On Thursday, July 9, 2020, the House Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to adopt the FY 2021 Appropriation Bill on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration.
The bill provides $61.415 million for the Citrus Health Response Program (CHRP), including a additional $3 million for HLB Multi-Agency Coordination (HLB MAC) on top of the existing $8.5 million allocated, and $25 million for the Emergency Citrus Disease Research and Development Trust Fund authorized by the 2018 Farm Bill. These programs directly support on-the-ground efforts to prevent the spread of HLB in California and vital research projects.
CCM worked with our partners in Texas and Florida to ensure these critical programs were sustained in the upcoming fiscal year.
Citrus Health Response Program (CHRP) ($61.415 million) — Approximately $14 million goes directly to the Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Division to fund ACP trapping and sampling, HLB delimitation actions, quarantine enforcement and public outreach. Because of CCM’s advocacy efforts, the program will continue to receive nearly $20 million in FY 2021 in Federal and State funds. Without the funding provided in the Appropriations bill, the cost to protect the industry for HLB would be born solely by growers.
Citrus Disease Research Program ($25 million) – The 2014 Farm Bill established the Emergency Citrus Disease Research and Extension Program, which is intended to discover and develop tools for early detection, control, and eradication of diseases and pests that threaten domestic citrus production and processing. The 2018 Farm Bill reauthorized this program and established the Emergency Citrus Disease Research and Development Trust Fund to provide $25 million per year in mandatory funding for the program.
HLB MAC Group ($11.5 million total) — The HLB MAC Group helps to coordinate and prioritize Federal research with industry’s efforts to complement and fill research gaps, reduce unnecessary duplication, speed progress, and more quickly provide practical tools for citrus growers to use.
