Lucas Names House Ag Subcommittee Chairs

The next chair of the House Agriculture Committee has named his subcommittee chairs. Frank Lucas (Okla.) says Bob Goodlatte of Virginia will serve as vice chair of the Ag Committee.

Subcommittee chairmen and their jurisdictions include:

• Rep. Glenn "GT" Thompson (Pa.)--Conservation, Energy, and Forestry: Jurisdiction--Soil, water and resource conservation, small watershed program, energy and biobased energy production, rural electrification, forestry in general and forest reserves other than those created from the public domain.
• Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (Neb.)--Department Operations, Oversight, and Credit: Jurisdiction--Agency oversight, review and analysis, special investigations and agricultural credit.
• Rep. K. Michael Conaway, (Texas)--General Farm Commodities and Risk Management: Jurisdiction--Program and markets related to cotton, cottonseed, wheat, feed grains, soybeans, oilseeds, rice, dry beans, peas, lentils, the Commodity Credit Corporation, risk management, including crop insurance, commodity exchanges, and specialty crops.
• Rep. Tom Rooney (Fla.)--Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry: Jurisdiction--Livestock, dairy, poultry, meat, seafood and seafood products, inspection, marketing and promotion of such commodities, aquaculture, animal welfare and grazing.
• Rep. Jean Schmidt (Ohio)--Nutrition and Horticulture: Jurisdiction--Food stamps, nutrition and consumer programs, fruits and vegetables, honey and bees, marketing and promotion orders, plant pesticides, quarantine, adulteration of seeds and insect pests and organic agriculture.
• Rep. Timothy V. Johnson (Ill.)--Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology and Foreign Agriculture: Jurisdiction--Rural Development, farm security and family farming matters, biotechnology, foreign agriculture assistance and trade promotion programs, generally.

Lucas says those selected have demonstrated a commitment to ensuring the success of American agriculture and rural economies.

"The next year will be an exercise in educating our freshmen members on both sides of the aisle, providing oversight of the administration and building a strong working relationship as we prepare to reauthorize the Farm Bill in 2012," concluded Lucas.

Reprinted from Brownfield Ag News