Inside NPC's 2025 Washington Summit: A Playbook for Potato Advocacy

The 2025 Washington Summit ran February 24-28 and brought growers and allied partners together under the banner of "Standing Up for Potatoes on Capitol Hill." The National Potato Council notes that this wasn't a single lobbying visit but a structured week combining executive-branch meetings, a formal delegates' meeting, policy briefings, and direct Hill outreach. NPC CEO Kam Quarles said it was "outstanding to see all of the growers from across the country here this week," adding that the level of officials who met with them "reflected the value of the industry and the importance of the issues we are working on with them."

The substance of the week centered on three priorities carried into the White House by the 2024-25 Executive Committee: trade opportunities with Japan and other countries, research funding, and preventing the spread of PEI potato wart into U.S. growing areas. Presenting all three together to USDA and U.S. Trade Representative officials signals how the industry is bundling its asks — export access, public research investment, and biosecurity protection are being framed as a single connected policy package rather than separate issues competing for attention.

• Trade opportunities with Japan and other countries
• The importance of research funding
• Preventing the spread of PEI potato wart to U.S. growing areas

The Wednesday and Thursday Hill schedule reads as a deliberate bipartisan sweep rather than a partisan push. Attendees heard from Senate Ag Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Representative Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.). NPC's reception drew Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Representative Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), with remarks from House Ag Committee Chairman Glenn "GT" Thompson Jr. (R-Pa.). Thursday's schedule then broadened further, with attendees meeting "dozens of Members and staff" across the Hill, according to the National Potato Council.

The Annual Meeting of the Voting Delegates and Awards Dinner carried its own institutional weight: 2024 President Bob Mattive formally passed the gavel to newly elected President Ted Tschirky. In the same evening, Christina Herrick, produce editor for The Packer, presented Gregg Halverson of Grand Forks, N.D.-based Black Gold Farms with the 2025 Potato Person of the Year award. Pairing a leadership transition with an industry-wide recognition award in one event underscores how the Summit doubles as both a policy forum and an occasion for the industry to mark its own continuity and standouts.

A Wednesday session gave attendees a read on Executive Branch direction from Brian Klippenstein, who is leading the USDA Transition Team for the Trump Administration. That was followed by a nutrition policy panel featuring Jennifer Tiller, Chief of Staff to USDA's Deputy Secretary and Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, alongside Katherine Thomas, Senior Professional Staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry, moderated by Beth Johnson, Founder and Principal Partner of Food Directions, LLC. Placing a transition-team briefing directly next to a nutrition-policy panel suggests the industry sees federal food and nutrition programs as a near-term area where administrative posture could shift, and wanted growers hearing directly from both the executive and legislative sides in the same afternoon.