For nearly 175 years the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry has helped establish, guide, and examine agricultural policies here and abroad. It has had a hand in fashioning the research and teaching of the 1860s, the price and income support controls of the 1930s, and the international trade of the 1990s. The Committee has been active in times of prosperity and peace, as well as in times of depression and war. This document commemorates the achievements of the Committee from its beginnings through the 105th Congress.

Since its creation on December 9, 1825, the Committee has counted 307 Senators among its members. This membership has represented a wide range of states, interests, and party affiliations, including Jeffersonian Democrat, Adams, Adams/Clay Republican, Anti-Jacksonian, Union Republican, Farm-Laborer, Anti-Democrat, Readjuster, Conservative, Independent, States Rights Democrat, Union Democrat, Old-line Whig, and Progressive. Membership on the Committee has included legislative titans like Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky; presidential nominees such as Senator Robert Dole of Kansas and Senator George McGovern of South Dakota; and legislative pioneers like Senator Hattie Caraway of Arkansas, the first woman elected to the United States Senate.

Present Committee members face many of the same challenges and concerns as past members: commodity price and income supports, trade, research, food safety, nutrition, and soil conservation. The 1930s were a watershed in agricultural policy making. The Great Depression redirected the thinking of agricultural leaders toward price supports and production controls to limit mounting commodity surpluses. Not until some 65 years later, with the passage of the 1996 Farm Bill, was the link between program payments and production controls broken. Members of the Committee, along with the President, Secretaries of Agriculture, farm organizations, and the House Committee on Agriculture, have formulated over time a rural safety net that undergirds an agricultural system that is the envy of the world.

This document was prepared by Tom Fulton, a Professional Staff Member of the Committee. It updates a Committee history released in 1986 (which itself updated a Committee history released in 1970). This document serves as a source of information on the Committee's procedures, membership, jurisdiction, and other matters which are not covered in the Committee's final Legislative Calendar and the Legislative Activities Report, published at the end of each Congress. We hope that our colleagues, scholars, and the public will find this a helpful introduction to the ongoing work of the Committee.