Buchanan fights for Floridians on citrus disease, Zika

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) recently told the Ripon Advance that he expects that his bipartisan legislation to help Florida orange growers fight a disease that has infected 99 percent of commercial citrus groves will advance in the Senate before the end of the year.

The House recently passed Buchanan’s Emergency Citrus Disease Response Act, H.R. 3957, to provide tax incentives for farmers who cannot afford to replace trees affected by citrus greening, the most destructive disease of citrus crops.

“We are talking about the livelihood of 62,000 people working in Florida in that industry,” Buchanan said in an interview with the Ripon Advance. “Our production is down 26 percent, which is the lowest in over 50 years.”

The Florida citrus industry creates a $10.7 billion annual economic impact, according to Florida Citrus Mutual, the state’s largest citrus grower group.

Once infected by citrus greening, citrus trees must be destroyed. Florida Citrus Mutual estimates that the Florida citrus industry needs to put more than 20 million trees in the ground over the next 10 years to get production back to where it was before crops were devastated by the disease.

Under current law, growers are allowed an immediate deduction for the cost of replanting diseased trees, but farmers must bear the full cost. Buchanan’s proposal would allow farmers to use the deduction even if they bring in investors to raise capital for replanting costs, as long as the grower continues to own a major stake in the grove.

“I’m estimating it could bring $100 million of additional investment into the industry because they need to replace a lot of the trees,” Buchanan said. “And a lot of growers don’t have that capital.”

Buchanan is the co-chair of both the bipartisan 29-member Florida congressional delegation and the Congressional Citrus Caucus, both of which supported the citrus bill, which ultimately passed the House 400-20.

Buchanan expects that the Senate will approve the legislation in November. Both U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) support the bill.

Buchanan was also a strong advocate of Congress passing $1.1 billion of funding to combat the Zika virus, which came last month after seven months of delays.

Florida is ground zero for Zika transmission, Buchanan said, and Miami-Dade County has been the only area in the nation where the virus has spread through locally acquired mosquito bites.

“I think it’s disgraceful that it took Congress this long to act,” Buchanan said. “We have about 1,000 cases of Zika in Florida and 90 women who are pregnant that are infected in Florida alone.”

Zika can be spread from a pregnant woman to her fetus and has been linked to a serious birth defect in infants called microcephaly.

Buchanan originally supported President Barack Obama’s request for $1.9 billion in emergency funding to fight the Zika crisis, adding that he hopes that Florida’s share of the state funds is substantial because it has the most cases.

“Now that we have $1.1 billion, I think it is important that we get that rolled out quickly to the people who need it, especially in Florida,” Buchanan added.

Under the legislation, $933 million will go to the Department of Health and Human Services, including $394 million to the Centers for Disease Control for mosquito control and surveillance. A total of $397 million is also included for the National Institutes of Health for vaccine development.

Additionally, $44 million will go to states to backfill their public health emergency preparedness funds that were shifted earlier this year, according to the National Governors Association.

Buchanan is also pushing for tax cuts as the only member of Congress from Florida on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

One proposal by Buchanan that would change the way small businesses are taxed was included in the tax reform blueprint released earlier this year by House Republicans.

The blueprint builds on Buchanan’s Main Street Fairness Act, which establishes that businesses that file taxes as pass-through income, such as sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs and S Corps, will never pay a higher rate than a corporation.  

Under current law, corporations pay a maximum tax rate of 35 percent. Business income earned through a sole proprietorship or a pass-through entity, however, is reported by the owner or owners of a business on their individual tax returns and is taxed at an income tax rate as high as 44.6 percent.

The tax reform blueprint proposes limiting the tax rate that applies to small business and pass-through income to the 25 percent bracket.

“I’m hopeful we can do something on tax reform which will look to lower corporate rates ­– which are the highest in the world – but also lower pass-through rates, which affect mostly small and medium-sized businesses that create the majority of the jobs,” Buchanan said.