Second-term Sen Jeff Merkley of Oregon is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture and FDA for the 114th Congress, said Sen Barbara Mikulski, the Democratic leader on the committee, in a statement. Republicans have yet to say who will chair Appropriations subcommittees. Thad Cochran is expected to become Appropriations chairman. Roy Blunt of Missouri was the top Republican on the agriculture appropriations subcommittee last session.
Mekley has opposed approval by FDA of a genetically engineered salmon and tried unsuccessfully in 2013 to delete a one-year provision to allow farmers to cultivate GMO crops while courts decided lawsuits over federal approval of the crops, said Agri-Pulse. It quoted the Center for Food Safety, a GMO skeptic, as saying Merkley was “one of the food movement’s strongest allies in Congress.” Mekley steered an amendment into the 2014 farm law to improve crop insurance coverage for organic farmers.