Bill Would Cut Rose Disease Funding

Arizona Rep. Matt Salmon introduced his latest bill to eliminate federal funding for the Rose Rosette Disease Grant. The bill is the seventh Shrink our Spending Initiative bill intended to highlight the need to cut “wasteful, taxpayer-funded programs,” according to Salmon.

Rose Rosette Disease (RRD) is a mite borne viral disease that affects the U.S. landscape rose industry. In late 2014, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded $4.6 million to “minimize the effect” of rose rosette disease on garden roses. NIFA’s current priority initiatives include: global food security and hunger, climate change, sustainable energy, childhood obesity, and food safety. Cutting this program would save roughly 4.6 million dollars.

“Though there is nothing wrong with funding research on agricultural diseases, I believe that the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) must prioritize the research that will protect our agricultural security.

“This program is at best a government subsidy to the U.S. rose industry, which draws a healthy $400 million of the $2.81 billion wholesale shrub market. The industry had enough money to match the grant money awarded by the federal government; surely they could also afford to fully support their own mite research.”