Bill Huffman
Director - Government Relations

The Friday Report

December 30, 2010

Congress finished its work a day or two before Christmas and adjourned until next year.  Newly elected members of Congress will be sworn in on January 5th and a new two-year session begins.

As we’ve reported before, there will be leadership changes for each of the committees and subcommittees in the House of Representatives as the Republican take control. For the Agriculture Committee there will 16 new members added to the Republican roster for the 112th Congress.  They include the following:

            Rick Crawford, Arkansas

            Scott DesJariais, Tennessee

            Renee Elmers, North Carolina

            Stephen Fincher, Tennessee

            Bob Gibbs, Ohio

            Chris Gibson, New York

            Vicky Hartzier, Missouri

            Tim Huelskamp, Kansas

            Randy Hultgren, Illinois

            Reid Ribble, Wisconsin

            Martha Roby, Alabama

            Bobby Schilling, Illinois

            Austin Scott, Georgia

            Steve Southerland, Florida

            Martin Stutzman, Indiana

            Scott Tipton, Colorado

Congressman Frank Lucas, R-Oklahoma will be Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Jerry Moran, who once was Chairman of the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management, is moving to the U.S. Senate.

We are waiting for the list of Democrats who will be serving on the House Agriculture Committee.  So far as we know, California Congressmen Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa will remain on the Committee, but the official announcement of Democrats serving on the Committee is not expected until the new 112th Congress convenes in January.

In the Senate, we received word this past week that Senator Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia will be leaving the Senate Agriculture Committee to become the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. We are sad to lose Senator Chambliss, a man who has a long record serving on the Agriculture Committees in both the House and the Senate.  Senator Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, will be Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, will become the ranking Republican on the Committee.  Senator Roberts, as you might recall, was Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee in 1996 when that Farm Bill was enacted.  He is very knowledgeable about farm policy issues.

With a new Farm Bill scheduled to be adopted in 2012, we have lost several experienced members of both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees who have moved on to other assignments or were not reelected in November.

Happy New Year!

The Board of Directors and staff of Farmers’ Rice Cooperative wish all members a Happy New Year! The FRC office will be closed on Friday, December 31st in observance of the New Year!