IN CONGRESS As a Member of the House Appropriations Committee, I have frontline responsibility for expenditures of the U.S. government. This responsibility continues to be extremely challenging, as we seek to modernize government while funding the necessary public policies for America’s well-being and safety, all the while contending with a global pandemic.
to foreign agriculture assistance programs, to rural housing program loan guarantees, to rural development. I also serve on the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, which handles issues related to diplomacy and sustainable economic development—areas that are increasingly critical to achieving strategic national security, foreign policy objectives, and international stability.
This legislative work is structured around committee and subcommittee assignments. A great deal of time in Congress is spent in the subcommittees that each member is assigned.
There are other organized Member initiatives in Congress. I am co-chair of the International Conservation Caucus (ICC), the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus, the Congressional Nuclear Security Working Group, the European Study Group, the House Trails Caucus, and the Soils Caucus, among others.
I am the Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We oversee a diverse portfolio of issues from food safety programs,
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