Spending bill enhances potato research funds

In the early morning hours of Friday, March 23, the Senate took the final congressional action in passing a full-year FY18 spending bill. This followed the House’s narrow passage of the measure on Thursday afternoon. The president signed it later that day, despite an earlier veto threat due to his concerns over the level of spending for the border wall and the Obama-era program aimed at protecting children of undocumented immigrants from deportation, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA.

“We’re very pleased that Congress has been able to put together a final package and it met the president’s approval,” said John Keeling, NPC CEO. “For our industry, we sincerely appreciate the additional resources that were provided for the NIFA (National Institute of Food and Agriculture) potato breeding research program. It has been raised to $2.5 million, the highest level in history.”

The NIFA potato breeding research program has increased from $1.15 million in 2013 to $2.5 million this year, an increase of 117 percent over that time. It is a multi-state competitive grant program that provides vital resources to fund research on new potato varieties.

The bill also includes a fix to the Section 199 tax provision (also known as the Domestic Production Activities Deduction) that was changed in December’s tax bill. That fix largely reverts to the original benefits of Section 199 that had been in place for over a decade.