U.S. House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas this week named five members to serve as Subcommittee Chairmen of the House Agriculture Committee for the 113th Congress, including Pennsylvania Congressman GT Thompson of Pennsylvania.
Congressman Thompson (PA-5) will chair the Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy, and Forestry. The Committee has jurisdiction over soil, water, and resource conservation, small watershed programs, energy and biobased energy production, rural electrification, forestry and forest reserves other than those created from the public domain.
Other Subcommittee Chairs named by Lucas are:
• Rep. Steve King (IA-5): Department Operations, Oversight, and Nutrition. Jurisdiction: Agency oversight, review and analysis, special investigations, food stamps, nutrition and consumer programs.
• Rep. K. Michael Conaway, (TX-11): 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. Austin Scott (GA-8): Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture. Jurisdiction: Fruits and vegetables, honey and bees, marketing and promotion orders, plant pesticides, quarantine, adulteration of seeds and insect pests, and organic agriculture, research, education and extension, biotechnology and foreign agriculture assistance, and trade promotion programs, generally.
• Rep. Rick Crawford (AR-1): Livestock, Rural Development, and Credit. Jurisdiction: Livestock, dairy, poultry, meat, seafood and seafood products, inspection, marketing, and promotion of such commodities, aquaculture, animal welfare and grazing, rural development, farm security and family farming matters, and agricultural credit.
A final committee membership list will be released when available.