Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts named Joel Leftwich, a lobbyist for PepsiCo, as the committee’s staff director and selected one of his Senate aides, Wayne Stoskopf, as a committee staff member, said a committee statement. Leftwich, senior director of PepsiCo’s public policy and government affairs team, worked for PepsiCo since March 2013, said Agri-Pulse, which says Leftwitch “has worked on and off for Roberts since 2005.”
Overhaul of child nutrition programs including school lunch and WIC are one of the two major issues on the committee agenda for this year. Conservative Republicans say the 2010 reauthorization law drove up the cost to schools to run meal programs and resulted in food unpopular with students. Supporters of the 2010 law say the complaints are overblown and that, amid an obesity epidemic, it is sound policy to reduce the fat, salt and sugar content of school food.
Also on the agenda is reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulator of the futures markets. The House passed a CFTC bill last summer but action stalled in the Senate. The House bill would reduce CFTC oversight of so-called end users, such as foodmakers.