In mid-November 1975, a congressional conference committee¹ finally settled a bitter conflict which had broken out last summer between conservationists and farming interests over federal pesticide policy. The focus of the adversaries' well-prepared legislative campaigns, which quickly polarized the houses of Congress, was the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA),² the funding authorization for which was due to expire November 15.

Agricultural groups and pesticide manufacturers objected primarily to FIFRA's original transfer of pesticide control power from the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary) to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (Administrator). They claimed that this had deprived agricultural interests of adequate representation in the Administrator's pesticide control decisions, including cancellation of DDT, aldrin and dieldrin, and suspension of chlordane and heptachlor.³ Other major issues included composition of a newly-mandated scientific advisory panel, alleged burdensomeness of the Administrator's standards for certifying private applicators' knowledge of the dangers of highly toxic pesticides and retroactivity of FIFRA's provision requiring a pesticide registrant to pay reasonable compensation to an earlier registrant for reliance on his test data.