Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Congressman Glenn Thompson presented medals earned by Patrick Nuhfer to his son, Dan, at the City of Warren municipal building back in October. Thompson has been elected chair of the House Committee on Agriculture.

Warren County’s Congressman will lead a House committee in the next session of Congress.

Glenn Thompson was elected to serve as chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture. The decision was made by the House Republican Steering Committee.

A statement from the House Agriculture Committee highlights the fact that Thompson will be the first Pennsylvanian to chair the committee in nearly 170 years.

“I am honored to lead the Committee on Agriculture and build on the accomplishments of the past two years as Ranking Member,” Thompson said.

“The political landscape in Washington may be fractured, but as Chairman, I will prioritize the needs of our producers and rural communities — the backbone of this country,” he added. “We will keep our foot on the gas to deliver principled solutions, robust oversight, and a Farm Bill that is responsive to the needs of the country’s farmers, ranchers, and foresters.”

Thompson sat down with the Times Observer in October and outlined what his priorities would be if elected chair. In addition to the farm bill, cryptocurrency regulation will also be at the top of the list. The need for such regulations is only made more urgent by the collapse of FTX.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the farm bill spans multiple years and “governs an array of agricultural and food programs. It provides an opportunity for policymakers to comprehensively and periodically address agricultural and food issues.”

The bill, per the CRS, typically focuses on “farm commodity program support for a handful of staple commodities — corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, dairy, and sugar.”

Thompson said the current iteration is set to expire in Sept. 2023 and called it the “single most important piece of legislation that impacts rural America.”

He said there are three options — let it expire which he called “not an option” as it would take farm regulations back to the era of the Dust Bowl; extend the current bill which is just “kicking the can” or institute a new bill which is the “only option.”

“We’re way behind,” he stressed. “Under Democratic leadership we have not been doing our due diligence. If given the opportunity to chair, we’ll change that come January. It’s going to be pretty intense.”

The other major legislative priority might not sound like an agricultural issue at all — regulations regarding crypto-currency.

He explained why that issue is before the Ag Committee – when a crypto-currency is first created, it is traded and overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission; but once it is traded, it is considered a commodity, which brings it under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture.

“There’s an urgency,” he said, “with putting some guidelines, legislative guardrails around crypto-currency.”

He’s introduced legislation in the current Congress — the Digital Commodity Exchange Act that, he said, would “do no harm, protect people in the marketplace” while also fostering innovation with the underlying technology.

“Blockchain … it will be transformational to our economy,” he said, explaining that countries ranging in size from China to Malta are developing these rules.

“The US is way behind,” he said, “but the US is where people want to do business.”

Republicans will hold a nine-vote majority in the House for the next two years.