Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention to gain over 130 staff members from dissolved research division
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking new steps to address the growing backlog in pesticide registrations, according to recent statements by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. The effort includes a major organizational change—the dissolution of the Office of Research and Development (ORD)—which will reallocate more than 130 scientific staff members to the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), the division overseeing the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP).
This reshuffling is designed to provide the necessary scientific and regulatory expertise to accelerate chemical reviews and streamline the pesticide registration process.
“If they were able to get scientists sent to them from the Office of Research and Development, that can help them in getting through this backlog that we inherited,” said Zeldin, speaking to farm broadcasters.
Responding to Industry Pressure and Regulatory Delays
Zeldin emphasized that the EPA’s chemicals staff had directly urged him to enhance capacity for pesticide evaluations. The backlog has been a persistent concern for agrochemical manufacturers and growers, who depend on timely registration approvals for critical crop protection products.
The integration of research staff into the OCSPP is expected to increase review throughput for both new registrations and registration review cases, many of which have faced delays due to scientific workload constraints and staffing shortages.
Insecticide Strategy Still Open for Feedback
Zeldin also encouraged stakeholders, particularly growers, to offer feedback on the recently released EPA insecticide strategy, which is intended to modernize regulatory approaches and mitigate environmental and health risks.
“This isn’t a final document,” he said. “If individual growers read the insecticide strategy and have ideas on how to improve it, let us know, and we’ll update it.”
This invitation underscores the EPA’s intent to maintain a flexible, stakeholder-informed approach as it refines future pesticide policy in alignment with evolving agricultural and environmental standards.
