Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Coffee Plant Health Initiative Amendments Act, a bill that allows the Secretary of Agriculture to provide research and extension grants for the purposes of protecting coffee plants from outside threats such as invasive pests and weeds.

Coffee serves as a cornerstone of Hawaii's agricultural industry, both in terms of culture and economics. Coffee has been grown in Hawaii for almost 200 years and is revered all over the world for exceptional quality and taste. Coffee is grown on every main island in Hawaii, with half of the acreage on Hawaii Island and the other half spread across Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai. Hawaii remains the largest grower of coffee in the United States, with over 27 million pounds produced and yielding just over $54 million during the 2019-2020 season.

Like all natural ecosystems in Hawaii, coffee production has experienced numerous threats from pests and weeds. These include the black twig borer, root-knot nematode, green scale, crab spider, coffee berry borer, and coffee leaf rust, to name a few. In response to the 2010 arrival of the coffee berry borer in Hawaii, I successfully included the coffee plant health initiative provision in the 2014 farm bill. This provision allowed the Secretary of Agriculture to provide research and extension grants to help the coffee community combat the coffee berry borer. The resulting Federal assistance provided has been instrumental in providing coffee producers the tools they need to protect their coffee crops from the coffee berry borer.

Within the past year another coffee pest has emerged in Hawaii, a fungus known as Coffee Leaf Rust. Like the coffee berry borer, Federal funds are needed to research and develop pest management strategies to equip coffee producers with the knowledge and tools necessary to safeguard their coffee yields.

This bill builds upon the 2014 farm bill coffee plant health initiative provision by expanding the scope of research and extension grants to all invasive pests and noxious weeds threatening the coffee industry, not just the coffee berry borer. While our researchers and coffee growers are currently battling coffee leaf rust, future pest and weeds not currently in Hawaii, like the Coffee Leaf Miner and Coffee Wilt Disease, are likely to emerge. This expansion of the coffee plant health initiative will provide much needed Federal resources to help our coffee community quickly respond to the myriad pests waiting in the wings.

This bill is supported by the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, the Hawaii Coffee Association, the Kau Coffee Growers Cooperative, Kauai Coffee Company, LLC, Puerto Rico Coffee Roasters, LLC, and the Puerto Rico Farm Bureau. ______

By Mr. PADILLA (for himself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Booker, Mr. Hickenlooper, Ms. Rosen, Ms. Smith, Mr. King, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Wyden, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Ossoff, Mrs. Gillibrand, Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Markey, Mr. Peters, Ms. Warren, and Ms. Duckworth):

S. 2887. A bill to codify the existing Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program of the National Park Service, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

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