There are many challenges facing rural America, said the new House Agriculture chairman, Collin Peterson. “There is a new farm bill to implement, a growing economic storm in farm country to address, and the ongoing harm of a trade war to alleviate, not to mention the range of unforeseen issues that will test the mettle of the people we’re here to serve,” said Peterson in a statement over the weekend.
Peterson plans a meaty schedule of hearings in the coming months, including examination of the Trump administration’s piloting of the USDA. Until now, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has had a free hand to create an ad hoc payment program to mitigate the impact of trade war on U.S. agriculture and to re-draw the organizational map at USDA. The 2018 farm law overrode Perdue’s reorganizational work on one point, by reinstating the post of undersecretary for rural development. Now in his 15th term, Peterson has questioned if the farm safety net will be strong enough considering the slump in farm income that began in 2014.
This is the second time that Peterson has chaired the committee. He was chairman from 2007-11. He is the first two-time Agriculture chairman since the Eisenhower era.