U.S. Third District Congressman Frank Lucas will serve for the next two years as the most senior Republican member of the House Agriculture Subcommittee with jurisdiction over issues ranging from soil and water conservation to biobased energy production, it was announced today.
Lucas was named by Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Bob Goodlatte as the ranking Republican member on the Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research for the 110th Congress.
"This is a critical time for U.S. farm policy, as we will be writing the 2007 Farm Bill this year," Lucas said. "Conservation and energy issues will be an important part of that legislation, so I’m looking forward to the debate in our agriculture subcommittee."
Lucas had previously served for six years as subcommittee chairman for the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Rural Development, and Research. He has more than 12 years experience on the House Agriculture Committee.
Lucas will also serve on the Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management.
The U.S. House agriculture committee has direct jurisdiction over laws affecting the U.S. farm economy, including implementing farm payments and farm loans and supporting agriculture trade to other countries.
Lucas’ subcommittee will have direct jurisdiction over soil, water, and resource conservation programs used in Oklahoma such as the Conservation Reserve Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. Biobased energy production, which has increased significantly in recent years, is also within Lucas’ subcommittee jurisdiction. Proposed ethanol refineries in Enid, Okla. will create jobs and help decrease our dependency on foreign sources of oil.
The subcommittee’s jurisdiction also includes the small watershed program that Lucas created in 2000 and has fought to provide funding each year since its inception. The subcommittee will also have oversight over our rural electric cooperatives, which were established to provide electrical power to America's rural areas. Nine of the 17 rural electrical cooperatives in Oklahoma are located in Lucas' congressional district. Agriculture credit and agriculture research issues also fall within the subcommittee’s jurisdiction.
Lucas was heavily involved in writing the last comprehensive farm bill, as a member of the 2002 Farm Bill Conference Committee, where he worked with members of the Senate and House to craft a final version of the farm policy legislation. Lucas also authored the Farm Bill language that expanded the farm bill’s conservation programs by $16 billion.
Lucas has served on the Agriculture Committee since his first day in Congress in 1994. He has been influential in increasing funds for underfunded conservation programs used by producers. He also secured the doubling of the AMTA farm payments to farm producers, and gave producers the option to collect an LDP payment on grazed out wheat.
Lucas is the only member of the agriculture committee from Oklahoma, and one of the few members who is actually a farmer/rancher by trade. Lucas operates a farm and cattle ranch in Roger Mills County in Oklahoma with his wife, Lynda.
Lucas will also continue to serve on both the Financial Services and Science and Technology Committees.
