With the resolution of a disputed election in New York State, the House Agriculture Committee is ready for action with climate change as its top issue. “Everything will tie into climate change,” says the committee chief of staff and the first hearing of the year will focus on climate change’s impact on agriculture.
President Biden, who describes climate change as an existential threat, has said he wants American agriculture to be the first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases. The administration and farm groups agree that mitigation efforts should be voluntary. There are suggestions to tweak USDA land stewardship programs to include “climate-smart” practices and to create a carbon bank at USDA to pay farmers for locking carbon in the soil and trees.
The committee scheduled an organizational meeting for Wednesday. Democrats delayed the appointment of committee members for weeks pending the outcome of a House race involving Anthony Brindisi, who was on the panel last session. Brindisi conceded the race on Monday, two hours after state officials certified Claudia Tenney, a Republican, as the winner by 109 votes.
It was the last undecided House race in the country. The contest was a rematch; Brindisi won by fewer than 4,500 votes in 2018, when Tenney, a Trump ally, was the incumbent in the Republican-leaning district stretching across central New York state from Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania border with Utica in the middle.
Another committee member, Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, is awaiting Senate confirmation as secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The Senate Banking Committee cleared the nomination for a floor vote on a bipartisan 17-7 vote last week.
Connecticut Rep. Jahana Hayes will succeed Fudge as chair of the nutrition subcommittee, said Agriculture Committee chairman David Scott, of Georgia. Scott announced two other new subcommittee chairs, Cheri Bustos of Illinois for commodities and risk management, and Antonio Delgado of New York state for commodity exchanges and credit.
Rep. Jim Costa of California again will chair the livestock subcommittee, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia returns as head of the conservation subcommittee and Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands is back as chair of the subcommittee on biotechnology and horticulture.