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Agriculture
Chair: Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
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Appropriations
Chair: Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: Herb Kohl (D-WI)
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- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Tim Johnson (D-SD)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
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- Robert Bennett (R-UT)
- Christopher Bond (R-MO)
- Sam Brownback (R-KS)
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- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Arlen Specter (R-PA)

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- Chris Dodd (D-CT)

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House

Agriculture
Chair: B Collin Peterson (D-MN)
V. Chair: B Tim Holden (D-PA)
B Joe Baca (D-CA)
- John Boccieri (D-OH)
B* Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
- Bobby Bright (D-AL)
B* Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
- Travis Childers (D-MS)
B Jim Costa (D-CA)
- Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
- Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
B Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
- Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
B Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
- Steve Kagen (D-WI)
- Larry Kissell (D-NC)
B Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
- Betsy Markey (D-CO)
B Jim Marshall (D-GA)
P Eric Massa (D-NY)
B Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
- Walt Minnick (D-ID)
B Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
- Mark Schauer (D-MI)
- Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
B David Scott (D-GA)
B Zachary Space (D-OH)
- Timothy Walz (D-MN)
- Frank Lucas (R-OK)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- K. Michael Conaway (R-TX)
- Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
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- Sam Graves (R-MO)
- Timothy Johnson (R-IL)
- Steve King (R-IA)
- Robert Latta (R-OH)
- Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
- Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Mike Rogers (R-AL)
- Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
- Adrian Smith (R-NE)
- Glenn Thompson (R-PA)
*=House Organic Caucus member
B=Blue Dog Democrat

Appropriations
Chair: Dave Obey (D-WI)
Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
- Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
* Allen Boyd (D-FL)
- Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
*P Sam Farr (D-CA)
*P Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY)
P Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
P Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
- Jack Kingston (R-GA)
- Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
- Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
* Tom Latham (R-IA)
*=House Organic Caucus member

P=Congressional Progressive Caucus

Education and Labor
P Chair: George Miller (D-CA)
- Jason Altmire (D-PA)
- Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
- Timothy Bishop (D-NY)
P Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
- Joe Courtney (D-CT)
- Susan Davis (D-CA)
P Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
P Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
P Phil Hare (D-IL)
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P Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
- Rush Holt (D-NJ)
- Dale Kildee (D-MI)
P Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
P Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
- Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
P Donald Payne (D-NJ)
- Jared Polis (D-CO)
- Robert Scott (D-VA)
- Joe Sestak (D-PA)
- Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
P John Tierney (D-MA)
- Dina Titus (D-NV)
- Paul Tonko (D-NY)
P Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
- David Wu (D-OR)
- Buck McKeon (R-CA)
- Judy Biggert (R-IL)
- Rob Bishop (R-UT)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Michael Castle (R-DE)
- Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
- Luis F Fortuno (R-PR)
- Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
- Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)
- Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA)
- John Kline (R-MN)
- Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
- Tom McClintock (R-CA)
- Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
- Thomas Petri (R-WI)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
- Tom Price (R-GA)
- Mark Souder (R-IN)
- GT Thompson (R-PA)
- Joe Wilson (R-SC)
P=Congressional Progressive Caucus

House Organic Caucus
Congressional Progressive Caucus

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More Reasons to Love Tom Harkin

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Nov 16, 2008 at 00:35:25 AM PST


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Tonight I discovered the fun of Thomas.gov, the Library of Congress website. Want to know what our friends in Washington are up to? Thomas will tell you. In my case, I was searching for something that I couldn't find, but I ended up stumbling upon a bunch of really great bills that Tom Harkin has proposed this year. They are:

S.771: A bill to amend the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to improve the nutrition and health of schoolchildren by updating the definition of "food of minimal nutritional value" to conform to current nutrition science and to protect the Federal investment in the national school lunch and breakfast programs.

If I've got the facts right, you can't serve "foods of minimal nutritional value" in schools, but the way they define "foods of minimal nutritional value" allows you to basically serve whatever you want. Cheetos? Mountain Dew? No problem. Under government definitions, those aren't foods of minimal nutritional value (so what is? tree bark?). Good on Harkin for proposing this! Unfortunately, after gaining 32 co-sponsors, it went to the Ag committee and died there.

More below.

Jill Richardson :: More Reasons to Love Tom Harkin
More of Harkin's food-related bills from the last year:

S.1412 and S.1460: A bill to amend the Farm Security and Rural Development Act of 2002 to support beginning farmers and ranchers, and for other purposes.

The first one has 3 co-sponsors. He re-proposed it and got 10 co-sponsors the second time, but both times it died in committee. Thomas isn't working very well - I'd love to be able to read what this bill (and the others) is about but at least from the brief description it looks good. Over in the House, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin proposed a similar bill, HR 2348, which also died in committee.

S.1529: A bill to amend the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to end benefit erosion, support working families with child care expenses, encourage retirement and education savings, and for other purposes.

Nice one, Senator Harkin. This time he got 15 co-sponsors but still the bill went nowhere.

S.2784: A bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to extend the food labeling requirements of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 to enable customers to make informed choices about the nutritional content of standard menu items in large chain restaurants.

I know this is a tough one to pass - California just finally managed to pass a menu labeling bill - but I'm thrilled that he's at least coming out in support of it. This one went to the HELP committee and died there. I'm sure someone influential on HELP like Senator Dodd could be a proponent of this in the future, if Harkin would introduce it in the next session of Congress. Over on the House side, Rosa DeLauro proposed this same bill and got 14 co-sponsors.

S.3597: A bill to provide that funds allocated for community food projects for fiscal year 2008 shall remain available until September 30, 2009.

This one became law. I think this was fixing the glitch in the farm bill that messed up the CFP (Community Food Projects) program. But it should be noted that Harkin's ag committee was wonderful on the CFP issue overall, allocating $10 million in mandatory funding (double the amount given in the previous farm bill) to the program whereas the House allocated $0. In the end, the averaged the 2 numbers to $5 million, which meant that the funding stayed the same.

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For the children... (4.00 / 2)
The one phrase in politics that raises my BS antenna the fastest is "we're doing it for the children".  We're developing this new off shore oil platform "for the children".  We are issuing new censorship rules "for the children". Obama should have his hand over his heart during the national anthem as a good example "for the children" (I really heard this one).

However, when it comes time to actually do something adult for children, like making sure they eat healthy things in school, only 32 in the Senate would sign on.  


I brought back that (4.00 / 1)
paper I had told you about from the conference, but it turned out to be (I think) just a series of power point slides.  Interesting stuff, though.  When I have the time, I may comment on it here.  Just got finished correcting an article and sending it off to the publishers.  If I didn't have papers to correct, tests to draw up and reports to write, I would do it now...

"If a man is as wise as a serpent, he can afford to be as harmless as a dove" Cheyenne

I love the Thomas.gov site, a true legislative compass and a must (4.00 / 1)
my favorite are the random bills you stumble into (4.00 / 1)
like resolutions to praise someone's favorite football star or to declare National Pet Week, etc. It just kills me that we are paying these people's salaries so they can do shit like that.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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