Many residents of the Washington, D.C., area have spent some time in their careers as congressional employees, staff to a member of Congress (House or Senate), or staff members of the many committees of Congress on both sides of Capitol Hill. Put aside how many former staffers may comment on how much better the “old days” were, as Easter approaches, it is time to reflect on how much time, effectively, it has taken to enact legislation in this session of Congress. (Side note: For many, “old days” in Washington refers to practices or events that may have taken place at least three years ago.)
A rule of thumb commonly heard “in the old days” was that any legislative proposal with a good chance of success should have made its way through the bulk of the legislative procedural steps toward enactment before the Easter recess. Ideally, this includes a legislative draft subject to a thorough level of debate or scrutiny by stakeholders, committee(s) action, including hearings, and an evaluation of head counts by the leading sponsors to estimate support or opposition among the members. That should, in an ideal setting, help suggest the roadmap available toward success before the legislative year is out. Currently, as part of the second year of a congressional session (the 119th), this also includes seeing a mid-term election on the horizon even if it is still months away.
The Easter recess — a given on each year’s calendar that varies along with the particular date of Easter (and Passover) — is a time for chocolate bunnies and the White House Easter Egg Roll (a tradition since 1878 sought by many, which now includes someone in an Easter Bunny costume — typically a White House staffer). It also reflects a block of time that members will spend back in their state or district and includes meetings with constituents and the public in general.
Those members brave enough to have open, public town hall meetings will likely get an earful about current events — the military actions in Iran, airport security lines, and the price of ground beef and gasoline. If that is not enough, they will hear of concerns about implications of the rise of artificial intelligence threatening the future of jobs for themselves and their children and raised utility bills in the process. This year, members are likely to hear, among other things, about the inability of Congress to agree “on anything” as one result of the partisanship and rancor in Washington.
The Easter recess, along with the August recess, typically see members returning to Washington with a refreshed idea of what the body politic is concerned about — and the implications for electoral success for themselves and their party. That refresh is a good thing in many ways, even if it makes for uncomfortable meetings and feedback that members would rather not hear.
Most current issues raised are national in scale and affect the pesticide and chemical industries mostly as part of the national economy (example: higher energy costs affecting input costs). This year is different — both industries were hopeful at the beginning of 2025 about Congress approving legislation amending both the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The pesticide industry hoped to see renewal of the pesticide fee authority that has been part of FIFRA since 2004 (PRIA — the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act) before authority to impose fees expires in 2027. The chemical industry hoped that renewal of the similar authority for TSCA fee authority, which expires this year, would be a vehicle for clarification of some impactful terms in the current law that have proven controversial. See our March 6, 2026, blog item, February 26, 2026, blog item, and 2026 Forecast (search using “fees”).
As events would have it, this session of Congress has been exceptionally bad for legislative prospects for almost anything. Slim majorities and intensifying partisan rancor have resulted in new record lows for legislative gridlock. On December 24, 2025, the Washington Post reported about this Congress: “With fewer than 40 bills signed into law … the House and Senate seta modern record for lowest legislative output in the first year of a new presidency.”
Against this backdrop, the upcoming congressional Easter recess takes on added significance. With legislative pathways stalled in Washington, attention shifts to the districts, where members of Congress will be engaging directly with constituents and industry stakeholders. For the pesticide and chemical sectors, this creates a meaningful opportunity to elevate priorities that have struggled to gain traction on Capitol Hill. Facility tours, roundtables, and targeted engagement can help reinforce the real-world economic and operational impacts of delayed fee reauthorizations and unresolved statutory ambiguities under TSCA. In a gridlocked Congress, these district-level interactions may play an outsized role in shaping the contours of any eventual legislative vehicle.
Historically, PRIA has had an easier path to legislative success with support from both environmental non-governmental organization (eNGO) groups and industry stakeholders about what to spend the registration fees on, leading to support by both Democrats and Republicans. The TSCA legislative proposals supported by industry stakeholders, in contrast, are strongly opposed by eNGO groups. See also our March 6, 2026, blog item, March 6, 2026, memorandum, January 27, 2026, memorandum.
Specific language about PRIA renewal has yet to be introduced, an inconvenient fact that does not help the prospects for enactment this year. There is potential to attach any agreed-upon legislation to a Farm Bill if Congress makes progress on that legislation, but past conflicts over the Farm Bill are likely to flare up and continue to make any wide-ranging set of amendments to continue that stalemate.
Partisan divide over the proposed TSCA amendments has fortunately included rhetoric about hope to find bipartisan consensus over “clarifications” of key terms and renewing the fee authorization. Observers can separately speculate about whether chances of consensus over TSCA amendments will be easier or harder to achieve than hoped for consensus over federal budgets or whether umpires in baseball should be replaced by an “Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS).”
Lame Ducks and Known Unknowns
That congressional gridlock will likely continue is not an insightful prediction. What has more potential for provocative scenarios is pondering about what might happen in the lame duck period after the November mid-term elections — where almost every professional prognosticator assumes party control of the House will “flip” to the Democrats.
When and if this occurs, there will be many constituencies seeking to salvage some of the hopeful vision from early 2025 with a partisan tripartite — that party control of the House, Senate, and Presidency will lead to legislative success on a number of issues. The TSCA proposals fit such a category at the start of 2025; ironically, the election results (President Carter’s victory) led to a lame duck session of Congress in 1976 that broke the gridlock over TSCA legislation that had been pending for years held up with disputes over the text regulating new chemicals (sound familiar?). Could changes to TSCA in 2026 be a repeat of the origin story for the 50-year anniversary of the 1976 legislation?
If rhetoric about “bipartisan support” for 2026 TSCA amendments is real, the lame duck session might represent an opportunity if industry stakeholders hope to avoid continued legislative gridlock and eventual court decisions to settle the meaning of the “new” TSCA provisions (soon to be ten years old). Visions of partisan control leading to smooth sailing and hoped for changes were not realized in this session of Congress, and expectations for the next Congress would not improve the odds of success.
PRIA represents a different scenario. If the past successful bipartisan coalition of support can be assembled in time (“herding cats” is the appropriate metaphor that comes to mind), a lame duck session might fit the goals of both parties to resolve some issues before the expected gridlock with changed partisan control. This realization may help lead to a “skinny” Farm Bill, which might be a vehicle to include a PRIA reauthorization.
Lastly, remember that 2027 will see earnest attempts by a large number of Representatives, Senators, Governors, and who knows who else (media personalities, billionaires) running for President in 2028. Talk about herding cats….
