When members of the floral community gather together in Washington, D.C., next week for the Society of American Florists’ 40^th annual Congressional Action Days (CAD), they’ll be advocating for something that benefits every floral professional, no matter the segment: research funding.

“The Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative, or FNRI, has positively affected the floral industry in so many ways, leading to innovations in pest and disease management and advances in breeding technology,” said Katie Butler, SAF’s senior vice president. “CAD attendees will make a strong, united case for continued support at existing levels.”

This year, the conversation is especially important, said Butler, noting that President Trump’s proposed new budget includes a decrease in Agricultural Research Funding, which could affect FNRI. (That budget is considered a preliminary starting point for negotiations with Congress.)

SAF has a track record of success on this issue, having secured funding for the effort in the past. Last year during CAD, former SAF President Terril Nell, Ph.D., AAF, research coordinator for the American Floral Endowment, and Dr. Marvin Miller of Ball Horticultural Company, helped attendees understand the important roles these research-based efforts play in the future success of the industry.

“Research is all about your business, it doesn’t matter the segment,” Nell said at the time, noting that FNRI has played a central role in creating new technology and best practices in pest and disease management. “Money toward research makes it happen.”

In addition to FNRI funding, SAF members will advocate for the following issues during CAD:

Generalized System of Preferences (GSP): Established in 1974, GSP is a U.S. trade program designed to provide economic opportunity to the world’s poorest communities by eliminating duties for specific products from least developed countries. U.S. businesses that rely on imported goods from GSP approved countries — including the floral industry — benefit from a stable GSP. The U.S. floral industry imports 77 percent of cut flowers sold, of which nearly 95 percent comes in duty free. Without a stable GSP, costs for imported flowers would go up.  SAF is asking that Congress support reauthorization of the GSP, which is set to expire at the end of 2020.

Agricultural Labor: Meaningful reforms are needed to the immigration system so that American businesses across the floral supply chain have a legal, stable supply of workers, both in the short- and long-term. SAF supported House passage of HR 5038, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019. SAF is asking the Senate to follow suit and pass an agriculture immigration bill to move this issue forward.

Tax Treatment of a “Qualified Improvement Property”: Businesses of all sorts typically deduct their operating expenses against income tax in the year for which those expenses are incurred. However, some types of expenses like long-term investments in capital assets are sometimes depreciated (and the costs deducted or “recovered”) over a longer period of time than one year, such as improvements on a retail building. Due to a technical error in the recent tax law, QIPs don’t qualify for the tax benefit that was intended. For example, if a retailer invested $20,000 in a renovation, without a correction in the law the retailer might only be able to deduct as little as $512 of the $20,000 investment in a given year. SAF wants to make sure that retailers making improvements to their properties receive the maximum tax benefit and is asking Congress to correct the error by qualifying QIPs as 15-year property (rather than a 39-year property).

Mary Westbrook is the editor in chief of Floral Management.