Anna Paulina Luna calls out Thune over pesticide warning in Farm Bill
The article centers Luna's perspective and charged rhetoric ('shill for pesticide manufacturers,' 'crap they are spraying') without substantial rebuttal from Thune or pesticide industry sources. Language choices like 'slaughter' and emphatic health claims ('IS causing cancer') amplify Luna's framing. However, the piece includes context that critics view the provision as a giveaway and mentions both sides of the intra-GOP dispute, preventing fully partisan lean. The framing treats Luna's claims as largely factual rather than contested.
Primary voices: elected official, elected official
- This article does not address the scientific or regulatory basis for the EPA's pesticide label standards or whether state/court liability expansion would improve public health.
- This article does not include response or perspective from Senate Majority Leader Thune or pesticide manufacturers defending the liability shield.
- This article does not explain the statutory or constitutional arguments for federal preemption of state pesticide liability claims.
Framing may shift depending on Senate Farm Bill negotiations and whether the pesticide amendment is ultimately included or stripped in final legislation.
Establishment framingBoth-sides framingCharged language
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) called out Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) over claims the upper chamber wants to strip a pesticide amendment from the House-passed farm bill.
Last month, Luna successfully stripped a provision from the farm bill that would have blocked states and courts from penalizing pesticide companies that do not include health concerns on their labels beyond those recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We are facing a massive population decline and John Thune thinks it’s a good time to shill for pesticide manufacturers,” Luna wrote on X Monday.
“For those who don’t know, a lot of the crap they are spraying on our food during farming IS causing cancer … especially in kids,” Luna said. “Not to mention the KNOWN impacts on fertility. The pesticide liability shield needs to STAY OUT of the Farm Bill. Hearing the Senate is trying to add it back in.”
Prior to the amendment being added to the House-passed bill, Luna threatened that she and other Republican holdouts would “slaughter” the farm bill if the pesticide provisions were not stripped from the legislation.
Critics have said the provision was a giveaway to pesticide companies and would have prevented lawsuits over certain cancers and other diseases caused by the products.
The farm bill that passed out of the House still has an uphill battle in the upper chamber before the major piece of legislation can hit the president’s desk for the first time since 2018 and was later extended in 2023.
This is not the first time Luna has been at odds with Thune. Earlier this year, the Florida Republican slammed Thune over the SAVE America Act, a voter identification bill, getting stalled in the upper chamber.
Luna and other House conservatives put pressure on Thune by vowing to hold up legislation from passing in the lower chamber until the SAVE America Act hits President Donald Trump’s desk, but have since voted for Senate legislation.
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