Republican lawmakers are asking the Environmental Protection Agency to quickly comply with a court order and revoke its ban on the insecticide chlorpyrifos.

In a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, 33 House members and 22 senators said a ruling this month by a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was long-awaited by farmers and clear.

“The court has spoken and, consistent with its decision, we believe farmers should have access to this critical tool for the 2024 growing season,” the letter reads.

EPA could appeal and seek a rehearing by the full court. Efforts to obtain comment from the EPA were unsuccessful.

The EPA revoked all uses of chlorpyrifos on food crops in 2021 to meet a deadline set by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to act on a petition filed in 2007 by anti-pesticide groups.

The groups alleged that exposure to the chemical in drinking water and from residue on produce was unsafe.

Farm groups and Gharda Chemicals Limited, the only company that still registers chlorpyrifos products in the U.S., appealed the ban to the Midwest-based 8th Circuit Court.

The three-judge panel unanimously ruled Nov. 2 that EPA bowed to the court deadline and arbitrarily banned chlorpyrifos rather than identify where the chemical could be used without risking human health.

The court noted the EPA never withdrew its finding chlorpyrifos could be used safely in selected areas on alfalfa, strawberries, apples, asparagus, cherries, citrus, cotton, peaches, soybeans, sugar beets and wheat.

The three-judge panel included 8th Circuit Court Chief Judge Lavenski Smith, as well as Judges Raymond Gruender and David Stras, who wrote the opinion.

The federal lawmakers, in their letter, accused the EPA of “putting political science before sound science.”

Idaho Sens. James Risch and Mike Crapo, and Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse were among lawmakers signing the letter.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania and the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, John Boozman of Arkansas, also signed.

Chlorpyrifos was registered for use in U.S. agriculture in 1965. As recently as 2017, it was the most widely used pesticide in the U.S. Agricultural use of chlorpyrifos survived multiple safety reviews, according to Stras.

Court overturns EPA’s ban on chlorpyrifos