Rep. Rick Crawford

Rep. Sanford Bishop
Reps. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., and Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., have co-founded the bipartisan Congressional Chicken Caucus.

U.S. chicken companies directly employ more than 300,000 workers, Crawford and Bishop noted in a news release, producing products worth an annual wholesale value of more $45 billion, with major operations in more than 30 states. More than 40 vertically integrated companies contract with about 25,000 family farmers to produce market-ready broilers, hatching eggs and pullets, they said.

Other members of the caucus are Reps. Larry Kissell, D-N.C., Austin Scott, R-Ga., John Carney, D-Del., Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., Robert Hurt, R-Va., and Tom Graves, R-Ga.