As Congress weighs budget priorities for 2023, the industry is “well positioned” to receive support for a funding increase for floriculture research, says the Society of American Florists’ Senior Lobbyist Joe Bischoff.

SAF continues to make the case with decision makers on the need for innovation in floriculture.

During Congressional Action Days (CAD) earlier this spring, SAF members requested a $2 million increase in annual funding for the Floriculture & Nursery Research Initiative (FNRI), which, if successful, would mark the largest increase in the history of the program.

In the last month, SAF’s government affairs team submitted official appropriations requests to 10 House of Representatives’ offices and four Senate offices. With the last major funding increase in the program coming in fiscal year 2018, the requests emphasized the need to keep up with heightened costs as well as the need to bring newer technologies — such as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drones — to floriculture. Appropriately configured, UAS can help producers with pest and disease scouting, monitor abiotic stresses and even apply crop production and protection products.

Some of offices that received appropriations requests from SAF were identified as potential FNRI supporters as a direct result of CAD attendees setting the groundwork during their meetings.

Veteran CAD attendee Nicole Palazzo, manager of product development and marketing at City Line Florist in Trumbull, Connecticut, used her relationship with staffer Emily Smith in the office of Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) to reinforce the importance of an FNRI funding increase.

“It was my fifth year going to CAD and Emily has been working in Sen. Murphy’s office the entire time,” Palazzo says.  “Just showing up every year we started to form a bond, form a relationship. She’s even reached out to me before and after meetings to ask if I need anything for SAF and for our business in general.”

Palazzo cites that personal connection as a key reason the office was receptive to learning more about why FNRI was important to her business and the floral industry.

“She knows all about City Line Florist,” she says. “It makes it easy to ask for things if you have that relationship — they’ll do what they can for you.”

In addition to other advocacy efforts, SAF collaborated with AmericanHort staff who used the same language developed by SAF for appropriations requests for offices where they have relationships. SAF and AmericanHort followed up the requests by having meetings with congressional offices and House and Senate Agriculture Appropriations staff.

“Between the appropriations requests that we’ve submitted, our interactions and follow-up conversations with Congressional offices and committees, and coordination with AmericanHort, we are better positioned for success in this request than we have been since the establishment of FNRI,” Bischoff says.

Although it’s currently unclear when the appropriations committees will draft and mark-up the bill language associated with the funding of USDA programs, “it’s possible we will get hints on potential support from the House by mid- to late-July,” Bischoff says.

Katie Butler is the senior vice president of the Society of American Florists.