# Bayer **Bayer** is a German pharmaceutical and agricultural company. It bought the American seed and chemical maker Monsanto in 2018 and with it Roundup, the world's most widely used weedkiller, and the lawsuits that came attached. It appears in this knowledge base because of what happened to those lawsuits in 2026, and who Bayer was paying at the time. ## The Roundup problem Roundup's active ingredient is glyphosate. In 2015 the [[World Health Organization]]'s cancer research agency classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans. The [[EPA]] has concluded it is unlikely to cause cancer and does not require a warning on the label. Bayer says decades of studies show the product is safe. Bayer has won a number of trials and has also been hit with large jury awards. It paid about $10 billion to settle most of the claims pending in 2020 and still faced roughly 65,000 plaintiffs at the start of 2026. ## 2026: three wins in five months - **February 17.** Bayer proposed a class settlement of up to $7.25 billion, paid over as long as 21 years, to resolve current and future claims. - **February 18.** [[Donald Trump]] signed [[Executive Order 14387]], which declared glyphosate critical to national defense and extended legal immunity under the [[Defense Production Act]] to its domestic producer. Bayer, through Monsanto, is the only company that makes glyphosate in the United States. - **June 25.** The [[Supreme Court]] ruled 7–2 in *Monsanto Co. v. Durnell* that federal pesticide law overrides state lawsuits claiming Roundup should have carried a cancer warning. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion; Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch dissented. The Justice Department had supported Monsanto. ## The lobbying Bayer hired [[Ballard Partners]] after the 2024 election. The registration was filed in January 2025 and names the firm's founder, [[Brian Ballard]], as one of two lobbyists on the account. Through September 2026, Bayer had paid the firm **$660,000**: $30,000 for the last quarter of 2024 and $90,000 in each of the seven quarters since. Every quarterly report from 2025 onward lists the White House Office as a contact. In the first three quarters of 2026, it is the only contact listed. The reports describe the work as communicating the importance of "crop protection tools for agricultural purposes." Ballard is one of several lobbying firms Bayer retains; [[Forbes Tate Partners]] is another. ## The allegation In November 2026, former health adviser [[Calley Means]] said the glyphosate order was pushed through by White House chief of staff [[Susie Wiles]] after Bayer paid Ballard. Wiles and Ballard deny it, and Ballard says no one at his firm lobbied Wiles or West Wing staff on the order. The lobbying reports confirm contact with the White House Office in the quarter the order was signed. They do not say who was contacted or what was asked. See [[MAGA vs. MAHA]]. ## See also - [[Executive Order 14387]] · [[MAGA vs. MAHA]] · [[Ballard Partners]] · [[Brian Ballard]] - [[MAHA]] · [[EPA]] · [[Regulatory Capture]] · [[Lobbying Hub]]