Press Releases

In July of 2017, Arrington helped his friend and fellow West Texan, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee Mike Conaway, secure the support of over a hundred of their colleagues in the House for a letter to President Trump and Agriculture Secretary Perdue, asking that USDA restart the Cotton Ginning Cost Share program. Following today’s announcement by Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue that the USDA will authorize Cotton Ginning Cost Share Assistance, Congressman Jodey Arrington (TX-19) released the following statement. “The past four years have been some of the toughest on record for our cotton farmers. Today’s action taken by Secretary Perdue recognizes that cutting cotton out of the Farm Bill’s safety net in 2014 had far-reaching consequences, not only for our cotton producers, but for our region’s agriculture economy as well. “With this disaster relief assistance from USDA, along with the recent passage of legislation to permanently restore cotton back under the protections of Title 1 of the Farm Bill’s safety net, the future of the cotton industry in TX-19 looks much brighter. I want to thank Sonny Perdue and his staff for their strong support. I appreciate his commitment to the cotton industry and look forward to continuing to work with him as we move forward with the next Farm Bill.” BACKGROUND Throughout his term, Arrington has made cotton a top priority. Chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management, Rick Crawford (AR-1) said, “Texas 19 is fortunate to have the leadership of Congressman Jodey Arrington. He hit the ground running in the 115th Congress taking the initiative immediately on key cotton issues, which have provided much needed relief to his cotton producing constituents and producers belt-wide. His tenacity on the ‘cotton fix’ earned him the nickname ‘Cotton-eyed Jodey’ - an appropriate moniker for someone so focused on helping the cotton industry." The cotton industry consists of 20,000 businesses that employ 126,000 people and generate over $21 billion in revenue. Over the past decade, the number of businesses involved in the ginning of cotton have declined by 33 percent and those involved in the warehousing of cotton have declined by 21 percent.

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