NCC Praises Appropriations And Farm Leaders For Cotton Assistance In Omnibus Bill

The National Cotton Council (NCC) applauds the House and Senate appropriations and agriculture committee leaders for seeing that essential assistance for the U.S. cotton industry was included in the overall FY 23 spending package.

Congratulated for their efforts on this important legislation are:

• Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-AL)
• Senate Farm Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Ranking Member John Hoeven (R-ND)
• House Appropriations Committee Chair Rose DeLauro (D-CT) and Ranking Member Kay Granger (R-TX)
• House Farm Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Sanford Bishop (D-GA) and Ranking Member Andy Harris (R-MD).

The NCC also acknowledges the continued support of Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Ranking Member John Boozman (R-AR), along with the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. House of Representatives David Scott (D-GA) and Ranking Member GT Thompson (R-PA).

NCC Chairman Ted Schneider said, “The US cotton industry is grateful that Congress has passed this much-needed legislation,” says NCC Chairman Ted Schneider. “This relief will help stabilize the cotton sector, as many growers suffered devastating losses from this season’s extreme drought and other weather events and traders suffered economic losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The package includes $3.741 billion in disaster assistance for US farmers and ranchers, including growers of cotton and other row crops. Assistance will help growers who have suffered loss of income, quality, or loss of crop production (including crops that failed to plant in 2022) due to drought, wildfire, hurricane, flood, entitlement, excessive heat, tornado , winter storms, frost (including a polar vortex), smoke exposure, and excessive moisture occurring in calendar year 2022. The package also provides $100 million for USDA to make payments to cotton traders who have experienced losses economic.

Schneider, a Louisiana cotton grower, says the industry also appreciates that the package includes $15.45 million for cotton pest control activities, $4 million for USDA cotton grading labs, and increased funding for cotton control programs. research on lint quality and cotton genetics within the Agricultural Research Service.

The agreement also directs USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service to continue to work with stakeholders to better understand how to capture supplemental information for certain crops to help offset data losses from the discontinuation of district-level estimates of agricultural statistics. .

Other provisions of the bill include:

Increasing Climate Solutions Act — Incorporates updated language from the Growing Climate Solutions Act, which directs USDA to establish a program to register entities that provide technical assistance and verification to farmers, ranchers, and foresters who participate in voluntary carbon markets with the goal of providing information and confidence to the producers.

Reauthorization of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA 5) — Reauthorizes pesticide registration and review process user fee programs administered by EPA and increases registration and maintenance fees to support a more predictable regulatory process, create additional process improvements, and provide resources for safety, training , bilingual labeling and other services to promote the safe and effective use of pesticides.

Extension of the pesticide registration review period — Extends the deadline for EPA to complete registration review decisions for all pesticide products registered after October 1, 2007. EPA is facing a significant backlog of pesticide registrations due to a variety of factors in recent years, which raises potential implications for continued access to numerous crop protection tools. With this extension, EPA will be able to continue its record review work through October 1, 2026.

Based on information provided by the National Cotton Council