Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 80 Part 1.djvu/315

 80 STAT. ]

PUBLIC LAW 89-502-JULY 13, 1966

279

Public Law 89-502 AN ACT

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To enable cottongrowers to establish, finance, and c a r r y out a coordinated program of research and promotion to improve the competitive position of, and to expand m a r k e t s for, cotton.

[H. R. 12322]

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Cotton Research United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act shall and Promotion be known as the Cotton Research and Promotion Act. A"" LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF POLICY

SEC. 2. Cotton is the basic natural fiber of the Nation. I t is produced by many individual cottongrowers throughout the various cotton-producing States of the Nation. Cotton moves in large part in the channels of interstate and foreign commerce and such cotton which does not move in such channels directly burdens or affects interstate commerce in cotton and cotton products. All cotton produced in the United States is in the current of interstate or foreign commerce or directly burdens, obstructs, or affects interstate or foreign commerce in cotton and cotton products. The efficient production of cotton and the maintenance and expansion of existing markets and the development of new or improved markets and uses is vital to the welfare of cottongrowers and those concerned with marketing, using, and processing cotton as well as the general economy of the Nation. I n the years since World W a r II, United States cotton and the products thereof have been confronted with intensive competition, both at home and abroad, from foreign-grown cotton and from other fibers, primarily manmade fibers. The great inroads on the market and uses for United States cotton which have been made by manmade fibers have been largely the result of extensive research and promotion which have not been effectively matched by cotton research and promotion. The production and marketing of cotton by numerous individual farmers have prevented the development and carrying out of adequate and coordinated programs of research and promotion necessary to the maintenance and improvement of the competitive position of, and markets for, cotton. Without an effective and coordinated method for assuring cooperative and collective action in providing for, and financing such programs, individual cotton farmers are unable adequately to provide or obtain the research and promotion necessary to maintain and improve markets for cotton. I t has long been found to be in the public interest to have, or endeavor to have, a reasonable balance between the supply of and demand for cotton grown in this country. To serve this public interest the Congress has provided for the comprehensive exercise of regulatory authority in regulating the handling of such cotton supplemented by pricesupport programs with the objective of adjusting supply to demand in the interest of benefiting producers and all others concerned with the production and handling of cotton as well as the general economy of the country. In order for the objective of such programs to be effectuated to the fullest degree, it is necessary that the existing regulation of marketing be supplemented by providing as part of the overall governmental program for effectuating this objective, means of increasing the demand for cotton with the view of eventually reducing or eliminating the need for limiting marketings and supporting the price of cotton. I t is therefore declared to be the policy of the Congress and the purpose of this Act that it is essential in the public interest through the exercise of the powers provided herein, to authorize and enable the establishment of an orderly procedure for the development, financ-

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