Congress Pushes Regulators for Teamwork in Agricultural Biotech

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle urged three federal regulators in a letter to start coordinating their approach to agricultural biotechnology.

Such teamwork would improve proposals and promote a science-based international regulatory system, said the letter, addressed to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. It was signed by 79 representatives, including every member of the House Agriculture Committee.

Reps. Neal Dunn (R-Fla.) and Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) spearheaded the Oct. 17 letter, which expressed legislators’ concerns that biotechnology regulatory drafts offer “deeply conflicting regulatory approaches.”

“We are ...