"When the EPA’s pesticide advisers meet later this month, at issue will be not just the topics they deliberate—but who’s doing the deliberating in the first place.

Environmental groups are planning to use an Aug. 25 public meeting to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency over the composition of its Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) advisory panel.

The pushback is the latest sign that such groups are paying close attention to the EPA’s compliance with a February ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. That ruling stopped the agency from banning agency grantees from serving on advisory committees, as had been laid out in an earlier directive under then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt. The D.C. Circuit also ruled against the directive in a separate case in April."

Stephen Lee and Pat Rizzuto report for Bloomberg Environment August 21, 2020. [2]