Kentucky state representative and chairman of the Kentucky House Agriculture and Small Business Committee Tom McKee (D-Cynthiana) was elected chairman of the Southern Legislative Conference Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.
The SLC’s mission is to foster and encourage intergovernmental cooperation among its 15-member states. The SLC is the largest of four regional legislative groups operating under The Council of State Governments and comprises the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. McKee previously served as vice chairman of the committee.
“I am honored to have been elected by my peers to serve as chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee,” said McKee. “This leadership position provides an opportunity to represent Kentucky agriculture throughout the south.”
As chair of the SLC Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, McKee will assist SLC staff in setting the projects and priorities of the committee over the next year, including the agenda for the 2016 SLC annual meeting in Lexington.
The oldest of the standing committees, the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee’s agenda focuses on issues critical to the future of farming and farm communities. As the “engine of the economy,” agriculture constitutes a vital sector of the economies of most Southern states. A principal focus of the committee’s work in the past several years has been rural development and rural communities. The committee held series of sessions that investigates the differences (and surprising similarities) between rural and urban America and how to begin to bridge the divides between these communities.
Tom McKee has represented the 78th house district since 1997. He serves as chairman of the House Agriculture and Small Business Committee and sits on the House Local Government, Tourism Development and Energy Committee, the Transportation Committee and on the BR Sub Committee on General Government, Finance and Public Protection Committee, is a member of the Tobacco Settlement Oversight Committee and a member of the Tobacco Task Force. He and his wife Sue live on their farm in Cynthiana.
From the Office of the Rep. Tom McKee