Last week, House leadership announced committee chairs for the 117^th Congress. Representative. David Scott (D-GA) was selected to be the next Chair of the House Agriculture Committee with Representative Glenn "GT" Thompson (R-PA) as Ranking Member.

Scott has served on the committee since 2003, most recently serving as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Commodity, Exchanges, Energy, and Credit, and will be the first African American chairman of the committee. “I am honored to have been chosen by my colleagues in the Democratic Caucus to serve as Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee,” said Congressman Scott. “I was born on my grandparents’ farm in rural Aynor, South Carolina, during the days of segregation, and the hardships, of those, on whose shoulders I now stand. I owe this historic selection as the first African American Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee to a diverse coalition of members from across our nation. And I will use this critical opportunity to represent the values of our entire caucus and advance our priorities for trade, disaster aid, climate change, sustainable agriculture, SNAP, crop insurance, small family farms, specialty crops, and rural broadband. The fault lines dividing our rural and urban communities are running deep, and climate change is now threatening our nation’s food supply. As chairman, I will lead the fight to rise up and meet these challenges.”

Thompson has been a member of the House Agriculture Committee since he was elected in 2009 and most recently served as Ranking Member of Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management. “As a lifelong resident of a small town in rural central Pennsylvania and the descendant of a long line of dairy farmers, I am incredibly humbled to have been elected by my Republican colleagues,” Thompson said. “The challenges ahead of us are considerable, but we will continue to put farm families first and ensure our country has the most safe and affordable food supply chain on the planet,” Thompson said.

Thompson also stated the committee would focus on passing mandatory livestock price reporting legislation, working to expand domestic and foreign markets, passing bills to make agriculture more “resilient” in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and expanding rural broadband.

UEP staff and consultants have great relationships with both offices and look forward to working with Scott and Thompson in 2021.