I am proud to represent the 15th District of Illinois on both the House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Below you will find more information about these two committees, their jurisdiction, and links to the Committees' webpages.
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| The House Committee on Agriculture was created in 1820 to provide a voice for farmers as well as a venue to discuss the concerns of American agriculture in a country of 9 million people. At its inception, the Committee’s jurisdiction simply covered “subjects relating to agriculture.” More than 185 years later, our country’s population has grown to 300 million and the important issues facing agriculture have been more broadly defined.
Today, I serve as one of the 46 members of the House Committee on Agriculture for the 112th Congress. Thanks to the trust my constituents have placed in me, my 5-term seniority status on the Committee has expanded my duties and responsibilities to Chair the Subcommittee on Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture. In addition to my responsibilities as Subcommittee Chairman, I am a member of the Agriculture Department Operations, Oversight, and Credit subcommittee. On a daily basis, I work closely with Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) and the rest of the Committee to do our share in handling the nation’s fiscal crisis while also maintaining a clear, responsible vision for the American agriculture in the years to come. While it is extremely important to deal with our spending problem, it is also crucial that we craft fiscally responsible and practical policy that will help protect the farmers who feed the world.
House Committee on Agriculture
Subcommittee on Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture
Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, and Credit
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Ever since the first Congress authorized a lighthouse on Cape Henry, Virginia as an aid to ships sailing through Hampton Roads, the Congress of the United States has been involved in providing for the nation’s transportation infrastructure. In the more than two hundred years since the Cape Henry Lighthouse first shown out across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, the Committees of the House of Representatives responsible for public works and infrastructure have changed names and grown in scope.
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee currently has jurisdiction over all modes of transportation: aviation, maritime and waterborne transportation, roads, bridges, mass transit, and railroads. But the Committee has jurisdiction over other aspects of our national infrastructure, such as clean water and waste water management, the transport of resources by pipeline, flood damage reduction, the economic development of depressed rural and urban areas, disaster preparedness and response, activities of the Army Corps of Engineers, and the various missions of the Coast Guard.
House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment
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| I look forward to my continued service to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. During the remainder of the 112th Congress, the Committee has several important tasks to accomplish this Congress, including the authorization of a surface transportation.
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