United States House Committee on Agriculture

Committee information

• Date created: May 3, 1820
• Members: Fifty-three members in the 119th Congress (2025–2027)
• Subcommittees: General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit; Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development; Conservation, Research, and Biotechnology; Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture and Horticulture; Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry; Forestry; Nutrition

Role

The United States House Committee on Agriculture is a legislative committee with jurisdiction over United States policies on agriculture, nutrition, rural development, forestry, and conservation. When it was founded in 1820, the committee was one of the smallest in the House, but it has grown gradually over nearly two centuries to consist of fifty-three members in 2025. The committee is primarily made up of members from rural farming districts. Among its main responsibilities are drafting the US Farm Bill and overseeing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps.

Because the legislative agenda of the federal government is so large, the Congress divides its workload among subdivisions responsible for specific issues and duties. These committees are tasked with creating, investigating, and voting on measures related to their sphere of expertise. Committees usually begin by reviewing opinions on a proposal and then hold hearings to gather more information on the issue. A committee can then use the information from the hearings to craft proposed legislation. If the committee chooses, it can send the measure to the full House or Senate for a vote. Doing this, however, does not guarantee a vote on the issue. Some measures pass through the committee process but are never considered for a full floor vote.

Each congressional committee can be further divided into subcommittees to oversee more specific issues. The first congressional committees were established with the first Congress in 1789, but at the time, they were considered temporary solutions. Many committees became permanent in the early nineteenth century, and their numbers grew over time. By the early twentieth century, there were fifty-nine House committees. Congressional reforms in the 1940s and 1970s streamlined the number of committees and established rules for the number of subcommittees.

During the 119th Congress (2025-2027), the House had twenty-one permanent committees and the Senate had sixteen permanent members. Both chambers had more than two hundred committees and subcommittees between them. House rules capped the number of subcommittees at five; however, they did allow each committee to form an oversight subcommittee. Some House committees can exceed the maximum number of subcommittees. The House Appropriations Committee, for example, has twelve subcommittees. The Committee on Agriculture is an exception with six subcommittees. The Senate does not have a rule restricting the number of subcommittees.

Committees that have been given permanent status are called standing committees. These have the authority to create and review legislation and recommend them to the full chamber. Standing committees are also granted oversight to monitor agencies and programs that fall under their jurisdiction. In most cases, standing committees have the power to recommend funding for the agencies and programs involved.

Temporary committees, called select committees, can be established by a resolution in the House or Senate. A select committee is often created to investigate emerging issues or issues that do not fall under the responsibility of existing standing committees. Some select committees can consider legislation, but most are created to review and investigate an issue. Select committees exist only as long as their mandate requires and must be renewed to continue after that time. Select committees may become standing committees through House or Senate legislation.

A joint committee is made up of members of both the House and Senate. Joint committees usually work in an exploratory capacity and rarely consider legislative action. They are also primarily created to perform congressional “housekeeping” duties. For example, the Joint Committee on the Library oversees the operations of the Library of Congress. The early 119th Congress had four permanent joint committees and one select joint committee.

History

In 1820, Lewis Williams, a congressman from North Carolina, led the effort to create a House committee to oversee agricultural concerns. Williams noted that the commercial and manufacturing sectors of the United States had committees to work for their interests, but the nation’s farmers did not. On May 3, 1820, the House approved Williams’s proposal and formally created the Committee on Agriculture. The first committee consisted of seven members with representatives from Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia. At the time of its formation, the committee’s mandate was vague, with its jurisdiction officially listed as “subjects relating to agriculture.”

Prior to the 1850s, the committee was often against efforts to establish a federal Department of Agriculture. On several occasions, committee reports denied recommending the creation of such an agency. In 1856, the committee changed its opinion and, in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln officially established the first Department of Agriculture. The department was granted cabinet-rank status in 1889.

As the nation expanded into the fertile farming regions of the Midwest, the committee grew as well. It expanded to nine members in 1835 and to eleven members in 1871. In 1880, issues regarding forestry were added to the committee’s agenda. That same year, the committee was also given authority to oversee federal spending for the Department of Agriculture. It lost that authority in 1920 when spending was reassigned to the House Appropriations Committee. During the 1930s, the Committee on Agriculture was tasked with overseeing policies concerning lending on farm mortgages.

The committee’s mandate was given a major overhaul in 1947 as part of a general restructuring of the federal government. Under the new House rules, the committee was tasked with twenty official duties concerning the nation’s farming, livestock, and dairy industries. Among these were overseeing agriculture research, food inspection and safety, forestry, farm credit, crop insurance, soil and water conservation, nutrition, and rural development.

As the United States suffered through the Great Depression of the 1930s, the agriculture industry was especially hard hit. American farmers were struggling with surplus crops and livestock they could not sell. As part of his New Deal program, President Franklin Roosevelt passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act in 1933 to buy cattle from farmers and pay them not to grow crops. The act also contained a nutrition program that later evolved into the Food Stamps Program. Congress revamped the act in 1938 and ordered the measure to be reexamined and updated every five years.

This renewable legislation became known as the Farm Bill, a measure that encompasses the nation’s agricultural and food policies and programs. The House Committee on Agriculture is instrumental in crafting the final legislation. The committee submits the House version of the bill, which must then undergo negotiations with the Senate bill before a final bill is reached. For example, in the 2018 version of the bill, House Republicans on the committee included language that would have required food stamp recipients to meet certain work requirements to continue to be eligible for the program. The provision was later removed during negotiations. The Farm Bill eventually passed both chambers and was signed into law in December 2018.

Subcommittees

The House Committee on Agriculture consisted of fifty-two members during the 119th Congress. When a new Congress is sworn into session, its members have the right to alter the number of representatives on each committee and subcommittee. They can also change the number of subcommittees and rename them if they choose. The number of Democrats and Republicans on each committee is determined by the party makeup of the full House. The head of the committee is always a member of the majority party. The Committee on Agriculture is scheduled to meet on the first Wednesday of each month. The committee chair can postpone or schedule additional meetings at their discretion. Committee meetings and hearings are open to the public, and many are streamed live online. Occasionally, a meeting may be closed to discuss private information or if a witness has requested immunity. The House Committee on Agriculture was divided into six subcommittees during the 119th Congress. These were the subcommittees on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development; General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit; Forestry; Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture, and Horticulture; Conservation, Research, and Biotechnology; Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry.

Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development

This subcommittee is responsible for laws concerning agricultural commodities. Commodities are raw materials that are often used to make other products. Agricultural commodities can include barley, cotton, cottonseed, corn, grain sorghum, honey, mohair, oats, other oilseeds, peanuts, pulse crops, rice, soybeans, sugar, wheat, and wool and other crops and materials. Because these commodities can be traded on the financial markets, the subcommittee handles rules relating to risk management, crop insurance, and keeping farm prices stabilized. The subcommittee consisted of twenty-one members in the 119th Congress.

Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit

This subcommittee oversees legislative policies relating to the commodities exchanges. A commodities exchange is a marketplace in which agricultural commodities are bought and sold as financial investments. In addition, the subcommittee is responsible for rules governing loans and credit provided to farmers and commodities producers. It also handles federal policies on biofuels, rural development, and programs that provide electrical service to rural areas. Biofuels are fuels that are made with agricultural products. Most of the gasoline sold in the United States is mixed with ethanol, a biofuel made from corn. The subcommittee consisted of twenty-three members in the 119th Congress.

Subcommittee Forestry

This subcommittee is responsible for programs and policies concerning conservation issues that are connected to the nation’s agriculture. These include watershed protection, protecting drinking water, reducing soil erosion, and providing aid to farmers who are affected by natural disasters. The subcommittee also oversees the nation’s forestry policies and the more than 150 national forests under the jurisdiction of the United States Forest Service. In 2017, for example, the subcommittee discussed a proposed program to manage vegetation growth in national forests. The subcommittee had eight members in the 119th Congress.

Subcommittee on Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture, and Horticulture

This subcommittee handles federal food and nutrition programs that provide food to low-income persons, older adults, and other eligible recipients. Among these programs are the National School Lunch Program, which provides free or reduced-price lunches to eligible school children, and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, which provides supplemental nutrition and health care to women, infants, and children under five. The largest program under this subcommittee’s jurisdiction is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps. An early form of food stamps was implemented in 1939 with a program that allowed eligible recipients to buy food stamps and receive free additional stamps worth half the value of their original purchase. The program ended in 1943, but it was eventually replaced by a permanent food stamp program in 1964. SNAP has been the subject of numerous revisions and discussions in Congress over the decades. This subcommittee had twenty members in the 119th Congress.

Subcommittee on Conservation, Research, and Biotechnology

This subcommittee is one of the newest in the Committee on Agriculture and was created in 2007. Its jurisdiction includes issues concerning the farming of fruits, vegetables, and nuts, and the raising of bees for commercial purposes. The subcommittee oversees rules and policies governing organic farming, a type of agriculture that relies on ecological processes to cultivate, maintain, and manage crops or livestock. This can include choosing not to use chemical fertilizers or pesticides or use additives that boost the growth of livestock. The subcommittee also handles issues relating to agricultural education, pest management, bioterrorism, and biotechnology. Biotechnology includes methods such as genetically modifying crops and livestock. In the 119th Congress, this subcommittee consisted of fourteen members.

Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry

This subcommittee is responsible for federal policy on the nation’s livestock, poultry, dairy, and seafood industries. This includes inspection procedures, monitoring of animal welfare, grazing regulations, and monitoring marking and promotion efforts. The subcommittee also oversees US policies concerning foreign agriculture markets. This includes assuring US farmers have access to foreign markets, improving the competitive advantage of American farmers, and providing food and technical aid to developing nations. The subcommittee had eighteen members in the 119th Congress.

Bibliography

“Committee History.” House Committee on Agriculture, agriculture.house.gov/about/committee-history.htm. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

“Committees.” United States House of Representatives, www.house.gov/committees. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

“House Agriculture Committee.” Congress.gov, www.congress.gov/committee/house-agriculture/hsag00. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

“House Committee on Agriculture.” GovTrack, www.govtrack.us/congress/committees/HSAG. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

“A Short History of SNAP.” United States Department of Agriculture, 9 July 2024, www.fns.usda.gov/snap/history. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

Spieler, Matthew. The U.S. House of Representatives: Fundamentals of American Government. Thomas Dunne Books, 2015.

Stein, Jeff. “Congress Just Passed an $867 Billion Farm Bill. Here’s What’s in It.” Washington Post, 12 Dec. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/12/11/congresss-billion-farm-bill-is-out-heres-whats-it. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.

“Subcommittees.” House Committee on Agriculture, agriculture.house.gov/subcommittees. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.