U.S. Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio joined forces Thursday and urged Senate leaders to take up and approve legislation to help Florida’s citrus growers replant millions of trees lost to citrus greening.
In a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, Nelson and Rubio urged the two leaders to advance legislation they filed earlier this year to make it easier for citrus growers to immediately deduct the full cost of planting new trees, instead of over a 14-year period as required by current law.
“Experts say we need to start the process of planting nearly 20 million new trees in order to get back to the productive level of 10 years ago,” the lawmakers wrote. “This problem can’t wait for tax reform. Growers are losing ground to greening every day. If we wait too long, there won’t be much left to save.”
Citrus greening has been blamed for killing groves across the country, including more than 160,000 acres in Florida since 2005.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest forecast predicts Florida’s orange harvest will be down 17 percent this season, compared to last season. The agency expects Florida to produce 68 million boxes during the current 2016-17 season, roughly a quarter of the 244 million boxes Florida produced two decades ago.
The lawmakers’ bill would encourage growers to start the process of replanting the tens of millions of new trees needed to bring Florida’s citrus production back to the level it reached before the greening disease began to ravage the industry.
In 2014, Nelson was instrumental in getting Congress to approve $125 million for citrus-greening research to help find a cure for the disease.