Programs. This joint hearing of the Sub Committees on general fund communities, Risk Management, livestock reviewing the implementation of federal farm and Disaster Relief comes to order. Thank you and welcome to this joint hearing of the subcommittees on general farm commodities and Risk Management and livestock and foreign agriculture. Im pleased to be joined by my colleague and fellow chairman as well as my Ranking Member and the livestock Foreign AffairsRanking Member. Welcome also to our chairman and my fellow texan Ranking Member. This first joint hearing comes at a very important time for farmers. Usda and in particular the Food Production and conservation missionary in the Farm Service Agency is in the middle of a huge job. F packed and fsa are currently at the home of three critical separate efforts to address the needs of farmers, ranchers in Rural Communities in our country. The Market Facilitation Program which is meant to assist those farmers most harmed by the administration straight or, the expanded wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program which will aid in Rural Recovery from Natural Disasters and programs like arc to my dmc another supports within title i of the farm bill which provides a Risk Management program. Its our job on this committee to ensure these programs are structured and implemented in a way that can efficiently and most directly serve the farmers, ranchers in small towns who need them now. Its also our job to ensure these programs are implemented in a way thats fair, transparent and consistent with the law. We can absolutely get farmers the help they need while still conducting appropriate and necessary oversight. I do have concerns about the path usda von especially when it comes to staffing. I hear from farmers all the time about understaffed local offices resources that fsa are stretched thin and id like to hear today what plans the fda has to make sure these resources are managed effectively and on top of that there are many media stories about Software Glitches and unprepared staff struggling to process these disaster payments. Is clear usda wants to find efficiencies but as usda prepared to make the changes needed to deliver these Services Even if that means increasing not decreasing staff and resources. I look forward to hearing your testimony mr. Undersecretary. I now recognize chairman peterson for an Opening Statement. I recognize Ranking Member conaway for an Opening Statement pick guy appreciate you its important in having us focus on the way usda is going about its business of helping farmers and ranchers and Rural America across this country. In junction when is difficult with the chairman mention everything going on the process weve gone through the last eight days on the sierra shameful. Its one thing for ping to use our farmers and ranchers in Rural America as a weapon against President Donald Trump which is Something Else to have the powers of this body be using those same good people as leverage because you simply dont like President Donald Trump this committee on the usda has done yeomans work to make sure Rural America is protected and we eliminate the uncertainties they live that we cant. The way the majority has gone way about this and taken the ccc hostage is now using those folks as a weapon. Shame on us for allowing that to happen. It should never happen. We are addressing this body to a terrible state its one thing for college a list donors of President Donald Trump to harass their businesses and hurt them financially. Its a different for this body, this body to the exact same thing with this funding mechanism that is always gone for it without impediment. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle might say this has been done before, this restriction placed on this funding as a result of leaking and factors affecting future promises not current promises made at that point these promises on nfb and Disaster Relief have been made. For us to threaten Rural America these payments would not go out is terrible. Shame on us for doing that same thing. My colleagues will say we fixed it but you didnt. You left restrictions. Theres a report in the face of all the things the chairman said they had to do now weve added another report due by october 30 or 31st to the workload. Shame on us for doing that. Weve not fully funded it. Weve given some sort of certain funding as opposed to moving it. From now on my congratulations as my chairman said, yesterday on the radio from then on this process will not be a weapon that both sides can use if they take us to their advantage and shame on us for doing that. I yield back. Mr. Chairman i recognize chairman peterson. I want to tell members that havent been here 29 years, some of the history. This was put in place by the Republican Party in 2010. It was put in place because at that time the republicans thought secretary was using the ccc to help lincoln at the time it was chairman of the Senate Ag Committee in her reelection because there was a disaster an arkansas and the senate would do a disaster bill because she was up for election. What happened . What they did is they put a limitation on bill so he can use the ccc to do it. You guys put in place, not us. Well, no whats happened ever since his the Appropriation Committee waived that provision. They didnt change it but they waved it, okay this time it became an issue. If there was not a Single Member on this committee, the ag committee that had anything to do with us. Period, ive subject to making these accusations of our members were complicit. We were not. I found out this came from the senate, it did not come from the house. This whole brouhaha came out of the senate. Whatever it is, my concern about this and what i said on the radio yesterday is, and this is legitimate. There werent a handful of members that understood what the ccc was before this started. And thats not just this latest dustup. The president using this fund for farmers is elevated this thing and so now, ive had people talk to me from the liberal side complaining about they never knew there was a cc see, never knew it operated and yesterday the freedom caucus, they are starting to weigh into this thing. Thats what im concerned about. Nobody on this committee had anything to do with that. Without this committee, this thing may have happened. And it wasnt the house that was pushing it, it was the senate. Thats where these troubles usually start. I just wanted to clear the record. I recognize the gentleman from pennsylvania, Ranking Member of the general farm commodities and Risk Management subcommittee for his opening remarks. Thank you for holding this important hearing regarding implementation of the 2018 farm bill provisions and Disaster Assistance. Thank you to undersecretary for your leadership for attending and for providing us an update on the status of these important policies. As those of us representing Rural America know firsthand times are tough and farm country and over the past few years it seems like there is no single region of the country thats immune to mother natures devastation. Not only do producers have to grapple with extreme weather, they are also being buffeted by bad markets and everchanging landscape for global trade not to mention the policy uncertainty coming from washington. Thats why its so important to get the 2018 farm bill complete without the threat of extensions which would only have exacerbated the challenges facing farmers and ranchers. Im pleased with the timely rollout from usda of the key farm bill programs despite other policies to implement , which im sure well hear more about today. The House Republicans were able to make key targeted improvements to the farm safety nets which should not be overlooked and do not forget conference, we were negotiating against the senate bill that wouldve cut 700 million out of the baseline of these critical programs. Talk about kicking farmers and farm families when their down. Its unconscionably to know people would advocate for the erosion of the safety net when producers are looking for any lifeline available to keep family farms and business. Are proud we can all the line and produce a conference report providing improvements to all title i programs for the benefit of all crops and regions of the country. One additional area where congress could act now, the ease the concerns of the Agricultural Community would be act swiftly to improve the United States mexicocanada agreement u. S. Mca which making improvements to nafta and is expected to provide 2. 2 billion in additional exports for our reducers, particularly jerry thats produced in my district. Be on the axis of the provides u. S. Mca sends a signal to other trading partners in talks with ustr the United States has the wherewithal to follow through on commitments made, which will lead to other opportunities to expand trade just like where we saw with the agreement in principle reese with japan. Congress must approve it now and failure will erode partnerships not just for this administration but for all future administrations, as well. Thank you for holding this joint hearing. I look forward to hearing from the undersecretary. Thank you. I recognize the gentleman from california. Thank you, very much mr. Chairman. Its important these subcommittees meet together this morning, this hearing that deals with the review of the implementation of the federal farm and Disaster Program is fitting and appropriate given the challenges we face today. And we are all of the members that are participating, i thank you. I also want to note it was important chairman peterson clarify the history and record as it relates to these activities that were most recently involved with the continuing resolution that we need to pass, this weekend that we need to obviously have a budget. Frankly, its irresponsible to shut down government. Ive always felt its irresponsible and past actions by previous congresses to do just that for political agendas is inappropriate, period. And certainly, i think the president learned that lesson the hard way last year, at least i hope he did. The history of the ccc, which as chairman peterson pointed out, is really not known by the majority of members of congress until this last week. Its important to note, frankly we should not be politicizing this. Its not part of this committee. My sense is that it came from the senate, as well but we have to deal with it. So, what we are dealing with today is to talk about where the safety net is, wheres the safety net for farmers and ranchers and dairy people across this country. And as this chairman of the subcommittee on livestock, im interested in overseeing the new Dairy Margin Coverage Program that we worked so hard on in the reauthorization of the last farm bill in the administrations Market Facilitation Program is properly implemented. Thats why we have the secretary here today in part, the dairy margin coverage sign up for 2019 was set to end tomorrow. Now, i think its important we give very men and women every opportunity to sign up for this program. We will be asking the secretary where we are in terms of that signup and whether or not you are numbers kind of coincide with the numbers ive heard. I hope there can be a little bit of flexibility with that deadline tomorrow. This year, given that we have a brandnew program but at the same time i know youve got the challenge with the sign up for the 2020 program. So, ice sympathetic to the challenge the department is facing in that instance. Its been tough in code dairy country across the land. We know the large fluctuations in the amount of dairies that have gone bankrupt and have been sold, and thats every region of america. We have lost our fair share in california. I know dairy men and women that a been there for generations and now find themselves having you sell the dairy. Its tough. It has economic ramifications in the communities where those dairies have been. Nationwide though, the program, i think in terms of successes triggered, im told over 1 billion or excuse me one quarter billion dollars in help to Dairy Farmers throughout the country. Thats good. Thats obviously what the intention was. I have a difference with the administration, with the president on this terror for. Ive been clear about that. The president has said farmers are better off with Market Facilitation Program impairments than with the axis they had to china. Before the trade work, i think in the u. S. Mca weve made headway with canada on that section 7 and i can tell you the dairy market is very important in california in mexico but yet, when i talk to farmers and not just my disagreement with this that no one wins a chair for because everybody has leveraged that farmers in california are feeling the pain of it and they agree, they think its important that they have access to markets and they maintain those markets and their fearful when these lose these markets because of the trade work we may never regain them and thats a concern i have. The Market Facilitation Program and how those monies are used for the payments, really dont come close. I mean the example in dairy 0. 12 per hundred weight you get 16 to 18 but 0. 12, its in the margins. It may stave off a bankruptcy or foreclosure by a bank for a certain time period but 0. 12 per hundred weight wont save the dairy. I dont know what the usda leadership thinks. Im interested. Ive got questions on how the Market Facilitation Program was set up and how you are implementing it but chairman thank you for agreeing to assist joint hearing with me. Secretary, you have a farm background and you know how difficult it is and farm country. We appreciate your participation here this morning to give us a sense of what with your testimony where we are going with this. Now, i yield back to the Ranking Member of our sub remedy, my Sub Committee for any remarks he wishes to make. Thank you mr. Chairman. I have a prepared statement that i will submit for the record. I have a couple comments for the sake of time. Im interested in getting to the real neat of the matter. First, i think its important that we recognize just how critical it is, if we in agriculture stick together republican and democrat , its unfortunate that so many of our other colleagues that dont represent our have the opportunity to represent real america is the lack of understanding agriculture is significant. Theres a wide gap there and its not uncommon around the countryside, either. Most folks have no idea where their food and fiber comes from. We take it for granted every day of our lives. I think its really important that we as republican and democrat on this community stick together and promote and educate and cajole and persuade as best we can our other members of congress, so that they will understand the nature and the gravity of what we are doing here with and as it relates to production, agriculture and clearly a country that can feed itself and clothe itself is in a very enviable position, enables us to be prosperous here at home and strong abroad as well. The other thing i would like to mention and ive been around agriculture in these debates for a long time going back to my days on the senate staff. Back then, i never understood why we didnt have some type of in addition to Crop Insurance, some type of Catastrophic Fund of some sort, so when these disasters hit we are not waiting on congress for eight months or 12 months or 14 months or whatever it may be but have a program in place similar to what we had with fema. Where Congress Makes an appropriation every year and you havent there, when disaster hits you have a base. If you need to come back and supplement that, congress can. Its clearly as valuable as Crop Insurance is, you take situation in my home state of North Carolina. You have economic losses year after year after year. The hurricane of economics so to speak and then you have the weather hurricanes coming through. That absolutely devastate your areas, farmers had millions of dollars tied up in the ground. A hurricane hits in september they dont even have an opportunity to get any thing from that investment. Meanwhile, it comes at a time when they installed their equity due to the economic hardships they are faced over a period of time. And then it Takes Congress a month to get any kind of disaster aid package across the finish line, for a variety of reasons. I just think we have got to in this is been an ageold problem. We have to come up with a better solution. Crop insurance as valuable, its helpful, but you know, there are so many times we face when its not quite enough. We have to have extra help. Thats where we are. I look forward to your testimony and i look forward to question and answers. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you, each of you for your views on the Current Conditions facing agriculture across the state in this country. Died like to request Opening Statements be submitted for the record so the witness may begin testimony and ensure ample time for questions. We would like to welcome our witness, bill northey undersecretary of farm production and conservation at usda. Mr. Northey is a fourth generation farmer from iowa and served as i was secretary of agriculture from 2006 to 2018. Undersecretary northey please begin when you are ready. Very good, thank you. Chairman, Ranking Members and distinguished members of the committee. I am honored to be with you this morning to discuss the work usda accomplished and continues to deliver as we implement the 2018 farm bill. Thank you, for your leadership in providing the programs and Funding Authority that lets us support our nations hard working farmers, ranchers and stewards. Im privileged to be the undersecretary for fpac the comprised of the three farmer facing agencies of fsa, rma and and rcs. Since Congress Passed in President Donald Trump signed the 2018 farm bill into law last december, one of our highest part where jesus implemented the Dairy Program signup began june 17 and fsa made payments on july 11 and as of last evening, we had over 21,000 producers enrolled in the Dairy Margin Coverage Program with 230 million being paid to ensure that our producers have enough time enrolled and we are extending the deadline from september 20 to september 27, one week. Our fsa offices have and will make the extra effort to ensure producers are notified of the approaching deadline, phone calls and postcards and emails were made. Additionally producer organizations and cooperatives have been important partners in sharing Program Information and deadlines and we will work with them to do so with this new deadline. Fsa implemented the 2018 farm bill changes to arc plc, the signup began september 3 for the 2019 program and will run through next march. Rma implemented key Crop Insurance provisions including multicounty enterprise units in providing Insurance Options for grazing and harvesting of wheat. Rma will provide coverage for him in prop here 2020. On the conservation side, weve held signups for continuous enrollment sierra p in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program and fsa is planning a general sign up in december. With our grass line sign up to follow that. On september 3 we published an announcement of funds availability for the Regional Conservation Partnership program and additionally and implementation of equal, csp in the Agriculture Conservation Easement Program in accordance with the existing regulations as prescribed by 2018 farm bill. The regulations will be published soon for implementation of those programs in 2020. Fiscal year 2020, this past year has tested the resilience of americas farmers here Crop Insurance supplemental Natural Disaster assistance programs, shortterm trade mitigation programs have helped producers manage those challenges. To help producers who were unable to plant crops or had significant delays in planting ust a increase flexibility by allowing earlier harvest and standing the filing deadline for acreage reporting, providing a quick cover crop cost share prevent plant acres and by differing interest charges on Crop Insurance premiums. We took these actions based on comments we received from you, from farm organizations and directly from producers i also know theres a law of interest in the implementation of the supplemental Disaster Relief bill. Last week, we announced fsas whip plus program, which provides payments to producers for Natural Disasters occurring in 2018 and 2019. We began accepting payments, but also included in that, in addition to the with plus his payments per milk loss for stored green losses in four 2017 peach and blueberry freeze losses. An additional producers with flooding or excess moisture related prevent plant claims in 2019 will receive a top up payment of 10 to 15 of their indemnity. We are providing relief through the Emergency Conservation program, the Emergency Forest Restoration Program in the Emergency Watershed program, which were provided 1. 5 billion in the Disaster Relief bill. The markup Facilitation Program, part of President Donald Trump support package for farmers will provide up to 14. 5 billion in direct payments to agriculture producers whove been affected by unjustified for retaliatory tariffs on u. S. Farm goods. Signup began july 29 and will run through december 6. As of the beginning of this week, we have more than 346,000 applications and 4 billion have been paid to producers. In february 2018, usda launched farmers. Gov the mobile friendly website making it easiers for producers to apply, process transactions, sign documents and access information. They can also axis of farm loan and assistance discovery tool Disaster Assistance discovery tool, weve been accepting debit card payments online as well. Theres more to come. For clothes id like to acknowledge this challenging time. As youve noted for our agriculture producers at fpac we are working hard to ensure producers have what they need to manage their risk and their land. I want to thank our thousands of usda employees who serve our nations farmers, ranchers and forest stewards daily for their hard work implementing the 2018 Shaharzad Akbar and other programs. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Id be happy to answer questions. Thank you. Members will be recognized with questioning in order of seniority for members who were here at the start of the hearing. After that, members will be recognized in order of arrival. I appreciate the understanding and i recognize myself for five minutes. Mr. Northey having just passed the farm bill, one of my primary concerns is assuring all the programs we paid for are fully and accurately administered. I know this is a priority for you as well in providing Customer Service for farmers and ranchers. Im aware that you have made a significant investment and comprehensive workload analysis to determine Staff Required for optimal efficiency. Giving states the ability to make decisions regarding staff placement and Office Leases for example we know field Office Staffing is down from 11,000 in 2003 280 500 employees currently. What is the target number of employees contained in the workload analysis and are we even close . Overall, what one of the staffing are the staffing model allowed us to do to be able to be able to look at their areas where they arm the most short in staff and for us to fill the areas first. We are targeting every dollar we have in salaries and expense from appropriations to be able to use that for staffing levels. Ideally the model says we should have more folks than what we have now. We have a law of work thats being done. I dont know that we will ever have the funding to get back to levels we were in staffing eight or 10 years ago. We will be as efficient with those staff as we cant. We are right now staffed across our three agencies about 90 of what our feeling is about what the dollars are that we have for each agency. We are working hard to get that closer to the 100 . We are working to staff up. We certainly have burdened those folks with several activities. Producers to sign documents and save some miles coming in and save some time at the counter, as well. So what is that staff ceiling number . It is about, i can get those numbers exactly, but it is about 10,000 for fsa. And we are around 9000 right now. Fair enough. One last question. Can you explain the rationale for the timing of the price block coverage election and timing process . As i understand it, farmers and landowners can go to the county office today and make the election for 2019, 2020. However they can only enroll for 2019 right now because enrollment for 2020 does not begin until october 7. Is that the best way to describe the situation or maybe, more open ended, can you describe what is happening in that regards . It is. We are taking sign up for 2018, or 2019, right now. We will start signup for 2020 in the midst of this. I dont remember that date, i believe it is october. We left folks who will be able to come in and sign up for both, but right now we are taking the 2019. That sign up will continue through march. Thank you, i now recognize the chairman of the full committee for five minutes. Thank you. Madame chairman. Did you say madam . So i had a couple of questions, but one of the things you said you got me concerned that youre going to have Crop Insurance for hemp and i guess that was ordered in the farm bill or something or someplace. I have been investigating this and i will be doing more the next couple weeks, but i dont see how in the world you will come up for a product with him, given what i have found out about it. You think you will be able to do this . It is certainly a challenge. The product that fairly represents the risk, understanding how it should be priced. Good luck. Right now what we will offer for sure is the ability to include it in whole farm revenue protection. That is a policy that protects all crops on a farm. In that case we will typically work with folks who have a history of growing, so in that case we have previous revenue from that arm. There are some folks that are looking at coming up with individual policies. Diving into some of the information coming from those areas where they have been growing hemp, but after my next, couple or three weeks of exploration, i will have a report for you, okay. So the question i have is about the staffing situation. As i understand it, but i dont understand it, apparently i heard that you guys asked under the budget for Additional Resources or positions or something or that the budget said you should have additional positions and resources, but when you asked for the appropriation, you did not include that. So going back in history, we had 11,500 people working at fsa offices in 2004. Today we have 8500. I would argue we have more work today than we had in 2004. So in my area, ive got people now that are, they have turned offices into kind of a Part Time Office and the ced, like in my county where i go, is now spending a day or two a week in the county next door, because they turned it into a parttime office. I think it is only open a couple of days per week. When he comes down from the other county to staff it, i think even brings people from the other office with him to staff it at the time. The county that is parttime is completely in agriculture county. Theres nothing else in the county. I dont understand how all this happens, but my concern is that we dont have the staffing out there that we need. You know. And i dont know if you asked for it and didnt get it or whether youve got some other plan going on here that we are not up to speed on, you know. I just dont see how this is going to work, you know. You have some magic bullet here i dont know about . There is certainly no magic bullet in being able to serve all the needs out there. We do use as Much Technology as we can, but you know, the budgeting process is a challenging process. It is about making lots of choices. You all deal with it as well, looking at where you have funds available. We would sure, gladly, use more folks if there were more dollars did you ask for more . Lots of proposals inside and outside and certainly we have our process of being able to sort through the priorities at usda and through the president s budget, as well, as you all have your priorities and what you need to work through. So we are looking to do everything we can to stretch the resources we are given as far as we can. But you also have this optimal Productivity Office report. I guess the center is doing or something. Some kind of study in your offices. Yes. But that hasnt been completed yet as i understand it. That is ongoing. We do time studies all the time to understand what programs are taking the most time. What offices and areas are seeing an increase in time. One of those challenges are Disaster Programs. Those occur infrequently, you cant really staff for those, so you end up really challenged in areas where you have disaster on top of other programs. But this is a way for us to be able to measure the workload, analysis and look across the state and see which offices are the most short in staffing and make sure we staff their first with the available people that we have. Sometime or other i think we will have to have more people in these offices if we keep having Disaster Programs and Facilitation Programs. The new Dairy Program. I mean, there are a lot of things we didnt have before. These studies, you know, give me one more minute. We were up at the northern border. Customs and Border Patrol did a study of the time, you know, people going across the border and all this stuff. And they want to close the border there on a u. S. Highway. They went from 10 00 p. M. To 4 00 p. M. In the afternoon. I have people working on both sides of the border. Canada is at midnight and we are at 4 00 in the afternoon, so people come to work and cant get home. It is crazy. It was one of the studies that did that, that caused them, they claim, to make these changes. So they have nine places in north dakota that have 20 of the crossings we have. They left them open until 10 00. I dont know, so i am skeptical of these studies but i hope we can Work Together to get more people because they think we are short. I recognize the Ranking Member of the full committee, mr. Conway for five minutes. Mister chairman, i appreciate that. I share the concerns over hemp. We have opened pandoras box. As i understand it if a hemp plant is stressed through drought and lack of water, thc levels skyrocket, so we will be ensuring an illegal product. Lots of unanswered questions. I wanted to share that. On the implementation side, in the farm bill i think we allocate some extra 100 million specifically for implementation of the farm bill. The final days of that effort we worked really hard to get, we wound up with 15 million. The senate was willing to go to zero and we fought for additional money to help get that. Can you talk about where the stresses and strains are with respect to implementation of the farm bill and what we hear is you got some decent help. Thank you. The 100 million was beneficial and used and needed and mostly used for software and outreach. Some additional staffing as well. In this case, having 15 million, we needed to go and use other resources to do some of the i. T. Work and some of the staffing, so we had some other activities we were working on that we needed to prioritize the farm bill implementation. Certainly needed to do the i. T. Work for that. So we would reallocate resources to be able to try to get that done. Can you talk to a specific area of the farm bill where the chokepoints are right now remaining at this point . Yeah, so the farm bill was a priority. We pulled things away from the other things we were doing. Modernization of other software and other kinds of things. We havent slowed any of the farm bill process down, but we had ideas about other things we were going to do that we needed to be able to use the resources for the farm bill. It is our priority to get out and that is the number one activity. From what i am hearing, though, you have other areas that shouldve been tended to that suffered as a result of the lack of resources that are Senate Colleagues were willing to pitch in. I will think chairman peterson for his help in trying to get the 15 that we got. It was hard to do and dramatically short of the 100 allocated in 2014. Thank you for your work and the team youve got in place. They work hours they dont get compensated for. They are incredible warriors on behalf of producers in this country. They are neighbors to folks who live next door to them and the offices i visited, the folks love what you are doing and go above and beyond what would normally be expected of a federal employee to make sure to do it they can to make sure farmers and ranchers are getting access to these programs that congress has put in, so please convey our thanks to them for their hard work and continued hard work moving forward. With that, chairman, i yield back. Mister chairman, with the gentleman yield. I need 30 seconds. I forgot to ask you, you created this new Business Center for the process for hiring. As i understand it, the ced and the county and the county committee through fsa, the used to be able to hire people locally, but now as i understand it, they send it to this Business Center and there is one person here in dc it has to approve that before it is sent back to the county for them to hire somebody. You know, i dont think any of us here think it is a good idea to have washington decide who should be hired in the local office, so would you look into that . That is what i was told. The decision is still made locally and the state directors have authority to be able to decide what offices those go into, as well. They apparently fill out an electronic form and that form gets sent to dc. The person looks at it for uniformity and if its not uniform, they kick it out and it doesnt go back to the county. I dont understand why we are letting somebody in washington make decisions about who should be hired in a local county, so if you could give me an answer i would appreciate it. Thank you. I now recognize the Ranking Member of the subcommittee. Chairman, thank you so much. Mister undersecretary, good to see you again. Thank you for your leadership and service. Extend my appreciation to all the hardworking folks in usta that are under your responsibility. You know i appreciate what they do. You know, we obviously, our family farms depend on that level of professionalism to be able to connect them with the resources that quite frankly this Committee Makes available through our work with the farm bill authorizations. Reauthorizations. I want to start out a little bit on dairy. You mention about 21,000 farms are signed up for the dairy margin coverage, which i think was about 70 of the registered dairy operations. What is fsa doing specifically to ensure that remaining operations are fully aware of the potential advantages to participate in the new program . I appreciate the oneweek extension, obviously. Weve certainly got a lot of partners in reaching out to farmers. Last year the sign up for the Margin Protection Program was just a little over 21,000, as well. We are actually over 80 farmers short right now of where we were in sign up in 2018. With todays of signup to go. We think likely we will end up by the end of this week, certainly by the end of next week, atmore signed up for this program than we did for mpp. As you suggest, there are other producers out there that have participated in the past. Maybe they are not in business were decided not to participate with this. Other producers that have dairy operations as well are not participating. Were trying to reach out and make sure they understand the value of this program. How it works a lot better for larger producers than it once did and still ensures up to 5 million pounds, but it works much easier for our larger producers. And we have some small producers that historically have not participated and we are making sure we reach out to them. Phone calls, emails, postcards. Everyone got at least two postcards over the signup period. They have been contacted through their marketing organizations, as well, whether a coop or part of an association. So we reached out to them. We have done all that we can. We will continue to do that the next week and we are hearing good reports that a lot of folks now, i assume, will see a significant bump in the next couple days. It is important still to be able to give folks another week to make sure if theyve lost track of the date, that we get a chance to touch one more time and get them in to make that conscious choice. With the gentleman yield . Sure. I think there is bipartisan support here. I dont know if you need a letter from us, but the flexibility as i said in my opening comments, i think it is important for the department to exercise. I think what you are saying is you are exercising that flexibility, but i think it is important, notwithstanding the efforts youve made, that you indicate you will entertain until the end of the month or whatever time. Makes sense. Thank you. We are announcing today the extension for one week, so from the 20th to the 27th. We do have to watch about getting much later than that, because we need to have signup start for the Dairy Margin Coverage Program for 2020, the first week of october. We need to get folks completed in this signup period. So that is our intention right now. I think each of us has a responsibility, as well. I know the month of august. I take every opportunity, whether it is a farm bill legislative session, on a farm, at the allamerican dairy show on saturday in harrisburg. 2400 head of cows there with kids showing them. The dairy summit, secretary perdue joined me for. Just to encourage farmers to sign up. This is a product that does work for everyone. It is affordable and i do appreciate it. The few seconds i have left, i want to reach out to the department on our other big crop that i have in my district. That is hardwood. Hardwood has been hit hard with the tariff situation, yet there is no relief. There are two things. First of all, we need to get these tariff deals done. Thats a priority. If there is a second round weve got to look at how we help these hardwoods. They have been at the tip of the spear of losses and for those in the business that have contracts on our National Forest or corps of engineer land, one of the Simple Solutions is to extend the contracts they may have for another 24 months, because they are being forced to harvest, when they are harvesting at one level and the market is not there. That is something i will follow up with the appropriate folks at usda on. Thank you. Thank you. I now recognize the chairman of the livestock subcommittee, mr. Costa, for five minutes. Thank you again, mister chairman. As i said in my opening comments i dont believe anyone wins trade wars, because i think everyone has coverage and whether it is part of their strategy or for political reasons, certainly the chinese recognize that. The language theyve chosen to use in not buying u. S. Agricultural products has really hurt farm country. Of course, at any point in time, the president is correct. The chinese have been bad actors, for 20 years. Industrial, you know, theft, copyright issues and even when weve one in the wto, they have not complied. They have been bad actors and that was recognized in the Obama Administration and the Bush Administration before that. There have been different strategies used to try to deal with it. Certainly they can buy more Agricultural Products because they need them and they have the money, but this is part of the strategy. You are not the trade ambassador, i dont hold you to that responsibility. But let me tell you when we are talking about california specialty crops, 50 billion per year ag industry in california, it is hurting hard. Throughout the country, but especially california. Pistachios, almonds, beef, plums, cherries, avocados. They face now over 50 tariffs on exports to china. The California Walnut Commission estimates the industry will lose nearly 100 million annually due to the chinese trade dispute. Meanwhile, california farmers have received about 80 million in total payments in the first Market Facilitation Program. You know, that doesnt cut it. Go down the list. Three cents per pound for almonds, six cents per pound for cherries. We think we have lost about . 30 per pound on the almond market. You know, three cents doesnt come close. I talked earlier about the . 12 on dairy. Nationwide the dairy industry estimates theyve lost more than 2. 3 billion in revenue since the trade war began and theyve received about 20 million in the first round. Beyond these losses, we are losing market share, as i said earlier, to our competitors. Those relationships are tough to rebuild after hopefully we get past this. So, while i mentioned it is not your job to negotiate the treaties, the president said he was making farmers more than whole and farmers are doing better than if china were buying. As i said, california farmers disagree with that. Mister undersecretary, you agree with the president . Will the second round of trade aid make farmers more than whole . Are they better off with this than they would be with access to chinas market or other markets . I think everyone is working for a better trade situation, not only for the products we were exporting, but the products we were struggling to export. That is where the real game will be. Our Market Facilitation Program was a bridge to get to that. It is certainly hard in that Market Facilitation Program to deliver exactly what a producer lost. Well, its not possible. Its not. 16 billion, is that the current number with the program so far question 14. 5 billion. And you spread that across the whole country in the midwest. Important commodities. The california ag industry is 16 billion. Try to spread 16 billion across the country and you talk about different states. I know farmers dont want subsidies. Weve gone through this a whole lot over the last 20 years of farm programs. They want access to markets. Level, fair trade and with a 44 of californias agriculture depending upon trade, it is the reason we need to get this usmca agreement completed i think, because it is so important to our country, as well as to our neighbors to the north and to the south. So, what is the implementation going to be on this next round . So we are still getting sign up for this participation in this program, up until december 6. We have pulled all producers that the first 50 of this secondround of mfp is guaranteed. We will look to see whether the second and third payments are needed. If we get a trade deal we will reevaluate. We certainly hope that we get a trade deal before this but it doesnt make up for the loss in the market, no . It certainly is a support for producers. It is important to be able to tration, how important ink it is trade is to agriculture and i think it is a great reminder and appreciation for the role of trade and why there needs to be active participation in trying to get to that trade deal that is better on the other side. Thank you. I now recognize the Ranking Member of the livestock committee. Ister chairman and mister undersecretary, think you for being with us today. I, too, want to commend the entire team at usda and all those employees out there working really hard. As well as all the other employees at usda. They do a lot of very important work, very well. And in many cases, with limited resources, too. I want to focus in on the Disaster Relief. Record 3 billion. Those of us who in the southeast work really hard, including my friend here to my left, mister scott, on getting this package across the finish line. What do you expect to pay for losses in 2018 . Do you have an estimate of what that is going to consume and a followup to that is how much of that money do you think is going to be block granted to the states . If you can talk about your plans and thoughts on that, as well. It is a challenge to estimate what actual losses were, as we did in 2017, as well. I think certainly it is likely between half 1 billion and 1 billion and i think losses that occur from the hurricanes in 2018, we know there was some coverage covered by Crop Insurance. But this is to top up some of the Crop Insurance losses, as well as to try and cover some of those other losses. For block grants, we are still in discussions with the states as they continue to bring forward their thoughts on what block grants should cover. As you all outlined in the disaster bill, this isnt designed to pop up existing programs. This is designed to cover those things that are not covered in existing Disaster Programs or in w. H. I. P. Itself, so maybe timber and other kinds of things. We are still in conversations. It will be in the several hundred Million Dollar range, but it will depend what their proposals are and what they conclude those losses are. Of course, the real proof is when you go out to the producers and how many producers have losses and are interested in signing up. So we dont have a set number of what that dollar amount will be. Certainly it is going to be very important to many of the producers. Followup to that, when a producer goes in and files his application, how long do you think it is going to take to turn that around . It depends how complex that application is. We already have some producers that have completed applications. So in some cases, it is fairly straightforward. They have information from their Crop Insurance. From their Crop Insurance information last year, so they are able to complete it very quickly. In other cases we have producers who have not participated before so they have to establish compatibility first. They have to get that information and there are other additional challenges for some producers. They dont have acreage reports to look at history and compare history to what the losses were, either. So for the most part we think it will be fairly quick for most producers, but there will be some, some of the applications, that will be more complex or cover things that have more questions and require more information for the producer. What about the timing of the payment, once the application is complete, everything is done , et cetera, are we looking at a month, two months . Right now we are still making final changes in software on the payment mechanism, so that should start soon. Once a producer completes that application, it should be certainly within two weeks, that they would be able to get a payment for that application. Hopefully less than that. Just for your awareness, and i dont know necessarily that this is widespread, but ive gotten some feedback from producers that when they go to the fsa office, they are told they have absolutely no idea what they are going to be eligible for and maybe that is just a situation as it relates to the application process itself. But producers walk out of there pretty dejected, when they dont have any idea and they are told they are not sure what they will be able to receive. So i dont know if that is an education issue in some of these offices where employees have not been brought up to speed on exactly what is entailed in the Disaster Program. But i have heard that, so i just want to make you aware. I would love to be able to hear about those cases and where we can get more information out. For the most part, many of the places where that program is being implemented is around hurricanes and areas very familiar with the software, since we are using very Similar Software and criteria that we used in the 2017 program. For many cases, we have a lot of folks who had some experience implementing that program as well, before. Then we have been able to have training. I would love to find out if there are places we have missed and need to be able to get more touch to some of our employees out there. Both online and in person training. Train the trainer, as well. We need to make sure that it is such that when a producer comes in they have a competent, capable and interested person across the counter to be able to help them walk through that application. My office will follow through with you on that. Thank you very much. I yield back. I now recognize ms. Hayes from connecticut. Thank you, mister chairman for holding this hearing and thank you undersecretary for being here. So, i represent connecticut and my questions are specifically about our Dairy Farmers. We have 80,000 working acres of dairy farms which account for 4000 jobs, so much smaller than other districts weve heard about, but i think that is cause for so much of the concern in my community. In 2018 in connecticut, we had 110 license to Dairy Farmers and as of monday when my staff checked, only 66 of those farms applied for the dairy margin coverage. So, for a program that is guaranteed to provide, you know, protection for those margins, why do you think enrollment is not higher . I dont know in those cases. Certainly outreach has been tried in some cases. I dont know how connecticut specifically compares to what it sign up was for mpp a year ago, and whether there are some producers that choose not to participate. There are certainly groups of producers that choose not to participate in any program at all. Again, i dont know specifically in connecticut. I was on a beautiful dairy farm, modern, wonderful dairy farm in connecticut a few months ago and i know we have been reaching out to producers, both by postcards and emails and phone calls, to be able to let producers know about it. We have another week to be able to reach out to folks, if there are reasons and if you hear of reasons, or producers have not been contacted or are not aware, we certainly want to make sure they are aware and understand. This is a great program. This is a program that is going to be very constructive. Right now we know they will actually make money in 2019 because of that, but most importantly, in the long term, this is a great Risk Management program for a small amount of money for the future. A producer can no that they have a protected margin in that program, so we are seeing about half the producer sign up for five years of the program. A little short of half of the producers. Certainly many of the folks that signed up for previous programs are signed up. We continue to lose some dairy farms in all parts of the country. So compared to longago history, we have less participation than what we had with some of those producers with historical production. In some cases, some of them were not able to stay in business. We think we reached out to all the folks pardon . We have seen it in connecticut, the sum of these firms have gone under and have not been able to remain in production. I agree with you that this is a great program, but with outreach, i know in my district specifically, in connecticut 5, broadband is unreliable. So if we are using email as a method to communicate with people. I know on my staff i have gone out and done roundtables and met with farms. I would love to have joined you on a farm to be facetoface and talk to people and say this is what is available, because people are missing out on the opportunity because they dont know it exists. So if there is anything that i guess members of congress can do to help you, because it sounded like when the chairman asked have you asked about increased staff, it didnt sound like a hard yes, but i think that is something we would all be willing to support because i know it is lifeand death for my community that there are people on the ground to assist in the process. So if there is anything we can do, i think i would love to engage in that process. I think when we have these large conversations, the Small Farmers feel left behind and are afraid of what the next step is or where they fall in this conversation, so i think it is critically important. I know we go to the places where there are the most people and we maced make the most impact, but the farming communities as you well know. Thank you. Many members of done a great job in their own communication with constituents, as well as mentioning it at public events. Reminding folks, we will give another week, another opportunity to remind them that the deadline is a week from tomorrow. Have you used public radio . We have used radio. Because my farmers love the radio. Not my farmers, your farmers, too, im sure. But the radio, i communicate with them a lot. I know i send out mailers and people dont really read them, so i am thinking of anything we can do to make sure the information is shared. We will continue to reach out and do whatever we can to make sure people hear about it. Thank you. I now recognize mr. Scott. Thank you mister chairman. I suppose my friend and colleague congressman bishops district probably had more losses for 2018 than i did, but i believe i am second of the 435 members of the house with regards to losses for 2018. We know the saying, the bigger you are, the harder you fall. Certainly we recognize this is the case in agriculture. The payment for w. H. I. P. , the upper payment limit was reduced from 900,000 to 250,000 for the 2018 storms. It was 900,000 for 2017. Can you tell me why that reduction was made, briefly . I think certainly in discussions, both internal, as well as through government, we had several conversations, looking at how many folks would hit payment limits, as well as managing dollars. Recognizing there is a limited number of dollars to cover losses in 2018 and losses in 2019, but for the balance of 2019 as well. We dont know what further losses might be. Absolutely and that brings me to the second point. Forgive me, i am on a five minute clock. I want to move fairly quick. We put 3 billion and for the 2018 storms, just for the other members knowledge. Now that the 2019 storms will be paid out of that 3 billion amount allocated for 2018, can you tell me how much you estimate the 2019 losses to be . I think we are all going to agree here, no more hurricanes, right. No more disasters. But as you say, its the balance of 2019, up until now and Going Forward as well. What are the losses to date . We havent had a large number of losses to date. We had the midwest floods. Whats that . The midwest floods, do we not have an estimate on that . Much of the actual coverage would be through Crop Insurance or other crop losses through Crop Insurance, so we will see a few payments going there, but most of it, most of the w. H. I. P. Payments will go to hurricane areas. So there is almost 1. 5 billion left over from 2017 disaster payments, is that correct . It is. So i have asked that the 2017 money be appropriated for the storms of 2018 and 2019. Forgive me mister secretary, i know i am moving fast. I have a lot of things i want to bring to your attention. The usda gave an estimate on november 29, 2018 of the total losses for 2018, to date. The usda requested a total of 1 billion. For alabama, california, florida, georgia, hawaii, south carolina, North Carolina and virginia. We have not seen any updated estimates for the 2018 storms. Are you aware of any updated estimates from your economists for 2000 . 18 the 29th i am not and if there have been i have not seen a number. Im not either and that concerns me greatly. Again i apologize for moving so fast, but, for example, and i have the breakdown by commodity group, by state. Your economist, the usda economists of the georgia cotton loss was 260 million. Indemnity estimate was 111 million and 148 million would end up as the net uninsured loss. According to our ag institutions, the university of georgia. The land grant institutions and economists, you have 260 million in that slot. We show it as 550 million. You show it as 70 million. We show it is 260 million. Again, these are landgrant institution economists that we have provided this information to the usda and asked for updated estimates on what the losses are. My concern is, when we went, when congressman bishop and i were arguing for the 3 billion for the storms, we had the information from the land grant institutions. Georgia, florida, North Carolina. And we could not get the usda to move off of the 1 billion request. We effectively forced it, if you will, to the 3 billion. To this date, almost a year later, farmers have not received any payments yet from the storm, as you know. Not your fault at all. But i dont understand why the estimates have not been updated from november of last year, when we know they are not accurate. And i, quite honestly, think 3 billion will end up falling very short of what the actual losses were. I am talking about uninsured losses for the 2018 crop year. Now we take 2019 storms out of it, while at the same time we have 1. 5 billion sitting in lockbox that cant be touched. So any help from the administration in moving that 2017 money into whatever we do in a continuing resolution or appropriations process, so it can be used for the 18 and 19 storms. It is money that has already been appropriated, just cant be used. I appreciate you, i appreciate your experience in agriculture. Im concerned with the usda economist estimates. I am concerned and would suggest , this cannot take a year the next time someone goes through a storm, the way the state of georgia did. My people would not be farming today, but for a loan program through the Georgia Development authority. The governor and state legislature did it in a special session and brian kemp in the legislature came back in and put more money in it. They should not have to do that. But for them, my people would not be farming today and i look forward to their estimates from usda economists. Thank you, sir. I now recognize mr. Cox from california. Think you. Good to have you here today. I have a question regarding the competitiveness program. Did you know that cotton is not eligible for the traditional programs . In one of the pros provisions is the staple or the fema competitives program. Just like the majority of farmers and ranchers in my district, Cotton Producers are being harmed by the trade war with china, resulting in lost markets and quickly declining market process prices. My market and others working with the usda to make needed updates to the program, which the secretary heard about from some growers in my area during his recent visit to california a couple months ago. It is my understanding that the needed changes to the program are being held up, so what can you and the secretary do to help us get this done and how can this committee be helpful . Our growers are suffering and with crops being harvested, we need those Program Updates as soon as possible. I appreciate that. You know i am restricted from conversations about what activity is at omb and the actual proposals, but we continue to evaluate the inclusion of other varieties within that formula that would potentially impact the support to that program. Thank you. Anything this committee can be doing, ourselves . You know, i think continue to provide information about why there should be adjustments to that program, from the point of view of your producers, i think is always valuable. Okay. Then i have a question regarding the area Margin Coverage Program and organic dairy farms are also eligible for the program. I would like to hear about any specific outreach youve done to reach this section of the industry . We have reached out to all sorts of trade groups, trying to reach out to their producers. We certainly can get you information about what our touch has been specifically to get organic dairy producers, but i think associations have been involved, as well and their marketers have been involved in reaching out to their producers, recognizing that they qualify for that program, as well. So we need information about what has gone out. I am not personally as familiar with each of those outreach efforts. Thats all i have and i yield my time. Thanks. Thank you. I now yield to mr. Marshall. Sorry. I yield for five minutes. Thank you, mister chairman. Undersecretary, good to see you again. I would like to focus a little bit on the Market Facilitation Program. Some of the farmers out there, especially southern minnesota, have questions. I know you have answered this in the past, but it would be good to revisit it as to why people in counties in my district are receiving 60 or 70 per acre, where other parts of the country could be up to 150 per acre. It can vary based on zip codes and counties and neighboring counties getting different numbers for the same crops. Could you maybe go over that a little bit again and help us with how the calculations are made . I can. Thank you, congressman. The formula that was figured out, as you remember. We established the criteria for the market. The payment for the Market Facilitation Program, during planting. We wanted to be able to not incentivize the growing of one crop versus another, which is why we went to a county payment rate. Whatever they were planting, they would get the same payment rate and we would not influence planting decisions. Then we had to figure out what that payment rate would be and we look to crops grown in each of those counties and how those crops were being impacted by the trade. Some crops are being impacted by the trade curve to a greater degree than others. In some cases, they export more of their product. In some cases, export more of it to china, where we have had some issues. Obviously in the first round you saw some difference between corn and soybeans, because they are impacted differently. Certainly cotton is one of those that is impacted greatly. Some of the other products are impacted to greater or smaller degree. So what ends up in the final payment is the mix of the crops that are grown in that county and the impact on the value of those crops, based on the loss of the markets to both tariffs and historical nontariff barriers, as well. The chief economist looked back over the last 10 years to be able to look at when we had higher trading years and what nontariff barriers mightve been added through the years as well. So the difference is, there are some places where the average acre in that county, which is the mix of acres in that county, have a higher impact per acre than others in other counties. I appreciate you clearing that up again. I know the subjects im about to bring up dont directly impact you. We have fine folks behind you, you can all go back and talk to the secretary and report to the white house and others. So it is been going on in farm country for five or six years with the low Commodity Prices and high input costs is tough and has a can cumulative affect as we go through trade negotiations. There are good things that i think people of missed. Regulatory reform has been excellent. Getting rid of the high cost of energy and having u. S. Energy independence, which is important agriculture. The tax reform bill was good for farmers. Obamacare and the Affordable Care act has really crushed them and we need to do better there and get that down. Entree, my messages this. They understand china has been cheating and we have to do something, but they wanted solved as fast as possible. I know you are working on it and the trade rep and the president and everyone else is committed to that but i encourage you to get a result as fast as possible. Its good for the whole country. Secondarily on biofuels, i think we have to keep working in that area. Theyre looking at making an announcement in the near future, whether it is buying back by gallon. We need that program implemented the way congress intended. We cant let the democrats and others decide to reinterpret the statutes. We should follow the law of the land and i hope we get that worked out, because it is important for soybean farmers in southern minnesota. Lastly, this is something to make sure that you stay apprised, stay on. This swine flu has really crushed things in china. Maybe half of their hogs. Obviously demand for soybeans would be down. We cant have that here. I know you are working hard, the whole department is to make sure you keep it out of the United States, out of north america, but that would be devastating to a farmer in an array of areas, so i appreciate your attention to that. Thank you. Thank you. I now recognize thank you, chairman. And welcome undersecretary, good to see you. I am from southern new jersey, which is a lot different than northern new jersey. When secretary perdue was before the full committee in february, he told us he didnt think a second round of payments would be necessary or likely, but we are obviously in the midst of a second round. I want your opinion. You think at this point from what you hear from the people you speak to, because you know youre going to have to be ready. Do you think a third round of payments is likely at this point . I am still hoping that the second and third payments of the second round are not necessary, because we are back to a better trade environment in the short term. Right now we are focused on being able to make these payments now for producers. I did not believe there is a likelihood of a second round. I thought it sounded to me, that we were very close in agreement. That certainly wouldve been preferable for everybody. When an agreement cannot be reached, it was important to be able to stand up for the producers and support producers. Of course i agree. So i dont know. I just hope you had some inside info. There are significant differences between the 2018 Market Facilitation Program and the 2019 edition of the mfp. Most notable, the approach to how payments are calculated, which is based on actual production last year, but this year is on a per acre basis. Can you offer the rationale or the decisionmaking why that was done . Great weston. In 2018 we established the Market Facilitation Program going into harvest, when we would be very close to be able to have harvest numbers and could look at actual production as producers could bring that information in to their fsa office and be able to provide that information. As we looked at 2019, we looked at a crop that was growing, or in some cases not even planted yet. We wanted to make sure and not influence that planting decision, so we needed to be able to have a producer that was considering between two crops, just look at what the market asked for, not look at a Market Facilitation Program payment, which wouldve been different in the first time around if we had instituted that in 2019. So we wanted to go to an acre payment to be able to provide that continuity and yet predictability that there was support for producers that were impacted by the trade situation in 2019. Thats why we went to the acre payment in 2019. Certainly one of the criteria for both programs was to make it pretty straightforward for our producer to be able to come up with the information to comply. Make it as strict as possible for offices to be able to deliver it, because we were adding it on to the work done in the offices and the work that the producer needed to go to. I think both met that test, even though they were delivered differently, because they were delivered at different times of production. Can you believe using that combination bearing on the circumstances, you achieved mac maximum accuracy . I believe so. It is a challenge to be able to predict what market impacts are of trade disruptions. I think the chief economist did a great job of being able to analyze that, get the information back. Certainly there will always be disagreements of whether that was enough or not or whether it is balanced the right way, but i think we did and to be able to deliver it the way we did also minimized the disruptions that the payment couldve caused if youd gone commodity by commodity. This trade has created a situation as you know where some are getting direct payments, while others, like fruit and vegetable growers, hope that the purchase of their product will be large enough to move their whole market. Can you share why some of the commodities that were impacted by the trade war received mfp payments while others received purchases . As we looked at the commodities that were being impacted, you could look at certainly some of the specialty commodities that were being impacted. Some of them, we could replace that demand by creating new demand, by buying them and having them offered through food banks creating customers in the future and other commodities werent possible. Or we couldnt supply enough, such as dairy or pork. We did some purchases, but we also had to make some direct payments. We didnt have any way with larger commodities, cotton or corn or soybeans, to offer purchase and have a place for those to go. So it made sense to be able to use the purchases wherever it could make sense to be able to offer that. Through other outlets, hopefully creating additional customers and providing direct payments to those that we were not able to provide purchases two. Thank you mister undersecretary. The chair will now recognize the gentleman from georgia, mr. Allen. Thank you, mister chairman and mister undersecretary. Thank you for being here today. Weve already heard a lot about the situation in georgia with the disaster and, you know, crops being in the direct path of the hurricane. And the losses and Communities Just devastated. It took a long time, but you now have a Disaster Relief package. Through this process i continue to hear from constituents, not only the need for immediate Disaster Assistance, but also the concerns of fixing the problems they experience when signing up for the previous w. H. I. P. Program. To this, mister undersecretary, what has fsa done to ensure the new whip program is being implemented effectively and efficiently throughout the local fsa offices . As we have made sure that our staff is well trained in the program, we have made i. T. Improvements, as well. In the way that the program operates, including the payment mechanism being hooked directly to the program mechanism, so that allows a little more efficiency in the offices. It is a challenge for producers when we look at individual losses and that is the way this program was designed, to be able to look at individual losses. If you suffered a 60 loss, i suffered a 40 loss, yet we are in the same neighborhood, we will pay based on the relative loss. That requires a certain amount of paperwork. Often that information is available and loads quickly into the program. Where we end up can you define relative loss . Pardon . How does relative loss work . You balance the loss or how does that work . We take each individual operations loss. We dont take a regional loss, we take an individual loss and we take into account what that operation received for Crop Insurance payments as well. Then we have a formula to be able to have a higher amount of coverage than Crop Insurance, but never more than what a full guarantee for Crop Insurance would be. No producer in this case, even with these payments, is going to be better off than they wouldve been if they had a crop, especially those producers who had a really good crop coming. They will only be insured were only covered or we only compare against what their expected normal crop wouldve been. I understand this became viable last wednesday, is that correct . Yes, it did. Okay, and you did comment about software. When will software be readily available to fsa offices . They are out there now and we are receiving applications back. If you hear any different i would love to hear about that, but it is out there working. We had it available for folks. We are making those payments that will occur within the next few weeks. Once that happens, we will start making payments. In addition to the whip program, i worked tirelessly to secure Disaster Assistance for our blueberry growers who suffered losses in the 2017 lateseason freeze. When do you think the provision that was included in the Disaster Relief package made available funds to expand coverage of the freeze risk 2017 w. H. I. P. Package, when do you think we will see when will growers expect to receive this and when will it be distributed . That sign up started last week, on the 11th, as well. I assume we have producers who as soon as they are aware are coming into the office. That is using the 2017 program. 2017 software, payment limits and other things from 2017. That is already available and we should have producers sign in for that program right now. Speaking of the trade situation, you know, when the secretary came to his first hearing here, i said then, forgetting 55 i said what are we going to do about these low Commodity Prices . And he said weve got bad trade deals. I dont know what the answer is. Obviously, lots of people have been impacted by these negotiations, but again i think the reason that we have terrible trade deals is we have an election in this country every two years and people who are in Public Service dont want to take the risk of trying to fix these things. So this president is taking it on and i just pray that we can get a quick resolution to this thing and have a fair, free trade so that our farmers can compete with anybody in the world. The chair will now recognize the gentlewoman from iowa. Ms. Axne. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you chairman and Ranking Members. Thank you for the opportunity to join this joint subcommittee meeting on Disaster Recovery and thank you for being here. You know it is always great to see you. As a fellow iowan, you know as well as i do how devastating severe plat flooding can be. Southwest iowa as you know is still reeling from massive flooding that occurred last spring. Entire towns such as hamburg and Pacific Junction in my district went completely under water and of been estimated to lose billions of dollars in damages and of course, agricultural losses throughout iowa. We all know that risk is and over. Western iowa is experiencing another round of potentially severe flooding. I have been closely monitoring the situation and spoke with Emergency Management coordinators last night, but the Current Situation further underscores the urgency of what we are talking about here today. When i travel to the district and you and i work on this together and saw the damages in the spring, of course what i was impressed with was the resiliency of iowans. Of course we didnt wait for the government to come in and do the job. We got to work themselves and they helped one another start the really difficult, long road to recovery. Church congregations were putting out meals for those who didnt have one. Neighbors helped clean out each others basement and farmers donated hey to each other for their cattle to graze. The bottom line is that while iowans got to work, we need to ensure that the federal government does its job. I heard from a lot of iowans who said they didnt know what resources were out there, what the deadlines were and how they could sign up. As you know i invited, this past june, leo edelman, a producer for my district to testify before a subcommittee meeting and he told us about the challenges he and others are facing in obtaining the necessary information and resources throughout the Flood Recovery process. So im grateful the president was quick to declare a disaster emergency and congress was able to pass our disaster supplemental. However it is very clear to me that we need to do a better job of providing a streamlined set of processes and procedures that can go into effect immediately following a disaster. I have specific questions i hope the usda can help us with. So, undersecretary northey, i know you have long experience with Flood Recovery in iowa and the secretary of agriculture during 2008 and 2011. We worked together when i was part of the Sustainability Task force to address that in 2008. You agree it is important for the 2000 usda to have Competent Communications with those affected by flooding . I do and it is a challenge. They are often busy doing other things. Oftentimes even communication tools are down. Internet or phones or other things, so it is a challenge being able to communicate with folks. We have to be even more aggressive in letting them have easy access to that information. And during your tenure at the usda, what steps have you taken to improve communication to farmers affected by floods . We do extra outreach and training for staff who find themselves in a disaster situation. Often some of those folks have dealt with emergency programs before the help clean up after a flood or debris or rebuild fences. In some cases we have folks who have not been experienced with that. Sometimes we send in jump teams from other areas to bring into those areas. They will have their experience and do outreach work. Be able to go to community organizations. Work with existing outreach, even through churches, but certainly through Extension Agents and cooperatives and other Business Partners out there that can help us reach out to producers. There are many different ways. We are looking to try to do the same thing on the in rcs side and provide maybe more of a permanent jump team that can come in from outside and be able to help when we have a disaster. In that case it is the Emergency WaterProtection Program and infrastructure support program. It is unique, different than other tools, but we need people if experience to help people locally implement those programs. Im so glad you talked about this jump team, because we have talked about the issues with trying to communicate with folks kayaking into their home. We talked about mail being sent to them. That didnt work out. Or folks thinking we didnt need meals, because people didnt request them. Thats because the cattlemen stepped in, the farm bureau, et cetera. Would you be willing to work with my office to streamline that process and communication between usda and folks on the ground . I would be glad to. Looking forward to it. Think the gentlewoman. Her time is expired and we are all sympathetic about the challenges that states have been subject to, the flooding and the Mississippi River and the impacts created there. They have been hard hit, those communities and we appreciate all the good work you are doing. The chair will now recognize the gentleman from kentucky, for five minutes. Thank you mister chairman. Undersecretary northey, it is great to have you back to the committee. Youre doing a tremendous job at usda and i applaud secretary perdue and the team hes put together. So i just wanted to say that. I appreciate your good work and your friendship. I dont need to tell you. It has been mentioned several times today about the flooding conditions and the terrible planning season that we had in western kentucky. I represent four counties on the Mississippi River. Very small counties. One of the counties, hickman county, had over 8000 acres that didnt get planted in anything. I know that was the case in many areas of the United States along the river and because of the terrible planting season, you know, i have no doubt yields are going to suffer. Large amounts of acres want planted. And in the august Crop Production report, i think a lot of farmers were surprised at the report that were projected on the fall harvest. As a result, corn prices and other commodities went down quite a bit overnight. Can you describe what caused the differences in those reports and also how farmers, Grain Elevators and users of commodities can manage the price risk that they face in response to sudden changes in prices . So, it is a big challenge in a year like this, trying to get numbers right. We still dont know what the production levels will be out there. It partly depends on when the frost is and how much time there is for the rest of the season. We know it is uneven. Production across the country. We know we have a lot of planning. Across the country we normally get two or three or 4 million acres that are prevent plant. This year it is 19 million acres that are prevent plant across the country. I think as time has worked out, folks have worked at the acreage numbers. That is one of the concerns folks head. And generally believed that that fairly represents the actual amount of acres out there. There is still a lot of discussion of what the production level should be. I am not in the production prediction business. We are there to respond after that. But Risk Management tools, there are a lot of great ones. Crop insurance is one of the most important tools that folks participate in and then the revenue coverage has been very valuable with producers and high levels of participants. Thank you, my next question and the last question will be about hemp. I know its come up a couple times today. As you know, when i was commissioner of agriculture, we were the first date, kentucky, to implement a hemp program. It has been a huge success story. We have processors all over the state. Most of the new ones are in my district. We are happy about that and it has been a Great Success story. As we move forward, i know senator mcconnell put language in congress to require usda to have hemp chrome Crop Insurance. So i share concerns about what that type of product will look like and i just wanted to mention two things. Ive had several discussions with people at usda, but i want to go on the record with two things that i hope the final product looks like or doesnt look like. Number one, i dont want to product that creates absolutely no risk for the farmers, which would encourage overproduction. I think that is the concern that chairman peterson and Ranking Member conway have, as do i. Secondly, we dont want a product that is ripe for fraud. I always said the best federal Crop Insurance product that would prevent fraud would be one that says you could only ensure what you have a contract to sell, whether that is tobacco or hemp, because the overwhelming majority of farmers are honest. They utilize the Crop Insurance program. We need the program, but there are always a few bad actors here and there. I dont want to see a situation where a farmer has a contract to sell. 30 or 40 acres of hemp, but they plant 100 or 200 acres of hemp. Hemp is a very expensive crop to produce. So i wanted to go on the record and express my concerns. I appreciate the work you all are doing on industrial hemp. I know it is a lot to digest. We went through it and kentucky and you can put a bunch of zeros on it. That is what youre going through now at usda. Anything i can do are my office can do to work with you on the final product, as you know we are more than willing to do that. I do appreciate the work you are doing, but i want to express my concerns. The gentlemans time has expired and your concerns are recognized. Thank you. The chairman now recognizes the gentleman from california who represents a great part of the california Central Coast. Congressman panetta. Thank you mister chairman. And of course, undersecretary northey, thank you for being here. I appreciate not only your time today, your preparation for being here, but also your service. Thank you very much. As you heard i come from the Central Coast of california and as you know we have a lot of agriculture, but unfortunately we have wildfires, as well. You know, last year the california delegation, and i joined with my colleagues in sending a letter, requesting that w. H. I. P. Include assistance for Grape Growers and other producers whose harvests were tainted by wildfire smoke. Ive got to say i was pleased to hear this year, reports that whip is getting off to a pretty good start. I know that a lot of my wine Grape Growers in california who were affected by last years wildfires when the smoke came are actually pleased with how its been going, so thats good to hear. As we continue to roll out whip and offices continue to do that, are you and your agency taking any specific steps to reach out to farmers who have been impacted by the smoke taint, to ensure they are aware of the assistance that they might be eligible for through this program . I believe there is outreach. I dont know what that is. Congressman. We can certainly make sure that is true and i would certainly be glad to work with you to make sure we are working with the organizations. Whether it is the wineries or others that can help us reach out to those producers. We want to make sure, since that is not been covered in the past in a sufficient way at all, that they are aware there is no coverage for that. Thank you, i appreciate that offer and we will take you up on that. All right, another thing that we also have in california. Obviously we have organic crops and specialty crops and a lot of producers in my district face barriers utilizing the usdas Crop Insurance options. Including whole farm revenue protection and the noninsured crop Disaster Assistance program. Given that Crop Insurance and the participation by these farmers is limited to access Disaster Relief, are there any steps being taken by your agency to make sure the Crop Insurance is more accessible to organic and specialty crop producers . Certainly it is available. We see good participation in specialty crops. It is available where there is not a Crop Insurance product for folks. And we see good participation in those specialty crop areas. And whole farm revenue protection is a great option for many of those farms with a diversified mix of crops that are hard to individually account for, but they can account for the revenue across that mix of crops. So we see participation. And we certainly provide outreach to encourage folks to be part of it. We are hearing there are good tools for many producers. Always looking at ways they can be better tools for producers. But a very important mix of our products for those producers not producing common commodities in other places. Understood and i appreciate your recognition of that. In regards to that, have you heard of or are you implementing any continuing education requirements or training for producers to make sure they understand exactly how this works . We do provide outreach to producers and producer organizations. Our staff is available to be at other meetings. To be able to share information, as well, whether it is a grower meeting about something completely different. They can also, our staff will share information. Also of course this is delivered through private Crop Insurance agents. Those agents are often very active in the outreach that is done around those products, as well. They will go into service. They will be the ones that make the connection, at least on whole farm revenue protection. Delivered through the fsa offices and county executive directors or others in that office will participate in those other events, outreach, field days, other events. Thank you, under secretary, ill yield back. The chair will now recognize the gentleman from kansas, the jayhawk state, congressman marshall. Thank you, chairman, and good morning, mr. Under secretary, and thank you so much for being here. I want to talk for high quality alfalfa and the Dairy Margin Coverage Program. Now, if i know anything about farming its alfalfa. I grew up. My main job in the summers from age 14 to 18 was hauling hay, and i always real kind of didnt like forward to those alfalfa days because they were heavy bales, 90 to 100 pounds, and i remember complaining to my grandfather about the weight of those bales and he said, look, we grow hoy quality alfalfa here and those momma cows that are pregnant are going to love this, this high quality protein they are getting. Its like molasses to them, and thats what got the cows through the hard winter days in kansas, and and as i understand it, that were working on this new Dairy Margin Coverage Program, and the price about that type of alfalfa is a little more expensive. How is fsa integrating that into the dnc formula and will that have a more Cost Effective result. Ours was beef quality hay, not dairy quality hay so i certainly note wonderful smell of alfalfa in the summer. We did include. As the farm bill suggested we should look at the price of dairy of high quality hay and compare that to the average hay price that we were using in that dairy margin coverage formula before, so everyone is very familiar. Youve got the milk price, and you subtract the feed costs and the marwin is what were ensuring. If that cost of feed by using dairy hay or high quality hay is a little higher, your margin is a little narrower and you will trigger a payment a little earlier. We did after looking at that and seeing that there is an additional cost. We included in the hay portion of that feed cost 50 high quality hay and 50 all hay price, and so that has narrowed the margin a little bit and allowed i think a more fair representation of what a producer, dairy producer, was actually seeing for their feed costs and certainly i think makes it an even better tool for producers to be part of that Dairy Margin Coverage Program. We have seen times where that premium quality hay will jump in price because of a shortage. That was not being covered before. That is a partial compensation now for those producers, and i think thats an improvement of that of that program. Well, great, appreciate your efforts on that, and i want to talk about just a great job. My fsa officers are doing that back on it. Maybe kansans dont complain as much as other states, but im not getting many complaint, and i want to shout out to my executive director and good friend david shem as well as other fsa officers, as someone who interacts with those officers once a year they have done an incredible job. They have processed 112,000 applications for the Market Facilitation Program and 30,000 application for the fmp payments for 2019. I appreciate the freight work they are do, and one of the things that they started to ask me questions about is updating the i. T. Systems between Risk Management agency and the Farm Service Agency, and the producer data can be shared across agencies. Can you give us an update on how thats coming across, the acreage Crop Reporting streamline initiative and a timeline when you think that might be available to producers. Yeah. We continue to make progress there. Its to be able to allow information of the right now we have producers that are able to certify their acres at Farm Service Agency and have that information automatically transfer into their Crop Insurance agent and vice versa. Its not where it needs to be in the longer term, and we are also looking at improving the overall acreage reporting process, too. Right now much of that is still paper driven at counter, so to be able to put this together in a better electronic form would make it an easier process for our prodoris at the counter but also potentially decrease the number of contacts a producer needs to be able to make because we have the information at fsa, and it can automatically go to a Crop Insurance agent. Were make small steps. In the meantime were trying to get our programs out so we are looking to be able to make some bigger steps in the future. Quickly, the last question has to do with the wildfire Hurricane Indemnity Program. Certainly we understand what it typically covers. One of the concerns of my producers is onfarm stored commodities, and the other thing im hearing a lot about is the pivots, irritation pivots under eight, ten foot of water and theres no coverage for them at a cost of several hundred thousands of dollars. Any thoughts on either of those . Unfarm stored commodities impacted by flooding are being covered not within whip itself but within the Disaster Program. Is so that signup started last week as well, and so our producers are going in and just provide information about what a produce her for that stored commodity, whether its hay or whether its grain that has been lost and will cover 75 of the loss of that. Go ahead. You done. And for irritation pivots, we have some pieces to be able to touch. Typically that has been covered through Casualty Insurance rather than through our Disaster Programs, but we have some pieces of eequip and ecp in most cases and mostly has been covered in regularuality. The gentlemans time has expire and the chair will recognize the gentleman from south dakota, congressman johnson. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I feel like i would be remiss if i didnt start with a thank you. Weve had a wet yet. Thats come out time and time again as weve been talking about disaster response, but, bill, you were so good about having conversations with us earlier in the spring about moving that haying and grazing date for crops. Usd a did it. I can tell it took some work on your behalf to get it done. Thank you. Theres a lot of us a lot better off because of the flexibility that usd a showed, the leadership that you showed so thank you. I want to talk about crp signup, the last general signup for crp was in the final days of the Obama Administration, and from a south dakota perspective we only had a couple selected even though there were thousands of applicants, and i think that was because ebi pushed acres away from traditional areas. I wanted to get your thoughts on that about ebi, if any amendments or flugsz that have are needed fanned theres any particular peeves advice i should give my producers in south dakota as they look towards the next erp signup. Right now were scheduled for december for the next crp signup. I think one of the additional challenges crp had in the last signup is there are few acres that were able to be accepted. The cap was was very tight to the number of acres that were available. Well likely see a lot more acres available this time around. We have expiring achers this year and then for signup in december, since that starts in october of 2020, well have expiring acres in september 30 of 2020 as well, and so thats a large number of acres that expire at that time, so i think well see a lot larger signup than weve seen for many years. That will provide certainly more room for many producers. I assume there will be a lot of interest as well. The environmental index will be available to everybody. Were looking at making some adjustments. The next one will look just like this last one, so if theres concerns certainly be glad to be able to hear that. I dont know some of the specifics on whether it targeted other areas, so so certainly glad to be able to talk through that if theres some additional concerns and what that ebi will look like, but that environmental benefits index will be available publicly so each producer will be able to look at it and decide whether they want to plant a warm season grass instead of a cool season grass or a native. When you talk about ebi being, you know, the same, will it be the exact same mechanism, lore it be fundamentally. It will be fundamentally the same. Being a. Now as we look at because its just ban record wet year and good grief, we had some counties in south dakota that got another eight or ten inches last week. These folks just cant boy a break. Some of them have been into a number of years at prevent plant already. They know they need another option for that continuously wet ground. Crp, is that much of an option for them . Is there any kind of a preference that is given to prevent plant type acres for enrollment into crp . Theres not a preference per se in looking back and seeing what was prevent planted the previous years, but its certainly likely that those areas would qualify, especially for Wetland Program acres, and we have that through a flood plains wetland Emergency Watershed program thats out there. We have Wetland Reserve Program as well and so sometimes connected directly to that general enrollment and often connected in other ways, so i would encourage folks to go back to their fsa and their nfc office and have those conversations if they have an area that they have lost for too much water for several years and are thinking about that area as costing them too much to farm. There are some programs that will make good use out of that and good public areas areas for Public Benefit out of that, that they can retain ownership and be able to have some Program Participation in that. Well, mr. Chairman, i would just close by noting how good it feels to have someone in this position who really understands what its like to work hard outdoors, what its like to have dirty hands, what its like to sit down and try to figure out how do you run an operation with the kinds of really tight margins that modern production agriculture has. Youre doing a good job, sir, in large part because get it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank the gentleman from south dakota. Theres a number of us who still actively farm, so i appreciate that. The last witness, and we will close the hearing following his five minutes is the gentleman from california who represents a nice part of northern california. Congress. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and having the hearing today to be able to look over these matters and under secretary northey, appreciate the good work youre doing over there and ill get through this as i think im just about last. Just quickly, we grow a lot of almonds in california or almonds. We say almonds, i have to clarify for those from the old almond joke. Yeah. I wont tell the joke, but we still have an indistributed fund in the markup Facilitation Program from last fall. There were 63 million that were set aside by usd a for almond producers. 25 million of it has been distributed leaving it at about 38 that hasnt been issued for various reasons and some of it having to do with a particular level of Record Keeping and farm records that hadnt really been kept, and my understanding is that you already have in place for 2019 a remedy for that, so we do appreciate that. The growers appreciate that. Is there a way to recap tower for the 201 crop the still undisbursed 38 million and catch up on some of those needs that were still for our numbers, our projections of what our spending would be for 2018, theres certainly reasons where the payment limits and agi or other kinds of reasons. Folks did not participate in that program. We have we have some that participated at greater levels than what the dollars were at last, what we waited for is for folks to come in and ply and we certainly had the dollars available to do that. Its not a setaside of a certain amount of dollars for a certain crop, and so, you know, i just encourage folks to come in an participate on this Years Program based on acres. Its certainly easier for some producer than a productionbased program was for them and certainly we look forward to having those folks all participate in this Years Program. Can we apply the acres test to the 2018 for those that didnt have the farm records on that basis so we can, you know, again, capture some of that that was left behind for those losses . We dont have any mechanism to go back and look at that, including signup has closed on that, and were not looking back at at change, and i know it it was it was a challenge to implement that program for lots of producers as well as for us to be able to get that the done. Yell. You would still encourage them to get that in and apply and maybe those records could be built and something found satisfactory. The signup for 2018 has closed, but for 2019 its now open and until december 6th. Okay. December 6th. Oh, okay, thank you. And then in the area of the plc, Price Loss Coverage as it applies to rice and or others that are applicable, and rice particularly, the crop year being what it is, producers may not receive a payment until november or december, even though the marketing year end in the summer in july typically. Whats being done to help with the timely issuance of payments to those producers, especially since the cash flow can be an issue for some . Some, i dont know when the marketing year ends and when the information is available, so typically for us to be able to make a aron arc or plc payment we need last years production and the marketing years average prices. So and we can check on rice and be glad to be able to work through that and get that information to you, but im assuming the timing is as early as it can be, considering when were able to get that information on production and price. If it can be earlier, and we can legally do it. We would sure love to be able to do it. I assume thats why its that way but i dont know in particular. Typically the harvest will land in early to midfall and it wouldnt be too long after that that youd have certified production amounts, and so it it would seem that, you know, that taken in context with the marketing that have crop the following year, you know, were just looking for ways to speed up that timeline for the plc to be able because, again, cash flow is a problem with with all that. Its basically a year behind. Okay. Is that something you think can be well certainly look at it. The price that we would look at for plc and arc is the marketing is the marketing year following that production, so often, just like the corn and soybean payments well make for arc and plc in october will be based on the prices from last harvest until this summer, late this summer, this fall. Is that to be the entire crop had that done or more on an individual farmer basis . Its the entire crop, the average for the crop, not for the producer. All right. The but ill still have to mr. Congressman, ill have to check on rice. Im less familiar with the mechanics of rice, and if these something we can do in a more timely way. Very happy to have that and ill yield back. The gentlemans time has expired. If you can please get back in the only on the other commodities to the gentleman but to the committee as well, i think that would be appreciated. Id be very glad to. All right. I think weve come to a close, but before we ajewish i would invite Ranking Member thompson to make any closing remarks. Thank you thank you for this hearing. Theres two subcommittees that came together very timely. Secretary northey, thank you. We work really hard on this committee to make sure that were doing the right things by American Farm families, and i think thats evidenced by the programs that we put forward and authorize within the farm bill and so i just take great confidence to have somebody with your background and experience and quite frankly your competency executing those programs, and so thank you for for what youve done and i yield back. We thank the Ranking Member of the subcommittee and i know i speak for the congressman. We do appreciate the efforts to bring both subcommittees together for this important hearing today, and our staff who worked hard to put this together as well for both subcommittees. I will not recommend my subcommittee member for any closing comments he would like. Thank you, mr. Chairman and i, do, appreciate you for being here and appreciate you and the work that many of the employees across the usd a do, and certainly appreciate your attention to the detail of implementation of our Disaster Assistance programs. Thats just so critically important uncertain very fragile time, very precarious time for many in production al culture, particularly those that have been forced to endure multiple Natural Disasters, for example, in my district we had Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and then followed up by Hurricane Florence in 2018 and then low commodity prize on top of that for an extended period of time as well, so it has been probably one of the most challenging times in agriculture, you know, throughout, you know, the country in general, but specifically for these areas that have been hit so hard by our Natural Disasters, so i really appreciate your time and attention and follow through on that and look forward to continuing to work with you to address those needs. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. Thank you. All right. The gentleman yields back, and under secretary northey, we appreciate the time you spent this morning with both subcommittees and the testimony that was given and the questions that you answered. Clearly if theres any followup both subcommittees will reach out to you and the department. We thank secretary purdue. As was noted by almost every member i believe it is tough times in farm country, and regionally you look across the country, and from a combination of Natural Disasters that have taken place almost in every region of the country to Commodity Prices that have been impacted by a lot of factors, including this trade war that has taken place, American Farmers, ranchers, dairy men and women are trying to struggle to survive and clearly, as i say, everywhere i go, food is a National Security item. A lot of nokes take it for granted. Nobody does it better than the American Farmer every day putting food on americas dinner table at the most highest quality and at the most Cost Effective price anywhere in the world, and we do it so well that we can produce more than we can consume, and, therefore, the trade issues are critical, but the fact of the matter is that we must remind ourselves that with less than 5 of the nations population directly engaged in the production of food and fiber, that this is a critical issue for all americans and we must do everything we can to provide stable markets to ensure that all of the american agriculture can make it through these difficult times because as we know, nobody does it better than the American Farmer, so i will close this hearing. The record for todays hearing will remain open for ten calendar days to receive any additional material and supplemental written responses from witnesses to any question posed by a member, and at this point this joint hearing is now ajurp adjourned. Thanks to members of both subcommittees. Cspan is back in des moines, iowa this saturday for Live Campaign 2020 coverage of the polk county democrats annual straik fry beginning at 2 00 p. M. Eastern where 17 candidates will take the stage for speeches. Watch that live on cspan, cspan. Org or listen on the go using the free cspan radio app. Campaign 2020. Watch our live coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. Cspans campaign 2020. Your unfiltered view of politics. Saturday on booktv at 11 00 p. M. Eastern, in the new bok the education of breath cavtation New York Times reporters explore Justice Brett kavanaughs recent confirmation process. And at the time of the kavanaugh confirmation hearings the me, too, movement had been under way for a while and i think there was a backlash brewing that it was going too far and this notion of believe all women was oversimplified and overlooking the investigation part of it that i was talking about earlier, and then you do have a president who does advocate taking tough stances and has talked about allegations ever Sexual Misconduct as something where you need to deny, deny, deny. I think it was important for us to put ourselves in kavanaughs shoes and imagine that someone is being falsely accused and real kind of go there and explore that. Then on sunday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, live coverage of the 2019 brooklyn book festival featuring a discussion on the Trump Administration with Pulitzer Prize winning author and historian Annette Gordon reed and historian brenda wineapple, race and the 2020 election with author and journalist mate taib biand a look at historical resistance with author and activist mckessen, and then at 8 00 eastern in his latest book power grab former Republican Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz says liberals are trying to undermine the trump presidency. Theres a kind of recurring theme in here that they really do believe on the radical far left side, they throw out these labels of fascist and all these negative terms on donald trump, but what i see them doing is exactly what they claim the president was doing, that in order to protect our freedom, they need to take it away. In order to make sure the First Amendment is place, they need to take away our rights under the First Amendment. I mean, its just a recurring theme. And at 9 00 on after words journalist Michelle Malkin offers her thoughts on u. S. Immigration policy on her book open books incorporated. Shes interviewed by texas congressman tim roy. Tim cook and jeff bezos have donated to these organizations that are crusading for illegal alien rights. You wonder how they have instant representation in court to sue over last Trump Initiative to enforce the law and big business and the chisox are a huge reason for that. Watch booktv every weekend on seepzan 2. This weekend on American History tv, saturday at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on the civil war, the coauthor of targeted tracks talks about the importance of the Cumberland Valley railroad during the civil war, and at 8 00 on lex tour in history, a discussion on playwright August Wilson. So the things that are motivating August Wilson are his desire to move black people from the margins to the center and say whats true about us . What matters to us . Whats happening in our lives . And sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on reel america, the 1919 silent army film motor convoy about a transcontinental trek from washington, d. C. To san francisco. And at 8 00, on the presidency, Herbert Hoover and his world war i work. Her boort hoover built the crb into a remarkable organization it had its own flag. It had its own fleet and negotiated what i call treaties with some war on european powers. Its leader hoover enjoyed informal diplomatic immunity and traveled freely through enemy lines, probably the only american citizen to do so during the entire war. Explore our nations past on American Historytv every weekend on cspan3. Up next, the u. S. China and Economic Security review commission examines the current relations between the United States and china. This portion of the event includes a panel consistenting of security and defense experts to discuss the u. S. china security relationship h. The commission was created by congress in 2000 to examine a report on the National Security implications of the u. S. China economic relationship. This is just over 90 minutes. Thank you. Well catch up some time here. Were not too far behind. I would like to introduce our second panel which will explore major developments in u. S. china security relations in 2019. Well start with dr. Skyler