§136w–7 Department of Agriculture Minor Use Program

Summary

The Secretary of Agriculture must coordinate USDA work on minor uses of pesticides. The Secretary must run Inter-Regional Project Number 4 (IR–4) under 7 U.S.C. 450i(e) and the national pesticide resistance monitoring program under 7 U.S.C. 5882, support integrated pest management research, work with growers to develop data for minor uses, and help with minor use registrations, tolerances, and reregistrations with the Environmental Protection Agency. The Secretary, in consultation with the Administrator, must set up a grant program to pay for data needed to register or reregister minor use pesticides. Grants may pay up to 1/2 of a project’s cost. Any person may apply, but priority goes to applicants who do not get money from selling minor-use pesticides. Data made with a grant is owned by USDA and the grantee together, and the grantee must agree to share any fee paid under section 136a(c)(1)(F). The law creates a Minor Use Pesticide Data Revolving Fund in the Treasury. The Fund holds appropriations and fees collected for grant data and is available without fiscal year limit. Congress authorized $10,000,000 each fiscal year for this purpose, to remain available until spent.