Kevin Roberts: “I want to speak today on the confirmation of Mr. Gregg Doud, the President's nominee for the Chief Agricultural…”

“I want to speak today on the confirmation of Mr. Gregg Doud, the President's nominee for the Chief Agricultural Negotiator at the Office of the United States Trade Representative. In the Senate, we often say, or I hope we often say, that we are only as good as our staff. I have been blessed with the very best. Gregg is one example of why that is true. Gregg served as senior professional staff on the Senate Agriculture Committee for me during my time as ranking member, 2011 through 2013. We like to say in Kansas that congressional staff are bucket toters. During those few years, we toted a lot of buckets together. From the early days of the supercommittee and sequestration, multiple iterations of farm bills, animal disease scares, and the oversight of the MF Global mess, or situation, Gregg handled everything that was thrown at him--and all while wearing his cowboy boots with the pointed toes. Capitol Hill certainly isn't where Gregg started cutting his teeth in agriculture. He hails from Mankato, KS, where he was raised on a dryland wheat, grain sorghum, soybean, swine, and cow-calf operation. Talk about diversified agriculture. He attended my alma mater, Kansas State University, home of the ever-fighting and always optimistic Wildcats. Good luck to them tonight. Just last September, Gregg was back in Manhattan, KS, where he was honored as the 2017 Kansas State University Department of Agriculture Economics Distinguished Alumni Award.…”