HYDE-SMITH WELCOMES AG SEC. ENDORSEMENT OF HER ‘BUYING AMERICAN COTTON ACT’

HYDE-SMITH WELCOMES AG SEC. ENDORSEMENT OF HER 'BUYING AMERICAN COTTON ACT'

"I Think This is a Gamechanger" for U.S. Cotton, Brooke Rollins Tells Hyde-Smith

VIDEO: Senator Hyde-Smith and Ag Secretary Rollins Discuss the Buying American Cotton Act.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today welcomed and highlighted Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins' endorsement of her Buying American Cotton Act (BACA), a policy bill to rebuild a sustainable market for U.S.-grown cotton.

Hyde-Smith mentioned BACA (S.1919) at a Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday afternoon to review the FY2027 USDA budget request, to which Rollins responded with full support.

"I am very grateful for Secretary Rollins' support for the Buying American Cotton Act. It's not necessarily within the jurisdiction of appropriators or deal with USDA discretionary dollars, but it does touch on many of the goals highlighted in the USDA FY2027 budget request," Hyde-Smith said. "For instance, your budget request focuses on and strives toward: Unleashing a Golden Age for American Agriculture and Protecting Our Food and Farmland; Putting American Farmers First; Prioritizing Rural Communities and Economies; Protecting and Expanding the Resilience of U.S. Agriculture; and Making America Healthy Again. The Buying American Cotton Act would help accomplish each of these budgetary objectives."

At the Wednesday afternoon hearing, Rollins told Hyde-Smith, "I'm with you - 100 percent. I'm from a cotton state, too. Our farmers have just been devastated. And I, you know, we talk a lot about corn and soy and soybean, all the things. But I feel like our cotton guys have been a little bit left out. And I think this is a gamechanger for them. I love your leadership on it. I want to do whatever I can to support it. And I've told a lot of the cotton farmers with the new Make America Healthy Again movement. I know we're talking a lot about food, but let's talk about what we're wearing as well. And I see a whole reinvigoration, hopefully, of that industry and bringing it back to where it needs to be."

Hyde-Smith introduced S.1919 as one long-term solution to stem the decline of domestic cotton production, which has seen a 50 percent decline in planted acres since the mid-1990s and, more dire, a 28 percent decline in the past four years.

BACA would establish tax credits to incentivize the use of U.S.-grown cotton and U.S. cotton-manufactured products like yarns and fabric in cotton-based products sold in the United States.

The bill has been endorsed by more than 80 industry stakeholders, textile mills, major brands and retailers, American Farm Bureau Federation and Farm Bureaus from states across the country. In addition to organizations like the Delta Council, supporters also include retailers like Target, Ralph Lauren, L.L. Bean, GAP, and Victoria's Secret.

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