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Captioning performed by vitac families in Rural Communities are also concerned about access to health care. Especially with the Mental Health and Opioid Crisis taking a devastating toll on small towns. We address this head on through expanded telemedicine to provide critical treatment for those who suffer from addiction and mental illness. To ensure that every family has safe Drinking Water, we prioritized rural Water Infrastructure investments for small towns. Rural communities need strong locally owned businesses and good highpaying jobs. Rural Small Business investments are critical to creating jobs, promoting entrepreneurship and revitalizing main street. In michigan where we make things and grow things, agriculture and manufacturing are both at the heart of the economy. Thats why we created opportunities to support bio based manufacturing. Companies are creating new products from americangrown crops. We also provided permanent funding for value added agriculture grants to help farmers grow their own business. Investing in Renewable Energy leads to job creation and helps us address the Climate Crisis. Through installing Renewable Energy systems and making efficiency upgrades. From hog producers to organic fruit growers, these bills have helped a number of farmers. Weve also seen wineries, breweries, restaurants across our state and the country install solar rays to power their rural Small Businesses. We need this administration to step up to strengthen our Rural Economy. Over the past three years, its been disheartening to see the Trump Administration continue to target Rural America and the farm bill with cuts. We need to be investing more in Rural Communities, not less. Eliminating Rural Infrastructure and Small Business investments moves us in the wrong direction. On the issue of renewable fuels, this administration continues to let down American Farmers and bio fuel producers by caving to demands of the oil industry. Weve seen some discussion of changing that but i have yet to see this really happening. Im disappointed that the committee has not received a nominee for an under secretary of Rural Development. We reestablished this position to be a staunch advocate for Rural America within the administration. We appreciate all of you and your focus but we agreed on a bipartisan basis that we needed a focus leader to address all of the concerns facing small towns and Rural Communities. Its great to see our administers here today. I look forward to hearing your perspectives. We appreciate your work. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Today i am pleased to welcome the three administers that oversee the vital agencies within the usda office of Rural Development. Betty brand joined the usda 35 years with farm credit of the virginias where she served as chief advocate for the agriculture industry. Next we have mr. Bruce lamers. Hes had more than 35 years of experience leading partnerships including serving as a former ceo for a bank that was a National Leader in government, guaranteed lending, thank you for joining us today. Lastly we have mr. Chad rupe whos the administer of the Rural Utility Service. Prior to coming to washington, mr. Rupe served as the state director of wyoming from 2017 to 2019. Before joining the department, mr. Rupe spent 13 years in the industry notably he began his service to our country in the United States army. So thank you for your service, mr. Rupe. In the interest of time, we have asked the department to provide one Opening Statement on behalf of all three administers with each available to answer questions from members on the committee. Perhaps i think it would be very advisable if i would now recognize the senator from kentucky, leader, do you plan to introduce your kentucky witness on panel two at this point . I appreciate that opportunity, if i may. The senator is recognized. I would go right ahead and do it. Instead of speaking on him, im here today to introduce a constituent of mine. As we continue reviewing the farm bill im proud to introduce a kentuckian and his work to move a ball forward on the development goals. Micha Michael Stanley is here today. With the a focus on vulnerable, grace health is an indispensable resource tackling the Health Challenges in Rural Communities. Access to health care is an important part of the farm bills Rural Development title. Healthy communities are better able to attract investment and support the farm economy. Too many of my constituents from this beautiful region suffer from Health Challenges which are compound bid a severe physician shortage and all too frequently Substance Abuse. Mike has been working to help kentuckians to overcome these challenges by leading Health Care Programs in the eastern part of our state. Hes improving access to services and driverielivering services. When mike joined grace health, there were only a couple of dozen employees and two clinics with a Small Service area. Today they have nearly 300 personnel, seven clinic sites across six counties. They placed an emphasis of bringing medical professionals into previously underserved areas. Grace health operates almost 40 schoolbased health clinics. Theyre opening new doors to treatment and longterm recovery. So today, mike will shed light on grace healths telehealth programs which represent a much needed into Eastern Kentucky in the future through families like the usda Distance Learning and telemedicine grants. They can continue providing highlevel care to patients. These federal grants give grace health the opportunity to solidify partnerships with other Health Care Providers and development organizations. Mikes experience will be a helpful guide as we eventually the federal governments policy designed to tap into potential that we have in Rural America. So i look forward to his recommendations to the committee on how we can continue to support his work and encourage healthy outcomes in Rural Communities. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for allowing me to step in and say these give these remarks on behalf of my constituent. Thank you very much. Its our privilege, leader and thank you so much for coming and making that excellent statement. It occurs to me that unless i recognize the distinguished president of the senate who is also the chairman of the Senate Finance committee he always, this first time i would say to the senator from michigan that he hasnt come in first and asked to go first because of his duties elsewhere. And im a little alarmed as to whether or not we should recognize him now or not. Senator grassley do you have anything to say because of your important duties elsewhere. Ive taken care of it by going to an important constituent of mine and told him im going to the Senate Judiciary committee and then im going to come here and hopefully hell still be on the program and i can ask him some questions. But im glad that the senator from kansas has decided to get the expertise that we have in the state of iowa and invite mr. Severs in. Thank you for doing that. Is it a surprise i didnt yell at you . Yeah. Are you going to depart immediately, or are we going to have you here for five minutes and come back . Im going to stay for five minutes. But ive before here 15 minutes. I understand that. Okay. You were right on time. We appreciate that. As a matter of fact i noted the fact that i couldnt see betty brand because you were leaning forward, but thats okay. You might want to be like coop who just left here and just lean back so there we go. Thank you. Lets get reorganized if we can here. Mr. Rupe i think im going to call you first and i understand you have a prepared statement. Thank you again, sir, for coming. Good morning. My name is chad rupe and i am the administer for usda Rural Developments Rural Utility Service. Im accompanied by my colleagues, administer betty brand, and administer bruce lamers. The three of us administer unique programs and resources that help bring prosperity and opportunity to rural areas. We are honored to be here with you this morning to share Rural Developments efforts regarding implementation of the 2018 farm bill. Rural developments mission is to increase Economic Opportunity and improve the quality of life for Rural Americans. Together, we manage a long portfolio of more than 225 billion and our investments support rural residents looking for Affordable Housing, communities facilities and Rural Businesses, cooperatives and Agricultural Producers looking to expand into new markets. Were also a vital resource of financing for rural broad band and electric infrastructure. As you know, Rural Communities have unique challenges due to their location and lack of access to modern technologies like broad band infrastructure. However, while these challenges do exist, Rural America also has unique resources that when paired with their grit and determination provide opportunities for prosperity. Our goal as usda Rural Development is to partner with our nations Rural Communities through the programs and resources that congress has made available in order to connect them to a world of opportunity and ultimately prosperity. The 2018 farm bill reauthorizes many Rural Development programs that are vital to helping Rural Communities build stronger economies, create jobs and improve their overall quality of life. We have been working effectively and efficiently to implement the 2018 farm bill and have successful started to implement provisions such as the new loan grant option within the rural broad band program, expanding access to credit by increasing the population limits for Community Facilities and water and Waste Disposal programs and establishing the markets program. As the administers overseeing these programs, we will continue to work with members of the committee to address the unique needs of Rural America. We thank you for inviting us before the committee to share the important work we do. We appreciate your continued interest and support of Rural Development programs because we believe when Rural America thrives, all of america thrives. At this time we will answer your questions. Senator ernst. Mr. Lammers, this week i finished my annual 99 county tour across iowa and one of the biggest concerns i heard this year was the lack of affordable Rural Housing and it comes up over and over again. As you point out in your testimony, the 2018 farm bill included several provisions that expand eligibility for Rural Housing service programs. What steps can we take to build on these provisions and as we work to allow communities to have more opportunities for financing in the coming months and years . Thank you for your question. You happen to be a neighbor of mine having come from wisconsin. And so i appreciate your question. During the last year we served families with Single Family Housing Loans as well as multifamily Housing Loans and i believe our allocation of direct loans under the 502 program was a billion dollars and we fully utilized that during the year and very proud that we were able to accomplish that. Our guaranteed loan program is really based upon the demands of customers that approach banks and i think its a Marketing Program that the banks view as a positive product for them, so we provide housing through those two programs as well as the multifamily program and farm labor housing. And the usage, fully used, so that would indicate a necessity to continue those programs on into the future as well, then . I am pleased that we were able to fully utilize it. The 502 program provided 6,185 home loans to families last year. And thats a billion dollar program. Okay. Very good. And i appreciate that. It is an area we need to continue to work on. Ms. Brand, i would like to visit with you about the bio refinery program. It has been a really a vital source of job creation in Rural Communities since its creation. However under the 2014 farnl bill, there was a problem with the bill requiring refiners to produce an advanced bio fuel which limited that programs effectiveness. So the 2018 farm bill fixed it by fixed that problem by ensuring eligibility for these technologies and creating can you give us an update on the agencys work in this area and the implementation of how it will get to that fix . Yes. Thank you very much for that question, senator. The bio refinery renewable chemical and bio based manufacturing assistance based Program Includes the chemical, the balance of a facility could produce both or one or the other and that has been implemented through will be it has been implemented and any applications that are on hand right now will be able to apply, but any of those products and it will be codified by the spring of 2020. Thank you for working on that as well. It is really important to my home state, obviously. With that, ill yield back my time, chairman. We go republican, democrat, thats how we i was going to yield to the chairman. But thank you very much. Thank you to all of you first to mr. Rupe on rural water, the farm bill prioritized funding for communities that are dealing with water safety issues. I think none of us wanted to have to learn what pfos chemicals were and now its very serious and were identitying health hazards. So we identified this, made it a priority. However the administration has proposed budgets cuts of more than 50 to these programs despite a large backlog of projects. The but we did prioritize it in the farm bill. What is the status of this farm bill requirement and what kind of outreach are you doing to ensure Rural Communities know that the farm bill provides tools and resources to address contaminated Drinking Water . Senator, thank you for the question. First of all, i would like to reaffirm that last year we served over 2 million Rural Americans with clean Drinking Water and i think thats an important note. We processed 1. 7 billion worth of loan and grant requests to service Rural Americans. Now specific to outreach and communication, with the 2018 farm bill, we had an Interagency Task force on rural Water Quality that was established as a result of that. And earlier this year we met with Public Officials, stakeholders and our federal partners to begin reviewing what is needed to be able to support that issue. We plan to issue a report by december on our progress related to that issue. Having said that, within our program, we specifically do address eminent issues and immediate dangers for communities through our program, but those types of programs immediately address needs for emergency situations where people have issues that are directly related to health and safety risks. Of the money that we obligated last fiscal year, we addressed 374 health risks out of the 500 projects that we did throughout the United States. I believe that we are actively engaging in outreach to our communities. I would encourage you to continue to do that in michigan. I think we may be ahead just because they did more aggressive identification than other places. But its very alarming what were seeing. Yes, maam,. And i was very happy to have visited michigan last month and speak with a gentleman who was critical in helping to address that. Weve engaged with stakeholders in michigan to help work on that aspect of it. Great. Ms. Brand, i wanted to talk about reep which as you know, one of the essentially tools for improving Energy Efficiency and combatting the Climate Crisis has been very popular in michigan which is why we gave it permanent, mandatory funding in 2014. Ive been hearing concerns that usda isnt promoting the program as it once was. What have are you doing to ensure farmers, ranchers, rural Small Businesses are aware of the program and the opportunities to apply for grants and loans. Thank you for that question. We have a very much a Team Approach to outreach on the reap program welas well as our other programs. We participate in national meetings. In fact there was just a federal partners that we partnered with and provide outreach with but also stakeholders in National Trade Group Meetings as well the state offices work with their individuals in their localities to talk about the programs and help both farmer producers and Small Businesses understand the benefits. As well, i have been out in the state and anywhere from a small 12,000 reap announcement to a Small Business in michigan to also in virginia an announcement where there was a hospital that benefitted from solar panels which reduced their efficiency. Well continue to do more to make sure that people understand the benefits of that program. Thank you. Finally mr. Rupe if you could answer on rural broad band whichever Single Person in this committee could tell you stories of the challenges because we dont have rural broad band and we did make it a huge priority in the Rural Development title of the farm bill. Will the administration advocate for a full funding, the 350 million for the farm bill, broad band program as we go forward . Thank you for the question. We share your concern for broad band access. It was central to the Task Force Report that was submitted to the president. So it is central and we recognize that issue. Having said that, i think its important to recognize the full effort that we have engaged in that light and we have addressed it through the american Broad Band Initiative and through that american Broad Band Initiative we are working with our federal partners to address all of the issues to help modernize delivery, streamline our approach and leverage the federal dollars that we spend. What federal dollars, though. The issue has been theres not been enough of a priority in terms of federal dollars which is why we came together and did what we did. I appreciate efficiency with what you have, if were going to grow the economy and quality of life in Rural America, this is central. Were going to need the administration weighing in very strongly to make sure this is a priority in the budget. Yes. Were working very hard to fully deploy the reconnect funding that was appropriated and were in the middle of offering awards out to many applicants throughout the United States. We received 1. 4 billion worth of applications on the first 600 million that we received. Early next year, we plan to offer an additional 550 million. We anticipate having high interest in those programs as well. In addition to that, we are very happy to provide Technical Assistance if requested to help address some of the issues associated with funding and how we best approach that on an overall basis. We are engaged in marketing our programs to ensure that we effectively deploy them. We work very effectively in a very friendly way with our partners at both the fcc and ntia to make sure we understand where funding is needed to where we can help Leverage Private investments as well as federal dollars and state dollars to help address this issue. We believe that by partnering with not only the private stakeholders as well as the nontraditional folks that would not be in the broad band business, that are expanding into that area. We think those are very effective ways to leverage that partnership. Its not just a federal government solution, but its truly a Community Solution thats driven from the local level with shared partnerships and stakeholders at every level. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Rupe, you can take this on and any member of the panel that wishes to add anything that they think is pertinent, please feel free. Last week the department notified the committee of upcoming plans to close 11 Rural Development offices across the country. On behalf of the entire mission, can you provide any update on this issue, discuss what if any impact this will have on constituent services in each state affected by a closure. Are there any vacant offices in the country that have not yet been closed . Thank you for the question. The proposed Office Closures i can say will not affect negatively Customer Service for our programs. The states where Office Closures are occurring will continue to have multiple field offices and our employees in those offices are able to identify a wide range of community and Economic Development resources for local leaders, business owners, families, farmers and ranchers, schools, nonprofits, cooperatives and tribes. There are other vacant offices that have not been closed and the following will apply, no employees are losing their jobs and relocations are offered if needed for an employee. And were evaluating the optimal location of staff and resources to serve the customer and deliver programs to Rural Communities. And i can affirmativety state as a former career employee, as a former Community Banker where we did not have a Rural Development office in our community and as a former state director, Customer Service is not simply a matter of having an employee in a certain office, but more of having a strong employee with strong Customer Service skills in the optimal location. Help me understand this. Its probably counter intuitive. The two offices that are being closed in kansas is a thriving hub in southwest kansas, but garden city is an area thats really experiencing a growth period which is good news, of course. The other city being manhattan, kansas, home of the optimistic and fighting wildcats and were seeing a lot of growth there too, especially with the bri there and the national bio agriculture facility that is under construction. But youre closing an office there. And then perhaps providing your service to other areas or you mentioned field offices. But people are asking me why close in garden city, why close in manhattan, because that is probably the central focus of agriculture in our state. Senator, im happy to address that. I think that in any community when you want to see Economic Development and growth, thats the whole point of what we do. Having said that, i can address it from my perspective, from my hometown in wyoming where we have a Strong Economy currently and we still do not have a Rural Development office. There are plenty of services that are offered to the community where i come from just as they would be in manhattan or any other rural community. Having said that, the last time that Rural Development had any major change was over 25 years ago and if we all think back 25 years ago how much the economy has changed and how much corporations have evolved, for us not to evolve with that, just doesnt make sense. We talk about broad band and access and the changes to the economy by having modern technology. Our organization should take advantage of modern technology as well to deliver those services and again i believe it comes back to having the right relationships and the right people in the optimal locations. Its not having an Office Location in any Single Community but more of having the right people in the optimal location who have great relationships with the local leaders and are willing to engage at the local level. And i dont believe you necessarily have to have your office in that certain spot to address every need because we have a tremendous need throughout the United States and we cannot possibly have a location every Single Community that needs it. We have to deliver our programs efficiently and effectively and engage it to where everybody can take advantage of the development, not just certain communities. I appreciate that answer. Please keep us posted if we can be of help to you. If you think that maybe some of these decisions could be revisited or or provide the best service where it is violentneed. How is the service coordinating with the fcc on rural broad band issues. What is the most significant issue this will have on broad band access . I think its important to recognize that we have a strong working relationship with the fcc. The secretary of agriculture as well as the fcc chairman have a great relationship and that permeates down to the staff level. We meet with the fcc on a regular basis. I think its also important to recognize there are significant differences in the delivery of our programs whereas the fcc provides operational cost reimbursement in high cost areas. We provide the Capital Construction cost to be able to build those services if into a community. So we have Different Missions and different funding methodologies to achieve that. Common to both of us is the fact that we have to have good mapping to be able to determine where service is and where it is not. I think the fcc has done a superb job this summer of working to try to improve their methodology for collecting data. Were working with not just the fcc but with private stakeholders and governments to properly understand what is currently out there, what we found when we put boots on the ground is oftentimes theres no Single Source that has the absolute correct data to be able to recognize who currently has service on a 24 7 Daily Availability at the fcc standard. Were working diligently and meeting regularly to where we can deploy the federal dollars. So we can leverage and make the right impact in the right locations. Thank you for our answer. And please keep us posted. I know that were interested in this issue. Senator smith . Thank you, chair roberts and also Ranking Member and in addition to thanking you for being here today, thank you for the topic of this hearing. Since ive been senator, ive traveled all over my state to small towns and rural areas and when we go to these parts of our states, we show up sometimes with this attitude, tell me all about your problems and instead of showing up and saying what can we learn, what are you doing that is working that we can support here in washington and with that spirit in mind as i visit the community in my state, ive been so inspired by the creative evident and the innovation i see. Certainly there are challenges. Challenges that we can all work on here together. But also so many things that are going right. And it was with this spirit that i asked senator mike rounds to join me in a Rural Economy working group that is really focused on lifting up whats working and figuring out what we can do to support it more. I wanted to mention that to my colleagues here today because i welcome all of you participating in that conversation as a way of moving forward the good news and what we can do to support it more. With that spirit in mind im grateful to have a chance to talk with you. And i want to start with the issue that senator ernst started on which is the issue of Rural Housing. We know what a big challenge this is in rural areas. It becomes an economic restraint when they dont have the housing they need for the workers who are wanting to live in that community. It is particularly a challenge in minnesota for Affordable Housing in rural areas and this is a i want to hone in on the federally assisting excuse me, the federally assisted Housing Units that we know are not in great shape. Many of this problem is a significantly big problem in rural areas. I introduced a bipartisan amendment to the agricultural appropriations bill that the senate recently passed that would require the usda to prioritize maintenance needs in Rural Housing units and would also ask the usda to strengthen enforcement against Property Owners who are failing to make the repairs that are necessary to those Housing Units. Could you i know you understand the importance of preserving these rental housing properties. Could you tell us about how this would be a focus Going Forward . Jts. Thank you for your question. I too have by traveling and seeing the people that we work with and the people we help out in the communities have learned a lot about the Mission Rather than what happens here in washington and its inspiring to me to be able to be part of the mission that serves the Rural Communities especially. We have some great people throughout the country and here in our offices in d. C. That are inspired to help and last year we provided funding to preserve 216 Housing Communities and i think it was for 7,678 families that were able to continue living in what i would call preserved housing. Were working on a restructure of the way we deliver services through multifamily and our goal is to have more of a focus on pathways that deal with managing of risk and assessing how often we should inspect and how often we should enforce different Property Owners. So if a property is performing well financially and management is on site and is keeping the property up to date, we would probably look for less inspection if we havent had problems with it in the past. Its a riskbased approach that we plan to implement. Right now were reviewing the portfolio to look to see what percentage of our properties are in more need versus less need. But its a process thats under way. Its my understanding that its difficult to manage this enforcement because the Rural Housing service doesnt currently keep track of the total number of inspection violations by property. Is that correct . And why does why wouldnt the usda require this information to be included on the inspection reports . Thank you. Ive been part of a i visited a property in rural colorado that had just received an inspection and it was a couple that has owned a property for many years and they were quite welcome to what we had what our inspectors had suggested. So we do keep track. I think we need to do a better job in the realignment that were working on will allow us to do that and to concentrate our resources where theyre most needed. I look forward to continuing to work with ou you on that. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Rupe you mentioned in your testimony about the broad band reconnect Pilot Program applications, theyre now being awarded. I have several companies in nebraska who have applied for that new Pilot Program over the summer. Can you give us some kind of status update on that new Pilot Program and describe how the processing of those applications and the Award Decisions have been progressing so far . Yes, thank you for the question. Were very proud of the recorrect and thank you for your support of that program. We believe its vital to address the broad band issues that we see. First of all, i share the belief with the secretary that investments made are going to be critical to providing health care, education, banking and Job Opportunities and open vital markets for our farmers and ranchers. This is a Pilot Program and therefore theres we dont know all the right answers right out of the gate. We took our time. We wanted to make sure that we delivered in a modern and efficient way so we opened that program for applications earlier this year and we received 146 applications from 41 states from throughout the u. S. For the total of 1. 4 billion on the 600 million in appropriations from the first round of funding. We worked very hard to make sure we had a modern Delivery System in there. If you go to our website, you can see the current status as reflected in any application and be able to pull up a map and it will show where service is proposed in any one area. We gave current providers the opportunities to be able to challenge any service area that was proposed for service so when we put boots on the ground and verified whether or not that area has service, we knew we were speaking to the right people in the right location to make the right decision. Having said that, we have started the award announcements for those and we plan to have that fully completed by december for the first round of funding. We have publicly announced some of them. We have many offers on the table for 27 projects so far for a total of 289 million of those funds in those states. Were engaging in making our decisions and finding the right opportunities and the right locations and it changes on a daily basis and were working extremely hard to make that happen. Thank you. You know how important it is to be able to have broad band across this country. I like to say its the number one priority for infrastructure in the future if were going to keep our rural areas vibrant, to make sure that Governmental Services are available to keep people young people there because of the opportunities theyll have with education to keep holder people there as they age and need to have possibly more medical care to make sure thats available as well. Theres a lot of really cool things happening when it comes to the internet of things and that connectivity thats out there and to be able to make these advancements, its extremely important that we keep all citizens in this country connect today the future and whats available in the future. Administer brand, in the 2018 farm bill, we added some implementation requirements to the bio fuel markets program. The usda is required to establish an expedited approval process for products to be determined eligible for the program and to receive bio based product label. Can you provide an update on where those efforts in the agencies are right now . Yes, thank you very much for that question. We are very happy to have the bio based markets Program Within Rural Development. It is a natural fit with many of our stakeholders, we have already fully incorporated them within our programs and stakeholders. Weve gone to meetings, the National Office team has accompanied them on meetings and so the program itself is up and running fully functional within Rural Development within Rural Business cooperative service. Likewise the regulations were in the process of writing those and finishing up those rules and well have them available early in 2020. Thank you so much. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator casey. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank the panel. Im sorry i was here a little late for your testimony. I want to start with the topic youve heard so much about, broad band and i guess emphasize a couple of things that are coming in sharper focus now than maybe even before. A number of years ago after hearing a number of individuals in our state Public Officials and others asking about what were going to do about rural broad band, in talking about the Economic Development impact, the business impact, the broader economic impact, one county commissioner made it clear to me, he said, senator, kids cant learn without broad band, that our schools, it was not happening in our schools. Over and over again i keep coming back to that. Whether youre thinking about this in terms of Economic Growth or job creation or in the connectivity that has to proceed that or whether youre thinking about it in very basic terms when it comes to children learning in school or not being able to learn, this is a huge challenge and i know that usda has been working on this. I know that weve had a number of efforts made by both parties, both houses and now two administrations to begin to tackle this problem. But unfortunately with all the initiatives, all the programs, were way behind. In my judgment when it comes to rural broad band, were failing. Were not getting the job done and we cannot allow that to persist. We know that when it comes to both Small Businesses and farmers and sometimes theyre one and the same, without access, their Profit Margins are being adversely affected. They report on missing out on technology to increase their business, they may have to drive hours to deliver Financial Information to their accou accountants. Its not just the small farmer cant access information about usda, but cant get information about social security, medicare, cant get education about filing their taxes, cant get information about applying for jobs online. Theres a whole range of problems. I know that usda is working with other agencies on this and i appreciate the work youre doing. Theres others who come to us and say we want to make sure we can maintain our tax exempt status while receiving broad band funding. I know another panel will be concerned about ensuring that electric cooperatives are able to utilize these programs focused on broad band and not be disadvantaged. So i guess the first question is by way of reiteration. I know youre repeating yourself because of this question. But give me the i guess an update on the rural broad band, the reconnect program. Thank you for the question. And i think its also important to recognize that within our electric Infrastructure Loan Program we also have investments for smart grid which includes fiber. If we think back to when this organization was formed back in the 30s, it was the electric coops that were formed that helped start electrifying america and the secretary and i see this as a modern day version of that. Having said that, thats when i mentioned the nontraditional approach. If we continue to do the same thing over and over again without changing, we should expect the same result. And so thats why i say were working very hard to find nontraditional approaches while maintaining strong underwriting, good methodology to get the right information to the right location, to make the right decision. With that, it absolutely makes a difference. Were more than happy to progra the right solution if its within our authority to do so and it makes sense for our applicants to take that approach. So we try to be very flexible. Thats how we skien edesigned t reconnect program to ensure if someone has the capacity and willing partners to come to the table to provide that service thats so sfrat ldesperately ne Rural America that has not been addressed through the private sector alone, were happy to engage and make that happen. We welcome the opportunity to do so through our program. So we are were very happy and pleased youve been willing to support our programs to date. I appreciate that. I just happen to represent a state which paem think of as a state with big cities and a little bit of territory in twaen. We between. We hear about this issue a lot. Mr. Chairman, ill submit a question for the record to administrator brand. Its a great pennsylvania model. But ill submit that in writing as well as others. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator. Senator boozman. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you all for being here to discuss the Rural Development title of the farm bill. The farm bill for our state as it is for most states is one of the most important pieces of legislation that we deal with here. First of all, i want to thank you for the job that you all are doing. I had the opportunity to visit a lot with Rural Development in arkansas, the office. Theyre doing a tremendous job. Really appreciate the support that youre giving them. So biff yourselves a big pat on the back in that regard. Sometimes we hear lots of negatives, but we dont take time, again, when paem are working hard to try and help each other. Dont really have a question about broadband being brought up so much, but i want to reaffirm its importance. Sadly in arkansas throughout much of the country, you go into Rural America and you see young people sitting in their cars koi doing their homework. Leeching the broadband from the local school house. Thats not an uncommon sight even in upstate new york. It is amazing. So thats something that i think that we all are certainly united on. Let me ask you a question regarding the Rural Development waste water and Community Facility programs in the sense that in 2019 theyre still rared to utilize the American Community survey. 2006 through 2010 data set in determining the Median Household Income of the project Service Areas for various loan and Grant Eligibility within the programs. So when, theyre required to use that. Its my understanding that Rural Development is not obtained in nonmetropolitan madian Household Income from the Census Bureau for each state that must be obtained in order to use with a more current American Community survey. Fav fiveyear data set. The question is when will Rural Development begin using a more current data set to determine the Median Household Income of project service area . The world has changed a lot since 2000 to 2010. Thanks for the question. First of all, i think its important to understand why we do that. I think we need to address that first. As far as why we do that, it is to ensure that were being fair and equitable in how we handle the kbrant component of our loan program to where we can match that up to where we are not giving undue advantage to someone who has a lot of dun deferred maintenance in their system and prefers to charge their customers fair and reasonable rates to have a sustainable and functional healthy Drinking Water and Waste Disposal system. So thats the reason that we do that. Secondly, we have to have equitable information, solid information. And the census is a way to do that. So because its an every ten year census, it does create shaws of challenges between what was and what is. As you said, a lot can change in the course of eight years as weve seen. The great news is we have a great economy. And the economy is the best in my lifetime. I think thats a good news story that is worth stating. Because of that, weve seen the ability of people to improve on their systems and have a healthier economy because of that. With that said, there is an opportunity for us to help improve in how we deliver that and make those decisions and by having access to more current information would definitely be helpful. The ability to improve on that, were happy to look at. We can work with you as we move forward. We appreciate that and would like to work with you. Depends on the same sort of data. But where you get in trouble is these out years as you get so far out. And again, in a very changing time in Rural America. So thank you, mr. Chairman. Let me ask a question that mr. Lammers here that i intended to ask before. My apologies to senator gillibrand. Nice to have you back. And ill do this real quickly. Mr. Lammers, this question is for you. One of the Top Priorities in the Rural Development title of the farm bill was try to prioritize our Community Facility funding for the construction of or improvements to traemt facilities. Which addressed the problem or the epidemic. In kansas we had yawn unified e to close down a lot of meth labs. Today we find in many states that doesnt exist anymore, but still the product comes through straight from mexico probably through china. And this is a much strong er situation with meth. We just had the district attorneys of kansas and i asked them what their number one question was. I did not expect this. But for the second year in a row they said meth. Clogging up law enforcement, clogging up the courts, and obviously causing great pain to many families. The funding type of Health Facilities and how is the department educating our communities about the resources, if any, at the department to help fight addiction . Thank you for your question. Ive seen firsthand in some of my visits around the country the issues that exist specifically touring kentucky and tennessee, i saw i toured a jail and the reason for that was because of addiction. So theres definitely demand. We have financed about 37 projects in 15 states that have contributed to either the treatment or prevention of substance because. Our staff has been working trayitray i traying to make sure that people under the Facilities Program we are able to finance those facilities. So thank you. This is a this is a problem thats not going to go away any time soon. But we really have to mount an intensive effort. Senator gill braibrand. Thank you. It is a pleasure to be back. I was proud to pass into law as part of the reauthorization. To Development Title to reverse declining rates of rural entrepreneurship and create quality jobs across Rural America. Thaez included multiple improvements to Business Investment program to expand access to the capital. Rural entrepreneurs are in desperate knead need to fwroe a start businesses. Which authorizes grants of 500,000 tlrs to 2 million each to locally driven rural jobs. Made up of entrepreneurs, local leaders, investors, and job training providers so they can work collaboratively on improving their local economy and positioning their region to be more competitive. Can you please provide a status update on implementation of the Rural Business Investment Program reforms and the newly created rise fwrant program . Yes. Thank you for those questions. The Rural Business Investment Program, we are in the process now of writing the rule and the. With regard to the rise Grant Program, we are excited to be able to look at that as an opportunity as a rural jobs creator, accelerator partnership. And we are awaiting funding to be able to implement that program however. Thank you. The Rural Business Investment Program is modeled after the sba Small Business investment company. And im aware of a memorandum signed to coordinate the delivery of the programs to assist rural entrepreneurs improved coordination between rbip programs should be part of this mlu in order to mobilize more capital for businesses. Can you commit to working with the sba on dedicated efforts to prioritize the certification of more sbic funds as the Rural Business Investment Companies through the sda and more rbics as sbic funds. Yes. Certainly. We already have been. Mlu has been in existence for almost two years now. Weve been working jointly with sba on outreach and reaching out to investors across the country as well as trying to streamline the application process to make it easier for them to be in one or both of the programs. Thank you. I recently introduced legislation, the rebuild Rural America act which creates a rural regional block grant that awards dedicated longterm funding to implement locally drichb economic and community strategies. Rural communities face complex challenges that demand comprehensive solutions and longterm planning, but the current federal grant system is too narrow to address their specific needs. Larger cities have benefitted from this kind of investment for decades in the form of Community Development block grants. My bill would create a similar dedicated pool of funding provided through fiveyear noncompetitive renewable block grants. How are your programs currently helping Rural Communities build greater capacity to advance local plans for community and economic and development . And do you see value in longterm noncompetitive block Grant Programs that compliments the existing grants and programs currently available through the usda Rural Development . Thank you, again, for that question. One moment, please. Let me catch up with you on so we are working with the Rural Development councils and also to deliver those programs. Right now we are in the process of reviewing that and writing the rule. We will be working on that throughout the beginning of 2020. Thats great. Thank you. Thank you, madam mr. Chairman and madam Ranking Member. I appreciate that. Big thank you to our first panel. Thank you for coming. I praesappreciate your insights. I would like to welcome our second panel. Thank you again to the first panel. Thank you, sir. Thank you, maam. Everybody settled . Thank, yall, for coming. We appreciate it very much. Senator hydesmith, youre in the nick of time to introduce the next witness. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you for convening this hearing to review the u. S. Department of Rural Development and Energy Provisions in the 2018 farm bill. And farm bills provide us with an opportunity to go back and address and look at an array of programs and issues of importance to Rural America. And especially in places like mississippi. The Senate Ag Committee has an equally important responsibility to provide oversight to ensure usda implementation of the law is timely, consistent with congressional intent, and meets the needs of our constituents. But i certainly appreciate these outstanding witnesses being here today. And i would like to give a warm william to mr. Keith hayward here on the end. The ceo of Mississippi Electric Power Association based in oxford, mississippi. During mr. Haywards 32 years of service, the northeast Mississippi Electric Power Association has grown from providing electricity to 10,000 homes and businesses to providing power to approximately 27,000 today. And im proud that this association continues to be one of the Fastest Growing electric power cooperatives in the entire country doing an outstanding job. And again, mr. Hayward, thank you for taking the time for to come to d. C. And be with us today and to share your knowledge and insights and ways to improve the rules that we have hear in this country. Mr. Hayward, theres been a tremendous amount of attention of resources to Rural Broadband deployment in the 2018 farm bill and in recent proeps biappropri bills. One in particular is the reconnect grant. Its the loan program administrated by usda Rural Development. I understand your Power Association has shown a considerable amount of interest in participating in this program. Will you offer some insight as to how this program is helping northeast Power Association meet the needs of the customers and bridge that Digital Divide that we so many times experience . What recommendations can you offer on how we could improve to better meet the needs of the people of business rural mississippi and around the entire country . First, thank you for that intersection and thank you for your dedication to the state of mississippi. As far as the reconnect program, we did apply for the grant only program. There were some experiences with some difficulties in some rule making. In particular, in our area we have one of the more vibrant areas of mississippi around oxford. But we have a great deal of unserved territory that qualified for the grant application. One of the problems we had is the mapping system thats been discussed here earlier that is really not very accurate. But its the best we have. So we are taking Government Data thats been provided through the fcc that the usda got. And they give us the territories that we can apply for. And one of the stipulations in the Grant Program was the fact that it was a 100 then that cowl not have any in one service. And a 100 mark is very hard to reach. Its perfect. So we actually set up a phone bank of 1200 of our members that were in the territories that we were given to try to figure out if we had somebody out there that may be Getting Service that was not on the map or that we did not know. Because if there was just one challenge, then the way the grant was written that the whole grant would be disqualified. We were spending thousands to aplay for this grant. And much like the loan programs, they were at 90 . We dont know to this day. We havent received word. We dont know to this day if there were people out there that maybe we didnt know about or got service in between the time we applied for the grant. The other issue that we had is we feel like that through some of the stimulus money, there have been several systems that had demonstrated they can put fiber in the electric space and own the fiber as part of the electric company. And we feel like that the electric gfrs, rus are not being they need to talk with the telecoms. I think were getting a lot of the telecoms writing some of the rules. They need to understand theyre a business. We figured out a way to do it differently. If were going to serve sparsely Populated Areas, our structure is different than the telecoms. Thats been demonstrated through some other utilities out there doing that. We feel there needs to be a little more collaboration between the two departments within the usda. Those are the two main concerns. I had one more. Pardon me just a second. Oh. And im sure well talk about this later as i get into some more testimony. The rus reconnect program was a 10. 1 servicem minimum. When i talk to my constituents, can you give me a definition of broadband. Because weve changed the definition so many times. By the time we write a new definition with broadband, it seems like its out of date. I do female like if there is another program, it needs to be at least 25. 3. What were looking at for our customers is fiber at the home. Were building for the future. Thats the way we do for electric coop. We build something thats going to stand the test of time. And as you talk to customers and we rolled out these surveys and we find people that are trying to run Small Businesses on their homes, on their data plans, on their cell phones or trying to do their homework. Im in a college town. We have several students. We have professors sending out their information on video now and people taking classes at school. The species are getting exponentially faster. The need for data is gegetting more and more out there. Much like tennessee and chattanooga, theyve got gigabyte service. I want my members to have gigabyte service as well. That can only be done through fiber. Thank you very much. At this point i think well introduce the next witnesses. Senator ernst was looking forward to introducing our next witness mr. Bryan sievers. She is not hear. Senators are supposed to be two places at the same time over half the time. I think were going to add three to that now. But anyway, were happy to welcome bryan and his wife lisa. Theyre the current owners operators of sievers farm, a 2300 acre 2,400 beef cattle head lot. And Renewable Energy Community Near stockton, iowa. The sievers farm boasts a one megawatt combined heat and power system fueled by methane produced by two di gestures. The electricity that is generated is sold to their local Service Provider. Bryan is a graduate of iowa state university, home of the cyclones with a degree in agriculture business. Bryan, kansas state plays tech. After we play texas, we come up there to play you again. Just take it easy on us, will you . Peter mcconnell is already introduced to mr. Michael stanley. And the last witness i turn to the staff for the intersection. Last but not least, i am so pleased to have dr. Jeff dwyer with us. He Senior Society teen of outreach and engagement of the msu college of agricultural and Natural Resources. Doctor dwyer leads the staff with the improvement of quality of life in rural michigan. Hes helped expand health care in michigan through addressing the opioid epidemic, Drinking Water issues, farmer stress and Mental Health. Before his role he served as a senior associate dean in msus college of medicine. Welcome, dr. Dwyer. Were so pleased you could join us. Mr. Hayward is first. Mr. Hayward. Yes. Thank you, chairman roberts, Ranking Member and members of the kmae. Thanks again for the introduction. Congratulations on the recent passage of the new farm bill and thank you for the opportunity to testify on its implementation. The farm bill is essential to electric cooperatives because it obtains rules we use to keep lights on in a mamerica, modern the grid, and promote development in the communities we serve. For decades the Rural Utility Service electric program has been our foundation providing low cost financing to coops for installing and maintaining the grid. Its been the most important Rule Development tool in this countrys history. In addition, about half of all electric coops also borrow private cooperative banks like cfc and cobank. The farm bill reauthorized and maintained these important programs which gives us Healthy Options for financing the work we do. In addition to our work, cooperatives play a Vital Development role in the communities we serve. Since 2009, mississippi coops have conducted around 25 million in rural Economic Development loan and grant or red leg projects. We blaef it elieve it remains a tool across the country. The recent farm bill includes needed changes to the red leg program to provide secure funding into the future. In the 21st century, theres perhaps no more important Rule Development challenge than providing broadband internet. In sparsely Populated Areas is very costly. So much so, most of our members are lagging their urban counterparts. My coop recently approved a plan to bridge that digital dwad by offering fiber to the Home Broadband with us to gigabyte speeds to 100 of our members. Were enthusiastic about the farm bills inclusion for Rural Broadband. Building on the usda reconnect pilot. Of which we are an applicant. We have expaernsed technical and rural related challenges throughout the application process which i hope to talk more about. We are committed to working with congress to provide feedback. Will remain essential to the expansion of broadband throughout Rural America. Just as broadband is key to the 21st century Economic Development, communication fractu infrastructure is to the grid. The main reason of the coop is to meet the electricity demands of customers as efficiently as possible, so every time you flip a switch, the light comes on. Broadband in the grid lets us know a lot more a lot faster about whats going on in our system. If you want fewer outages, more renewables, less expensive, and better security from attacks. Broadband in the grid is key. As you continue to think about development of retail broadband, dont forget about this separate smart grid component. They look alike, but they work differently for different purposes. The last thing id like to mention is an issue not directly under your jurisdiction but would affect programs you oversee. A consequence of the 2017 tax law threatens our tax exempt status, a broadband grant or other services. This is a threat for electric coops. A special thanks to senator smith who is leading the efforts to fix this program and thanks to many of you for supporting her bill. Thank you for a successful reauthorization to the farm bill. We look forward to continuing to work with you and i welcome your questions. Thank you. Mr. Sievers. Thank you, chairman roberts. Ranking member stabenow, and thank you for asking me to testify on todays hearing. By way of background, my wife and i operate sievers farms near stock to stockton, iowa. We produce corn, soybeans, and hay. And finally we have digestures that is used to generate renewable electricity sold to alliant energy. For generations we focused on stewardship and conservation of our Natural Resources in our operations and have implemented numerous Water Quality and Soil Health Practices over the years including grassed waterways, borders, buffer strips, terraces, contour farming, no till and strip till, grid soil sampling, and cover crops. Much of which have been supported by the programs that have been implemented through the usda and this committee as well as grgs. I also serve on the National Trade association representing the entire biogas industry in the u. S. We represent over 200 companies in in the supply chain. From organic waste. The abc is in turn a member of the coalition, a group of organizations committed to a strong Bipartisan Energy title. Excuse me. The abc and thing a Energy Coalition believe that strengthening Rural America are key ways to advance the renewable chemicals. I come before you today to urge the committee to continue closely overseeing the implementation of the farm bill. This important piece of legislation contains many programs intended to help farmers diversify their income streams. In the midst of trade wars, horrible planting weather, and harvest weather and the administrations actions to undermine the renewable fuel standard, the Farm Bill Energy title programs continue to provide value to farmers, Agricultural Producers, and small Rural Businesses. American farmers are hurting. While the forecast is to rise, these challenges are squeezing farmers through Commodity Prices as the guts by issuing more small refinery exemptions for the rfs than ever before. In both cases, the Trump Administrations actions ahave dramatically decreased the value of what we produce. And that dramatically reduces the revenue we need to keep operating our farms. Members of congress have labored over numerous farm bills to craft policies that minimize fluxuations. As members of this community continue to implement the farm bill, we ask members to keep in mind the value of our 21st century economy which can help offset some of the earlier discussed head winds which are affecting our farms and the a fwrks economy. The Farm Bill Energy title. Accelerating the commercialization of new technologies and products from agriculture. And refinery manufacturing facilities in Rural Communities. Advanced biofills including natural gas, chemicals, and biobased products made with biotechnology can drive the demand for crops including cover crops and perennial crops. This can boost onfarm revenue. Of helping to craft the 2018 farm bill. We are thankful it contained an energy title with mandatory funding. However, in total, mandatory funding has decreased from 694 million in 2014 to 375 million in 2018. Thats a decrease of 46 . Alternatively, the total discretionary authorization provided by the 2018 farm bill which was 1. 7 million is approximately 13 more than what was authorized in the 2014 farm bill. While the latter increase sounds positive, most Energy Title Programs did not receive discretionary appropriations under previous appropriations bills. Something that should change. We rge the committee to make up for this decrease in mandatory funding by strongly supporting the annual funding of the amount authorized. Were especially pleased to see the committee recognize the role that divestures can play by establishing section 9011. While technologies mature, greater deployment has been fueled. About how they work and their benefits. One of the greatest methods by converting it to Renewable Energy. Nutrient rich soil amendments, fertilizers, renewable gas. Providing greater outreach to farmers and producers could greatly increase the i did gestures as well as the utilization that support i d digestures. Authorized annually for this program. While we celebrate the establishment of this program and are hopeful to see it funded, we remain sfointed that priorities highlighted by the committees in the conference report such as the biogas opportunities Road Map Task force have not been acted upon. This provision states no longer than 180 days after the enactment in 2018, the usda secretary in coordination with the secretary will establish an interagency biogas task force to coordinate policies, programs, and research to accelerate biogas researches and development. This task force can help the industry provide resources for potential new on farm digesture projects to ensure theyre designed, eng neared, operating so they can succeed. The lack of forward progress on mr. Sievers, if you could wrap this up, that would be helpful. All right. Ill do that. Can be helpful as we move forward with the implementation of the farm bill. Ill replace the remainder of my testimony which speaks in depth about the Energy Program on the record. And im happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you for your testimony. Mr. Stanley. Senator ronts, thank you for your invitation to testify at this hearing. Also im humbled by senator mcconnells earlier remarks. As ceo of grace health, i want to share my appreciation for the usda telemedicine grant awards. We were awarded in 2011, 2016, and most recently the 2018 telehealth equipment funding for 650,000 that includes 154,000 in matching funds. We were able to add an additional nine school sites and six Nursing Homesites. Grace Health Community Health Center doing business as grace health has primary care clinics serving appalachian kentucky. The priority is to serve the most vulnerable populations including children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with low income. We accept medicaid, medicare, and private insurance, but also provide services on a sliding fee scale to those who are uninsured or underinsured. For grace healths project, the service area is located in senior kentucky and bordering tennessee in the south. All of our Service Area Counties have been designated as part of the Eastern Kentucky promise zone designed to encourage economic and Educational Development in one of the nations most impoverished areas. The counties are also tez nated as strike force zone. The service area is in the eastern coal fill region of the state and is comprised of soaring mountains and valleys. Grace healths sees telemedicine as an opportunity to improve the Work Environment for our Health Care Providers and thus assist in provider retention. Innovative strategies such as telemedicine provide access to resources and support for both the patient and the provider giving the provider a more realistic chance of making a difference. That isnt always possible when these resources are not accessible. Grace health has identified four needs to be addressed through the telemedicine. Number one, access to help care providers and services. Number two, transportation. Number three, Behavioral Health treatment including Mental Health and Substance Abuse treatment. And number four is patient engagement. To meet these these, grace health has expanded in telemedicine to 33 sites including 6 primary care clinics, 1 Womens Health clinics, 19 school based Health Centers, and 7 Nursing Homes and 1 hospital. Services include primary care, consultation, Behavioral Health, and patient engagement. With telemedicine, rather than traveling to different clinics for different most of the services they require at a clinic in their own community. Using telemedicine, grace healths Mental Health providers have increased the number served. Our providers have access to all of our primary care clinics as well as all of our school based Health Centers. This increasing the efficiency of our providers and enhances services. Grace health has increased access to care. Providing Supportive Services and providing warm handoffs through telemedicine. Access is the most basic form of patient engagement. Helps to increase Access Points for services. When it is easier to access care, patients are more likely to receive what they need to manage their health. As of july 1st, 2019, kentuckys new telehealth helped sustain telehealth programs through reimbursement of teleHealth Services. Kentucky is now a telehealth parity at a time. If a clinical encounter is reimbursable in an inperson visit, that same encounter will be conducted via telehealth technology. This includes all services, providers, and locations and the value of a telehealth encounter is equivalent to an additional inperson encounter until they have negotiated a reduce payment rate. And my personal opinion, telehealth is part of the answer to our primary care physician shortage in the rural underdeveloped areas of our country. Im grateful for the opportunity to partner with the usda program and im committed to the success of this program that will kbruf the Health Care Outcomes of your constituents that are our patients. Mr. Stanley, dr. Dwyer. Thank you, senator stabenow, for your kind introduction. Chairman roberts, Ranking Member stabenow, thank you for this opportunity to testify about the importance of strengthening Health Services in Rural America. In addition to my roles at Michigan State university, i have the privilege of living in alger county. A community of less than 10,000 on the shoers of Lake Superior and the gateway to the National Lake shore. In alger county as in other rural area, one in four residents are 65 or older. We have significant concerns about suicide at all ages and there are ongoing challenges with Substance Abuse and retaining jobs with a livable wage. Thanks to your efforts, my community will benefit from the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program authorized in the 2018 farm bill. Through that grant funding, the purchase of new 3d mammography equipment will improve Cancer Detection by 40 over the current 2d technology for my neighbors. This summer i spent 15 weeks on the road visiting staff and stake holders in all 83 michigan counties. I saw the ongoing challenges and risks that farmers take to feed the world. One farmer told me, i will be putting half a Million Dollars into the ground when weather permits. And i have no idea what is going to happen. This is why the cooperative Extension System needs to build on our 100 year reputation of serving rural audiences through Agriculture Education Program and Behavioral Health and Chronic Health conditions. After observing an uptick in attempted and completed suicides in rural areas three years ago in michigan, specifically among farmers and farm workers, we changed our approach. We have more than 600 faculty and staff members. Most of whom have completed Mental Health first aid training. Lives have been saved as a result. We developed four programs designed to help farmers and those who work in agriculture learn to identify the warning signs of stress, approach people suffering, listen empathetically, and find resources. Our experience in farm stress management and community Behavioral Health models the emerging role that cooperative extension needs to play in health care today. The farm bills emphasis on telemedicine and greater access to reliable broadband will help increase the opportunity at the nexus of direct Clinical Services and Community Based Health Education in Rural Communities. We need to do this in collaboration with physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals. Yet recruiting and retaining Health Professionals ensures that Rural Communities are places where providers want to live, work, and raise their families. Finally research on the social determinants affirm that social commission conditions contribute significantly to health outcomes. Jobs Affordable Housing quality education and other factors directly Impact Health at the individual and population levels. Two years ago this Committee Held a meeting in michigan as you prepare the 2018 farm bill. As producers of more than 300 commodities, Michigan Farmers voices are critical in any discussion about agriculture and the health of our communities. I appreciate the time you took to listen and for the opportunity to continue the discussion today. At Michigan State university, we are doing what we can to support rural residents by working together with this committee and other partners on the federal state and local levels, i believe we can find more ways to provide the Services People need. Thank you again for your time and the opportunity to address the committee. I look forward to answering your questions. We thank you, doctor. Senator stabenow. Thank you, mr. Cha i remember. Thank you to all of you for coming and for your testimony today. Specifically wanted to ask mr. Dwyer and mr. Stanley more in terms of health care particularly Behavioral Health. And we know many challenges in health care, keeping our rural hospitals open, getting providers even more difficult on Behavioral Health, Mental Health, Addiction Services in Rural Communities. And in 2016 the cdc reported that the suicide rate for male farmers had doubled since 2012. Last week data revealed that farm bankruptcies are up 24 from last year alone. Incredible amount of stress as farmers need tools as you talked about, to manage stress in the face of market uncertainty and uncertainty everywhere they look. We worked very hard to get a fiveyear farm bill to create some certainty some place for our farmers in Rural Communities. But we know right now theyre challenged on every front. I also think that its very important that we talk about health care, were talking about health care above the neck as well as below the neck. This is something that i care very deeply about. And as you mentioned, we expanded telemedicine grants, expanded support for Community Facilities to address opioid addiction and Mental Health services. Dr. Dwyer and mr. Stanley, specifically anyone else is welcome. But can you provide a little bit more context of what we should be doing to improve Mental Health and Addiction Services to rural families and farmers. Thank you for the question. I would just add to the data you shared that farmers and farm workers have the highest death rates due to stress related conditions. So we need to Pay Attention to the whole person. So i think the additional enhanced support in the farm bill through telemedicine and broadband allows us to have the potential to provide more Mental Health care online. The Research Shows that for most people Online Health care is a viable and effective alternative to facetoface therapy. And i think you have provided the opportunity for us to have access in that regard. I think we can link that to the stress we feel strong at Michigan State university that our next step in the farm stress is to train all Mental Health providers to understand the unique challenges of farmers, farm families, and Rural Communities. So if youre from an urban area and you dont understand the challenges of Farm Succession and the difficulties that families face in that domain, you need to know that in order to be able to provide effective care. The other thing i would say is youve done a Great Service by including thaez progre ining th farm bill. I think one of the things we find in Mental Health care and stress related disorders is we dont talk about them enough. I think by this body and the senate, and all of you in the positions that you have acknowledging that farm stress, that Mental Health, that depression, that opioid misuse, all of those things are not only important, but something thats important enough for us all to invest in. And i think that level of awareness is also very important and we praesht it a great deal. Thank you. Mr. Stanley . Senator stabenow, thank you for the question and most of all thank you for your support of Community Health centers. Yes. Telemedicine allows our Behavioral Health providers to provide service to rural patients with opioid and other addictions in our more remote clinics. It enables to reduce windshield times to clinics where only a few would be seen on a given day. Allowing Behavioral Health to see more via the modality. As you may be aware, have been devastated by the addiction. And Behavioral Health support is critical. Our Health Providers also provide family members during recovery as children, parents, and family members struggle with their loved ones, caught up in addiction. Vulnerable children are especially impacted as they must deal with feelings of resentment toward their family members while the impact of addiction leads to further trauma for the child. Setting up a cycle of Substance Abuse pased down through the family, maintained by repeated victimization and withdrawal from others due to feelings of shame. Often in conjunction with medication assisted treatment by our medical colleagues. So the ability to provide integrated treatment through collaboration is a critical component of the treatment process. As it allows for consistent provider messaging with a focus on improving outcomes for the challenging population due to high rates of comorbid, psychiatric, and medical disorders. And too often, individuals with Substance Use disorders are isolated in outpatient and Residential Treatment Centers which relies heavily on single elements of care. When providers in modalities are scant. Integrated treatment allows providers to Work Together for patients in chronic pain, teaching selfmanagement skills to a population at risk for a developing addiction. Another risk population, that of pregnant mothers abuses drugs, can benefit from a core program that increases the chance of an infant remaining with its parents after delivery. When patients return home to their communities, therapeutic support becomes a necessity for parents. Dealing with a challenge of raising a child while engaged in treatment for Substance Use disorder. These types of special populations are almost a commonality in our Rural Communities. We need all of the resources available. Therefore telehealth allows our Behavioral Health team to max nice their impact and transcend barriers to care. Thank you. Thank you very much. And i know my time is up and by the way, mr. Sievers, i want to follow up with you about our digestures and so on. Im very interested in how we can expand more what youre doing. But i did want to indicate that we senator ward and i are working on an effort on behavioral Health Centers to comprehensively be able to do what youre talking about twaen Health Centers, Behavioral Health, in the community. And actually receiving treatment. And we have some real opportunities to move forward on that. Love to work with you on that. Thank you. Senator brown. Thank you, mr. Chairman. For mr. Hayward, it looks like youre ahead of the curve on doing broadband in your area. How many counties is your coverage . We serve four counties in north mississippi. In indiana we have 92 counties, about twothirds of them rural. And probably most recs are either a county or two. Starting to cascade through the process of providing Rural Broadband. Youll actually Start Service here next year, it sounds like. When will you plan to be completed . Our project is about hopefully within four years at least. And that will give access to every member thats currently got electricity . Yes, sir. Thats impressive. Our goal is to our plan is to be able to provide it to every member. Our state law requires it before we can get into broadband business that we have to have a plan to provide. Are your other counterparts in mississippi proceeding at the same pace . Our law just passed in january. We were not able to get into broadband through the enabling act. Have to have a vote of our change of articles of incorporation which will take place in december. And we have eight coops already that are thats impressive. Youd be a model for many other states then. Were running short on time, next question for mr. Sievers. I notice you said that when it talks about the farm economy, were going through one of the toughest stretches. Im involved in farming to the extent we can be in with the time i have available. Forestry and row crops. You mentioned tariffs and waivers. What do you think of the underlying issues that have created chronic oversupply, you know, where acres are opening up across the world that weve never seen before. Where asia, africa, along with south america you seem to focus on tariffs and waivers. My opinion is it fwogoes much m deeply. How do you think we bet through chronically low prices and hay input costs to keep the farm economy alive in the long run. Thank you for the question, senator. I really believe its in the area of livestock production. I think the demand that can come as a result of increased livestock production will be helpful for the supply burdens that we are faced with. Especially in corn and soybeans. Which then leads obviously into how do you deal with that . And obviously trade is one of those things that will help certainly in the beef industry, you know, we would hope and anticipate seeing improved Market Opportunities certainly with japan and the trade deal just completed there. Usmca will obviously help that as well. So passage of that by congress would be instrumental. But i think the demand side of that equation. And improve the demand for a lot of our commodities. I think youre right. I think that might tip back the other way. Livestock and poultry are exportable in a way that i think most of the world now is aiming to be selfsufficient on food and feed for themselves. Could you have done one and reached an economy of scale that would have been worthwhile . Youve got two, correct . We have two tanks. They actually operate in parallel. It allows us to process the manure which is roughly half of the waste streams we process. But it also provides an opportunity for a number of agriculture processors in the region to send us waste streams. We receive waste streams from poultry plants, chick hatcheries, biodiesel within a radius . We go as far as 200 miles away. One in decatur, illinois. Whats your cost per kilowatt when you get it back into the grid and is it competitive . Ill give you an example. Right now we sell our electricity to our local Service Provider for 4. 8 cents per kilowatt hour. Id say were at break even right now. Thats why the things weve looked at, electricity producers who operate are currently not eligible for the renewable fill standard and the rims that are associated with, for example, so thats one of the changes we would like to see the would like to see implemented. Theres a pathway there. Theyve just never accepted or adopted. That would really help us achieve maybe a little improved level of profitability as well as the overall implementation of the small remooinry exception. My time is up. Id love to at a different time learn more about what youre doing there. Sure, thank you very much. Thank you, senator braun. You touched on a very important topic that catches all of our witnesses. Coop, youre up. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thanks for having this hearing on farm bill implementation. I think its really important that we do the important work this committee needs to do to ensure these programs are being implemented in the way congress intended but im accept pleased that the 2018 farm bill maintains Rural Development programs which continue to improve Energy Efficiency, infrastructure and Economic Development in rural areas across my state of south dakota. You mentioned the epas recent unpres dented issuance of small refinery wafers which has undermine the renaubl fuel standard and the president s commitment to Rural America. Ive heard from a lot who share your concern and continue could you just briefly describe the impact of these waivers on farm country . In our particular industry, bio gas thats produced, if its converted into renewable pipeline quality gas becomes eligible for d3 or d5 rins under the renaubl fuel standard as a result of the decreased sres, weve seen the value of those rins plummeted. Weve seen thn them bounce back somewhat. Were trading around 80 cents which is helpful. Were contemplating going to a renewable gas. It represents a significant investment for us. Several Million Dollars. If we do participate or move forward with that project where were going to have to rely on rins as a portion of our revenue stream. At 80 cents im not sure were going to be able to move forward with that. I hope that the epa, as they work on this new rule making, is adheres to the commitments the administration has made about ensuring that the rfs 15 billion gallon number is a real number and that these small refine refine refinery exemptions dont erode the positive impact its had on only in the midwest but i would argue on the National Economy and our, you know, the environment Environmental Quality issues were trying to hit. I think its been a winwin and we need to keep it going in the right direction. And these exemptions have really under mind i think thein tent and the effectiveness of the renewable fuel standard. I appreciate the work that Michigan State University Extension is doing to address inskresing awareness of suicide. This is of great concern. Id like to note that south dakota extension has similar on going efforts. Could you briefly describe Michigan States extension work to address this issue and perhaps describe the agreements that you have in place with the farm bureau, Credit Council and make sure they reach the producers who need it . Yes, and thank you for the question. We enjoy working with our south dakota colleagues a great deal. So the specific programming weve put together initially focused on a program called weathering the storm directly for farmers and farm families. In january this past january, we had 99 of our colleagues from extensions across the country, i think 19 different states were represented, who were trained in that program, and now that programming is being provided throughout the country. In addition, we have a parallel program for those who work in agriculture called communicating with farmers in disdress. And the nish is that the challenges being faced by faumers and farm workers impact farmers and farm workers but they impact everyone around them. But theyre also in a position to know about the challenges and know about changes people might be experiencing. What weve been able to do at this point is develop online and facetoface programs that were taking out nationally, working with National Farm bureau, working with fsa and all of those sorts of things. And it really builds on our belief that the cooperative Extension Network is something we need to use differently and more expansively as we face these challenges. Because through capacity funds and other means, you have provided assets that are tremendous, statewide networks, people embedded in communities, and 100year history of doing work that matters to communities. We think we need to broaden that out through Mental Health and farm stress work. Keep it up. Thank you. Can i ask one more question . Certainly. You ready to gavel this out . Its almost high noon. Not quite. So mr. Stanley , you talked abot Distance Learning and telemed sin, and thats something we have long embraced. We see a great benefit to telehealth to expand access no rural areas. Weve had resources awarded that have helped support Critical Infrastructure and training throughout our state. Thats aloud some of these communities to get help from ezekiel. Over the years in dlt, id like to have you explain to the committee the federal governments return on investment. If not for these grants, how would people in these rural areas be accessing care . Thank you for your question. The telemed sin really does allow or Behavioral Health providers to provide services to these rural patients. And again we cover six county area, so some of these are the most rural and most impoverished counties in the country. Youre talking about maybe grandparents raising children, incarceration, all these things that really are issues for access to care. So having our rural clinics with telehealth allows us to take care of that patient at a distance. Again, its very challenging to recruit providers to a very rural area that doesnt really offer a lot in amenities. So this is really an extender for us. We have a shortage of primary care physicians. Its a challenge to get Mental Health practicitioners. We have medically assisted treatment. We have utilized that for our mothers. We realize we deliver about a thousand babies a year. Did you know that 250 to 300 of those babies are born addicted . So again, we use this medically assisted Treatment Program for the mothers who are willing. And we built this trust relationship with these mothers that will work with us, but see, they have to be a part of a program, and that Program Includes counseling. Its not just medical assisted treatment. And that allows them to make stay in that program. Because then they can go to one of the rural sites, because again like i said we cover sixcounty area. I really want to thank the usda for their support and see them as a partner. Thank you. I thank the senator from south dakota. Former president ial candidate. Mr. Saefbers, you still out there . Yes i am, mr. Chair. Heres a flash for you. Last year the warrior bio gas project pardon me, this year at the saty on treatment on waste water started operations at its facility to capture and clean bio gas produced from minis pul and industrial waste water for distribution into the pipeline. Its a 9 billion project designed to clean the bio gas produced through the Anaerobic Digestion process treating waste water on dodge City Residents and nearby beef processing plant. Dodge city we used to say, dont worry about that smell, we just smell the money. Thats not the case now. And what is the case is they invited their senator to come out and take a look. And i was literally blown away. Well the wind blows a lot in wind city but this is a different kind of circumstance. Thank you for your testimony. And i think that as this continues, there are a lot of answers here that we are coming up with. I want to thank all of the witnesses, especially weve talked about telemedicine, openi oid addiction, Mental Health and even suicide rates. I think the best program i know with regards to address Real Development is something called farm income. This is the fifth year in a row we have had prices below the cost of production. Its amazing to me that our situation is not worse than it is. And yet farmers know somehow how to keep going, they always expect theyre going to have a crop. I would just say for the record, until we get this trade situation worked out if were going to continue to do what we have been in the last 40 years, that is to build our trade capability to not only feed this country but the thoubld around the world. Weve got to get it passed. Thats the big acronym for the new nafta, umsca, i call it United Marine corps always. You have really contributed here a great deal of information on what were doing on the local level, despite the fact we have not achieved price recovery which we must do. I thank you for your efforts and testimony. To my fellow members, this is conclude our hearing today. Please submit any additional questions you may have for the record to the Committee Clerk five Business Days from today or by 5 00 p. M. Next friday. The committee now stands adjourned. Watch live coverage on cspan 2 on the impeachment inquiry against president trump. Marie yovanovitch is testifying. The hearing is live on cspan2, or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Federal reserve chair Jerome Powell testified on the u. S. Economy and Monetary Policy before the house budget committee. He discuss the trade policy, income inequality, the debt and deficit and community outreach. This is two hours. The hearing will come to order. Good morning and welcome to the budget committees hearing on the economic outl

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