U.S. Representative David Scott will be chairing the House Agriculture Committee for the upcoming Congress, after being reelected by a large margin in the 2020 General Election.
Scott Represents Georgia District 13, which includes a portion of Cobb County in addition to Douglas County and parts of Clayton, Fayette, Fulton, and Henry counties.
The press release announcing Scott’s chairmanship stated:
Today Congressman David Scott (GA-13) was approved by the Democratic Caucus to serve as the first African American Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. The committee is empowered with legislative oversight relating to the U.S. agriculture industry, forestry, nutrition, and rural development.
“I am honored to have been chosen by my colleagues in the Democratic Caucus to serve as Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee,” said Congressman Scott for the press release. “I was born on my grandparents’ farm in rural Aynor, South Carolina, during the days of segregation, and the hardships, of those, on whose shoulders I now stand.”
“I owe this historic selection as the first African American Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee to a diverse coalition of members from across our nation,” Scott said. “And I will use this critical opportunity to represent the values of our entire caucus and advance our priorities for trade, disaster aid, climate change, sustainable agriculture, SNAP, crop insurance, small family farms, specialty crops, and rural broadband. The fault lines dividing our rural and urban communities are running deep, and climate change is now threatening our nation’s food supply. As Chairman, I will lead the fight to rise up and meet these challenges.”
Scott was first elected to Congress in the 2002 election, and has served on the House Agriculture Committee since his first term began in 2003. He previously served in both the Georgia state House of Representatives and Georgia state Senate.
On the House Agriculture Committee, he has chaired the subcommittees on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit as well as Livestock and Foreign Agriculture.
The press release highlights the role Scott played in the three last Farm Bills, “including by serving as a conferee, securing critical disaster aid for our farmers, strengthening the food and nutrition programs that help our families, seniors and school children and securing $80 million for new scholarships for students attending 1890 African-American land-grant colleges and universities.”
He grew up working on his grandparents’ farm in South Carolina, and attended elementary school, junior high and high school in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Scarsdale, New York, and Daytona Beach, Florida.
He received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Florida A&M University in 1967, and his Master of Business Administration (MBA) with honors from the Wharton School of Finance in 1969.
He defeated Republican Becky Hites in the November 3 general election this year, garnering a commanding 77.4 percent of the vote.