Chemical companies seeking legal immunity from Roundup-related lawsuits will have to wait a year to go their way in Tennessee.
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday chose to postpone the law until 2026. Republican Rep. Clay Doggett of Pulaski called for a delay within a week after the entire Senate passed a version of the bill.
“It felt like there were a lot of stakeholders. There were a lot of questions that we couldn’t answer,” Dogget said Tuesday.
Tennessee bill expands legal immunity for weed manufacturers
Bayer, based in Germany, Monsanto’s parent company, recently agreed to pay around $2.1 billion to a man who claimed to have signed a non-Hodgkin lymphoma from Roundup. Approximately 170,000 similar lawsuits have been filed against the chemical company.
However, under the law, we were not responsible for causing the disease unless the pesticide manufacturer’s federal authorized label warned of the disease.
Farmers in his rural Middle Tennessee area supported the bill, Doggett said. But lawmakers are overwhelmed by information about the bill, making it difficult for them to bring it to the ballot this year, he said.
For example, Republican Rep. Gino Bruso, a Brentwood lawyer, said state law provisions give lawmakers people to file lawsuits in federal courts. Doggett also added that it supports amendments to measures that removed the “blanket immunity” provisions of related companies.
Doggett acknowledged that farmers could be “more inclined” to help farmers get sick by spraying pesticides/herbicides. However, he said farmers in his district support the law and use of chemicals, and other lawmakers said they will continue to use the products in crops even if foreign countries disappear in the US.
The Farmers and Farm Bureau have previously testified that the summaries used in modern agriculture allow for continued farming in large areas, which are considered a more efficient method.
Rusty Grill, a Republican Rep. of New Bern, West Tennessee, who sponsors the House bill, called the outcome “part of the legislative process.”
“There are a lot of questions about people not feeling they’re getting the right answer, so we know we’re at the end of the session right now, so we don’t have much time to get the answer,” Grills said.
The bill could be taken home for consideration in 2026 as it was not voted.
Critics say they believe they are giving the lawsuit immunity to Bayer and Monsanto blankets.
However, the grille is not a giveaway to the company, and the law said it would end frivolous lawsuits and halt days when farmers are unable to use favorable products due to the threat of legal action against the manufacturer.
“I’m one of those farmers. I use these products. I use these products so I can make a living,” Grill said.
A Tennessee Farm Bureau lobbyist recently testified that the Senate bill would only circumvent lawsuits that include product labels approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Opponents of the law say it removes people’s constitutional rights to ju trials when they are diagnosed with a fatal disease caused by the product.
Congresses in Iowa, Missouri, Idaho, Wyoming and Mississippi have declined similar legislation, but Bayer Monsanto hasn’t pulled products from the shelves, so the enemy says they’re more interested in chemical manufacturers making more money than protecting people.
The Tennessee Court Bar Association testified in the Senate that it does not believe that its opponents should not ban products, and that customers should maintain their right to take legal action.
You make our work possible.
