Barb Kalbach.

School is back in session, and so is Congress following their month-long recess. There will likely be talk and drama over the coming weeks about passing a budget to avoid a government shutdown.

But I’ll be keeping my eye on two bills that could have much bigger (and longer lasting) impacts on Iowans and our livelihoods. These bills have to do about cancer and water quality – two things we know all too well about here in Iowa.

Iowans across the political spectrum came together during our last legislative session to defeat Bayer’s “Cancer Gag Act,” also known as the pesticide immunity bill. So what did the multinational corporation worth billions of dollars do? Headed to Washington, D.C. in an attempt to silence not just Iowans if we get sick from using their products like Roundup, but everyone in the entire country.

Tucked away in Section 453 of the House’s Fiscal Year 2026 Interior-Environment Appropriations Bill is language familiar to those of us who followed our legislative session a few months back. Simply put, it would shield pesticide companies from lawsuits brought by people harmed from using their products. Not stopping there, it would also limit states’ authority to regulate pesticides. After all, big business has never liked local control.

The other bill has a nice sounding title – Promoting Efficient Review for Modern Infrastructure Today, or the PERMIT Act. Who wouldn’t be in favor of that?! Well, anyone who wants access to safe, clean water. That’s because the gist of the bill essentially takes a hacksaw to the Clean Water Act passed in 1972.

Just reading the summary of the PERMIT Act from Congress.gov is alarming: “This bill limits the scope of the Clean Water Act by redefining navigable waters to exclude (1) waste treatment systems, (2) ephemeral features that flow only in direct response to precipitation, (3) prior converted cropland, (4) groundwater, or (5) any other features determined to be excluded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.”

This means pesticides could be discharged into Iowa rivers without Clean Water Act permits. Same for polluters who dump forever chemicals into the water we end up drinking. The Army Corps of Engineers could remove wetlands or other waterways from protection for any reason. And if we wanted to clean any of this up, it’s on us taxpayers to foot the bill.

If the PERMIT Act is passed, get ready for more closed beaches. Of the 41 state beaches monitored this summer by the Iowa DNR, 28 had at least one weekend where swimming was not allowed due to high levels of E.Coli or microcystins – two thirds of the monitored beaches! Limiting the Clean Water Act does not sound like the remedy for this problem.

Iowa CCI members joined the Environmental Law & Policy Center to deliver letters on this critical issue to Iowa’s Congressional delegation right before they returned to D.C. When asked for comment, Rep. Hinson’s office said she was supportive of PERMIT. Our other Representatives had no comment.

I hope, but am not holding my breath, those who didn’t comment understand the severity of our water and cancer crises and will act in our interests rather than those of big business. Water quality, let alone cancer, are not “red” or “blue” issues, they’re “our” issues and we need to come together to address them.

Barb Kalbach lives in Adair County, Iowa. She is a 4th-generation family farmer, a registered nurse, and board president of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. Barb can be reached at barbnealkalbach@gmail.com.