Today Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28) announced the successful inclusion of $11.52 million to keep the boll weevil and pink bollworm pests, which plague cotton farmers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, at bay in the Fiscal Year 2017 House Agriculture Appropriations bill. The bill has passed the full committee and now awaits consideration by the full House of Representatives.

“Although partnerships between cotton producers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have resulted in the eradication of boll weevil from most of the United States, it remains in the portion of the Lower Rio Grande Valley bordering the Mexican state of Tamaulipas,” Congressman Cuellar said. “Boll weevil is the most destructive cotton pest in North America and has cost cotton producers around $23 billion since its introduction. The Rio Grande Valley is an important agricultural powerhouse for Texas, which is why it is crucial that we apply these funds in order to protect our cotton growers in the Valley.”

"The National Cotton Council is grateful to Congressman Cuellar for helping secure funding necessary to facilitate the eradication of two very destructive pests of U.S. cotton," said Gary Adams, President and CEO of the National Cotton Council. "The National Boll Weevil Eradication Program, for example, ranks close to Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin as one of the greatest advancements ever for the U.S. cotton industry. This federal-state-grower cost share program has helped thousands of U.S. cotton growers become more competitive and has been a plus for the environment."

Boll weevil is an invasive pest that entered the U.S. from Mexico in 1892 and spread across the entire Cotton Belt, which stretches from Texas across the South to Virginia, within a 30-year period. In 1979, American cotton producers teamed up with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to eradicate the pest. This resulted in the creation of a cost-share program in which producers pay 70 percent of the program cost and APHIS provides the remaining 30 percent through appropriations to keep the pest at bay.

Pink bollworm, another dangerous pest, reached the American South in the 1920s and is found in many areas of the world outside the United States, including Mexico, India and China.

The Lower Rio Grande Valley has been identified as a buffer zone between active boll weevil populations in Mexico and boll weevil-free areas in the U.S. That is why it is so important to keep up eradication efforts so as to eradicate boll weevil (and pink bollworm, which has its own separate eradication program) from all cotton-producing areas of the United States and adjacent areas of Northern Mexico