03/28/2026
Why is Rusty Grills spending his time in Nashville making sure billion-dollar multinational corporations can't be sued for giving people cancer?
Grills is the sponsor of HB 0809. This is the same bill that stalled in committee last year, – he brought it back in 2026.
What that means for you:
You buy a bottle of w**d killer at Walmart. It's got a label, EPA registration, the usual stuff. You spray your yard. A few years later, you've developed cancer. Meanwhile, the company pulls the product after discovering previously unknown cancer-causing chemicals.
Right now, you can hold that company accountable. That's how it's supposed to work — if a company's product injures you, they're liable.
If Rusty has his way, you're on your own.
HB 0809 essentially dictates as long as a pesticide has an EPA-approved sticker when you bought it, the manufacturer can’t be sued for failing to warn you about the risks. Period.
During a House committee hearing, Rusty told lawmakers: "This bill is here today to protect what you do…so that you can move forward and make money, make a living and provide a safe food for the world."
That's not the whole story. This bill doesn't just protect farmers. It protects Bayer-Monsanto — the same company that's faced over 170,000 lawsuits over Roundup and cancer. It protects Chinese-owned chemical companies. These are corporations with $50 billion a year in revenue. They don't need Rusty Grills running interference for them in Nashville.
And while Rusty is carrying water for some of the largest chemical companies on earth, West TN roads are falling apart, schools need funding, and the people of District 77 are still waiting for their representative to show up for them.
Memphis attorney Tiffany Carpenter, testifying at a State Senate hearing on the companion bill, put it this way: "This bill takes away your rights when the pesticide label is a lie and it makes you sick or destroys your field. Bayer knows this. They are betting that you don't."
