Thomas Hebert

Prior to joining Ogilvy Government Relations, Tom Hebert was a partner with C&M Capitolink. He provided government affairs services in support of clients' needs and interests dealing with the programs and activities of the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and many other institutions. He also represented clients before Congress and federal agencies on matters dealing with federal farm and conservation programs and the Farm Bill, the Clean Water Act, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, the Water Resources Development Act, appropriations bills and other legislation. Mr. Hebert provided senior policy and economic expertise on these issues, gained from more than 10 years of public work in key positions with the Federal Government. From 1993 until 1998, Mr. Hebert was Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at the USDA. His primary responsibilities involved the development and implementation of policy for the programs of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. He led USDA's work with other Federal agencies and the White House to develop the Administration's 1996 Farm Bill policy proposals. He also worked with Congress to gain passage of its conservation proposals. Later, Mr. Hebert led much of the work done at USDA to implement these provisions. Prior to his position at USDA, Mr. Hebert served from 1989 until 1993 as Senior Economist for the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, and played a key role in the development and passage of the conservation title for the 1990 Farm Bill. Tom began his work in Washington D.C. in 1987 as a Budget Examiner at the OMB's Agriculture Branch, where he handled USDA's conservation, regulatory and marketing budgets. In 1988, he also served as a Staff Economist at the USDA Economic Research Service where his work focused on the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the associated rural economic development benefits and consequences of the CRP. Mr. Hebert holds an undergraduate degree in horticulture and an MS degree in agricultural economics, both from Michigan State University.