Agriculture

For Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Centre, the COVID-19 pandemic has showed the value — and vulnerability — of regions like Pennsylvania's 15th Congressional District: a 14-county expanse of rural farmland, forests and recreation areas dotted with a major land grant university, energy production and manufacturing.

Mr. Thompson, entering his seventh term in Congress as the longest-serving Republican lawmaker from Pennsylvania, said he recognizes the challenges facing his swath of north-central Pennsylvania.

Congressman Glenn GT Thompson, GOP Leader Elect of the House Ag Committee, says his number one priority is building resiliency within the ag food supply chain.

"We've all witnessed the disruptions as a result of the coronavirus," he says. "I'm excited that we're talking on the week where the first vaccines are already being delivered around the country and being received but we have a few months here yet that we still will have to deal with some of the impacts of the coronavirus and I think building resiliency within the ag industry has to be a priority for us."

Congressman Glenn GT Thompson, incoming GOP leader of the House Ag Committee, says it's critical that lawmakers pass a coronavirus relief bill soon.

"Our farmers and ranchers are still needing assistance and so are our agriculture businesses," he says. "That's why it's so important that, if not within days, within the week that we pass a COVID-19 relief act that offers support to farmers and ranchers and neighbors in need that are struggling from a nutritional perspective."

Three politicians and a government official were recognized by the American Bakers Association as winners of the 2020 Bakers' Dozen Award. Congressman Glen Thompson of Pennsylvania, Congressman Dwight Evans of Pennsylvania, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa and Frank Yiannas, deputy commissioner for food policy and response at the US Food and Drug Administration, were honored during the ABA's Bakers' Dozen Awards Reception held virtually on Dec. 14.