The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the primary regulatory agency of pesticides. The EPA's authority on pesticides is given in the Congressionally-enacted Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)—a comprehensive regulatory program for pesticides and herbicides enacted in 1972 and amended nearly 50 times over the years. The goal of FIFRA is to regulate the use of pesticides through registration.

Section 3 of FIFRA mandates that the EPA must first determine that the product "will perform its intended function without unreasonable adverse effects on the environment" before it is registered. The Act defines adverse effects as "any unreasonable effects on man or the environment, taking into account the economic, social and environmental costs and benefits of using any pesticide." To further this objective, Congress placed a number of regulatory tools at the disposal of the EPA. Congress also made clear...