House Committee on Agriculture — Briefing pack

Personalisation — person + organisation + alignment

Named recipient

Chair Glenn 'GT' Thompson (R-PA) and Ranking Member David Scott (D-GA)
Chair and Ranking Member, House Agriculture
U.S. House Committee on Agriculture

Recent work

Thompson championed climate-smart agriculture in the 2023 Farm Bill with voluntary incentive-based conservation programmes. Scott has been the ranking Democrat since 2022. Conservation Subcommittee: Chair Jim Baird (R-IN), Ranking Abigail Spanberger (D-VA). Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) ranks the General Farm Commodities, Ri

Signals the recipient responds to

Thompson: farmer-protection + voluntary + incentive-based
Spanberger: active on agricultural research and soil health
Craig: Next Generation Fuels Act + bioeconomy

Organisational context

Positions

Committee's jurisdiction over USDA NRCS, Commodity Credit Corporation, and climate-smart commodities is the US-side lever for farmer-facing proof-pack disclosure.

Active initiatives

Farm Bill cycles; NRCS cooperative agreements; CCC discretionary authority.

Pressures

Farmer pressure to protect against carbon-market fraud; institutional-buyer demand for substantiation.

Specific alignment

Why this recipient benefits: Farmer-protection framing — USDA's fiduciary obligations to farmers entering carbon markets — is bipartisan in a Thompson-Scott combination. Baird-Spanberger subcommittee owns the detailed research and conservation oversight. Proof-pack farmer-facing tooling piloted through NRCS cooperative agreements is the concrete ask.

Why now: Next Farm Bill cycle.

The ask: Committee staff briefing. Farmer-facing proof-pack one-pager, USDA COMET-Farm integration spec, NRCS pilot proposal.

Committee: House Committee on Agriculture
Target members: Chair and Ranking Member; Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee; General Farm Commodities, Risk Management, and Credit Subcommittee.

Jurisdictional frame

USDA authorities over climate-smart agriculture, soil carbon programmes, biochar, enhanced rock weathering on cropland; Commodity Credit Corporation.

Framing

Per-tonne evidentiary disclosure as a protection for farmers entering carbon markets. USDA's fiduciary role to farmers requires disclosure standards comparable to commodity-market standards.

Specific asks

Hearing: 'Protecting American farmers in carbon markets — the disclosure gap.' Witnesses: Paustian (COMET-Farm), Sanderman (Woodwell), a farmer representative, a USDA NRCS official.
Farm Bill language authorising USDA NRCS to require proof-pack-equivalent disclosure from climate-smart commodity partnerships.
Report language directing USDA to publish a per-tonne evidentiary standard by a date certain.
Pilot authority for farmer-facing proof-pack tooling through NRCS cooperative agreements.

Briefing appendix materials

Proof-pack schema for soil-carbon and biochar pathways. USDA COMET-Farm integration specification. Farmer-facing one-pager.