Going forward because its been battletested or road it have tested and i want to get your sense of it. Thank you, senator casey, for raising an important issue, food, insecurity, hunger in Rural Communities is certainly a piece of quality of life as well Economic Opportunity and prosperity. When we look at the healthy food financing initiative, i think you see an exciting model of a Publicprivate Partnership, not only Publicprivate Partnership but innovative way in looking along solving communities and Rural America is certainly not immune from that. We are looking forward to working with fund manager thats been designated to this program as they move forward with implementation really as an opportunity to learn from their experience and relationships they have working in the sector to enhance further investments in this area particularly in lowincome Rural Communities. My hope as we go forward, if there are things that priorities are funding or otherwise that the committee can help with, i hope that you alert us to that. Just had one more question and i know you can probably amplify this in writing, but the valueadded producer grant is a valuable resource to assist Small Businesses and new and beginning, farmers with the development in marketing of new products to increase income our state, the grants have been awarred to custom beef processing, processed milk products and finished bottle wines. Can you elaborate and how the program can be expan today reach new audiences . Thank you. The program touches anything from jam to logs to everything in between. As congress looks to improve program in the next farm bill, we would be pleased to work with the committee for any thoughts you had for changes to improve effectiveness. Thank you so much, mr. Chairman. A vote has been called for interest to have bipartisanship. [laughter] i dont know, mr. Chairman, i may not give it back. Theres always that worry. Thank you, mr. Chairman. While you vote, when you come back, i will do the same. Thank you very much. Next up we have senator bennett. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you madame chair. Thank you for your service all of you. I want to thank secretary perdue for hosting a meeting with senators that are concerned about the firing borrowing issue which is not the topic of this issue but i want to say to my colleagues, this is something that solving is long overdue. Is the secretary and we will finally come together and solve the issues for our states, not just western states but states all over the country. I want to ask you a similar related question. I have been in colorado every year, where in the state its clear that Rural Communities as they are in america continue to struggle with the challenging commodity, environment, farm incomes decreasing but also in our part of the world with prolonged route and limited access to water. 30 to 50 of carbon emissions. I was please today hear mr. Sinske to prioritize climate change. I agree with his assessment of that as well. And i think colorados producers do as well. We have a unique opportunity to improve the livelihoods of the next change for farmers and ranchers. I want to ask you whether youre willing to work with our team to decrease Carbon Pollution while enhancing farm incomes. That will not change. Thank you. Im glad to hear that. On some ways we are in the cutting edge. Its important for us to plan for the future to be resilient for the future and whether there is possibility of adding new streams of income to our farmers and ranchersoperations. Its critical for us to consider what they look like. Anybody else who would like to say anything about that . Okay, i wanted to talk about Water Infrastructures. Well, let me also say madame chair, that i think the concern about broadband is one that i have been on the committee shares and our communities desperately share. When we say one community can have broadband and the other cant, one group of students can have textbooks and another group cannot have textbooks. Its entirely unacceptable from the standpoint of rural children in my state and i know yours as well. We have to stay focused on it. I want to talk about Water Infrastructure. I was in cuba meeting with the minister of agriculture who pointed out to me that they dont have a tractor in cuba that is newer than 50 years old. That seemed like an opportunity for us. Well, we dont have Water Infrastructure thats less than 50 years old in parts of Rural America including in colorado. The usda utility significant backlog has been discussed of applications and loans and grants to repair and rehabilitate rural Water Infrastructure. Last year in colorado, the program provided 13 loans and six grants of fewer than 5,000 people. Theres nearly a 30 milliondollar backlog in colorado alone and despite this the president s Budget Proposal zeroed out the Water Infrastructure program and i would like to ask you if you view as biggest hurried toll reducing the backlog in the program. Well, we execute the laws that Congress Passes and to greatest extent possible. We try to focus our resources where where they can be the most helpful. We typically allocate water funding to our state offices of Rural Development and then at the end of the year, if individual states dont use those dollars, we pull them on the federal level and ten target them to priority projects but at any given time i do have projects that are awaiting funding and the ingenuity and creativity of our staff in rural water and sewer authorities across the country take those resources and leverage them and we look for every opportunity to be able to stretch those dollars. Would you say the back slog that there isnt enough money . The backlog is projects awaiting funding . Right. Another place where we are failing to invest and i think we have to find a way, we have to recognize that there are budget cob straints. We have to find a way to have a more creative approach to financing projects as well. The idea that they would zero out this particular part in the budget is entirely unacceptable. I would say to republicans and democrats in the panel. We would have to figure out a solution. Thank you very much, i would underscore your comments as well, senator bennett. I heard senator bennett was talking or i saw you were nodding your head that broadband deployment was essential to Economic Development in rural areas, do you all agree with that . Absolutely. Would you agree that we still have a lot of work to do to make sure we have adequate deployment to meet the economics of Rural America . Yes, sir. So, i wanted to raise with you the issue thats pending before the fcc. They have a 706 inquiry, are you fla with that inquiry . Yes, i am. I have been hearing about this in rural parts of my state and the shives of that inquiry is whether or not for the purposes of determining whether we have adequate broadband deployment in rural areas or any area, we can say that wireless deployment is good enough and that we dont also have to look at the deployment of fixed broadband, are you familiar with that . Yes, sir. Okay. Association that filed comments in that case and on page two of filing, they just state flat out, quote, the commission, the fcc should continue to assess fixed and mobile broadband separately in determines whether advanced communication capabilities are being deploy today all americans in reasonable and timely fashion. Do you agree with that statement. Proposal of 706 inquiry. I would refer to ms. Hazlet to be able to answer. Im not aware of this issue but we will be happy to follow up today. Secretary perdue has placed top priority on broadband deployment and connectivity in america and we will be happy to get you that information. Well, let me senator, let me, if i may, address that point. We have not filed as a petitioner with the fcc. We have an ongoing dialogue with the fcc and the secretary of agriculture is chairing the agriculture and Prosperity Task force which the chairman of the fcc is a member and i can report that broadband is a key focus of that effort and that dialogue will not proceed as formal petition is ongoing between the executive branch agencies. Okay, i would just say if the and i took secretarys word as well that hes engaged in the issue and if hes not fully aware and engaged with whats happening with the fcc, the grants that are provided by the department of agriculture, the rural communication loans and the Rural Broadband loans, they have all very important but whats happening with the fcc could have bigger impact on the deployment of broadband in rural areas and that is why youve got the the National Rural electorate association weighing in so im going to ask you to get ask you whether or not the department of agriculture will weigh in with the fcc and let them know that the position of the department of agriculture is to not count wireless deployment as a total substitute for fixed deployment, there are huge differences between the two in terms of the capabilities and the costs, so i know you cant answer that today but i would like the department of agriculture to get back to us, to get back to me and let me know if youre willing to weigh in formally on this issue because everyone says and i believe you that you care about broadband deployment. This action before the fcc is going to have a really big impact on the future of broadband deployment in rural areas. Thank you. Thank you very much for those important questions and senator grassley. Senator, im waiting for the second panel to ask questions. All right. Very good. Well, i think at this moment, we will thank each of you for being was on the first panel and move to the second panel. We would ask folks to come up and we will proceed. As we switch, i am going recess for just a moment so that i can vote before the time runs out, senator roberts, chairman roberts will be back in just a moment. [inaudible conversations]