Senate Ag Committe has role to play in climate debate

In her article in Monday's New York Times, Allison Winter explores the role of the U.S. Senate's Agriculture Committee in shaping the climate debate - particularly its version of the legislation passed in June by the House of Represenatatives.

Winter reports:

Harkin and other senators on the Agriculture Committee have said they want to ensure any effort at wide-ranging climate legislation in the Senate will include all of the provisions that House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) brokered for the House cap-and-trade bill.

Ag Committee Schedule: The hearing is Wednesday, July 22, at 1 p.m. in 325 Russell.

Witnesses: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack; EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson; John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology; Roger Johnson, president of National Farmers Union; Bob Stallman, president of American Farm Bureau Federation; and Jo Pierce, a family tree farmer from Maine, representing the Forest Climate Working Group.

Committee Members:

Tom Harkin, (D-IA) Chairman	Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) Ranking Member
Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont	Richard G. Lugar, Indiana
Kent Conrad, North Dakota	Thad Cochran, Mississippi
Max Baucus, Montana	Mitch McConnell, Kentucky
Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas	Pat Roberts, Kansas
Debbie Stabenow, Michigan	Mike Johanns, Nebraska*
E. Benjamin Nelson, Nebraska	Charles Grassley, Iowa
Sherrod Brown, Ohio	John Thune, South Dakota
Robert Casey, Jr., Pennsylvania	Republican Leader Designee TBD
Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota
Michael Bennet, Colorado*
Kirsten Gillibrand, New York*