third-ranking Democrat in the Senate on November 16, 2004, when she was elected secretary of the Democratic caucus. As caucus secretary, she assisted Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in setting the Democratic agenda and priorities. Senator Dick Durbin was elected minority whip, the second-ranking Democratic spot. In November 2006, Reid announced that Stabenow would leave the caucus secretary position to succeed Hillary Clinton as chair of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, charged with "engag[ing] Democratic Senators and community leaders across the country in an active dialogue". After Tom Daschle, President Barack Obama's nominee for United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, withdrew from consideration, the National Organization for Women urged the president to appoint Stabenow, citing her focus on health care and her background as a social worker. Stabenow became chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee in 2011, following the defeat of Blanche Lincoln. A controversial item during Stabenow's tenure was the renewal and reform of the 2012 U.S. Farm Bill. Reid reintroduced 2012's Senate Farm Bill in the 113th Congress in January 2013, saying that it was on his top priority list, and Stabenow voiced support for Reid's move, saying, "Majority Leader Reid has demonstrated that the Senate will once again make supporting our nation’s agriculture economy while cutting spending a top priority." On October 29, 2014, Stabenow introduced the Gun Lake Trust Land Reaffirmation Act (S. 1603; 113th Congress), a bill that would reaffirm the status of lands taken into trust by the Department of the Interior for the benefit of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band. The bill would clarify that the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band's land trust could not be challenged in court under the Supreme Court decision Carcieri v. Salazar. Stabenow was participating in the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count when Trump supporters attacked the United States Capitol. Along with other senators and staff, she was evacuated from the Senate chamber through a stairwell and taken to a safe location. She called the experience "heartbreaking" and "one of those things out of a movie" and said she had not felt that much fear since her time at the Capitol during the September 11 attacks. After the Capitol was secure, Congress returned to session to certify the election. Stabenow supported the certification. The day after the attack, Stabenow called for Trump's immediate removal from office through the invocation of the 25th Amendment or impeachment.