New Jersey’s Cory Booker, sponsor of bills to place a moratorium on large livestock farms and to expand Black ownership of farmland, is among five newcomers to the Senate Agriculture Committee, said panel leaders. The new members also include Republicans Roger Marshall and Tommy Tuberville, both of whom challenged President Biden’s election on the same day a mob attacked the Capitol.
Agriculture chair Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, and Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, the senior Republican on the committee, announced committee membership following Senate passage of a resolution recognizing Democrats as the majority — since Vice President Kamala Harris can break tie votes. Reflecting the 50-50 split in Senate membership, the Agriculture Committee has 11 Democratic and 11 Republican members.
The new Democratic members of the committee are Booker, Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, and Raphael Warnock of Georgia. Last year, Booker sponsored the Justice for Black Farmers Act, which would expand Black ownership of farmland sevenfold, as well as legislation to block construction of new industrial livestock farms and eventually eliminate concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. Booker has wryly referred to himself as a “big, bald vegan from New Jersey.”
Marshall, of Kansas, and Tuberville, of Alabama, were elected to the Senate on Nov. 3. Marshall, an obstetrician, served two terms in the House before running for the Senate. Tuberville was a college football coach for 21 years before entering politics. Marshall and Tuberville were among eight Republican senators to vote on Jan. 6 to overturn Biden’s election despite the certifications of state election officials and repeated court rejections of claims of irregularities.