New Ag Subcommittee Rosters

The new roster of chairmen and members announced by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) and ranking member Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) for its subcommittees contains some old faces and some new.

One of the more familiar ones is that of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), who becomes chairman of the Subcommittee on Rural Revitalization, Conservation, Forestry and Credit after serving a term as chairman of the Subcommittee on Production, Income Protection and Price Support.
Two of the newest are Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Mike Johanns (R-NE), chairman and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Domestic and Foreign Marketing, Inspection and Plant & Animal Health. Gillibrand was appointed to former Sen. Hillary Clinton’s New York seat, and former Agriculture Secretary Johanns successfully ran to replace retiring Chuck Hagel in 2008.
The subcommittees and their new chairman, ranking members and members:

Rural Revitalization, Conservation, Forestry and Credit: Blanche Lincoln; Republican Designee, ranking member; and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Bob Casey (D-PA), John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO).

• Jurisdiction: Legislation and oversight involving rural economic revitalization and quality of life; rural job and business growth; rural electrification, telecommunications and utilities; conservation, protection and stewardship of natural resources; state, local and private forests and general forestry; agricultural and rural credit.

Energy, Science and Technology; Stabenow; Thune; and Kent Conrad (D-ND), Richard Lugar (R-IN), Nelson, Pat Roberts (R-KS), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Johanns, Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Grassley, Bennet, Republican Designee and Gillibrand.

• Jurisdiction: Legislation and oversight involving renewable energy production and energy efficiency improvement on farms and ranches and in rural communities; food and agricultural research, education, economics and extension; innovation in the use of agricultural commodities and materials.

Hunger, Nutrition and Family Farms; Brown; Lugar; and Leahy, Cochran, Max Baucus (D-MT), McConnell, Lincoln, Republican Designee, Stabenow, Casey, Klobuchar, Bennet and Gillibrand.

• Jurisdiction: Domestic and international nutrition and food assistance and hunger prevention; school and child nutrition programs; local and healthy food initiatives; futures, options and derivatives; pesticides; and general legislation.

Subcommittee on Production, Income Protection and Price Support; Casey; Roberts; Leahy, Cochran, Conrad, Johanns, Baucus, Grassley, Lincoln, Thune and Brown.

• Jurisdiction: Legislation and oversight involving production of agricultural crops, commodities and products; farm and ranch income protection and assistance; commodity price support programs; insurance and risk protection; fresh water food production.

Domestic and Foreign Marketing, Inspection, and Plant & Animal Health; Gillibrand; Johanns; and Conrad, Lugar, Baucus, McConnell, Nelson, Roberts and Klobuchar.

• Jurisdiction: Legislation and oversight involving agricultural trade; foreign market development; domestic marketing and product promotion; marketing orders and regulation of agricultural markets and animal welfare; inspection and certification of plants, animals and products; plant and animal diseases and health protection.