HYDE-SMITH OP-ED MAKES CASE FOR ‘BUYING AMERICAN COTTON ACT’
Miss. Senator Pens Opinion Piece Ahead of Ag Committee Hearing on Promoting U.S.-grown Ag Products
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Agri-Pulse, an agricultural news source focused on food, fuel, fiber and farm policy coverage, today published an opinion piece written by U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith that makes a case for the Buying American Cotton Act (S.1919), which she introduced last May.
The Hyde-Smith op-ed was published shortly before the Senate Agriculture Committee announced a full committee hearing titled, Increasing Domestic Consumption of U.S.-Grown Agricultural Products, for Tuesday, March 10, which will feature witnesses from the cotton, corn, soybean, and fresh produce sectors.
Read Hyde-Smith’s op-ed here or below.
Opinion: Buy American tax incentive could help restore U.S. cotton’s supply chain
03/04/26 11:47 AM By Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith
It’s no secret that the farm economy has experienced real struggles for several years, and the urgency for the federal government to act is growing as commodity prices remain low and input costs remain high. Conditions in Mississippi and other states have deteriorated sharply, and producers are running out of time.
The rural economy is on an unsustainable trajectory that cannot be fixed without a shift in the way that Washington thinks about how policy supports agriculture. To prevent American agriculture from falling into a deeper crisis, both short- and long-term changes are necessary. Beyond further short-term assistance, we must aim for solutions that build long-term resiliency for American agriculture through innovative demand-building legislation that harnesses the power of American consumption.
Lawmakers must do more to give producers a fair shot and provide real, tangible demand-based solutions to the challenges they face. The Buying American Cotton Act (BACA), which I introduced with bipartisan and bicameral support, is one such solution. This legislation creates forward-facing structural demand for our farmers rather than addressing economic catastrophes after they occur.
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. This legislation supports farm families and encourages investment in domestic textile mills. Lawmakers, producers, and industry leaders have been asking for more market-based solutions to confront the issues facing American agriculture, and BACA is a long-term solution.
The state of the farm economy has placed the cotton industry in an especially vulnerable spot and reflects the need for congressional action. Over the years, textile manufacturing has largely left the U.S. and moved to other parts of the world, leaving many rural communities in Mississippi and across the Cotton Belt without the recurring demand from a domestic textile industry that once thrived and provided cotton farmers with a strong and dependable market for their crops.
U.S. cotton farmers have lost a reliable, captive customer base largely to cheaper synthetic fibers, which are becoming increasingly linked to “forever chemicals” and the potential health risks they present. U.S. cotton now depends heavily on exports, with more than 85 percent of our bales being exported. This exposes our producers to shifts in global demand and foreign trade policies and has resulted in our nation being the largest importer of cotton products on the planet – but only a fraction of those products is made from U.S. cotton. So, we are allowing foreign competitors to put our farmers out of business by selling inferior products to U.S. consumers. This must stop.
BACA provides solutions to American cotton’s share of our nation’s robust domestic retail consumption. This legislation has unified support up and down the cotton supply chain – U.S. farmers, gins, warehouses, spinning mills, and retailers. But the benefits reach far beyond the farmers who grow the highest-quality and most responsibly grown fiber in the world or the retailers who sell the products. The environment and consumers win too.
Consumers are increasingly demanding natural fibers. Unlike synthetic fabrics derived from plastics, cotton is a natural, renewable, and biodegradable fiber. It breaks down naturally at the end of its life cycle, rather than lingering in landfills or shedding microplastics into the environment, which eventually makes its way into our bodies. For consumers who care about what they wear and how it’s made, American cotton offers a clear answer: natural, comfortable, dependable, and responsibly grown.
As Congress addresses the headwinds facing the farm economy, BACA must be a part of that debate. We’ve accomplished much through the Working Families Tax Cut Act, increasing reference prices for commodities, and other historic investments in rural America, but we must build on that success.
Cotton is an important part of our nation’s Southern agronomic system and boasts a strong economic multiplier for our rural and textile communities. The strong, bipartisan Buying American Cotton Act will stand to benefit all of us and help to build a more resilient U.S. cotton industry.
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., is a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.
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