Changes Abound in 118th Congress
It’s time for your Southeast Regional Ag News. On the Ag Information Network, I am Haylie Shipp.Robbie Minnich is a senior government relations representative with the National Cotton Council. He’s been keeping a watchful eye on happenings now that committees are starting to take shape in the 118th Congress…
"Kevin McCarthy of California was named Speaker of the House. Now we have the Republic Steering Committee, which is elected, different members from different regions of the country, that go through and these are the ones who select who the committee chairmen are as well as who the new members are.”
He says this will be key as we go into the next farm bill…
“We know that GT Thompson will be chair of the House Agriculture Committee, but we don’t know yet who the members of the committee will be. There are a lot of other committees in Congress that are very important to cotton policy as well as agriculture.”
On that thought, he says chairs have been assigned to Ways and Means and the Budget Committees…
"The Ways and Means Committee is very important to agriculture. It handles all tax policy as well as all trade policy. The other one I mentioned is the House Budget Committee. That committee will be vitally important to see what the budget will be for the next farm bill.”
According to Minnich, we could have upwards of 13 new members out of 28 on the republican side of the House Agriculture Committee.