’t accidental.
China and Bayer Control the Pipeline
While Congress neuters the EPA, the companies profiting most from pesticide immunity are not even American.
As of 2023, Bayer-Monsanto and Syngenta, a subsidiary of state-owned ChemChina, controlled over 50% of U.S. corn, soybean, and cotton seed sales, according to USDA data. They also dominate the herbicide and insecticide markets—including glyphosate and paraquat, two of the most contested and globally restricted chemicals on Earth.
Bayer is currently facing over 67,000 lawsuits tied to Roundup (glyphosate), while Syngenta is pushing paraquat, banned in more than 60 countries—but still sold across rural America.
And here’s the kicker: Chinese entities didn’t just buy into the ag chemical supply chain. They stole the blueprints.
Between 2013 and 2019, the FBI charged multiple Chinese nationals with conspiracy, theft of trade secrets, and economic espionage involving:
- Corn germplasm from Iowa fields (2016)
- Engineered rice proteins from Ventria Bioscience (2018)
- Monsanto’s precision ag software (2022)
- Fungal pathogens vital to crop immunity (2025)
According to a 2019 FBI report (to download the PDF directly click here), China’s goal was explicit: to “gain a strategic advantage in global agriculture” by bypassing years of R&D through theft.
Now, thanks to Section 453, that stolen pipeline is effectively insulated—from scrutiny, from liability, and from science.
Farmers Trapped Between Monopoly and Toxicity
This isn’t about deregulation. It’s about outsourcing regulatory control to monopolists—some of them backed by a foreign adversary.
While Section 453 silences the EPA, farmers remain locked into seed and pesticide contracts controlled by the very companies benefiting from that silence. Independent testing? Irrelevant. Global reclassification of glyphosate as a likely carcinogen? Doesn’t matter.
And if this clause becomes law, future pesticide reviews will be governed by past decisions—even if the science has moved on, even if the public is at risk, even if the seed was stolen.
Check out this archived Monsanto op-ed where saving seeds makes you a criminal—and corporate snitches are cast as agricultural heroes.
It’s Not Just About Chemicals—It’s About Sovereignty
The U.S. government has documented for over a decade that China is targeting American agriculture. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations warned in 2019 that Beijing’s talent recruitment and tech theft programs were penetrating universities, seed companies, and biotech labs.
The USDA’s own Homeland Security Division flagged agricultural IP theft as a critical national security risk in 2023.
And now, Congress wants to enshrine chemical silence into law.
The Rebellion Cue
If China stole the seeds, and Bayer owns the patents, who exactly is Section 453 protecting?
This isn’t food safety. This is chemical cartel capture—with foreign fingerprints all over it.
Farmers, scientists, and state attorneys general must act now to strip Section 453 before it’s buried in law. The future of pesticide accountability—and American food sovereignty—depends on it.
More competition. Fewer foreign monopolies. Start there.
Want to break free from the global ag cartel? Find a local rancher at BeefMaps.com and shake your rancher’s hand.
Call These Members of Congress and Demand They Strike Section 453 from H.R. 9043
Section 453 of the FY26 House Interior Appropriations bill would freeze the EPA’s pesticide reviews and block 67,000 cancer lawsuits tied to Roundup. Congress votes soon. These are the members of the Appropriations Committee with the power to stop it—call now and tell them: “Remove Section 453 from H.R. 9043.”
Republicans:
- Rep. Mike Simpson (ID-02): (202) 225-5531
- Rep. Michael Cloud (TX-27): (202) 225-7742
- Rep. Tom Cole (OK-04): (202) 225-6165
- Rep. Jake Ellzey (TX-06): (202) 225-2002
- Rep. Celeste Maloy (UT-02): (202) 225-9730
- Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (PA-14): (202) 225-2065
- Rep. Ryan Zinke (MT-01): (202) 225-5628
Democrats:
- Rep. James “Jim” Clyburn (SC-06): (202) 225-3315
- Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT-03): (202) 225-3661
- Rep. Josh Harder (CA-09): (202) 225-4540
- Rep. Betty McCollum (MN-04): (202) 225-6631
- Rep. Chellie Pingree (ME-01): (202) 225-6116
Bonus:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14): Already publicly opposed the provision. Call to thank her and show support: (202) 225-5211
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