The death of veteran senator Ted Kennedy this week will cause a ripple effect in the U.S. Senate where he leaves a vacancy in the Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
Because the Ranking Democrat on that committee, Chris Dodd of Connecticut, is also Chair of the Senate Banking Committee and each senator can only hold one chairmanship, Dodd will have to decide whether he wants to chair HELP (which faces major responsibility for health care legislation) or Banking.
While there are many possible scenarios, if Dodd does not take the HELP appointment, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, probably will. Harkin is the current chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee. If he does take the HELP Chairmanship, the most likely candidate to take his Chair is Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.
If Lincoln becomes chair of the Agriculture Committee, she would significantly alter the committee’s focus from Midwestern to Southern as the Ranking Member, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, is also a southerner.
Policy is one of the most important issues facing farmers today, but often the most difficult to digest. Jacqui Fatka has a passion to decode the often difficult world of agricultural policy into terms understandable for today's ag players.
Fatka joined the Farm Progress team as E-Content Editor in August 2003 after graduating from Iowa State University. Prior to full-time employment with Farm Progress, she interned at Wallaces Farmer magazine, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley's press office and the Iowa Pork Producers Association and freelanced for National Hog Farmer. She also worked as a public relations consultant with Iowa Industries for the Future, an effort to bring together major players in the biorenewables industry.
Currently Fatka is a staff editor at a sister publication, Feedstuffs. For Farm Futures she regularly tells the story of ongoing agricultural policy changes. Her byline can also be found on management profiles.
Fatka grew up on a grain and livestock farm near Atlantic, Iowa. She currently lives in central Ohio with her husband Eric.
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