House Comes Together to Protect Americans from Parkinson’s Disease and China

Amid massive party infighting, the U.S. House of Representatives is coming together to put a bipartisan end to chemicals poisoning Americans with Parkinson’s disease.

The bipartisan Paraquat Prevention Act would cancel all legal use of the herbicide paraquat, which has been linked to the neurological disorder and is massively produced by China.

“The United States has no business allowing a chemical linked to Parkinson’s disease to keep being sprayed on American farmland, and this bill ends that,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., the author of the bill, said in a press release.

Paraquat is a generic herbicide used for weed control and is banned in every nation in the European Union and more than 70 countries worldwide, including China. Despite China’s ban on the chemical, it is a leading manufacturer of paraquat, exporting roughly 78 million pounds to American ports every year.

Vermont recently became the first U.S. state to restrict the chemical’s use.

“Vermont just proved a paraquat ban is possible. Now Congress must make it national,” co-author Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, said. “Our bill cancels paraquat’s registration outright. No more reviews, no more waiting, no more excuses.”

Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, or FIFRA, the Environmental Protection Agency must register any pesticide to be sold or distributed in the United States.

The bill directs the EPA to “cancel the registration of all uses of paraquat,” including revoking any exemption allowing for the presence of paraquat in or on food, and bans the sale and use of existing paraquat stocks. Under this legislation, the EPA administrator, currently Lee Zeldin, may not re-register paraquat as an EPA-registered herbicide.

“Independent scientific evidence has found that exposure to paraquat has led to increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, yet the EPA has continued to allow this pesticide to be used in our communities,” Andi Fristedt, executive vice president for the Parkinson’s Foundation, said in support of the bill.

“By banning paraquat, the Paraquat Prevention Act would protect Americans and help create a world where fewer people develop Parkinson’s disease in the first place,” Fristedt continued.

According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, roughly 1.1 million Americans live with the disease and nearly 90,000 are diagnosed every year.

The disease currently has no cure. While it is not fatal, complications can be life-threatening. Parkinson’s, a neurological disorder, primarily affects motor skills and degenerates nerve cells in the brain that produce dopamine, causing cognitive impairment, mental health disorders, and sleep disturbances.

“Paraquat exposure is one of the clearest preventable risks linked to Parkinson’s disease,” Dan Feehan, chief policy and government affairs officer at The Michael J. Fox Foundation, said.

Both research foundations have backed this bipartisan bill, congratulating and thanking the members for bringing it to the forefront.

Luna Named the MAHA Queen

This is not the first pesticide fight Luna has taken on. As a young mom serving in Congress, she has taken on the role of a Make America Healthy Again member. The movement, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has made its mark on the midterms as an essential voter bloc Republicans must win to hold the majority.

Luna has proved herself to be someone who will fight for MAHA priorities. She recently had a major win in the 2026 farm bill, where she got her amendment through to strip pesticide liability protections from the package. While that bill passed the House, it is likely to be heavily marked up by the Senate.

Though Pingree is a progressive member of the U.S. House, earning an 8% on the Heritage Action Scorecard, she has pledged to work across the aisle with MAHA moms. Her work as a farmer in Maine led her to a career in politics. While she won’t be supporting President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, she is on board with MAHA—an important position for Republicans to win moderate voters in the midterm elections.