In the News
The House Agriculture Committee plans to pursue climate change remedies, social justice, and aid for rural America in a sweeping agenda when Chairman David Scott (D-Ga.) and ranking member Glenn "GT" Thompson (R-Pa.) take over amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"Each of these issues we have to touch — climate change, status of Black farmers, food security, rural-urban divide, and crop insurance — we've got to unite together as Democrats and Republicans, and save our nation before it's too late," Scott said.
The passage of the National Defense Act was largely overshadowed by the Coronavirus relief bill but, according to Rep. Glenn "GT" Thompson (R-15), there were some important provisions in that bill.
The bill had been approved by Congress but vetoed by President Donald Trump. Congress voted to override his veto however.
The new COVID Relief Bill contained much more than $600 for individuals. It did something the CARES Act of 2019 did not do; it included relief for agriculture.
"There are some good things for agriculture in the COVID relief bill," said U.S. Rep. Glenn "GT" Thompson (R-15) who is the new Republican leader on the Agriculture Committee.
President Donald Trump last month sought to provide most Americans with $2,000 each in the recently passed $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill, but many House and Senate Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Glenn "GT" Thompson, were against doing so.
Thompson, who had voted in favor of $600 payments to individuals in the package that was eventually signed into law, said individual payments of $2,000 was "just reckless."
The coronavirus relief bill that has been approved by Congress includes much-needed help for the agriculture industry, Congressman Glenn Thompson says.
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."