Senate confirms former Gov. Chet Culver for Farmer Mac board

Board created after farm crises boosts access to loans

By Jared Strong - Iowa Capital Dispatch

May. 19, 2022 4:29 pm

Former Iowa Gov. Chet Culver delivers remarks during an April 12, 2016, ceremony in his father's honor at the Cedar Rapids City Hall where a conference room was renamed in honor of John C. Culver, who represented Iowa for 16 years in the U.S. House and Senate. (The Gazette)

Former Iowa Gov. Chet Culver is returning to his leadership position at the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation, which boosts farmers’ access to loans and is better known as Farmer Mac.

Culver, a Democrat, was appointed to the 15-member board of directors by President Joe Biden in 2021. That appointment was approved this week by the U.S. Senate.

Culver was Iowa’s governor from 2007 to 2011, after which he founded the Chet Culver Group, a Des Moines-based renewable energy consulting firm. He was previously appointed to the Farmer Mac board by former President Barack Obama. His tenure on the board ended in 2019 when former President Donald Trump replaced him.

“The bottom line is we want to make sure capital is flowing to rural America, to farmers, to rural communities, to co-ops. Any rural-based business or industry can benefit from Farmer Mac,” Culver said at the time of his appointment. “I want to make sure that continues into the future and that’s another reason I’m privileged and honored to serve.”

Farmer Mac is a federally chartered corporation that was established in the wake of the 1980s farm crisis to create a secondary market for agricultural real estate, rural housing and rural cooperative loans.

Biden was complimentary of Culver’s governorship when he nominated him last year: “Under his leadership, Iowa successfully managed a $6 billion annual budget, earned a ‘Triple A’ bond rating, and built up one of the largest budget surpluses in the nation.”

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.