Transcripts For CSPAN2 Agriculture 20240704

After brief opening remarks members will receive testimony from our witness today and the hearing will be open to questions. Good morning once again. Welcome to todays hearing receive testimony from the secretary of agriculture. I think my colleagues participating and secretary bill sec for his time we have a lengthy hearing ahead of us. I will be brief and might remarks nearly three years ive traveled across the country to different farmers, ranchers, foresters, Rural Communities and everyday consumers. Many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle jointly for those travels. The message we have heard from those folks was very clear. They need a government to work for them, not against them. These men and women have struggled with a fractured supply chain, considerable input cost, relentless inflation, natural disasters, volatile markets and labor shortage each consistently worsened by illconceived halfbaked executive action. What seemingly is a daily occurrence taxpayer dollars been sent to every corner of the country yet nothing has changed. Theyre not producing more fertilizer were not reducing the cost of production. Were not making food more affordable. We are burdening the taxpayer. We are losing ground on the world stage we are a net agricultural importer. We are less independent, less resilient and less competitive. Farmville is the best opportunity that exists to course correct it. I have been clear in my intent, congress can and must craft a bipartisan farm bill that aligns farm safety net with needs and producers. It expends Market Access and trade promotional opportunities and strengthens Program Operations to demand for transparency and accountability to taxpayers and helping our neighbors in need. For doing so without indiscriminate expansion of our nutrition safety net. However there is significant headwinds to congress success. It is virtually impossible to create a robust and resilient farm safety net without significant investment. Considerable opportunities exist within our jurisdiction gently fund the safety net but fund a substantial number of shared bipartisan priorities. Continue to implore my democratic colleagues who think in earnest about these priorities. Routers that can be funded without cutting snap. A snap benefit or eliminating important Conservation Programs we have all come to appreciate. Washington d. C. Is filled with rhetoric and armchair pendants. People go out of their way to work against you. Folks think eight farmville is s impossible. Politics will prevail that politics will prevail over good policy. The dysfunction surrounding us has consumed us. However, it intensifies my commitment to the American Farmer. I am on your side. I am your champion i will never stop fighting for you. And with that yield to my good friend and distinguished Ranking Member mr. Scott. Thank you, mr. Chairman for halting this hearing today. I certainly welcome our distinguished secretary bill sec. The very last time secretary bill sec sat before this committee as a witness in march of last year, i spoke of beginning the farmville process in earnest. Now, nearly a year later were still working towards our shared goal of passing a strong, effective, and bipartisan farm bill. The testimony will provide the committee and getting us closer to that shared goal. Changes in Republican Leadership potential government shutdowns. And the inability agriculture appropriations bill each injected uncertainty and unfortunately slowed our work. I do not envy you mr. Chairman. You are doing what you can to navigate these turbulent waters. And i want to give you credit. You continue to meet and discuss the policy priorities with me. With our house agricultural democrat and our staff. And we appreciate that. Reinforce House Democrats want to get a farmville done. We publish our farmville priorities and our principles last week. Our principal should not surprise anyone who has been following the work of this committee. Our principles are this. We want to reduce hunger. There is a serious problem. We went to strengthen our American Farmers. We are losing farms, particularly family farms at a staggering rate. We want to invest in sustainable agriculture. Revitalize Rural America, lowercost for farmers and famil. And improve equity. I know we can do this by working together because i know chairman we have been together for quite a while on this committee. And i know you care just as much as i do. About our nations farmers. We worked together on that. We have been working together on that for many years. I know we can do this by working together. So, lets put aside first and foremost this proposal to cut snap benefits. Whether you call it a cut or a reduction of future benefits democrats oppose it. We will not cut staff. Now, i understand that my republican colleagues are concerned about spending. Let me make a few points here. At least you are concerned about spending when it comes to stamp. But because the economy has improved benefits and need for the program has decreased. The cbo is now expecting snap to cost 67 billion less over the next decade than originally expected. That is important as we go into this negotiation. Lets also put aside the proposal take ira conservation or Energy Funding away from its intended purpose. Robbing peter to pay paul is not going to result in an effective farmville. These ira programs are oversubscribed so we should not take funding from them to pay for other farmville priorities. We democrats feel strongly about this. So let me close by saying we do want a pipe bipartisan bill we want to see our bipartisan priorities funded. But we need to continue the funding process. We, and agriculture need more funding. But we need also to continue to Work Together to find the funding. Over the past 20 years bipartisan find farm bills have succeeded when republicans and democratic leadership made the farmville a priority. And provided outside resources to the Agriculture Committee. I think i look forward to hearing from you mr. Secretary. And to working with my colleagues and my good friend chairman thompson a bipartisan bill and the hungry family. It is a tall task. We are up to accomplishing it and we can do it together and please pardon my cold i yield back. Thank you gentlemen. The chart request other members submit their Opening Statements so far witness can begin his testimony and ensure there is ample time for questions. I am very pleased to welcome back to the committee our witness for it today. Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining us. We want to perceive their test may have five minutes with a timer and friday will countdown to zero to which point your time has expired. Mr. Secretary please begin when youre ready. Thank you very much to you into the Ranking Member representative scott, thank you for the opportunity to be here today but thanks to all members of this committee for their service. Mr. Chairman, i read with interest the recent article you publish in and title its time to get serious about revitalizing Rural America. Her opening comments today to put in context of the information i have that suggests we are in fact serious about revitalizing Rural America. First of all let me begin by indicating this years income projected just below historical norms will make it the best four years in recent history. It is also allowed for our farmers has significant liquidity as they do in challenging times. Our rural Unemployment Rate is now at the lowest rate in 35 years. Rural employment has returned to prepandemic levels. I had a Clean Energy Jobs are helping to lead the way. Rural poverty is down. And in fact in 55 counties were persistently poor arent no longer in that category. First time in 10 years rural populations have grown. Or people coming into Rural America than leaving. Real wage growth in 2023 exceeds inflation by nearly 2 . In speaking of inflation in food inflation it is headed down. Grocery store price and placement yearoveryear is 1. 3 blows it is been since 2021. Will in fact decrease in 2024. I have several concerns that i want to share with the committee. They have to do with the loss of farmers and farms. The loss of farmland in the heavy concentration of vermin computer secretary raised concerns about the effort and focus on production. Its impact on farms in this country since he raised that wording we have lost 536,000five under 43 farms. We have lost over 165 million acres of farmland. To give you a sense lets every farmer today in south dakota, north dakota, minnesota, wisconsin, illinois, iowa, nebraska, colorado, and oklahoma, and missouri. The apartment represents all in florida, georgia, north dakota, south carolina, and almost all virginia. Farm income has been extraordinarily concentrated with the top 7 of farms, those who generate more than 5 30 thousand in sales on an annual basis. 93 of farms nearly 2 million farms had to share 15 . These are serious issues. And i think it is important for us to reset the notion the only option in american agriculture is to get big or get out. Its time for us to do better for our small and midsized farming operation. This 93 of income. I will survive for the most part by taking a second job. He think we need to create for our farm families ways in which the farm not the farmer create additional income. More new and better Market Opportunities as a strategy we are investing in an usda. Climate Smart Agriculture and forestry commodities provide valueadded opportunity as well as participation in ecosystem markets when new income stream for farms. Other manufacturing from agricultural waste credit and other commodity opportunity. Renewable Energy Production only to lower cost but you also assist rural cooperatives as a transition week thank you in your comments mr. Chairman i need to tell you we are in fact producing more fertilizer. In florida, missouri, alabama and montana their projects we have invested in construction under when the other 36 there will be more coming. Mr. Chairman i acknowledge the importance of the farmville but i we also need a budget. We did the ability to utilize Inflation Reduction Act. To continue the momentum that has been building for markets, jobs, better income for Rural Americans and for our farm families. Mr. Villes i think if you important testimony to that the site members will be recognized for questions and the order of seniority alternate between majority and minority members. And an order of rivals for those who joined us after the hearing convened as many as possible i will recognize myself for five minutes. Mr. Secretary want to talk on a specific issue to begin with. It fits the topic of regulation and the cost being imposed on farmers and consumers. Data from a pending study of the chief economist to show the prices of certain pork products has risen as much is 41 since implementation of 12. Twentythree study found costs associated our quote widespread and extensive. The same study expressed these costs have been more severe impact on smaller independent operations and that is placed on production and marketing chain the consolidation and concentration of the industry. We appreciate the by administration side with the industry during the Supreme Court case the Supreme Court has weighed in on this matter and asked congress to act. When thinking about the stated goals of this administration in your very own testimony to serve small producers can you speak to the economic harm some proposition 12 if pork prices are going up to going up for producers who is winning here . We dont take out the back in history but im going to response to the articles of confederation. With theory and structure states are basically governor and activity. We found after several years of that experiment was chaos. We are potentially headed the reality is this. When each state has the ability to define for itself and for its consumers exactly what farming techniques or practices are appropriate for that does create the possibility of different rules and regulations. Which obviously creates serious concerns for producers. They have no civility they have no certainty. I am not sure this congress is going to be able to pass legislation but i would suggest if we dont take this issue seriously will have chaos in the marketplace. Theres nothing preventing any state why did they decided they were decided . They believed each and every producer had their own choice to participate in this markets. They basically said it did not violate the Commerce Clause it did not discriminate against a particular producer for the problem is did not anticipate the impacts of 12 of the market changing the rules on the entire market. There is risk of that occurring all across the country. It is a little bit difficult however to create consistency within this congress in this country on the issue of states rights. If you apply this standard you are going to have to discuss some of the more difficult issues the social issues, guns, abortion, et cetera. I will tell you if it doesnt get figured out theres going to be chaos. For smaller producers larger producers were prepared to go into that market found the volume they prepared for it is is notthere in california. So they are dumping product into other states crowding out small producers. Mr. Secretary your testimony and comments from the country you often lament about farms getting large how many are forced to get big or get out. I will be frank, i to share this concern not because the concentration of farm income among ceased operations from the concentration of risks theyve been forced into achieving to survive or to grow large enough for the next generation to return to the family farm. The use of farms might have more to gain when times are good. They also have more to lose when times are bad. Which is why we need to make sure the safety net works for them too. Unfortunately you taken upon yourself to utilize to transform american agriculture with the ccc while rewriting the rules on disaster aid programs to reorient assistance to small and parttime farmers at the expense of fulltime family farms. The truth is much of the consolidation is a direct result of costs that are cost raising in the crisis bring the squeeze on margins. Talk to producers and many additional cost are a direct result of the actions taken by this administration. Between department of labor rules almost unworkable driven up the cost of labor the ep eight war on Crop Protection tools or the threat of Financial Regulation that craves a cost of banking by demonstration as andexpense of the farming operations. Many decisions with the aim of transforming any sector of the American Economy doctoral of unelected bureaucrats but those ideas should be debated in congress with no amount of tinkering around the edges the usa will stop that. Seeing that my time has expired why not recognize prechristmas or term could have a minute to respond . Works yes, sir. First of all he mentions ccci want you to know we basically felled the charter those established by congress we have not as was a case of the previous demonstration jeopardize the capacity that fund to its farmville based. Secondly they mention the Disaster Assistance program i would simply say when we advise congress to attend a 12 billiondollar bill do to assist producers across the board for disasters in 2022 congress appropriate 3 billion. Who gave us 30 of what we needed. So we had a choice basing it during at the way we did before we had the money and resources able to cover a provided opportunity for 80 of the producers receive something more. This included this family farm farmers you just talked about. So if i had to do it over again i would do the same way. I think it is helpful to help the smaller producers, why . They did not receive the lions share of the 19 billion is paid through Crop Insurance and other mechanisms. So with all due respect if you want the disaster programs to work that we have to have the resources to be able to do what you want us to do. Mr. Secretary appreciate that. In the great times we have spent a meeting together i just reinforce what ive said before. Work with us on those issues. I cannot control what happened in the past and cannot control what happened in 2022 height did have more opportunity today as chairman for that i recognize the Ranking Member for his questions. Think you chairman thompson. I really appreciate that. Secretary bill sack, both my democratic and republican colleagues certainly went to pass a bipartisan farmville. In the years extension is giving us more time we are negotiating through those now. But i know chairman thompson and i feel the same about this. We definitely want a bipartisan farmville. I hear from my nations farmers quite regularly. Once a need to certainty. They want and need new markets. And in that regard i want to thank you for creating wrap and wrap it means regional, agriculture, promotion programs. It helps the commodities farmers and certainly it helps groups like our soybean farmers and others to be able to navigate the challenges we are facing today. And for those of you who may be listening to this hearing across the nation secretary bill sack, could you share with us and the nation why a bipartisan bill this year is a very vital and very important and why it has got to be done. Representatives scott, it is fair to say that every farmer, every rancher in everyone who lives in Rural America depends in large part on the farmville program. Farmville is more than that it is a conservation bill it is that nutrition bill thats a Risk Management bill it is a broad opportunity to save a savl america and american agriculture that we care. We are investing in their future in providing stability. It creates uncertainty and that uncertainty makes it very difficult for producers to make decisions about their operations. With a way to diversify their crop weather to decide theyre going to take advantage of new Crop Insurance by the way we have had 12 new policies 50 new modifications to Crop Insurance just in the last few years. Do they take advantage of those or not . It is very difficult for the Minority Serving Institution that rely on the direction of the farmville of the research te to know whether or not they can move forward with Critical Research which obviously will impact and affect things. It is difficult for those the chamber of commerce and Economic Development offices across the counties to know whether or not they need to plan for new opportunities. The bottom line is you gotta get it done. On me get to another question that is very important. Mr. Bill sack, i know you testified to your commitments to getting ira dollars out the door so our farmers and Rural Communities can benefit from these investments. I want to applaud you for this effort and dedication. But can you give us an update on where things stand . 99. 8 was sent out in the ira for 2023 was obligated. Equipped 2000 and her 20 land owners receive contracts. Nearly 8000 applications. The easement program, 69 producers received assistance. 250 applications. My time is getting a bit short here. Let me also ask you, did you meet your spending goals last year . Absolutely the goal is to get the money out the door. At are you on target to spend all you have planned for this year . Yes because the demand is there. And are you still hiring more staff or has howard plateaued . Works because the money and resources in the ira will be able to continue to increase over 1500 new people working at it and we have expanded through Technical Assistance cooperative agreements additional help and assistance. Thank you. I just want to personally thank you for the great work you have done with me and many members on this committee. In making sure 1890 is now permanent into the farmville. And make it permanent. Making sure we have farmers for generations to come. Like to recognize the distinguish gentlemen mr. Lucas for five minutes for. Its a polite way of saying the old guy. Welcome mr. Secretary. And kind of in that role he had an outstanding career to you have been secretary what 10 unless 14 years . Going on 11 for a. That is Pretty Amazing to have been around that long what is sometimes a challenging agency. Directing policy. Your imprint is in a lot of places and i am impressed and i congratulate you for that. I know every administration is different the Obama Administration is different from the trump administration. And in some ways the bite administration is different than obama or trump administration. But with that said mr. Secretary, it is always been clear to me the strongest policies that come out are built from the belief that support Relief Programs must be tied to crop production. When this committee or your agency straight from the principal would begin to walk them unsustainable concerning path. Raise concerns of the Agency Design and implementation of phase two of the Emergency Relief Program for 2021 crop year. Call for a return to the phase one mythology. Your agency would learn from their experiences in the first iteration i would factor it into the administration of the next. Based on the reports erp 2022 has proven to be no better than its predecessor at delivering support to those suffering the greatest crop losses. So my question to you today is exactly where those lessons are agency learn from the administration of 2021 program to change the approach in 2022 while youre thinking about that as a followup what has your agency learned on what are some the changes we can expect to see in future programs administered . One is for congress to give us what we ask for when you give us 30 of what we ask for it we tie the damages are 10 12 billion you basically put us in 3 billion to put us in a tough spot for. Mr. Secretary it would change the programs to screw up the delivery and script the 30 makes it difficult to come back and ask that the 70. It did not screw up at all. 82 of producers receive more assistance and help than they would have based on what you articulated. But the resources on the shelf of federal credit card as the losses were. Is not true, that such a but ill be happy to provide you the specific numbers in your state receive benefits and commodity. Is the goal to give resources to address the disasters by following production . Or is the goal to pick out who is farming so those of a preferred rules and benefit more from Disaster Relief and others . Representative you cannot cherry pick one program you have to look at it in totality. You look at all the resources your producers receive including the Crop Insurance the majority of which switch to the people youre talking about which is a very small subset of the producers we are talking about. I dont mr. Secretary what my producers are telling me. Lets change subjects for just a moment. I understand there is discussion about usda direct loan programs are has been discussion congress to show it for the first and authorize guaranteed loans to direct loans based primarily on decisions by the secretary that loans are distressed about your approach should be such conversions i would say rare and limited . Whatever we do with this effort of the loan portfolio. The tradition of this committee and policy as we have it of guaranteed loans because of Financial Institutions to put skin in the game. There is a greater degree of potential success in the programs by going the guaranteed route as opposed to direct loans if we simply shifted bad direct loans im sorry bad guaranteed loans we are bailing out banks into we are dis incentivize in loan officers. The goal of any effort would be to keep farmers on the land . Not trying to kick them off the land were trying keep them on the land. Excess not who we are talking about. Think the judgment i know recognize the gentleman from california for five minutes of questioning. Thank you very much. And Ranking Members of the committee. Mr. Secretary its always good to have you here. And clearly we are focused on reauthorization of the farmville over five years. It equals reestablished of our priorities in terms of ensuring americas safety net for the production of food and fiber with farmers, ranchers and dirty men and women and as well as those food insecure benefits for the safety gap. A misspeak in california the largest agricultural state fruits and nuts and vegetables are produced 400 different commodities. This farmville is critical and it is important. We must get this done to share print investments made in the Previous Congress are critical to note. Bipartisan infrastructure all the key funding methodologies as example over 1. 15 billion includes water storage 1 billion for rural water projects partnership programs. Want to talk specifically at mre of these investments. I have heard the previous president whos running again, if reelected wants to impose a 10 tariffs acrosstheboard 60 tariffs on chinese goods. Giving our importance of exporting Agricultural Products this would go back to resulting in a trade war would you care to comment on this . And on the impacts . I dont think there is any question. The last time they were assessed it caused great stress in the countryside. Significant impact on the markets, 30 of the product is sold in exports and a significant percentage of that goes to china progress everyone has leverage when you start a turf war. Absolutely pray thats one of the reasons the ccc was strained. 45 billion in the Previous Administration i think he spent 15 billion by comparison, right . Move on to the Disaster Relief on the supplemental appropriations. What would you like us to do Going Forward 2. 8 billing you said three billing and disaster aid obviously did not cover the disasters in 2023. What would you make for the future budget and the reauthorization farmville . Two recommendations. Adequately and fully fund Disaster Assistance. Thats the bottom line, isnt it . Its a lot of money but it is important. Provide the funding. That is correct. About how to create a structured system thats less ad hoc and more permanent. From a Disaster Assistance. I think you are interested in doing that theres some logic and reason for that discussion. The Inflation Reduction Act those monies have gone for good purposes under the Conservation Services as you pointed out to a number of programs that are oversubscribed. Theres some talk about taking those funds and taken for other purposes. What with the view be on that on the farm reauthorization measure question. We feel very strongly to maintain those resources because of demand and the Resources Available to all farms not to a subset of agriculture its important for us to continue investing conservation. It is very, very evident the countryside once these resources because as you indicated they are significantly oversubscribed. Often times under the usda i think it gets overlooked. Climate change and the impact of fires throughout the west, the importance of reauthorization of the farmville and addressed in the hazardous protection. We have a bipartisan bill that would save our sequoias. What is your focus on how we deal with the challenge and force across the country . Is a good down payment. Which is allowing us. Need to continue to fund the effort. My time has expired want you to continue to focus on that. Curcio back bounce of my time. Five minutes of questioning for secretary bill secular secretary in 2010, correct . Yes, sir. 2010 approximately 67 of usda funding and a 33 usda funding went to other sources whether farming commodity or conservation. Is that correct . I do not of the specific numbers. Im sure you do congressman. Is i understand it as of today and expect you will have these numbers. 80 go to snap an approximate 20 would go to all the other expenditures of the usda parties that correct . I dont know if thats correct or not congressman. You are kidding me . Secretary of agriculture you do not know what the pie chart of your budget looks like . I know there is a significant percentage of our budget is focused on nutrition assistance. A multitude of different programs. It is not just snap it is a wick, see school lunch program, at the assistance of food. Im talking food and nutritional programs being 80 for. Is more than snap. Food and nutritional programs are included in the 67 . Okay for. To understand and getting at . What sure absolutely. At least 20 is at 33 for conservation, production agriculture and all the other things usda does just simple math. Less than 10 of total usda funding now is going to go to production agriculture. Is that correct . Congress i dont know if thats correct or not whats the point question or just get your point. My question for you is what percentage of what you received at the usda should actually go to production production agriculture talk about the loss of the family farm. Starving farmers only to plant the food to feed hungry people. The reality is its not about planting food. We are doing a great job of that. American farmers are the best in the world at that we have seen remarkable increase in productivity with inputs basically maintaining theres actually for. Let me it is my time limit read this to you from a good farmer that says this is not someone who inherited this is someone who built their own family farm. This your minds in the early 1980s i had a bit more optimism in my 20s and in my 60s making plans of which preach a plan to sell off and get stable for the bumpy ride for agriculture. This is been the last three years we have record income. No, sir you did not. 21 and 22 were good but toy three was a bad new gloss of the 23 numbers. Know it was above the historic average. Whats a significant fall off progress the past three years in 50 years for sure think the best years from a net cash income ever for. Secretary bill sack of you su talk to the farmers about how much fertilizer costs how much diesel cost about the cost of land rent . What youve done with subsidies . Income the highest ever. Highest ever. The problem is it is concentrated in the hands of the large operators ive got nothing as production agriculture large operators we need them the question is what are we doing about . Secretary bill sec, approximate 90 the food supply comes in about 10 of the farmers. In this country because dont think thats quite accurate but go ahead. What would you say was accurate . I think it is in the neighborhood of 85 or so. 85 comes from 10 of the farms . Thats 85 of food supply for the american citizens. Now your president and newark Vice President do not seem to mind being dependent on foreign sources of energy i could assure the american citizens do not want to be dependent on foreign sources of food. We dont. We are importing more food than we ever have in this country free. We are producing more oil than any other country in the world what are you talking about . Works we are importing more food. Or no, no wait a minute. Lets be clear about what we are importing okay . The major driver of the imports is horticulture. Horticulture. Okay . We are importing more food progress we are importing it because we like to have choice all year long. It is not we are importing it we need to feed our people for. Secretary bill sec you can justify the actions all you need to have you been to the Grocery Store lately quester. Absolute progress what is it cost to date versus before the american reflection plan question equips the good news is and i alluded to. There is no good news there. Food inflation is down here over years 1. 3 the lowest it has been since 2021. It predicts there will be a decrease this year. Another 25 of the backcourt was before yall got there. Of judgments time rapidly on a farm bill that supports small or mediumsized farms. The does it increase hunger in america. And let me just say to the gentleman who just spoke we can support our farmers and hungry families at the same time. This is not an either or situation. And i am grateful mr. Secretary to you into deputy undersecretary dean for all you have done to improve Food Security in this country especially when it comes to improving Food Security for kids over summer months. Making sure summer meals are healthier and more accessible which is good for our kids and good for our farmers. And by the way will save us a lot of money in healthcare cost on the road my republican friends complain about the cost of some of these programs they dont talk about the savings and avoidable healthcare costs that result investing in these programs. We could save money by doing this. I also want to associate myself with the remarks of the Ranking Member mr. Scotts and his comments on snap. The bottom line is the benefit, lets be honest, is inadequate. We want a bipartisan farm bill but my republican friends are proposing cutting snap by 30 billion and prevent future increases. A little bit of the History Lesson here before the pandemic snap on average was about a dollar 40 per person per meal. Then the pandemic came and mr. Secretary you, thankfully using your Authority Congress asked you to use and plus some emergency benefits it was bumped up to about 2. 40 on average per person per meal. Then somebodys emergency benefits expired and now it is down to about 2. 8 per person per meal. Everywhere i go later told by organizations that deal with people that are food insecure it is not enough. It is not enough to put healthy food, nutritious food on the table and yet my friends here advocating not only a cut but preventing any future updates in terms of increases. It does not make any sense to me. I would say to my republican friends you are barely hanging onto your majority by your fingernails. You look at the results of last nights election in new york. Your majority has been ineffective. What you are doing and what you are advocating is highly unpopular. People do not want you to follow maga extremists off a cliff. They want you to focus on helping struggling families instead to put nutritious food on the table. They what us to Work Together on a farm bill that supports our farmers and supports struggling families. And yet what we are seeing here is what weve seen on almost every piece of legislation that is, for this house. I moved to the extreme when it comes to programs that benefit the most vulnerable. Doubt mr. Secretary some on this committee complained you increased snap benefits during the pandemic. I dont think anyone here truly believes a snap of benefits should be based on the cost of a food plan though now be 50 years old. Can you explain why you reevaluate the thrifty food plan . Did you decide that on your own or did republicans and democrats tell you to do that . 2018 farmville under the direction from congress with healthconscious diets for families of low and moderate income. They specifically directed us to use the following. Current dietary guidance, consumption patterns, food composition data in current food prices. We essentially follow that to the teat we as a scientific process and calculate the impact and effect on the food plan to based foundation for snap week concluded the required interest. Or the theoretical effects be to holding the thrifty food plan to the cost of the 2021 plan for their 20, 30, 40 years . Eventually have a food plan are struggling financially. My friends talk about the cost of groceries at the supermarket. Yet there advocating policies that will make it more difficult for people to be able to for those groceries this does not make sense. Investing in these programs and again i applaud you for your leadership on this investing in these Nutrition Programs are not only the right things that we should do because we care about people all people not just people with deep pockets. It will also save our Healthcare System a boatload of money in the future. Also help our farmers and i thank you for your leadership i yield back my time. I think the gentleman from massachusetts. Recognize i do want tos submit for the record document that uses that cbos scores on scorey what is being proposed and providing article one direction in terms of completing a thrifty food plan evaluation consistent with whats been done and that past except for this pastime. It shows the benefits level. And quite frankly there is no intent to cut current benefits this talks about if that proposal would go forward what the benefits of be in the future. Maybe we should hold a hearing on that we respectfully disagree with your conclusion. I am not i am not making things up. Facts are the facts. And also we are willing to share this with any member they would like to have a personal copy of it as well. Now please recognize the gentleman from arkansas the land of rice and ducks mr. Crawford for five minutes for a quick thank you, mr. Chairman, thinking secretary for being here. How often do energy with the president s council of economic advisers . Im sorry how often . Works how often you interact . Works interact with the chair yesterday. I would suggest you are not singing from the same hymnal. You just said inflation was on a downward trajectory when the economic advisors just said Grocery Stores are actually causing inflation to increase and thats a savings as recently as february 1. In fact here is an article i am happy to share with you biden takes aim at grocery chains over food prices. Its says your present bidens printer queue source of overcharging shoppers its food costs remain a burden for consumers in a political problem for the president. He coins the phrase off he coined it but use the phrase shrink inflation to describe how packaging smaller portions and targeting the same price as having an impact on prices at the Grocery Store as well. These accusations and chargers and things of this nature just dont hold water. I think you should probably go revisit the council of economic advisers and maybe ill get on the same page because we are hearing mixed messages from you and the council. There wasnt a question there mr. Secretary. Lester you testify before the committee i asked about texts you mention you preferred a solution with the Farm Work Force Modernization act we all know the bill had significant issues that were unrelated to the adverse wage rates that kept it from becoming law so i dont think though since so the answer to the problem. But since you were here last year my friend mr. Davis and i havent leading the agriculture labor working group. We have been hearing from everyone. Everyone has talked about and want to say everyone im talking what stakeholder groups, egg employers across the country that have come in to share their concerns. The prevailing sentiment was the wage rate continues to be a huge problem the impediment of the Program Georgia for example is seen more than 20 increase in the last two years completely unsustainable to you greet Congress Needs to reform to predict wage levels for employers . It makes sense for congress when theres the farmworker modernization act to fix that and pass it. It will create stability, it would create a range of predictability. But some i ask you this change the subject real quick here. I do not many usda programs and enroll develop their costly and timeconsuming environmental processes and being a categorical exclusion. Two potential borrowers, and grantees i spent much time and money all of it keeps funds being deployed in Rural America. The department of energy is issued rules to charging stations categorically exclude of the dot and the Homeland Security adapted for their department. My question is what steps is usda taking to implement the statutory categorical exclusions listed in the fiscal responsible to act specifically loan guarantees that if no action has been taken yet when can we expect action to be taken by usda and implement those divisions . We use category exclusions on a regular basis and our programs. When theres an opportunity to use it we do use it. Particularly aware of how often we use it in the Forest Service to move processes. 85 of the activities we have done in the last three years have used it. We are not opposed to using it. We look for opportunities to use it. I hope that is true. We have constituents are highly concerned with that. Let me shift gears again. Hopefully i can get an answer on this question. Your comments last month he said quote heres the problem reference prices have a subset of farmers. These comments worry many farmers across my district and across the country moving in the hard work of feeding, clothing the world when i say it farmers in this context those who are producing our food and fiber at scale you focus a lot of your attention on climate. We talk about farmers who often took but usts role in i would call more hobby farmers use our folks i certainly care about do not believe this should be completely ignored that usda programs that many are not fulltime farmers that are truly dependent on income from the farm. That would keep them financially afloat. And our country cannot be dependent on their output which is less than 20 of all Agricultural Production you acknowledge that earlier save my time has run out. I yield back. A generalist time has expired an out record as a gentle lady from virginia for five minutes for. Thank you very much mr. Chairman thank you secretary bill sector being here. I come from virginia are number one industry is agriculture. At a visceral reaction when they talk about hobby farmers and those who do not make farming the fulltime income. I represent so many of those farmers and the reason farming may not be there fulltime income is because they cannot afford to do it. We have small generational family farms that frankly many of the Conservation Programs have helped the farmers i represent save and make more productive. I will give a specific example i was out visiting a farm in Caroline County and a farmer said he has 1000 acres of cereal right he did testing, this was last year, they found right roots 7 feet deep that was after 34 days without rain. He said that cover crop usage and their use of no till practices the cover crop land never gave up an inch is the soil is rich. His ability to produce on that land is made possible according to the farmer by his usage of Conservation Programs that are made possible because of these federal programs. So i am grateful you are here to speak to a whole variety of issues and i am proud we were able to invest in Conservation Programs that usda through the Inflation Reduction Act because in fact we know there are so many more farmers like the one i just mentioned who want to participate in these programs. That lower input costs increase their bottom line and make farming possible in communities like those i represent. So many are turned away because elective funding. So im pleased to see according to new usda report on funding and ira implementation virginia has already received nearly 8 million in funding that goes directly to farmers across our commonwealth who want them to increase their productivity it is obviously increase. There is still a great deal to do. Weve increased the number of people working. The cooperative agreement so we have a broader reach so those that may not be able to understand their, qualify for the program are finding out about the program, finding out about the system and participating. Farmers in this country today require off farm income to be able to keep the farm. With all due respect its not about these farmers at about those that love what theyre doing and would love to do more, but they dont have the income streams that support it so they have to have an off farm job. The key is creating those for more revenue. It is an opportunity for that farm to qualify for ecosystem market. They will get an environmental payment. There are a multitude of other strategies. They are important for allowing those to occur. In that vein, how can congress continue supporting whether through flexibility, you mentioned additional staffing, what else needs up and to expedite these funds getting out the door . A budget that does not require us to cut staff. You said it before, but how much staff you have to cut because of the budget challenges they talk about an 18 cut to our budget so you can do the math. Yes. Thank you. Please continue. Maintain the funding. Get a budget. Passe farmville. I think to a certain extent the smarts because that is also tied to the conservation activities and programs. We saw a tremendous demand for that. Just in closing, related to the challenges in the Grocery Store, i received a message from a darling constituent he was speaking, i for one still find it amazing you can buy pineapple in january for a dollar 29 on sale of the Grocery Store in january. Thank you for serving this incredible country. Thank you. Thank you for coming and visiting with us. With the record in flux of the crossings at the southern border , i was wondering what steps you are taking to mitigate potential strain on the snap program. People are crossing the border are not qualified for snap and are participating in snap. The usda service on the onset ineligibility, noncitizens with no waiting. About 13 but i will just read a few. Under 18 years of age. Under 18 qualifies without a waiting period. Refugees submitted under section 207 victims of trafficking and trafficking victims under the act, unfortunately, there are a lot of them. You have to agree that almost everyone coming into the country is either seeking Refugee Status , asylum status or under 18. The fact that they are seeking asylum does not mean that they qualify. 42 Million People on snap now roughly 10 million crossing over if we plan a five year farmville , we need transparency in order to make sure people are taking care of. There is a shortfall this year and funding for the snap program. There has been fraud that if you go to social media, what is the rate in the snap program the group first thing is 1. 5 . Then i go to the past year and i would like to introduce this into the record, this article, gobbling up one fifth of snap benefits. Congress must act to stop it. Ten times more than what we are led to believe if you read social media. I am not trying to be confrontational. Weve had lively discussions in this committee that republicans apparently dont care about. I am just saying that they plan this effectively, you need to address these issues for real. People do not receive snap benefits that your own usda says that they do. You can say those numbers are not correct. Lets be clear about this. I am saying that people that are not here legally are not allowed to participate in snap. I will old knowledge we have worked to deal. It is our partners that have work to do. It is a states encouraging them to get back to interviewing folks. States are resisting that. I spent time encouraging them to do a better job overseeing this program. We need to keep an eye on fraudulent activities. Im just afraid hungry americans will not receive the benefits that they need. Getting real numbers and transparency. I hope that some of my letters and questions will be answered. We talked about walking horse industry in tennessee before you and i. There is a proposed rule currently being reviewed by omb. We hope that the supporters could come to an agreement on how to best move forward. I am curious if you have ever been to the walking course celebration in shelbyville . This summer chairman thompson in representative joined us at the stable and i think it is fair to say he was a supporter. They had a great experience. They both rolled walking horses and they could handle both of these guys. I would love to invite you guys down. I know that the celebration will be coming this summer so i like to give you a standing innovation to come and join us. Ill look at it your self. Thoroughbreds dropping dead on the tracks at all three major races. Ive never seen a walking course drop dead. The fact is it is living in the past. I would love for you to come and see what a wonderful industry this is. I yield back. A pretty smooth ride. Now i am pleased to recognize doctor from colorado. Thank you, chairman thompson. Ranking member scott for hosting todays hearing. Six months since we were in this room because of the dysfunction and inability to do a very basic job. Interfering with discussions. I think all of our districts have been waiting for us to have thank you, mr. Secretary for being here this morning. As you know, congress did make incredible investments before the 118th to expand clean energy and Rural America. We appreciate the work and youre listening to Rural Americans when assigned to this program. I know in colorado i heard overwhelming interest in the Rural Energy Program which includes reaps, pacing the empowering Rural America program for america. Representing jobs and Economic Growth in my district and i was very pleased to see projects for the new era program. Because of the popularity they are dramatically over subscribed. I believe it shows how important this program is for cooperatives across the country regardless of politics and how important it is for this investment. It is great to highlight the excitement across the company. Can you share an update on how we may see this start to move forward in the process . We are in the process of treating treating seven of the numbers that were submitted. In an effort to try to determine which of these programs are feasible from a technical standpoint and from a financial standpoint. We will basically compare those rankings and resources to what is available. To assert whether or not affect the project is worthy. I think our goal in the meantime is reprogram over 5000 awarded. We will seek wards on a quarterly basis. You will see it sometimes this ring. I really appreciate that update. They have extended a huge amount of effort and time to get these programs up and running. Program applicants have spent a lot of time and capital to write and submit applications. Could you estimate the implications and costs of reopening and amending these programs at this stage where usda has began to review applications . I dont think were in a circumstance where real we reopen. Taking a look at what additional projects could be funded. We have a limited resource and were working under the constraints of those resources. Thank you. I appreciate that. I would like to reiterate the programs of the usda. At commissioners here for my district that showed a steady increase after shown since a pandemic that is unprecedented with no sign of slowing down. Applications of one of the largest counties in my district are up 20 . They are not down. It is very important to remember the implications of snap. First of all who gets snap. It is 96 of snap participants are u. S. Citizens. Only 4 are not citizens and 3 are lawful permanent residence. As a pediatrician, 42 are children. Like the ones that i find every day two thirds of the kids that i saw did not have enough to eat an upper snap would not have had anything to eat. Can you quickly expand more on the impact of snap on families and the children that we always report to care about in this congress . Research that indicates that it is one of the most did not most effective that we have. When you provide adequate snap benefits, families purchase more nutritious food. I thank you for the support you give to those children. You are recognized for five minutes. They can survive their own slaughter together. The smaller ones go out of business in the bagel bigger ones get bigger. Chicken plants across the country for more than 25 years through the ffi speedway. Operating up to 175 birds a minute. Therefore millions to supply the poultry needed and maintain workers safety and standards all the same. Positive results led to the new poultry Inspection System today 47 plants. Fans all across North Carolina have built operations to support increased capacity implants have designed staffing and Facility Needs across these speeds. These increase put in place. Down 91 compromising workers safety. 2020 proposed rule for new technologies increasing speeds. It was appealed by this situation. In forming companies to keep them they were required to opt in conducted outside of the agency. A noncompetitive bid. A member is from a landgrant institution with knowledge from the industry. Our associates of the university of california system. Now, a member of that study testified against the Company Participating in the study. Each plant visit that far exceeds the scope of the study. There is a clear buys it bias against the industry and leads any objective observer to the conclusion this is a gotcha invitation. Can you submit and are you willing to submit in writing how much is being spent for this study for the source of that and how the team members were selected. They were associated with the university of california. I would be happy to respond to questions. Fair to say that there is litigation driving a lot of this effort. Issues have raised concern the data and the significant data to be able to support where the wind speeds are in fact a result of additional worker injury or not. If they are not then they continue. If they are then there will have to be some adjustment. We dont have all of the data that we need. That is the reason why we have entered into an agreement with the producers. This is not a situation where they had the choice. They had the choice. They chose not to participate in this study. They chose to participate in the study in good faith and has turned into something that they did not anticipate. I dont think that you should prejudge the study. It has not been concluded yet. The old adage personality is here. Usda is currently this is specific to alcohol. The knowledge support any changes to the dietary guidelines. How was the Technical Committee process ensuring that this mandate is followed. Have you been following that . It is outside of the dietary guidelines. This takes it outside. An effort for a deeper review. I just mention this. It is a product that is used for adult beverages that have a great interest in this and i would like to follow up with some written questions as well. I yield back, mr. Chairman. Please recognize a congresswoman from illinois. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, secretary, for joining us here today. I want to just take a moment to say again thank you so much for joining me last summer at the Farm Progress show. Last fall as a response to what i had heard in my district in central and southern illinois, i read a letter to the congressman along with the democrats to the committee outlined a shared priority to protect the Inflation Reduction Act for the conservation fund. These funds have provided a historic investment into our farms and have already served many Rural Farmers in my home state of illinois. I was also very excited to see that 100 of the obligated dollars made it into the hands of farmers in illinois and to my colleagues encouraging for the new Inflation Reduction Act that the usda put out yesterday to see the difference of the ira in the home state. I also want to take a moment to celebrate the 2022 yesterday. Champaign county in the 13th Congressional District, my district was a top 10 producer both horn and soybeans in the United States. I want to central theme creating opportunity i build to improve land access to increase Research Funding at usda and expand were farmers. All of which i hope will be part of the farm bill. How the Inflation Reduction Act funding for Climate Smart conservation has created opportunities for farmers. I think that they are deeply interested in doing more about this. That is why they responded to Additional Resources. This tremendous initiative. We saw over a billion dollars of requests for about 400 million. Farmers are responding we saw the same reaction to the Climate Partnership initiative where they are utilizing Conservation Programs and the result of that provides a Market Opportunity for them. Thank you. I just had another question. In 2022 of every application across the country were denied. Only about half of all of those not funded. I consistently hear from farmers in my district that they want better access to these programs. Farm and demand meeting or even exceeding expected outlays of money to bridge this gap. I think that there are two issues here. Making sure that there is adequate staff to help the farmers decide what they need to deal. They need to make sure that the resources are there. A third issue has cropped up. Trying to figure out ways in which we can speed up the process. They have streamlined the process. They have looked at ways in which they can have preapproval so they can get into the field more quickly than in the past. Trying to meet the need. If you take resources that will affect our ability to do more work. Thank you. I yield back, mr. Chairman. I now recognize the gentleman from mississippi for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I first want to say i concur with almost everything that was said. Usda and more countries to continue to breathe the benefits of operating at higher speeds, bringing more during historic inflation a record high food prices, they had to opt into this study. Researchers were evidenced by the chicken industry. Yet when rating from usda food and Safety Inspection service constituent update of july 2022 access establishments of a current line speed waiver must agree to provide worker safety data in order to reach a modified flavor. It contradicts the narrative that plants were allowed to opt into this study on a voluntary basis. Usda demands they have participated the speed. A decision. Taking a significant amount offline. They have been subject to researchers in the plans that are going far beyond their intended purpose of determining what threat if any. It is clearly not voluntary. There is litigation. Essentially, in an effort to try to avoid a complete shutdown by court order of lane speed increases, we basically created the opportunity for folks to continue to convince the court that this was a good faith effort on whether there were unsafe practices involved. If we had done what you were expecting, what would have happened is judges would have to shut down. They would have slowed their lives down. Everyone has slowed their lines down. Do not assume the outcome of this study occurs. When an inspector comes in they find what they are looking for. Looking for certain things whether they are or not. I do expect the good or bad depending on the intent of the inspector. Next question. I have heard from many about constant challenges with the program regarding regulations and rules issued by the department of labor. One of which issued almost a year ago. Workers based on their daily job function. The potential to double wage rights for employers. Trying to track the work of every employee throughout the day through each task that they do. It was a general wage rate being applied to a variety of jobs. We are much more complex. Trying to respond the value of that service. They kind of went overboard here. The high disadvantage here trying to put them at a disadvantage. Picking up potatoes. Digging up sweet potatoes. I need you to drive a pickup truck to pick up a part. The rate of us truck driver at 40 an hour instead of 20 an hour. Driving a pickup truck is not driving a big truck, but they still classify you as a truck driver. You have to be paid that wage for the remainder of the day in the remainder of the time that they worked there. They would have had to deal with this. We did not make this rule. In a sense you made it by not creating the opportunity for structured Stable Secure predictable system. The secretary of agriculture, it seems to me that anyone would have a layman understanding of how problematic and how burdensome this is to our operators. They literally cannot compete. When you have to track every task. We have will have more people tracking that we do actually doing the work. I yield back. Pleased to recognize the gentle lady from maine. Congresswoman for five minutes. Thank you very much, mr. Chair. Thank you so much, mr. Secretary for being here today. I appreciate all the things you have been talking to us about. As a member of the appropriations committee, i just want to thank everyone for reminding that passing the appropriations bill is critically important. We will all talk about the importance of getting a farm bill done. We have to remember that we need the funding for your agency as well and the 18 cut that was proposed is ludicrous. I am counting on my good friend for fixing all of that before we take it to the floor. Lets see if we can eventually get that to the floor. They had some horrendous that caught our forestry and farming folks really impacting our state with the flooding antiwind. Showing you noise a dairy farmer in albion, maine, plus two buildings and a roof. He would not be sure if he would get the roof replacement. We had two more storms back to back that really impacted our coastline. That was our working waterfront and fishing communities. More significant damage. This was not the only bad weather we had had. We had wet weather in the summer such Poor Condition that our Dairy Farmers and Livestock Farmers have to supplement the diet this winter with increase grain and corn silage. A cup tenured impact on our farmers. I just want to talk a little bit about the tools that you are trying to be more resilient. Disaster relief aid. We appreciate your request for more that. It is getting more and more expensive. What you are doing is trying to prevent the disasters that we are facing in terms of how farmers deal with drought and flooding. Talking about the work you are doing to help farmers have more resilient fields in deal with some of this adverse weather. I would say three or four steps that we are taking. Focusing some of our Research Efforts on what exactly what works and does not work in the field. Creating a more resilient farming operation. Certainly encouraging the investment in our research initiatives. Secondly, the commodity across United States all major commodities looking at 205 different practices to determine the viability of those practices in terms of resiliency and sustainability. We will learn a lot from that experience. One hundred universities minority universities involved in that effort. We are starting to see a lot of interest in that. We mentioned today a number of times the ira and the investments in conservation whether it is via clip or csp are from a largescale landscape basis. It also is, i think, significant. We are also using our Risk Management tools to encourage more cover crop activity by providing incentives for the crop in this most recent indicates it beginning to work at the cover crop activity. And its across the board. Trying to make sure that we are good partner with farmers, ranchers and producers. Thank you for that. I know it comes off. The Community Credit corporation and having that flexibility. Sometimes its talked about like it is a sacred cow. How you are putting it to beneficial use. Doing the research and the projects at all different scales across the country so people of examples of what to deal. So, thank you for that. One more specific question on the organic Market Development funding. I know you talked a lot about how you get farmers extra income and growing organic produce or organic food for the market. I am really pleased to see that the usda is providing 10 grants to address gaps in the organic market like processing transporting and consumer markets. Can you tell us a little bit about the demand for the program where it is coming from and how it can support more that . The American Rescue plan provided resources for us to establish a Marketing Assistant program. The application is Still Available i think through october of this year. Offsetting the control of marketing. We really wanted to take a look at trying to right size you will the size and demand. We have awarded a number of entities, resources to be able to tell us how do we create demand. How do we make sure that demand is being created with supply. Or how do we have this where we already had demand. We have also created a transition program. Making it easier for people that want to become organic producers to be able to do so with mentoring, assistance on costs with the transition and some Risk Management opportunities as well. Thank you. I have gone over my time. I appreciate it, mr. Chair. Welcome to mr. Secretary. Appreciate you being here today. An article published weapon icing and air force Lieutenant Colonel sure meant and the Social Security food supply and its findings are disturbing. I would like to submit that for the record, this article. Without objection. Cybersecurity one of the most pressing threats to our agriculture. Russia known for targeting cloud infrastructure, for example. Industry leaders like jps or statesponsored attacks. Mr. Secretary, ive been working on a bill called the agricultural security act of 2024. A Land Grant Institution across the nation with the purpose of the Cyber Threats to american agriculture. Structured and operated like the dod. They show a lot for the military would this move us in the right direction for cybersecurity . What will they do if it is adequately funded . I think that you are right to put a spotlight on this. They are already doing some of this. Maybe not as coordinated fashion as they need to. We are really focused on making sure that the private sector is hardening their assets. Hardening their it against these kinds of attacks. Obviously, you mentioned jps. When Something Like that happens our role and responsibility is for the market of a disruption, a significant disruption. Needing an industry to remind them of the importance of investing in protection. There is an interagency effort in this administration to focus on cybersecurity in particular. From the food safety to snap bias to market manipulation for the policy. It is a very successful, they have to be funded. I hear this from nebraska producers. In your home state as well in iowa. We dont hear much on the administration of trade. Just like iowa, nebraska is very dependent on beef, pork, corn, wheat, exports. What is the administration doing and clearing up the misperception. First of all, it was mentioned by representative scott. The promotion program. Nearly 1 billion being requested. Senator bozeman. To invest in trade. Focusing on diversification of the Market Opportunity. Over reliance from an egg perspective. We want to put resources to increase our presence and promotions and or partnerships and a number of countries particularly in southeast asia. Number one. Number two, i think the focus people have when they defined trade for these agreements, you dont have trade Promotion Authority. It is very difficult to imagine. When the people were negotiating 535 folks i can negotiate again. In the meantime, we are working on trying to reduce barriers. Roughly 21 billion of opportunities maintained as a result of wind looking at the result of reducing trade barriers. Canada and the clean fuel regulations. Japan beef quote. Higher blend ethanol availability. India preservation of apples expanded cherry access philippine expanded access to port it china almonds recently. Apples and pears. A whole series of things over the last few years. An impact to either protect or expand great opportunities. We are considering reverse trade where we bring people from other countries here in the u. S. A combination of many things that do not necessarily get deadlines. The iowa farmers, we like to feed the world. Thank you. I yield back. Recognizing that gentle lady from washington state. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here. We had a small visitor to our district. We had a really productive conversation around trade and foreign access to our apple growers. Washington state particularly on the west side is dominated by much smaller producers. Average size about 158 acres. Much smaller. We are losing a lot of our small and mediumsize producers you may be familiar with. At the same time, i am seeing really troubling reports. On average the American Consumer for the fresh fruits and vegetables are from overseas. They are trade partners here. This paints a really troubling picture that our smaller producers are really in trouble. I am getting squeezed out of the market. I have a farm system that has mediumsize farms to thrive. Agro tourism or valueadded propositions to survive. They should not be necessary. I am asking, what are your thoughts on this . What are they currently doing to support the stability and viability of the small and mediumsize producers. How can congress be a better partner in this work . Id be happy to come to your office to give you a rather extensive discussion about what we are doing. Helping smaller size producers get a valueadded proposition. Qualifying for Service Markets and when they do the right conservation in a conservation benefit where we question what they are getting paid for. The Renewable Energy to reduce the cost of electricity in producing excess electricity which will be combined with neighbors to provide a transition for the Rural Electric cooperative energy commodity. Expanded access to local processing over 400 programs for projects invested by usda. Your director of agriculture in washington with millions of dollars encouraging them to have direct connection in contracts with local producers, small producers to provide the fruits and vegetables for schools in the food banks. Using our procurement dollars as well for that purpose. Reducing fertilizer costs with new fertilizer capacity in the u. S. It is a broad array of strategies and the goal is to create new income streams. It is not just the commodity that they are selling that they have to survive on. They also have an off farm job. The question is, do we have to have this job or can we figure out the way the farm have three or four different sources of income simultaneously. I would be more than happy. We are very excited for the processing in particular. Thank you for the support they are. I want to thank gears a little bit. The wildfire crisis. The Forest Management activities including. There working in conjunction with other tools for habitat restoration. Making sure they can have safe and resilient for rural economies. They updated the max rule to tighten air quality standards. The impact this new rule will have on the product and industry to conduct burdens. When i burn the bacon it is probably reaching air quality standards that may trigger in my house. We lost 731 acres. I want to make sure that we are utilizing every tool at our disk also. Can you speak to how they are working together to promote the use of prescribed fire and generally how can we be better partners when tackling the water the crisis. The epa to avoid the restriction on the use of prescribed fire as it relates to that particular regulation. That is a result for recently concluded and signed mou. We had our wildfire crisis for investing resources from the infrastructure law and the ira for more hazardous fuel reduction. By developing the Timber Products and what innovation. Thank you, secretary, i yield back thank you for being here. Weve had productive conversations. Unfortunately for a lot of Different Reasons the value of timber sales decreased for the last information i just saw 480 different units failed to meet their targets in the last five years. Black Hills National forest this is important to us. We were proud to host the First Federal timber sale. We have been dealing with these issues for a long time. What can we do to gather to better hit, better provide these forest the treatment that they need. I think there are two issues here. It is directly designed to increase where it needs to be increased catastrophic fire. That will take us through a couple of years. It will take a decade or more. I know it has been an issue and literally in that mill to south dakota. Continuing to do that. I do want to give you kudos for that. When i first concept, the idea that there would be timber from elsewhere brought in, i thought there was no way the democracy would make that happen. A testament to you and the team. Telling me that you want to get this thing done, or timber sales , more treatments for us. I think it seems like there is a lot of holdups. It feels like bureaucracy down the food chain. Continuing to look forward to you and your team. Maybe heading more the center of the target. Talking about obviously this country has a lot of great poultry producers. In south dakota we have a lot of turkeys and a lot of pheasants. 81 million dead birds as a result. I think that it is a terrible situation. Just devastating the industry and devastating to these growers that as of right now are the only real solution will be have an outbreak. A total deep. Talk to us a little bit mr. Secretary about the vaccine solution. We are not unduly harmed trade so that we can have some alternative to dual total deep. Asking a pretty tricky question there. By adding that trade piece. Clearly a distinction between if you are broiler in a broiler industry thats a concern. If you are in the turkey industry for here we are. This is where we are with vaccines. Probably 18 months or so away from being able to identify a vaccine that would be effective for this particular that we are dealing with now. You have to basically create a vaccine that is available for all strains. There is that issue. The second issue is how do you deliver the vaccine. For the less expensive required. Talking about hundreds of thousands. That is distributing the vaccine and then the other issue is, whether or not you can get to a point whereby vaccinating you can distinguish a bird that has been vaccinated. We are working on that. There is a commitment to get it done. There is a commitment to begin the conversation on the trade side to begin asking our trade partners how do you feel about this. What are your concerns about it. So that we eventually, sometime down the road get to a point where i think that you want us to be. It is very complex and it will take some time. Talking 1218 months. Just to get the vaccine for this particular type. We still have work to be done on how to actually administer it. We are nowhere near the standpoint of trade. We vaccinated today a number of trading partners say we are not interested in your chickens. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. I recognized doctor adams of North Carolina for five minutes of questions. Thank you as well to the Ranking Member. Good morning, secretary. Thank you for coming back to testify. I appreciate the range of issues you have raised today and i want to follow up on them again. The usda purchasing power. Competition and distributing resources and disadvantage farmers. I especially appreciate you naming Food Insecurity as an issue. It is how we approach the farm bill. We pay for proposals that suggest that requiring it be health cost neutral and evaluations on 30 billion over the convection on these proposals by a talking point that says that i worried that it is not true. Fully from future benefits and calling them savings including that there would be no cut, i think that it is adjusted disingenuous. Helping to determine the amount of dollars that our neighbors enrolled in the program each month for the check out. In my district, participants in my initiative who represent over 30,000 people on snap, celebrated the longoverdue reevaluation in 2021 and they fear any threats of keeping it uptodate in perpetuity could spell trouble. I understand that doing previous reevaluations and administrative decisions was made to hold them cost neutral. The consequences resulted in assumptions about how low income families would have to stretch their food budgets for 2021. The food land assumed we could dive the same when including 4 pounds of potatoes, 25 pounds of milk, 20 pounds of orange juice, 5 pounds of fresh oranges i dont think any of us could reasonably eat a diet consisting of this for long periods of time my question, how holding the food plan reevaluations cost neutral impact the ability of the thrifty and therefore snap benefits to be based on a realistic food plan encoded undermine our ability to approve the diet to make it more and more difficult for them to afford more expensive but critical foods like fruits and vegetables. The only data point that i have is the fact that when we basically looked at the thrifty food plan based on what is actually happening for American Families at the Grocery Store based on data that was specific based on the scanner activities and information, what we saw was we were underfunding the foundation of the snap program to the tune of 20 something percent. I think the challenge and the problem is if you maintain a steady course you will transition away from looking at what is happening and over time you will create a benefit that will not adequately support the families that need the help. Switching gears a little bit. An ongoing commitment to the 1890 and 1994 landgrant universities. Improving your work on nexgen. For too long these institutions have been underfunded. Can you discuss briefly how you would ensure that the 1890s have this conversation about future Research Education and extension priorities . We take a look at ways in which we can incorporate. All Minority Serving Institutions. They have taken full advantage. You mention the Nexgen Program our scholars programs at record levels. We have increased research. We have established for sectors of excellence. Most recently the nutrition. We are looking at the possibility of the veterinarian school. I think a lot of exciting opportunities for us to continue investing. We obviously need a budget and we need a farm bill to continue. Thank you very much. Fortyyear professor of hbc you. I appreciate all of your support mr. Chairman, i yield back. Recommending the chairman from iowa. Thank you for being here. We have a lot of commonalities. You been our governor for many years. I just want to talk about what is happening in iowa a little bit. I was in boyne avesta county talking to 250 pork producers on friday evening. I am hearing this all over. We talked about prop 12. My question is, what are you hearing from our trading partners like canada and other trading partners . Are they concerned about trade disputes . Will this be a big issue because of prop 12 . Congressman, it is been raised with our conversation with the canadian minister. They want to have some clarity on how we are responding to this obviously, we are in a relatively early phase of all of this. I will tell you that we are looking at ways in which we can help and assist the pork industry. We recently purchased roughly 100 million of pork products in our feeding programs using the ccc in section 32. The good news is weve seen a significant increase in pork exports. There is a lot of work to still do to help in the system. I think we will go through bumpy here where farmers basically have to make a decision about whether they will participate in the market or whether they will be more localized. One of the reasons we focused on the system so you have an option and you dont have the participate in the National System they have the opportunity to sell directly to your school, and institutional purchaser. I just wanted on the forefront. Prop 12. We had to do our work. You hit on something. The trade community, we are going so much extra corn. Going to ethanol. We have a lot of pork. You know, going to mexico and stuff. Yet i look at the administration and say, we dont have any new trade agreements in the last few years. How can the usda help on the Free Trade Agreement and how can we expand export markets. We dont have a place to go for. There is a lot of competition. Claiming that the x extra market we used to have. One of the reason why it is steeper is because folks in the set past invested more fully and completely in the infrastructure and allow them to completely squeeze the difference in the gaps we had. The law allowing us to reclaim the competitive edge. Number two, the reality is, i have a hard time understanding the focus on trade agreements when i am pretty confident and maybe im wrong about this, but do you believe you can pass the trade Promotion Authority in this congress . Can you pass that authority . If you cant, why not. People have an attitude about trade that requires us to rebuild Peoples Trust in trade. Farmers understand it. They absolutely understand it. I just look at the uk. They are doing individual trade agreements with eggen other states. I just wish that our federal government was more engaged. We are engaged. It is not just trade agreements. It is breaking down their years. A lot has occurred. We have 21 billion of trade winds in the last few years. The other issue is china. Lets be honest about this. I spoke to the coop agreement yesterday. The number one customer. If you started criticizing your number one customer, how long would you be able to have that number one customer. I have one question for you. Obviously going back, 70 seconds left. Do you feel confident, people i do. I do. I do. I do because we have good people assuring it does not get into the country and we have good people that are doing the research and the vaccine and all of that and so, you know, we will have it at kansas at our impasse and am confident. Thank you. It is crucial to all families that House Democrats are committed to upholding this farm bill, nutrition. At the usda you award a billions of dollars annually to support the nutritional needs of americans from all walks of life. I especially want to commend your committed commitment across leadership supported programs that serve all americans regardless of the circumstances paired with so much on your plate is something sick and both of the crooks. In particular im referring and produce, Prescription Program. These programs provide critical assistance to americans that need to stretch their step dollars further. Both the patient medical complications on poor nutrition. Each of these programs usda policies than frozen. Despite the best science showing no nutritional difference, i am concerned by this because we know frozen is often better for folks it keeps for longer and provides more variety. Now i have no issue with fresh so do not get me wrong. But if we want these programs to be accessible and be accessible for as many people as a possible we should have parity between fresh and frozen thats why introduce the bipartisanship act supporters in the senate. The lack of parity impression frozen in these programs last year you said you would get back to us. My question mr. Secretary is whether you will commit to increasing equity in these programs by evaluating establishing a parity between fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables and the protas Prescription Program . Congress moment i am happy to commit to encouraging those who use our Nutrition Programs to consider and participate fruit and vegetable consumption. I would be more than happy to talk to you about what parity means how it would act and react in terms of our prescription produce a program for example where we are working with pediatricians and physicians. How it would work with our program where we essentially provide resources, how it would work its mostly fresh fruit and vegetables. There isnt any frozen vegetables available. So when you promote a Farmers Markets are you suggesting you not promote the Farmers Market . At or below poverty and because of that my district probably and disproportionate way is in more in need of access to fruits and vegetables. What we typically see you dont have big rushers. Ipo deficits and my district. What happens is they dont necessarily always have Grocery Stores and if they do have Grocery Stores those. Grocery stores. Nessus we have fresh fruits and veggies. But that matter if i can use my snap benefits i get fresh broccoli, but the only place i can go to is a Convenience Store have a frozen broccoli why is that i cant go to the Convenience Store . What is going to happen is im now but in the situation where i have to go to an area and which they have fresh fruits and veggies set of being able to use for cracks on more than happy to work with you on that issue. That is a slightly different issue at a slightly different responses but one is basically taking a look at what Convenience Stores have to offer to qualify for the snap program. The other aspect of this is how we might be able to use the Healthy Food Financing Initiative that supports Corner Stores creating a broader access to healthier foods. How we might be able to Work Together to make sure frozen vegetables are part of what they are able to provide a very. Quick say thank you that. We use it for a general example but over all if its a Grocery Store i want people to be able to choose a frozen. The most appetizing fresh food sometimes. But im going to move onto another issue that is specifically super important to texas. That is the summer ebt program for whatever reason my home state of texas is having problems standing that out. What other states are refusing to see children some rotunda books are 14 states we will get you a list. Nebraska briefly aside to come into the program so 14 states. Thank you. But its a gentle lady yields back. Place reckonings a gentleman from kansas for five minutes of questions. Thank you. Mr. Chairman and secretary, thank you for being here this morning. As you know i represent the big First District in kansas the number white beef sorghum and wheat producing district in the country. As the subcommittee chairman for the livestock dairy and poultry subcommittee i am concerned with several proposed rules that would impose nonsensical and costly regulations on egg producers in my district and across the country at yesterdays backers extend well beyond the bounds of congressional intent and ignore legal precedent to the net usda Safety Inspection services, salmonella Regulatory Frameworks as left the industry scrambling for answers the federal government should either support producers or get out of their way. I look forward to working with my colleagues to craft and maintain sound competence of livestock policy that honors the work every link of the Agricultural Supply chain. Mr. Secretary, first question on january 24 sent a final rule out that would require electronic identification for traceability its at requisite for official interstate movement of certain cattle and bison bird and he said the goals here my question is what are the plans for mitigating the cost to producers and other entities like sale barns to comply with the rules . To support Market Opportunities. If we cannot trace it back quickly it destroys the entire market i would think this is a relatively small cost associated with this. The reality is if congress was to provide us the resources to provide reimbursement we are more than happy to do that. This is a very important markets protective measure to make sure we can respond quickly to an outbreak, whatever it might be to be able to isolate, quarantine and prevent an entire market destruction. I agree. Weve got to think how does that impact our producers on the ground . The second question as we work to prevent outbreaks at home we have to protect the u. S. Food supply introduction of diseases from our trading partners. Recently issued a final rule allowing for the importation of beef from paraguay despite paraguays long history of foot and mouth disease. Some necessary means to fund foot and mouth the key disease measures and how would they ensure there is no Safety Measures . We spent eight years look at this issue. By faith and confidence. Their multiple audits of the system. We are convinced their system is equivalent in terms of their ability to detect, their ability to quarantine, their ability to respond quickly. We have also put a series of conditions on the importation. The beef cannot come from a facility that has ever ever had any fmd. It cannot come from a region that has have fmd in the last years inspected both before and after slaughter. We are confident a system that ensures protection but ive got to have confidence in the folks when they tell me after eight years of study they are equivalent. Last question i am sure you know epa recently proposed a rule that would impact the effluent limitation guidelines and standards for meat and poultry processing. For epas own estimates go potentially close between 16 and 53 meat poultry rendering facilities. Meanwhile usda spent hundreds of millions of dollars to expand meats and poultry Processing Capacity for the epa console with the usda on the impact of the role prior to its publication . How do you plan to engage . We provided information and data in an effort to try to bolster the least restrictive option the three options as you know that they proposed. We provided information in an effort to try to bolster the least restrictive option they have identified. It is frustrating for me taxpayers micro spending all this money to try to improve capacity and enhance capacity which we should. The same time epas putting down regulation. In pushing and pulling on the other. In the notion of using american grown commodities to feed hungry people around the world. Can you speak to the importance of u. S. Grown commodities in International Food programs . Which is also authorizing the farm bill . Is a for progress. Its a critical component of the bill hammers and trust if we get replenished. That week Food Insecurity. I agree, thank you mr. Term i yield backward. A break and its a judgment from california for five minutes per. Think it mr. Chairman. If anybody knows the federal government and the usda and even congress, it is you. So i really appreciate your wisdom and your leadership in the capacity that you are in. You have a former of staffer of mine i definitely know you are in good hands. Secretary vilsack i represent what many call paradigm under california. Agriculture is the number one industry. When i meet with growers and producers and my district they consistently bring up labor shortages. We agree finally getting the bipartisan Farm Workforce modernization act enacted into law is essential and there are also additional tools that would help farmers with their labor challenges included many and it usda purview. How can we support producers through the farmville to address labor shortages and Good Investments in research. Our future workforce development. Were looking at robotics in an effort to try to make their systems more efficient. In the meantime we have started at usda a farm laborer laborstabilization pilots we tok 65 million from the American Rescue plan. Put on the table as producers of all sizes large and small what would they do with this resource to recruit and retain our workforce from the northern triangle countries of mexico . We were impressed with the reaction and response to this. Entities that wanted a couple of workers. Two entities that wanted hundreds of workers. Each and every single one of them we gave them options of a very basic program. For the working conditions the wage levels and so forth will be significantly higher. The basic program will be the more Popular Program in terms of application. It turns out know, people were more interested in the silver and gold programs. We had former applications in that space. Think it is important for us to look from that experience to help inform policy in the future. Thank you. Mr. Secretary, Climate Change continues to be an issue for farmers and growers throughout the country. As you may recall last year at this Time Atmospheric storms to the Central Coast leaving an estimated 2. 4 billion in damages and crop loss. Once again the Central Coast was hit with funds earlier this month. What reforms can congress do in the upcoming farmville to help protect producers against Climate Change . There are a couple of things but obviously are going to learn a lot from the Climate Smart in terms of strategies, Conservation Programs farmers can used to make their firms more resilient. We will encourage sorting from that experience and also preserving the ira resources conservation resources. I think the chairman is right and his concern about disaster and trying to get away from the ad hoc programs we have had in the past. Sometimes they are adequately funded and sometimes they are not. To have a more permanent Disaster Assistance program we provide some predictability and stability in that area. And certainly look forward to working with everyone to try to figure out what that looks like. In addition its important to look at Crop Insurance. It continues to be a very important mechanism. We have seen an expansion of the significant expansion of the number policies and commodities that are now covered by Crop Insurance that were not a couple of years ago. Modifications to the programs, ways in which the Risk Management tool can be used to encourage the actions and steps on the farm to create greater resilience its a combination of things we need to probably look at. Thank you i will just say Crop Insurance needs to also make sure that it grows in the areas of specialty crops which often times are left behind. We have seen for get Food Insecurity is more common in rural areas and suburban can you address the misconception snap is predominately used in cities and elaborate how snap supports Rural Communities and comets Food Insecurity in those regions . There is no question the poverty is not concentrate on one part of the country. There are many, many remote areas in rural areas a very significant deep poverty. In fact consistently poor counties, counties that have experienced more than 20 of poverty over decades are located in Rural Communities. There is a series of programs to see the time is up but theres a series of programs we can identify trying to address those issues. Thank you secretary vilsack it mr. Chairman i yield back boxes on the science experiment reckon its a gentle lady from illinois ms. Miller for five minutes of questioning. Secretary vilsack i am sure you have seen it by now countries all over europe are facing protests from farmers because left wing governments are trying to destroy the ag industry to advance the Climate Change agenda. These farmers are tired of topdown policies intended to appease the left climate cult which make it harder for them to farm and feed the world. The Biden Administration has taken similar steps to push this radical climate scam. From the paris climatic agreement to the epa try to make it harder for farmers to use pesticides to bidens attack on american fossil fuel this Administration Policy threaten our farmers. The agriculture in this book is affordable diesel and pesticides. President biden puts that ability in jeopardy. In a report published last week by the Buckeye Institute the estimate bidens Climate Policies will increase farm costs by approximately 34 and increase grocery prices drastically for americans. To make matters worse mr. Secretary, eve traveled to o the un Climate Change conference and told attendees the usda wants to quantify and track carbon sequence and Greenhouse Gas emissions of farmers. Mr. Secretary, are you aware of the report from the Buckeye Institute estimating a bidens Climate Policies will increase farm costs by 34 and thus increase grocery prices . I am not aware of that study. I am aware of the reaction of the Farm Community tour Climate Smart Partnership Initiative that is fundamentally different than what is happening. I can tell you i am actually a farmer in illinois. I can tell you the majority of farmers are not on board with this climate cult agenda. In the Biden Administration is a wildly incentivizing these policies i can save all things were equal farmers would rather plant corn go put a solar panel on the best farm ground in the world but caps off not what this is. John kerry said we cannot get to net zero. If we dont get this job doneunless agriculture is frontd center as part of the solution do you agree with john kerry we have to get farmers to net zero . I agree thats an opportunity for farmers to make more money for small and midsize producer to stay on the fiber which is a disaster for farmers when youre incentivizing them to put solar panels on the best farm route in the world. What is is going to do for our ability to feed people . Those solar panels to nothing do nothingbut help our adversar. Going by the claimant cult our own practices using coal to produce solar panels we do not have a reclamation plan. Not only that its messing up and farmers are in competition or have to rent their land. You have got people that are getting subsidies from the government making it three times as much of a farmer it makes. Of course you got some farmer signing up. The profit margin is out near on farms. Look what is happening in europe. But i want to know is who is standing up for the farmers . Who is advocating for the farmers . Have you ever discussed agriculture climate pile to john kerry . Chris of course i have and i discussed it with farmers. It was your conversation with john kerry i would like to know what you discussed with john kerry . You are advocating for the farmers. We need you to advocate for farmers and for the people that have to turn around and buy the food at inflated prices if these radical policies are put in place. Our program is voluntary. It is incentive based its Market Driven its process of the food it Agriculture Alliance which is 80 Large Organizations farmer a Common Mission farmers in every Major Commodity Group is requested a burqa and europe the rug is been pulled out all the farmers because they, they are. s is not europe its openlyy differ burqa snow is on the side and American Farms on this committee. The biden ministration is that everything in their powers to attack the family farm. Were not going to let you jeopardize our nations food supply for the Climate Change agenda. S not true, thats not true we are to what farmers have asked us to do. You need to study up on this its not europe requests i am a farmer. Farmers want policies. Okay thank you yield back to pick the gentlest time has expired. I recognize a gentleman from georgia mr. Bishop for five minutes of questioning. Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary as you know fuel and Energy Expenses are still at historic highs produces in georgias Second District are concerned with how farm safety will perform wealthy Commodity Prices because our elevates of her Small Businesses and egg producers have found relief through Usda Rural Energy for America Program last year alone. These Energy Efficiency improvements in Renewable Energy investments are helping farmers and Business Owners across Rural America were there. Talk about the impact of this program on operating margins for our farmers and our ranchers what about small Business Owners in rural areas like those in georges second Congressional District question at the second question one of my Top Priorities so thank you for highlighting the investments in infrastructure in your testimony but you also recognized usdas emergency rural healthcare is that Program Vital to helping get access to healthcare with over 800 reaches more than 22 Million People. Can you tell us what the administration has learned and trends youve seen it relatable to infrastructure and healthcare . What suggestions or lessons you can share with congress of the emergency rural healthcare we could implement moving forward . And finally mr. Secretary identify the potential of the impact of potential cuts and appropriations of we are not able to enact for your bills for fy 24 of the levels of the bipartisan agreement we could look at it for your continuing resolution. With such a tough environment can you tell us what is at stake question of the impact of mothers and children with Food Assistance are farmers and ranchers across the country our producers from an rcs and to those who have housing and business loads with the usda what about the impact of and concerning resolution . I will try to respond to all three of those questions. On the reprogram we have had over 5000 grants awarded very many of these grants only reduce the cost to a producer or a Small Business but they also create an income source. What is interesting about this is a rhode island producers basically invested went renewable Energy Program to where he is selling excess energy of the grid. Not only reduces his costs but creates a new income source. We want to see more of that. And again it is voluntary people can apply for and if they wish. And we are excited about the opportunity to see more grants in the future. On healthcare, listen this is basically continuing to invest in our Community Facility program and our telemedicine program. Our ability to basically help and assist small communities equip or build hospital complexes and or provide Services Mike levels of services through telemedicines are two very Popular Programs. The Emergency Care program was funded to the pandemic assistance to the extent you want that to continue that would require additional appropriation but in the meantime at the very least continue to fund the Community Facilities program. That is a tremendously flexible opportunity. On the budget i understand i think im doing a pretty good job here. On the budget if you cut the budget you have less services you have less people. Its that simple. He didnt expect me too be that quick. [laughter] is the impact of a continuing resolution . Ask the problem with the continuing resolution it is essentially the same. Because if you get a continuing resolution based on the debt ceiling deal you are going to see a reduction in the overall budget and so therefore youre going to see a reduction in services and a reduction in people it is just that simple. We are operating right now historically receive less nondiscretionary defense spending the many of the other agencies when we receive a reduction or a flat line budget it really stresses. A back log on snap applications in georgia on the state is failing to meet the application process and timeliness requirements. Can you commit to working with us to try to give states more flexibility such as a limiting facetoface interviews in the back log making backlog more transparent to the applicants so they know they may have to wait months in order to get the benefits question. A prospectus out the answer. The answer is not to sacrifice the integrity of the program those facetoface interviews are very important. Its for georges use the resources they have available to have the staff adequately to run the program and thats what we have asked Governor Kemp to do. Thank you mr. Secretary break with the gentlest time has expired and now recognize the gentleman from alabama congressman moore for five minutes regards thank you chairman thompson and secretary vilsack its good to seo for such a thank you for being here today the work the department of agriculture does for farmers, ranchers across america. I am sure you know arm Program Safety net programs imported to alabama agriculture improvements are a nations Foreign Policy and timely reauthorization certainly a top priority of mine the producers i represent in lower alabama. Much like my colleagues here today and you as well i look forward to seeing a timely farm bill authorization greasing reference prices sharing programmatic integrity of her snap and other federal Assistance Programs promoting what Product Industries in the reauthorization process and the livelihood of those to represent. Question alabama struggled to stay whole after serious drought in recent months. Peta producers are feeling a pinch of slimmer than ever margins. And are only met with resistance by her democratic counterparts at any suggestion is made to adjust title i to meet the needs of modernday production. I think it is disappointing these producers do not feel supported by the Current Administration we have in place and would rather play favorites and grab every text so they can for snap and pander to radical social environmental with justice agendas. It seems the agency is putting politics before policy and quite frankly our farmers, ranchers, foresters and broken but he beautiescertainly deserve bette. The first question i have is executive action the Environmental Protection agency the General Services administration the department of interior have recently been announced which are adverse or do not consider the work of your agency and its constituents. Secretary vilsack how are you making good faith attempt to give agriculture voice across its executive branch . I have an ongoing relationship with each one of those secretaries of each one of those departments we are in constant communication about policies and issues they are adopting that have an impact than agriculture and we provide input i certainly am not going to be in a position to tell them what they should do in their department i do not want them told me what i should do my department. But we do provide input we do provide data do provide the consequences of what they are considering on american agriculture that is our job. Once a decision is made by another department to the extent that we can we use the resources of usda to try to mitigate the consequences of the epic works ive heard the most terrifying words we are from the government were here to help when it listen to u. S. The director of the Department Head for agriculture the usda it seems like youre battling the department of labor for production of food are you are battling may be the epa to get them off the backs of local producers . Would that be true mr. Vilsack probably the most terrifying words you ever hear is we are from the government and we are here to help . We Say Something about that. Anything government does help. The Crop Insurance program see Disaster Assistance programs, the arc, plc, the wide variety of programs were discussing in the farm bill is government helping. I think the challenge is we want to make sure the government is helping and is efficient. Into your defense you are trying to do the job sometimes i dont agree the policies are implemented. Im sorely not a big friend us on the environmental stuff going on. But i think it seems like to be your own government is your Biggest Issue sometime in trying to actually help producers in america. I appreciate you being a fight for us i hope you will continue that an im sure you will print to me more so when i hear talk about the department of labor, the regulations you have to try to jump to the tubes so we can have food on the table for American Consumers. To me i almost start to understand the battle youre in is the same battle in many days is how to stop the bureaucracy and take care of people but i will more question syrup running out of time. This past june the department announced snap air raid measured overpayments it under print this announcement that overpayment rate of 9. 54 which amounts to roughly 30 million to date. Certainly that will be an insult to our taxpayers. But concrete serious and forward thinking steps are on the horizon . States basically administer the program. We are working with state governors to make sure they understand the need to get back to a more disciplined effort in terms of snap. We relax the flexibilities were created flexibilities during the pandemic we are asking them to go back to the ordinary work of administering snap which involves represent bishops question facetoface interviews which will be helpful to the store integrity of the program. We are encouraging governors and if the governors failed to respond their sanctions that can essentially be put in place. We are concerned about this and should be progressively do and i yield back. Of judgment yields back please directness a gentleman from florida for five minutes of questioning. Thank you, mr. Chairman thank you secretary for being here today i know it is been a long morning you are thoughtful in candid answers to an onslaught of questions reminds us american agriculture is in good hands with your leadership. I visited ranchers, growers across Central Florida with food banks and food pantries they spoke with one voice which is can you please pass the farm bill . We talked about food inflation is dropped in half and continues to go down. But there is more work that we need to do. Is it your opinion we pass the farm bill that would help in continuing to lower food costs t the nation . Yes unless it involves restricting the Credit Corporation which is a tool we used to help food banks deal with the increased need that is out there. We need to continue to support programs like that and we will continue to see food prices decline for the American Consumer . That is correct. In florida we have hurricanes and ivanka got worse over the years with Climate Change Hurricane Ian recently led to over a billion dollars in agricultural losses. We passed out of this house a bipartisan disaster Block Grant Authority this was the top party for florida farm bureau. Do you think this would help going part of the senate did not pass it yet especially to help the ranchers and particularly citrus as we face the increasing storms . Will be happy to administer it if it gets pass rate that we do not have the authority to do that enough lord is anxious to have it. But that is the wish of congress will certainly follow it and do whatever we can to make sure its administered properly progress mr. Secretary went to give you that authority. Also representing cattle country when tripp expressed the importance of continuing invest in the National Vaccine bank that has come up several times for several different types of livestock. The largest heard in the nation in a ranch in our area along with many other ranchers and cow calf operations is really important. Ive also visited place like Second Harvest in Central Florida are food bank that had spent 2. 5 million last year to fill the gap. How critical this feeding americas families is the emergency food Assistance Program . It is essential to an essential tool when it demand goes up or there is a regional tragedy that occurs it is an opportunity for us to be able to respond quickly to provide the resources for this food banks to meet the need. It is critically important. I have seen both the seniors, children, the disabled, our veterans coming to these food banks to get healthy nutritious food and the program has been absolutely critical for us. In addition we are after many years finally turning the corner in florida citrus i appreciate your dedication over the years under the Obama Administration unknown to the Biden Administration to work with us on this research and develop funding we are seeing great advancements with new herbicides and pesticides helping out with new trees especially injection. I want to thank you for the waiver you provided that allow these areas to go forward how critical is it for us to continue to make sure we have u. S. Grown citrus weathers orange juice from florida or eating the fruit from california and other areas to protect americas vitamin c source . It is connected to the health and welfare of american specifically american children. We are trying to encourage more fruits and vegetable consumption to the extent we do so it would be nice if we could provide them something produced from the u. S. For a quick spray going to try to dig deep to get this done. The last thing i want to talk about in my family state of puerto rico along with others they are under the snap program trying to move to the snap program. First, mr. Chen like to introduce a bipartisan letter from representative Jennifer Gonzales and myself. [inaudible] without objection. Thank you. Theres been some debate whether there needs to be legislation or just funding not to convert to snap do you have any opinion on that or advice on how we proceed Going Forward . I think there is legislation required. More importantly is making sure puerto rico in particular is prepared for that transition is not a simple process to administer the snap program we have been working with officials in puerto rico to get them to a point they are ready, willing, and able to administer the program effectively. So folks will not fall to the crooks are rapidly thrilled and Central Florida one of four of my constituents are fellow Puerto Ricans we care deeply about whats happening on the island as well as supporting our local growers, ranchers and cattle, citrus, blueberry and strawberry country because you know Central Florida family goes hungry. I appreciate your leadership mrr being here. A gentleman yields back please to recognize the judgment for minnesota for five minutes of questioning. Im a proud fourthgeneration farmer of southern minnesota im proud to be raising the fifth and proctor the fact a very honorable profession that really is called to feed and fuel the world and to help support our communities, families and really the country as a whole. Recent your Department Released several concerning reports related to the current state of farm economy. As you note usda most recent projections found United States will experience in aji trade deficit of over 30. 5 billion this year. Last week usda, your Economic Research services forecasted in 2024 net farm income will drop by almost 40 billion for this is after close to 30 billion decline in 2023. Who should i be aware of whos leading the usda glass on the farm income fell two years in a row. As a matter fact you oversaw for consecutive years of decreased farm income from 2012 until 2016. That is quite the resume. As i meet with producers across a 21 counties they represent from southern minnesota they are worried about a repeat performance with multiple years of decreased income. Get today you have downplayed farm income falling by 27 . May but you can stand to lose 27 of your income mr. Secretary but the farmers i represent cannot. My producers are doing with compounding effects of increased input costs, interest rates, supply chain challenges and burdensome regulations creating a highly leveraged financial environment farm country. The hypocrisy of this Administration Knows no bounds a prime examples of shifting positions on the ideal farm size in less than a decade. Every one of us that is not a farmer is not a farmer because we have farmers we delegate the responsibility of feeding our families to a relatively smalls percentage of this country if you look at 85 of what is grown in this country it is raised by 200 300,000 people that is less than one tenth of 1 of america. Those are your words in 2016 mr. Hoadley dismissed the same family farms were the backbone of the Rural Communities last eight years small number producers you dont demonize are responsible for 80 of the production. All americans and members of congress should want to help small producers. I think you do not have much appreciation for the operations provide a majority of the food in this country with tight margins and greater risk. Farmers have continued to produce more is less by adopting innovation and increasing efficiencies not because the government tells us to do it but to remain competitive, to take care of our land and pass our farms down to the next generation. As farmers do everyday for planning purposes did back of the napkin math effective reference prices or photos one separate corn, 9 toy success for soybeans december corn is 4067 since november so 1162. If we look at that breakeven it is about five 10. Does not take a mathematician to figure out reference prices as they stand today are really ill relevance. Crop prices were to fall to the level needed to trigger these reference prices and the safety net farmers would be facing bankruptcy. So, due to the fact Crop Insurance is the number would Risk Management tool we have for farmers to succeed. From working with their letter to making marketing decisions that really help us plan for farming of the future. Fsa loan size limitations have not kept up with rising prices of farmland in the farm inputs. The current cap makes it more difficult for farmers especially beginning farmers to access fsa guaranteed loans or net land purchases and operating expenses. Mr. Chairman like this a bit into the record october 2023 study prepared by texas a m examining farm policy and its impact on farm families. Without objection. Mr. Secretary, you close your testimony today by saying we can continue on the path that this administration has taken that leads us to an even better and stronger role america. I dont know about you, but collapsing farm incomes, worsening trade deficits, our version of a better and stronger role america most farmers including myself would like to find a different path and quite frankly we call it hogwash. I will probably set up for farmers against a socalled leadership at usd and across a bite administration looking to tear them down. Farm and Food Security is National Security and good Foreign Policy is not written by d. C. Bureaucrats for d. C. Bureaucrats its written by farmers and Rural America for farmers and Rural America. So mr. Secretary, actions speak louder than your words in your track record speaks for itself as her chair have no questions and i yield back. Are judgment yields back a record of judgment from new mexico for five minutes of questioning. Thank you so much mr. Chairman print secretary vilsack thank you for being here today. And for your testimony thank you for what you and the department do for our farmers, our farmworkers, our ranchers, ranch hands and arrange managers. I just want to make it clear agriculture doesnt happen without the workers and thats not just the owners with the folks working the land. Expanding access to Nutrition Programs in new mexico is one of my top price new mexico has the highest participation in the nation one and 48 mexicans rely on programs to snap, wic, have the basic nutrition to go to work and go to school for children and families are hungry in our state they need food to thrive. The irony in this place that we work hard for to wake up early. We put food on the table for the rest of the nation and yet we are the ones who need food Assistance Programs the most. We struggle with Food Insecurity. One of five children my district faces hunger. Without access to critical nutrition parents cannot focus going to work or going to school. I recently heard from sophia who goes to school while working fulltime to ensure she can feed her family. Expanded snap benefits expired she struggled to feed her family while continuing her education. Its clear to me snap and wic when it comes to the entire equation feeding our nation are critical to strengthen Food Security for the country and strengthening our families. Secretary vilsack what more could we do to make sure families like sophias who are directly in charge of in the next generation of folks are putting food on our tables can have Food Security where the or the poorstates in the countr . First of all making sure youre adequately funding the wic program you mention to the extent that wic program is underfunded it would meet fewer people would be able to access it. Secondly making sure there are not restrictions on the snap program that would make it more difficult for people to qualify or more difficult for people to get the benefit that they need to provide supplemental assistance. And third making sure states understand the importance of taking steps to ensure those who are qualified for the Program Actually participate. Unfortunately sometimes their circumstances and situations where states do not make a concerted effort to sign people up or get people to participate in the program. And then i would say in addition, making sure the states you are most concerned about are fully and completely focused on implementation of the summer ebt program will provide Additional Resources to families who are on free and reduced children in school. Those are pretty significant opportunities as well per. Thank you secretary and i will just say one of things ive enjoyed most about serving on this committee along with my colleagues on the other side is the Bipartisan Committee we have set up to help modernize the farmworker system that we have for folks in this country of which we should have some recommendations for the rest of our colleagues and for your department and the administration that helps both domestic and immigrant producers and folks who are working at these very hard jobs able to have the opportunity to put food on the table of american so thank you for that. The other question i have is a little bit different. You were recently in my district heward albuquerque south valley we were announcing a monumental investment in broadband for Rural Communities. 48 million for the state of new mexico. Secretary, how could we make sure those dollars are being spent in an efficient way that truly delivers a conductivity Rural Communities need including small and medium producers that could now take their businesses online and produce Niche Products that could help support rural economies. What are the plans for the administration in terms of oversight and it ministration of these broadband dollars . Whats each of the projects awarded resources have a team at usda that follows the construction, the implementation of the grant to ensure things are done in a proper way and a timely way. I can guarantee that will take place for every one of the projects we awarded resources too. I think the other issue is there are other programs outside of the usda that are very important to keep an eye on and that is the resources being provided to states and state governors to basically fill the gaps. In the gaps. Our program primarily is focused on improving the level of Service Available so people actually have meaningful broadband access. We do serve underserved areas but we also make sure the level of service is adequate so more than a one person can be downloading something at home. Secretary think of your investment in mexico. Thank you chairman i yield backwards i think the gentleman not recognize a gentleman from m tennessee for five minutes. Thank you chairman thompson and thanks to Ranking Member scott for holding the hearing thank you secretary bill sec for being with us today time is limited i will dive right in. Walking horse industry is a special industry that frankly is extremely important to my constituents and when i value personally. During a farmville listening session Tour Representative and i hosted in tennessee i along with representative joined by chairman thompson and also representative Jonathan Jackson visited a walking horse stable facility walking horse celebration is a timehonored tradition in tennessee that began in 1939 over 2000 horses compete to be crowned the world grand champion which is always ground the saturday night before labor day i see you are writing that down. This years celebration will be held august 21 through august 31 in tennessee. Mr. Secretary i would like to extend a personal invitation for you to attend this unique event and experienced firsthand the longstanding tennessee tradition. Mr. Secretary, schedule permitting, would you be willing to consider attending this your celebration . I would be happy. They do not put me in charge of my schedule. It would be chaotic if they did i would be happy to make sure people are aware of your kind invitation we will certainly take it under consideration for effects i invite you because its part of my visits to the celebration of recent years ive had the opportunity to take a look at what your staff is doing their to inspect the horses and its really quite something. The efforts, taken to make sure these horses are treated humanely, fairly, and so it would be useful to you to see that. And compare and contrast that to what happens elsewhere in the Equine Industry the lack of equivalent oversight going on with respect to other shows and respect other breeds i would encourage you to consider coming it would be insightful for you to have a sense of the scope of that inspection process. Im going to shift gears is extremely alarmed to read december 20, 2023 press release from the u. S. Attorneys office for the Southern District of mississippi announcing a usda employee named ella martin was sentenced to 35 months in prison for using her usda position to create fraudulent Warranty Deeds with the intent to deprive the actual owners of the real estate the use and benefits of the property. Mr. Chairman i ask unanimous consent of the text of the press release entered into the record progress without objection progress mr. Secretary what specific policies and procedures has usda implemented and light of this development to strengthen internal controls and prevent similar fraudulent activity like this from occurring in the future . Whats everything time Something Like this occurs our Inspector General gets engaged involved basically gives us activities or steps that could be taken to ensure there is not a repeat situation. We obviously very interested in making sure it does not happen again. We institute training. We Institute New guidance. We institute oversight to make sure these kinds of activities do not occur on a regular basis. Recently at usda publish an organic livestock standard final rule including standards led to Animal Welfare for the first time. Previously the Agricultural Marketing service stated the organic foods production act does not authorize this sudden change in statutory interpretation leads me too believe this action could be interpreted as arbitrary and capricious. Secretary the second to further explain why usda feigns their interpretation of the statute . Its important for brand perspective we do what we can to ensure the organic brand remains. There is a certain expectation from the consuming public when they pay significantly more for organically produced items that they are produced in an appropriate way. What the industry itself us. Is. Thank you for that insight. We go back the balance of my time to correct the judgment yields back. Please to recognize a gentle lady from ohio provokes thank you chairman thompson. Thank you for holding the steering today and secretary vilsack thank you for being here its great to see you again. We are months pass original deadline to get the farm bill done and were just months away from new deadline. I would mention by my colleagues its been six months since our last hearing on this committee and i to a bladder getting back to business it is past time to get serious. So it secretary vilsacks Ranking Member of the general farms commodity credit subcommittee i appreciate the emphasis in your testimony on small and midsize farming. We know our traditional farm program seem to work for everyone. Not just the biggest players. Increasing each year promoted the growth of small, bedside, urban is an effective way to bring new younger faces into the industry. And you talk more about the usdas efforts were Small Midsize and urban farms specifically target two are beneficial for new producers into the agricultural state . There are a couple. As a couple urban center initiatives we place a Farm Service Agency and one of the 17 cities. All the programs are farmer it would have wherever they are located is available to the urban farmers. All the Conservation Programs from hoop houses to extend the growing season, things of that nature are available of the assistance. We have best and former market promotion programs that is why we have our local marketing effort they produce a product thats why we are focused on ensuring local Food Purchasing agreements. They are doing business with local, small, midsize producers. Thats all we track the information. Emergency resources the Food Assistance resources to funnel into that local regional food system. The reason for it is simply go to the gushes for the farmer gets 15 cents of every food dollar that is spent the net if that is 7 cents to the farmer. When this out to a local direct to consumer opportunity they get 50 75 cents. It is a way of helping the Small Midsize operators of a market more designed for their capacities. There is research we are investing in. There are systems to help the farmers transition to organic there interested in that. We also have a local and regional food system the center of 12 Centers Across the country that are providing assistance and help to those who want to establish a local regional food system. There is a multitude of efforts underway to help folks regardless of whether located projects thank you very much. Id also like to touch on Food Assistance there are more than 80000 households reliant on step benefits within my district representing where the largest concentrations in the country. When it come to the upcoming farmville theres a lot of noise about the thrifty food ran some republicans have suggested we hold future re evaluations of this arbitrarily cross neutral in an effort to save money. To holding thrifty to the cost of the 2021 plan for another 20, 30, or 40 years. Most importantly how would it impact snap specifically . In the case of waiting 45 years to do what we did recently. That inadequately if you will meets the requirements in the modernday needs of a family. What we found will read did the snap 50 food plan consistent with the farmville wasnt thrown into the system whats happening in the real world with real world data and information. To better inform the system that is why congress directed us to do that. It is clear to essential objectives to strengthen and expand our longstanding Agricultural Program. The critical nutrition assistance. The joint democrats including people with politics without researcher might yield backpack for gentle lady yields back. Please recommend a gentle eddie from texas congresswoman for five minutes. Thank you chairman. Thank you for being here today. As you know texas is one of three states that grows sugarcane. I am proud to say that in my district texas 15 is deep south texas provides good jobs. And it provides Economic Opportunity for our community. Unfortunately it has been incredibly challenging for our sugar mills in our area due to the lack of water. This is in large part because by the 1944 water treaty with mexico. Are you familiar with the water treaty . Not specifically without specific treaty. How important this tree is. This treaty and under this treaty mexico supposed to get the United States farmers three or 50000 water every year. Mexico has failed to do this. I am proud to tell you might ranchers have bipartisan manner to pass the House Resolution that has overwhelming bipartisan support. But the House Resolution did was asked mexico to give us our water. His steeply needed. Where in the fourth year of a current fiveyear cycle will mexico is deficient over 760,000 feet of water. This is simply unacceptable. Its causing lots of harm and hurt to our farmers and ranchers. Are saying that due to lack of water they are going to have to close. Let me ask you this, how do you feel about knowing that there sugar mills in south texas that are about to close due to this lack of water . I think its important for us to have a focus on this issue of water not just specifically for the sugar mills but for farmers and ranchers and producers across the United States and in particularly the western part of the u. S. Its one of the reasons why we established Western Water initiative which i probably should make sure your staff is aware of if they arent already which is focused on sustaining agriculture productivity and taking a look at ways to protect both surface water and ground water and restoring wastelands in terms the of water utilization. Its such an important issue and like my colleague across the aisle said we dont want to play partisan politics with farmers and ranchers. I would like your commitment to stand with me and our farmers and ranchers and meet with and talk with secretary blinken about mexicos lack of abiding to the 1944 treaty. Can i have your commitment to stand with the ranchers and farmers and speak to secretary blinken about this treaty . Im happy to take a look and learn more about this and get back to you, congresswoman. I think thats fair. Thank you, i greatly appreciate it. With that the, i yield back. I know you have not been able to come and visit yet but please, we welcome you to do so. We had significant damage, over 6400 acres burned. 23 million in damage, that may not seem like a lot in some communities but very big for ours, so, again, thank you but we do know that theres a lot of work that needs to be done. We need to start funding the efforts so you and your team can do good in the communities. I will try to jump to different one that is have not been touched on. I wanted to talk the a little bit about our need to continue our ongoing commitment to 1890 i neglect that we have discussed this, mr. Secretary before when you spoke to Asian Pacific american caucus, however, i reiterate the need for congressmans opportunity act of which aisle an original cosponsor and what is your position to support Asian American and pacific islanders, Agriculture Research and scholarships and what steps has the department taken to support nhpi farmers as well. 262 million from the rescue plan and made sure that our office as it administers program ensures its administered in a holistic way and i think that you will see there are more grants and more scholarships awarded recently. I would reiterated as well and we spoke about this before as we do outreach to these particular communities we need to be conscious the best way to reach out to them oftentimes to consider Language Access and barriers so that may be cultural barriers well. Making sure those students have access and able to participate actively, i would appreciate that. We have an extensive process now where we are trying to convert to multiple languages to make sure information is more readily available to a broad, broader scope of individuals. Thank you, and somewhat along those lines when i take a look at when we talk about i dig house agriculture if youre able to join us in hawaii we can expose you to uniqueness of native hawaii and pacific islanders, traditional farming and techniques, staple crops for us and specialty crops for others. Mr. Secretary underrepresented and underserved producers have been calling on the department for Navigator Program to help navigate usda systems and processes for some time now. Whats your position on the need for and the effectiveness of such a Pilot Program to be able to connect farmers, ranchers with the help that is available. Well, the Farm Service Agency and nrcs have engaged in the signing of series of cooperative agreements similar to what youve outlinedment Farming Services have over 30 of these agreements nrcs has over a hundred of them with organizations and entities design today provide outreach to historically underserved producers to make sure that they are aware of programs and to help guide them through whatever the application process needs to be. So thats already taken place in both, both of those agencies. I will humbly suggest and glad to see that the cooperative agreements are in place but for many of us that represent communities with high populations, for example, im specifically talking about aanih communities and make sure individuals that we are contracting with and method through outreach are the most effective possible. So welcome further communication with you on this because at the end of the day i want to make sure my farmers, ranchers and producers can engaging with the usda in a meaningful way. I have a number of other questions related to natural disasters and rural health. I know chair interest you and i both. We can help Rural Communities and we will submit that for the record, thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you, mr. Chairman gnomes, anything that you can do, mr. Secretary, with the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, con fumer Financial Bureau to the loosen the screws a little bit of ag lend asking going to be very, very important. Anything that you can do with the farm credits to make sure that ag lenders can get their growers through this crisis because if you look at the aggregate numbers, American Farm values and ag revenues are down tens of billions of dollars in the last couple of years in specialty crops in california a lot of the highexport crops its disproportional pain. Its a crisis. The crisis stems greatly from trade deals, from trade. Not necessarily lack of trade deals, yes, theres a lot we can do there but the retaliatory agricultural tariffs from china, india and turkey, those are the big pieces of pie chart are really what is causing in my opinion the agricultural crisis today, the commodity gluts, the low prices and the low farm returns. Im carrying the bill but i believe that you have it within your power to look at the commodity Credit Corporation, my bill is called foreign retaliatory supplement and use commodity credit fees instead of the other programs that are elevating farmers to low prices to simply supplement back. If we export almond to 25 tariff to china supplement that back to the exporter and get it back to the grower and that would eliminate glut that are killing farms today. I would like to connect with you and everybody in the trade ag proposal. We want a 5year trade organization and those ag tariffs are still in place and crushing on american agriculture. So id invite you to look at that. I also want to look at, i worked in sam Plant Technology over the years, g netting is a new frontier in plant bio tech and improvement and serving longterm sustainability problems and challenges that we have in a growing crops especially crops like grapes and almonds where its not easy to reap new seed every year. Im getting feedback on is rale stricting the type of editing that can be done in plants and classify to exclusions. Its really not the realm of usda to be delving and make sure that america maintains its leadership in plant biotechnology especially in the gene editing area. I think its important. I hate to see america give up our leadership in biotechnology which we have established over many years. And fourth im not letting you talk much today. Youve had a lot of that. These are not breaking your chops too hard. The fourth thing id want to talk about is the Crop Insurance and easing the example of the citrus producers in california is the case. We have the oriental and the queens on fruit flies infest california citrus causing huge problems within our fresh crop and citrus and i want to make sure that our Crop Insurance programs allow for marketability losses due to the exotic pest infestations and disease infestations as well as catastrophic weather events and other losses. These things cost farmers the same loss in returns in revenue as as catastrophic weather events. Thank you for listening, im sure that youll have something to say for the next person. Thank you, mr. Secretary. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. I recognize the general lady from minnesota congresswoman craig which we share a very happy birthday to begin with. What a way to spend a birthday . There you go. 5 minutes of questioning. Thank you so much, mr. Chairman. Thank you for being here secretary, its great honor to be here with you on my birthday. From your own visit to minnesota two weeks ago to deputy secretary in 2021i know that you and your team at usda have been great partners in working to support family farmers in rural economies and i know that you have put miles on yourself in the last 3 years and appreciate dedication to family farmers. I have a few questions. I wont let you get quite as easy. First of all, we have a unique opportunity in front of us to get Sustainable Aviation fuel off the ground and in places like my district in Rural America into this emerging market that we fought for in the Inflation Reduction Act. I want thank you so much for your support and your championship of faf. It does not go unnotice by my family farmers and by myself. However, its frustrating to hear that theres still some uncertainty about the updated greek model. I know the president has a goal of hitting 35 billion gallons of saf by 2050 which is laudable yet we are still waiting on determination from the Inter Agency Working Group on greek modeling. Let me push here how the discussion has been in the Interagency Group and can we expect those updates to be announced on march first as originally directed in the december guidance from treasury and if not when should we expect them. Im confident that theres a genuine desire on the part of all the agencies and the white house the meet that march first deadline. Excellent. Thats a great answer. Thank you. I know that youll see this soon but im leading a bipartisan bicameral letter with colleagues on the issue and set to be with the members of the working group at the end of the day today and please know that there are American Farmers that have been unable to scale up their production because they are waiting on this guidance and we certainly are looking for it and hopefully by the march first timeline. My second question is about the conservation reserve program, crp. We know it is an absolute Critical Program that supports farmers and the work that they do to sustain the lens that they farm and thank you for your remarks and your Opening Statement there. My home state of minnesota is eighth in the country for the number of acres enrolled and third in annual rental payments for program. So i know theres ongoing conversation about turn thing crp into a dollarbased program. Given the rising cost of land, how do you foresee this impacting crps effectiveness if that happened . You know, whats interesting about the grassland part of the crp program is we are at record level of enrollment. Theres a lot of activity and interest in the grassland and we continually see that each year in terms of the signup. Theres still Robust Interest in crp and i would anticipate and expect thats going to continue. You know, i think theres there will be an interesting intersection of Climate Smart activities and ecosystem Service Markets and the potential opportunities for crp to be integrated into that system but i think right now were excited about the opportunities and we continue to see a lot of interest in it and, you know, we are sensitive to making sure that the rates are in a situation where they dont necessarily encourage or discourage encourage or discourage the use of productive farmland for productivity and nonproductive land for crp. I think i have enough time to sneak one more question. American ag is at a cross roads. Its essential for the safety net. What should legislators be keeping in mind as we look to the strengthen the farm safety net in the farm bill from your perspective, secretary vilsack . Strengthen safety net without necessarily jeopardizing assistance to do what it needs to do and without taking resources away from conservation which benefit a broad array of producers. I think thats the key. I couldnt agree with you more. Gentleman from iowa. Thank you very much, mr. Chair. We are talking to farmers who are facing larger than expected year to year losses. In fact, they drop net income and this is one of the largest drops of nearly 40 billion that everyday farmers across the country are facing. In fact, its down 25 just from last year, so lets get directly to it. Look, the reality is that the taxpayers have invested over 500 million in the expansion of biofuels and i expect my colleagues on the other side of the isle. We work hard on this issue but taxpayers have put 14 billion in electric vehicle mr. Secretary, we could both agree to that, is that right . Yes. Biofuels have lower Carbon Footprint when compared with traditional fuels . Yes. Do you believe that Americas Energy independ thence is priority for National Security . Sure. So here we are in a situation where we are now putting 40 billion directly into a competition of an electric Vehicle System that directly funds one of our Key Competitors that of china. Are you aware of the fact that china uses child slave labor for production and eliseation of a number of the Critical Minerals necessary to build batteries . Thats why we are focused on investing in battery production in the u. S. But we havent done that yet. Mr. Secretary, i would like to talk about where some of the additional competition comes from and thats export markets. When we talk about foreign competitors, lets talk about brazil. You know, last year the u. S. Exported 1,600,000,000 bushels of corn. Additionally the u. S. Exported 1. 25 billion gallons of ethanol to that market. But, mr. Secretary, isnt it true that brazil has increased tariffs on u. S. Ethanol 18 last year . Thats true. The United States is importing nearly 40 million bushels . I dont know what the exact number is but im sure certainly makes it harder for iowa farmers when we are competing in a tariff environment. I would ask the administration to look into this and push back on competitors not just brazil but around the world. And we do. Do you agree that lack of access to Global Markets is harming the u. S. Biofuel industry . I wouldnt agree with that. Us not being able to sell to Foreign Countries doesnt harm u. S. Farmers . We are seeing activity on the export side of biofuel. We have seen it in japan. Not nearly enough to make up what we are losing in the markets like brazil, like africa. Your question is that we werent doing anything and thats just not accurate. Mr. Secretary, there are 87,000 farmers in our home state. The average farmer is 57. In fact, most of those farmers are approaching an age where they are over 70 years old. Here is what id like to ask of us, please join with this committee as we have done in the farm bill, nontraditional farmers, veteran farmers, these are things that not only help grow the economy but keep competitive. Some of the conservation practices that are coming out of iowa are not only for u. S. But one the usda could learn from. Right now working with the usda while appreciate the individual groups is topdown only approach. I see folks, the audience today. Usda has consistently fallen short enforcing puppy mills in iowa. Our local Law Enforcement have asked usda for support and time and time again they have made it difficult. Thats part of whats in the farm bill. Mr. Secretary as we Work Together on a farm bill, i hope that your agency and this committee continues to listen to iowa farmers who are leading the charge in this not just biofuels but best practices across the board. Mr. Secretary, i will send where we started here. Is this effort for yearround e15, you commit today this Committee Last year is going to be ready in 2024 . I think we will have the 15year round. Im confident that we will i appreciate that, mr. Secretary, but the reality has been let me finish. Years in the making. I have 8 second left and i want to highlight mr. Secretary. It is important that we not only Work Together but follow through with that mr. Chair, i yield back. Mr. Secretary you made that commitment that we would be the gentlemans time has expired. We are. You told me 2025 or some time in the future. We will be thats only because of iowa farmers that have led the charge on this. That is a huge recognize the general lady from connecticut. Nice and chilly for you secretary vilsack. Its no surprise you already know what im going to ask about. I want to make note of the fact that we saw a chart earlier from the republicans that showed that neutrality plan would not cut snap benefits. I think it is pretty basic math to the say as more people are accessing these programs and growing if we are not continuing to invest in them that is in essence cutting snap benefits. You can call it what you want. We pulled data from the cbo and if we keep the thrifty plan neutral. This is the republicans plan and this is the democrats plan, benefits will be decreased. I would like to enter that into the record, mr. Chair. Without objection. Snap is the leading antiunger program in the nation. Program reduces Food Insecurity by 30 . Ive heard several times in this hearing that the food is National Security, so i would hope that we would be trying to feed more people not less here in america and to do that we heard a lot about the data and how its collected, snap administrators provide application assistance, answer client questions and offer verification guidance for snap applicants throughout the pandemic as you mentioned earlier there was lots of flexibility and snap administrators were stretched beyond capacity as they work to ensure families were fed. Now as we are looking at how do we improve the programs as of april 2023 states and towns struggle to fill 233,000 open positions for the mr. S who actually do this work. I have concerns about that because i dont want us to look at the program as in effective or inefficient because of staffing or administrative concerns. What have you heard about obstacles of recruiting and retaining snap administrators . We are ebb counselorring folks to encouraging folks to get back to normal business. I think theres a balance between flexibility and making sure that the resources we are providing them are being used adequately and appropriately. These are common sense solutions. Secretary vilsack usda sent letters to states including my state of connecticut expressing concern. I heard you say earlier that people dont know about the benefits, theyre not really sure how to go about getting them, can you please elaborate on how the food and Nutrition Service plans to collaborate with states to improve Program Efficiency . We continue to provide Technical Assistance to states as they grapple with particular issues. We have the snap education program, theres a variety of ways in which we are providing assistance to states in the administration of this program. The challenge i think that some states basically, theyre not as aggressive as they need to be to make sure that people qualify for the Program Actually sign up for the program. We basically keep track and if the we see somebody thats below par, we basically encourage them to step up their activities. Sometimes it was seniors, sometimes its language issues, sometimes its just making sure that the word gets out and you dont create too many barriers to participation. Well, thank you for that and like you i agree that the government does work, we can make it work. I can tell you when a storm hits and fema comes, people are happy to see the government. I have a piece of legislation closing the College Hunger gap. They would know if theyre eligible for a program like snap. Its wasnt government. We have the ability to communicate across agencies and we can do a better job, thank you, mr. Chairman, i yield back. The general ladys time has expired. Please recognize the gentleman from indiana dr. Beard for 5 minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you secretary vilsack for being here today. Where do you think we are on that issue . We are providing opportunities for them to understand the various programs. I think there is some interest in this and i think its also reflected in participation in the Climate Smart Partnership Initiative. We have a broad array of food interests, retail interests, nonprofit interests as well as foundation interest in that program. Excuse me. Continuing on in that vain, so to speak. The ira conservation funding is limited to practices that are Climate Smart which we mentioned earlier as defined by usda staff and that makes roughly 30 to 70 of the conservation practices ineligible in some states for ira conservation funding. From my Vantage Point this lead to producer fist nature of these programs and allows usda staff in washington, d. C. To choose which Natural Resource concerns can be addressed in indiana or elsewhere. Mr. Vilsack since ira funding is limited, how can you ensure that the localled nature of Conservation Program wont be lost and how important is the locally led component of Conservation Programs . I dont think thats i dont think they are being lost, congressman. I think we are seeing tremendous interest in participation by farmers and ranchers and bruisers across the board. Thats why the programs have been oversubscribed. We have thousands of applications for the resources that are available above and beyond the resources that are available. Theres tremendous interest in this. I dont think we are leaving anybody behind in this process and i think people at the local level are fully engaged additionally resources are going in to personnel and cooperative agreements to get the word out. We are pleased with the way the country side has responded to this. I think thats an important issue. I think we need to make sure that we carry that on through and follow up on that that kind of activity. So thank you. I yield back. Recognize the gentleman of North Carolina for five minutes of questioning. Thank you very much, mr. Chair and good afternoon, mr. Secretary. Thank you so much for coming before the House Agriculture Committee today. I would like to first the amplify that in rural North Carolina and Rural America we continue to rely greatly on Rural America in particular new fire trucks, getting those out into communities that often volunteer departments, telehealth services, thats huge for our Rural Communities, also looking at ways to continue to help with Small Business. I just want to continue to lift that up. Where i would like to spend a little bit of time today is in particular looking and talking about broadband. Broadband in terms of the longterm eastern North Carolina, much rural, america depends on access, making affordable access. My question is, can you provide insight into the challenges that remain and bridging the Digital Divide and especially as we are talking, getting this out into Rural Communities . I think the challenge is making sure that first and foremost the states are utilizing Funds Available made to them to expand access to broadband in areas that are underserved or unserved. Secondly, i think its important for us to make sure that as we are expanding access that we are doing it in a way thats meaningful broadband access, that it provides the kind of uploads and downloads speed that would allow a family, for example, have the ability somebody download more than one person at a time. I think its important that we continue to fund, you mentioned telemedicine, that we continue to fund the tools that would allow institutions to utilize this expanded access to broadband in a way that the it expands Educational Opportunities or healthcare opportunities in small in remote areas. Finally, i think we will continue to look at the Technology Necessary to the make sure that it gets to the most remote of areas, sometimes its not physically or financially feasible to have particular technologies and then theres workforce issue and making sure that we have adequate number of people who are qualified to install and to maintain the systems so its a combination of all of that. Follow up here, do you have any sense of a time in which we will see significant coverage across Rural America . Well, i can tell you that based on the recent survey that we concluded and published yesterday we have seen increase in access among American Farms and ramps, about 78 of farms and ranches report basically access to broadband and thats up from 75 . I think i think you will see rather dramatic increases over the course of 3 to 5 years as the resources that have been made available in the infrastructure law are fully, fully obligated and ultimately result in the construction and implementation. I mean, youre seeing it now with our reconnect program. Weve basically gotten resources out the door. There are over a hundred projects that we have announced awards for that are moving forward. You will see progress on those and you will see states aggressively use the resource thats not available to them under the department and fecs efforts. Mr. Secretary, i have another question, the issue of hunger in particular in the military, its been receiving a lot of attention lately in the recent months thanks to tireless work of advocates and organizations on the ground. My question, are there any steps in particular that usda or congress should take in order to the address Food Insecurity in particular for military families . We have ongoing effort with the department of defense to institute this program and make sure that families are aware of the capacity to qualify for these programs. Id like the opportunity congressman to get back to you with recommendations with folks working directly with the department of defense have about improvements to the effort. Obviously we are deeply concerned about making sure that those who serve us are available that they fully utilize the programs that we have, so let me get back to you. Thank you. Yield back, mr. Chair. I recognize the gentleman from new york. Secretary vilsack i appreciate you being here as we continue the craft farm bill and reduces Regulatory Burden on this administration. But before i get into that the, i want to bring your attention the and issue that is still impacting my district in rural upstate new york. As you may recall just about a year and a half ago from in december of 22, winter storm elliot and brought blizzard like conditions and sub zero temperatures. Unable to have their milk collected and delivered. I do recall usda set up a milk loss program and i appreciate the efforts that the department has made with rollout of milk loss payments to producers, however, i understand theres a pending component of the program to reimburse cooperative loss. Dairy cooperatives play a vital role in strengthening and supporting the wellbeing of family farm operations in my district and nationwide. And with that mr. Secretary, i was wondering if you had an update or timeline that you can share today of when the cooperative losses would be made available and if the department has made any progress on that . Im interested in anything the committee can do to help you in n this effort and help move this along. Our farmers have been without payment for almost a year new. Equally troubling lack of communication. So its really important that we get this information to share with our constituents and its important to me that our farmers feel that theyve been communicated with and theyve been left in the dark at this point by the department. Our agriculture producers, theyre already struggling with this administrations egregious green agenda and the regulatory policies that are causing our Energy Prices to skyrocket and put farmers backs against the wall in this can also run them right out of business so all i ask you to do today to expeditiously use all the tools that the department has to get answers and get the payments moved forward and i think thats a very important step for the farmers in my district. Now, moving onto a different topic, mr. Secretary, last year dr. George, director of nation all institute of alcohol abuse and alcoholism suggested that the next dietary gains might change definition of mod rail Alcohol Consumption to just two alcoholic drinks per week for men and women. That would be a dramatic change from the current definition of up to two drinks per day for each man and woman which is included in release of december 2020. The usda shared suggestion that drinking more than 2 beers a day is excessive and if so can the usda point to any scientific studies released since december 2020 that would justify such a dramatic change in the definition of moderate consumption. Frankly our focus on the dietary guidelines is on the dietary guidelines and not necessarily outside of the dietary guidelines. We want to make sure its sciencebase. Whatever is decided needs to be science base and thats why you set up a system of experts, you give experts the information and they make decisions based on the preponderance of the evidence. Whether its alcohol or any aspects of our diets. Thats what im exited to doing. I understand this process is developing the 2025 dietary guidelines. That is well under way right now. I just asked that any recommendations based on sound science and not the usual Regulatory Overreach that weve seen by this administration and my additional question im not going to have enough time for im going to submit to you in writing and mr. Speaker, mr. Chairman i yield back. The gentleman yields back, general lady from kansas is recognized for five minutes of questions. Its a pretty diverse district and i do think we have we serve as excellent example of the critical roll that you usda plays in frankly in every Community Across the country. Kansas farmers and producers in my view are some of the best in the world and would love actually to extend an invitation for you to come and visit us to see some of the innovative and certainly important work that theyre doing out there. In addition to my role on Agriculture Committee i serve in Small Business community and transportation and Infrastructure Committee and through those roles i really have had the chance to work on supply issues from quite different angels strengthening the agriculture supply chain is important for all americans particularly for our farmers and producers as they are providing food for folks. And i know that the usda is doing a lot of work on this, theres tons of usda employees who have taken steps to strengthen our agriculture supply chains as we recover from some of the recent challenges weve been seeing and im particularly grateful for inspectors and the folks who are taking the time to make sure that that poultry processing are happening in safe and effective way, so i want to say that, you know, the progress that weve seen which is a testament to the hard work of producers processors, truckers, you know, the inner modal workers, so many different people. We havent seen the grocery cost that folks are dealing with come down for consumers in the way that frankly a lot of people need and would depend on, you know, it remains a top concern for a lot of folks in my district. High grocery costs and i did get the chance to discuss this with deputy secretary this past fall and would love to hear from you about some of the action that is usda has been taking to increase the resilience of the agriculture supply chains to help to help bring down the cost for folks. Let me give one example initiative that we are working with the department of transportation to make sure that we are doing a good job of understanding the flow in deciding or identifying where there may be barriers in the supply chain and the flow of goods from here to there that create additional costs or additional disruptions that can result in supply shortages which in turn result in increased cost. We have an initiative with the department of transportation to basically share data and information and analyze the information so that we can identify problems. We also have an effort with the department of transportation to take a look at supply of containers. Thats one area. Then theres also the area sometimes we forget the role that a particular disease or problem might result in terms of food costs. Im thinking about hpai, the impact effect it has on eggs when there is an outbreak, when there is an expansion of hbai, migrantory bird population, well, we are working with the industry to try to figure out ways in which we can minimize that but when it occurs prices go up because it impacts supply of eggs. Theres multitude of challenges with reference to food prices. Yeah, and i appreciate that that there are multitude of issues. I do have a couple of questions i will submit them in writing and the only thing that i would say is i would love to work with you and your team on finding any hiccups that might exist in those inner agency, inner departments agreements that you have when youre looking at things like supply chains, thank you so much, i yield back my time. The general lady yields back, please recognize the gentleman of missouri for questioning. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you, mr. Secretary for being here. Youll be glad to know that im a freshman. Im learning every day about the ag industry and how we can help our farmers, ranchers, producers in missouri. Ive been learning a lot lately about snap and i want to be clear. I truly believe, mr. Secretary, we live in the greatest nation known to man if someone is truly hungry, cant work, we should help them on a temporary basis and i know representative moore has touched on snap over payments and i want to clarify a few things, mr. Secretary. Each day in america there are 30 million in overpayments in snap. 11 billion a year. Do you consider trying to eliminate overpayments waste, abuse and fraud as making cuts to the snap program or taking food away from those who rightly qualify for the program . No. Thank you for that answer. Supplemental Nutrition Program is supposed to be a temporary help for those who are truly in need and n stands for nutrition. The second most common snap purchased is sweetened drinks. 680 million i believe in 2022, today the obesity rate in america is nearly 40 putting strain on an already stressed medicare system, so mr. Secretary, how do i go home to fourth Congressional District of missouri and explain to my constituents and taxpayers there why we are doing this, why are we funding to worsen the obesity crisis in america . What we try to do in the snap program provide education, we try to provide strategies for stretching that food dollar in a way that focuses on proper nutrition without city matizing those on snap. Well, mr. Secretary, i in no way want to stigmatize no one. Our obesity rate is climbing through the roof. We are at a financial cross roads now with medicare and Social Security but this obesity issue i think can be directly related in part to poor nutrition in america and part of that because of the supplemental nutritious program. The challenge i dont think youre suggesting that its only four people that are obese no, sir, i am not. The question becomes then what can we do as a country or stigmatizing or set ago side one group of people but recognizing the obesity issue is something thats across across the income levels, across the entire country. I do appreciate that. Thats a great answer. We have to focus in on that. The taxpayers should not be paying to make america more obese. We are working on labeling just as we are working on the product. How soon will that come out, sir . I dont want to give you a specific timeline because im not confident as i sit here that i know but i will certainly get that to you. We are working on it. Okay. Thank you. I will tell you, though, that our priority is product of the usa and get that through the process because we do recognize people are taking advantage of that label and Consumer Expectations are not being met. When you go to the Grocery Store you see product in the u. S. You know that everything lets Work Together on that. Sure. Finally, should citizens of adversarial nations including, russia, cuba, should be allowed to purchase any land, including farmland in the United States of america . Thats a tough question and i will tell you. You have 20 seconds to answer it. I tell you what, let me put it this way, its a tough question. I think the amount of land thats being purchased by those folks is minimal. I think people have this feeling that its a lot of the land. Its not. I say one out house is too many for a member of adversarial nation. Here is the problem, sir. You also want to sell product to those people. Some of those people. So when im talking to the chinese ag minister, one of the first things he brings up is the whole suggestion, they are number one customer. Can you go to russia and buy land . Forget china. Can you go to china . Thats how i responded. The reality is ive gone over my time. Thats our number 1 customer. We have to be sensitive to that. Thank you. Please recognize the general lady from oregon, congresswoman salinas. Thank you, chair thompson and thank you secretary vilsack for your leadership at the u. S. Department of agriculture. I want to make a few clarifying points given my colleague from missouri i think has some things mistaken. Usda research has shown that snap participants purchase at rates than nonparticipants. Its linked with improved nutritional outcomes lower healthcare costs and improve current and longterm health and nutrition incentives as im sure youre familiar with, those provide are far more effective and productive and would your agency be willing to discuss how Congress Might Work Together to expand those programs . Absolutely. We are excited about those programs and we appreciate the money that came from the American Rescue plan to do so to toexpand the programs. Thank you. Revitalizing Rural America is important, my district and since taking office i consistently heard from rural towns and communities as well as local producers that have similar message. They are finding it hard to access resource it is federal government has to offer and really because they may not have the wherewithal to complete complex grant applications or follow up with reporting requirements, unfortunately the Rural Partners Network which was established to help communities has not yet expand today oregon. Thats part of the reason why i intend prosperity act introduced by senators casey and fisher. Putting that all aside for right now, though, could you just speak to the genesis of the real Partners Network and why its so critical to provide that Technical Assistance to our Rural Communities so they can actually Access Programs intended precisely for them . You know, that program is really designed and specifically focused on poor areas of the country, areas that have had high poverty rate for decades and its designed to provide intense care, intensive care and a coordinated federal government response. Having said that, as the second wave of effort we are expanding significantly the Technical Assistance grants that we are providing with some of the programs. In other words, we are creating, setting aside resources to create Technical Assistance for those communities that need that so that we are trying the to expand it that way, we are using cooperative agreements. The other issue that we face is match requirement. Oftentimes communities would love to be able to participate but they get discouraged because of the requirement. So we are looking at ways we can distinguish between communities that are capable of making the match and those that arent. Thank you. The Inflation Reduction Act included 101 million for wood innovation grants. Communities throughout oregon have benefited from these grants and ive introduced Bipartisan Legislation to actually increase access to the program. Can you speak to how the grants can help develop markets for Forest Products as well as success of the program . It identifies ways in which Wood Products can be used in creative ways. I think its one of the reasons, one of the reasons weve seen an expansion of the timbthe other or mass timber effort. It started with a grant and now we have over several hundred if not over a thousand of the Tall Buildings constructed in the United States. So we give these grants in order to identify a Market Opportunities in order to be able to show case how wood can be used creatively and we are seeing pretty Robust Interest in the innovation projects. We are making grants every year and we are seeing an uptick, if you will, of interest in wood and Wood Products. Thank you. And as the Ranking Member on the subcommittee im particularly concerned by the dangers pose by intensely wild fire events and as mentioned in 2020 my state has most disruptive and deadly wild fire season ever and i fear unless dramatic investments are made we will see another catastrophic season. Can you speak to how these authorities are better enabling the agency to implement the tenyear strategy . We have been able to target and get adequate resources to remove hazardous fuel from fire sheds and from landscapes that we know have high risk potential. Thank you. Much more extensive answer to that but thats the best i can do in 5 minutes. Thats my time. I yield back. I now please recognize also from oregon the congresswoman for five minutes of questioning. Thank you, chairman. Good to see you, mr. Secretary. Thank you for coming to testify today. I know its been a long day. I heard from Alarming Number of constituents concerned about illegal vehicular camping occurring with the National County forest in my district. These activities are not only taken away from vital Public Resources from my constituents but also leaving to lasting environmental damage. There have been numerous reports of unsanctioned bond fires, burning, drug usage, dumping of human waste, trespassing in private property as well as violent throughout. I am told that local volunteer organizations that are trying to work with the Forest Service will no longer be deployed due to the safety concerns. Do you believe the current the current citation system is effective or stronger Enforcement Mechanisms needed to ensure that those that are trespassing will be held accountable and stop the damage from getting worse . But moving on it was recently discovered a chinese billionaire, i know my colleague mentioned about owning Foreign Ownership of us farmland. After an 80 feet 5 million purchase and 32 acres went unchecked for nearly 10 years ownership of us farmland by foreign adversaries not only makes farmers and ranchers uneasy about Food Security but poses serious concerns about the ability of the next generation of farmers to begin ranching for themselves. I heard your answer previously. Mr. Sec. , do you believe there are effective Enforcement Mechanisms currently to ensure a foreign Land Ownership does not go unchecked or are more enforcement abilities needed within the usda or other agencies . More is needed because right now we have a Self Reporting system. Its very difficult for usda to monitor all offices for deeds that are being filed so i think there is a need for conversation about precisely how far folks want to go to be able to know, what transactions are taking place. Do you want a public database where every transaction of real estate in this country will be funneled into a single database that the federal government will have access to . In this particular case the purchaser was tied to the communist party so thats why i question that so i hope i can move forward on this issue so lets move on. I want to highlight in oregon growers rely highly on the snake river system. 60 of all us wheat is transported through the river system to markets overseas. This transportation method is not only safe and effective but costeffective. If the lower Snake River Dams were to be breached and we lose this transportationsystem do you believe we will be able to continue to transport this volume of wheat to meet the market demand . Class congress has the ability to determine whether a dam will be breached so you have the ability to stop that if there is a problem with transportation quest but do you believe this is so valuable we would be able to transport the wheat volumes if those dams were removed . I would assume you wouldnt let that happen. I wont have time for this next question on laborso i will submit it for the record and with that i yield back my time. Chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois for five minutes. Thank you chairman thompson, great to see you again now that weve reconvened. Secretary vilsack, i am honored to call you the secretary of agriculture knowing something in washington is working exceedingly well and ask your advocacy on behalf of Food Security. Specifically id ask about research has shown that in rural areas participate in snap at higher rates than individuals in urban areas. Additionally usda Economic Research survey found snap benefits spending disproportionately increased economic output in rural areas when compared to snap economic output in urban areas. Can you address the misconception that snap is a program predominantly utilized in cities and Library Libraries and how snap supports Rural Communities and combats Food Insecurity in rural areas. Congressman there are a lot of misconceptions about snap and i think it stems from who people think are on snap. People find it surprising a significant number are working. Most people outside of those of us who know about the program think its all about people who arent working. In fact its people who are working. There are a lot of folks who are ablebodied and should be working. The reality is that a relatively small percentage of the snap population and people dont realize Senior Citizens are a population in snap, working families are in snap and a lot of children so i think it begins with misunderstanding about who is receiving the benefits of that snap and from that you begin to think it must be an urban Centric Group of people but its not. Its across the country. Its wherever poverty is and poverty is everywhere. You heard of the practice of corporations steering people to these benefits on snap. Could you elaborate on that . There have been in the past companies that have encouraged or made available information. If they are aggressively people suggesting people sign up but making them aware of, i think thats part of the challenge. Its a balance. Can we conclude thereis a struggle for American Workers and Food Insecurity is a major challenge in the country . There is no doubt there are many many working poor, people working multiple parttime jobs or fulltime jobs at a minimum wage. You know this, if you raise the minimum wage you would reduce the snap population by a significant amount. Followup question regarding the economic benefits of snap. The usda has been more successful in getting Small Businesses to participate in snap. Is there anything Congress Needs to do to support this work . Can you elaborate on how snap is benefitingfarmers, retailers and the whole tale economy in addition to servicing low income households . The reality is people have the ability to buy more at the Grocery Store theyre going to do it and it needs everybody in the supply chain from the person who stopped it to who processed it, who produce it, who transported it, those jobs are all connected and if you look at some of the major retailers you youll find a significant amount of their business is snap oriented so if you eliminate it you are going to impact not just the poor families but all those people whose jobs are somewhat dependent on. Any other comments you care to make before i yelled back your time . There are a lot of comments id like to make but i think i will just pass. And again thank you for your many years of service and your knowledge and let it be recorded that you have gone through this committee numerous times taking all these questions really without note and youve been in here three hours gone without watch. Once again you fight for American Families and i thank you for your service again. I yield back my time. Gentleman yells back and we now recognize the gentleman from california mr. Moffat. For five minutes. Thank you secretary for your time and effort here today. And i cant let that dam removal bit that mr. Raymer was talking about get by what it would be devastating for shipping of crops in the area as its been devastating in my Northern California area with the removal of the dams partly underway and the filth and stink and stench that is moving down the river extensively to be helping fish or wildlife that has been wiped out there. You see hundreds of dead fish in the photos and deer have been trapped out there. Also to things going on with that and also on the hit list and its devastating agriculture as well as the water taking away from the river down below. Also the eel river where theres a dam slated on the hit list that will devastate part of wine country so dam removal is not something risk controls otherwise we would put a stop to that. Its a runaway agency and environmental groups. The issue with forestry in my district in the west we suffered the campfire a few years ago. 85 people lost their lives in the paradise area and the dixie fire a couple years later, million acre fire in addition many hundreds of thousands of acres of fire individual hundred thousand acre fire says you know in the whole west. So the issue comes down to what is Forest Service doing and the other entities, wewill talk about Forest Service to get the job done . A couple years ago they put out a concept of 20 million by over 10 years of forest treatment, they had about 200 million acres in their purview. So 2 million acres per year, over 200 million acres would take 100 years to cover that if they were doing that. Weve given toolsin the past farmvilles. With more categorical exclusions to help move the ball but they havent taken advantage of it as of recently the only a handful of them out to move back. We have good demonstrations, we had a taco project that when wildfire hit that buyer basically stopped where that treatment had happened. Other areas are private lands so secretary what can we do to the Forest Service to act and stop the lengthy delays in the project planning process and use these categorical exclusions as were trying to advance more so in the farm bill and make larger areas, 10,000, 16,000 acres which is a drop in the bucket. First congressman 85 of the work being done is being done under the cta effort so we are utilizing that tool. Ongoing regular consistent basis. Thats good but85 is how much. Last year i think we did 4. 2 million acres. And not every acre of land obviously is the same so we been able to identify where the wrist is the highest, established a number of 250 priority water fire sheds where we are providing resources for treatment because we see that as the highest risk and each year were making the mark, meeting the mark that we set for treatment. Then were following up in areas that have been devastated in the past with reforestation efforts. Part of the problem is in certain situations burnt acres are counted as treatment. When youre looking at the overall volume that we have to do , its millions of acres we have to get done. What im getting at is we have to useall possible tools , Good Neighbor authority, we need local governance, cooperation and not just all those tools are being used in an extensive way. But to the volume, im talking pace and scale, weve got to keep it up dramatically. Let me shift to the Climate Smart, im looking at some of the figures on that. First of all on the goals what are we hoping to intensify, its a five year program area and it was started by our area. There is a kicking of money towards that from the irs. All right, thank you. But theres an influx of dollars to anyway, let me what im getting at, i see the stated goal is 60 Million Metric Tons of co2, what are baseline, what percent of the atmosphere right now is co2 . I dont know what the percent is really the idea isnt the specific amount, its learning what works and what doesnt so we can make sure in the future are using resources in the most effective way. Tell me this, since farmers will have to change practice to participate in they can be frozen out, im a farmer in my real life to area i farm rice will basically if co2 title means no hotel, i do not have that as an option whereas a neighboring crop might have no till as an option i do not so we will be left behind. Farmers like the correct program that are out there but this new one is going to require them to jump through hoops in order to maybe be competitive. Can you close on that and i will yield . Go ahead. Do you want me to respond . Its voluntary. It basically creates an opportunity for us to learn what works and what doesnt work. It doesnt put people at a competitive disadvantage area at all. Because you also have regular Conservation Programs that are utilized. And is not requiring them to go through a series of hoops area in some cases its paying them for what theyre already doing but the idea is to measure monitor and verify the results so we know what works and what doesnt area so that we dont mess with what doesnt work. Co2 numbers. 0. 4 in the atmosphere. I now recognize the gentleman fromillinois for five minutes area. Thank you mr. Chairman and as the only meteorologist in congress i needed to answer that, i couldnt help it mr. Seconds thank you mr. Chairman and as the only meteorologist incongress i needed to answer that, i couldnt help it mr. Seconds but thank you for taking the time, i know its been a long day and as a meteorologist who worked in western illinois i tracked many of the storms that went over mount pleasant. I do want to talk about what producers back home are talking about. They underscored the need for data to help them identify the right conservation practices for them that will improve soil health, build resilience and see questor more carbon. Quite simply being smart with respect to changing climate. My bipartisan bill advancing the research on Climate Impact act will help the usda developed a standardized methodology to monitor and inventory regional soil carbon and establishes a National Soil Carbon Network so farmers can access local data without disclosing priority very information to determine which practices will best improve soil health. Of the 20 million in inflation act reduction refunding, 300 million is designated to improve soil carbon measurements so could you provide detail on how the 300 million has been spent so far to address soil carbon and mrv . Its been set up in a multitude of ways mr. Congressman to establish basically not only Soil Carbon Monitoring Network which is a series of locations across the country where we can do what youre asking us to do to learn regionally what the differences might be. Were also setting up a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Network to do similar work. Where trying to figure out where there are better ways to manage the data, better ways to use technology and Artificial Intelligence and so forth to analyze the information and from that we want to be able to convert that into better tools and models for producers across the country to be able to utilize the they have a better sense for their farm, for their operation of what works and what doesnt work so theres a rather coordinated effort with the usda and a number of areas to essentially use these resources to get data analyze the data and convert it into meaningful tools for producers. I want to turn to the interest in solar for just a moment on Agricultural Land specifically. This is rapidly increasing as we strive to achieve our Renewable Energy goals however i represent some of those for thailand in the world. I have producers today that say what are we supposed to do when we have an offer for 1200 an acre for solar on our farms. Mr. Seconds can you elaborate on some of the reasons why its essential that we develop sound regional guidance that identifies the best practices for where we putsolar in agriculture . I think its an opportunity for nonproductive land to be more productive though identifying where that is. And encouraging the location. One of the things were doing with our piece in the program was that a series of listening sessions to address this issue of where does it make sense to have largescale solar operations and where doesnt it make sense so that people are sensitive to this. I think its also an issue of technology, what were learning is able are beginning to look at the different configurations of solar farms so you can essentially have the roller farm and livestock operation continuously though theres a combination of things we need to be doing. Theres so much ahead and and all of the overall approach is important. Today there is significant concern regarding impact that proposed cuts to the ira conservation funding and thrifty food plan reevaluation will have on both smalltown businesses and are farm families. To my colleagues and my families back home, reading programs and investments high demand conservation and nutrition initiatives snap do not achieve a bipartisan farm bill. But instead hurt the people who are struggling today. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has committed to finding billions of dollars outside of the senate Agriculture Committee jurisdiction to help us pass a bipartisan farm bill in the senate. I purge my colleagues to bring us, working families depend on it, family farmers depend on it, kids depend on it and mr. Seconds is my hope that we can get a bipartisan farm bill across the finish line because it is that important. And mr. Chairman i yelled back. German yields back, we now recognize the gentleman from wisconsin. Write that down mr. Seconds thanks for coming, its been a long day so what i like to do is i just im a freshman so i just solicited a bunch of my constituents so these questions are coming directly from my constituents. The first one will come from organic lobby located in lafarge wisconsin. It is not some left coast thing, it is from the middle of my district and what heres what they want to ask you. Secretary vilsack, the upper midwest provides nutrition formillions of americans and were glad the house passed the healthy kids act which is awesome. We make sure that they can have homework if they choose to, im interested in solving the problems to make investments in derry. One of the efforts usda offers is that Business Innovation initiative and these can be in farmers, industrial partners, processing, marketing and the dairy industry specific to each initiative Coverage Area focused on enhancing capacity and vitality of the dairy industry. Programs offer grants to participants and would like to know how strong is the demand for ddis and can you tell us how many projects are funded, thats the first part, how many applications are received the second part, how much funding is requested by companies farmers are supplying and how we are measuring effectiveness of each dvi. I think i understand the question but i dont answer it if i will be glad to get the answer. I believe there are four of these in the country, we allocated 20 million and they make decisions based on where those resources need to be allocated so they wouldhave the information in terms of the number of grants specific investments. Once we get the resources to the Innovation Center its the Innovation Center that makes the determination. So if we could get information from these guys later, i would appreciate it greatly. Youve heard from our organic Dairy Farmers and farmers that the federal marketing offers no benefit for organic milk and have no bearing on daytoday prices. The most recent mmo hearings that concluded this past month did not review a proposal to exempt organic milk from polling obligations leaving hundreds of farmers frustrated and disappointed. Is the usda willing to hear a proposal on the role of organic milk. The challenge is the underpinning of the milk Marketing Order is participation by dairy producers. And i think its a complicated question youre asking that would require us to think about ways in which it wouldnt necessarily compromise or jeopardize the traditional dairy producer. If we were to set up a separate program. We will see what happens with the federal milk Marketing Order hearing that just concluded, over 12,000 pages of transcript now being reviewed. I got a couple more years so this is from our home producers. They are losing an average of 30 per head, what can the usda do to support our home producers toensure they can pass on this opportunity. We continue to purchase through a surplus program, we continue to work exports and thats two ways of providing assistance and help. Where you stand on prop 12 . Where do i stand onit . I know the Supreme Court said congress should act. The problem is essentially every state could do this. And its going to be chaotic. And wisconsin farmbureau , the change in derry pricing has negatively affected Dairy Farmers across the country and Wisconsin Loses one dairy farm a day. Many constituents are asking usda to change the Dairy Pricing formula from the average off to the higher of area i know youve testified in opposition to changing this formula, the usda is considering making the change in the hearing process that just concluded but unfortunately there are steps five of 12 in process, Dairy Farmers cant wait till 2025. Do you support accelerate this process. Im not prepared to answer that question because i need to have a better understanding of what youre asking. What i would do is give you this which would provide you some information on how we werehoping the dairy industry. With a pretty significant amount of help. Mr. Chairman i have several more questions i want to and enter for the record coming from our core brewers and thank you and i yelled back. Now please recognize the gentle lady from michigan, i have stated earlier healthy kids, congresswoman slatkin for five minutes of questions. Youre almost done, getting down to the drags here so almost out. Mr. Seconds youve answered in a cpl but to put a sharper point on it , my questions have to do with this concept of Foreign Ownership of american land, farm life. Last time you were here i asked you about this and youwere , you pushed back that in a state like michigan majority of foreign land is owned by the canadians by far , the dutch, folks were our friends but since then the gao and others have come out youve heard bipartisan concern about adversarial states, a small handful of states we could have a potential problem with down the road. Myself and representative from this committee put together something we tried to make real which is that when a foreign entity from an adversarial country tries to buy farmland they would go through a National Security review read this is exactly what happens in farmland right now once we sell to a foreign country of any kind next to a military base so we have a process but it is very limited. How do you think about a process where we wouldnt be clamping down and saying no unilaterally but there would be a National Security review of the sale to foreigners of farmland . The usda ought to be part of the process which is an extension of your question. Part of that bill is game giving you a seat at the table. I think it would be great if there was a bill and we could push forward because i do think it is a bipartisan issue. The second question from michigan, our headline now iswe are the most diverse agricultural state in the country with regular access to water. Thats our dig at california. And because of that, you know we have cherry farmers, stone fruit farmers, asparagus, mint, we have a ton of Small Farmers not mono cropping and the number one issue they raise is the cost reliability and availability of labor. Our kids dont go and work on farms in the summer in the same ways of getting that each to a program is a vital for our farmers. And they keep talking about the mandatory increase in wages for those coming to work on their farms , not that they dont want people to make wages but how are we asking them to increase yearoveryear when their profits are going up, just basic bake sale map. We talked with the secretary of labor but do you have any tools in your toolkit as the secretary of agriculture that would be able to provide waivers for our smallest farms, the little guys who cant afford these increases . I dont have that but what we did do is create this farm labor stabilization pilot, 63 million for the American Rescue plan and put it out there for producers of all kinds and all sizes and all states. Weve got over 300 applications for assistance and were in the process of figuring out where those 300 operations, whos going to get resources. What struck me in connection with this is most of the people applying wanted to have a higher threshold in terms of wage levels, in terms of housing. We expected them to go at the sort of base level where the cost would be significantly less but we have more applications at the higher level so i thought that was interesting. But there is not a Relief Program for Small Farmers. We dont have anything available. Its just hard as someone who is in the executive branch to understand that there are no special authorities to make rare decisions from the secretary of agriculture, secretary of labor, all these folks. You can understand how farmers feel like its a bureaucratic answer that we cant do anything. Are you sure theres not a special authority you have to do something more on this issue . Have you looked at every legal possibility . Unfortunately, some of the more difficult were not addressed in the senate. These mr. Miller for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Ranking member, mr. Secretary, but did see you again. A very patient young man. I could tell you, mr. Secretary, you are very patient secretary. Thank you. I would stay ranked my nation. Livestock producers in my Congressional District at their local leaders that my Agricultural Advisory Council keep concerned impacting large regions. More troubling is the u. S. Most recent forecast released just last year indicating a 25. 5 decrease in the foreign income and 23. I know that that was touched on earlier. Farmers include strengthening pharmacy the net and Risk Management tools and the initiatives innovative technology, research, expanding biofuels, trademark, u. S. Dea for Technical Education including the underserved heat area of the economy. A trade deficit of 30 billion and trading up to the expanding markets through the fuels including bipartisan farm to fly at modeling update and i on thet of agriculture concerned partnerships and meat inspections if we are not able to cover all of my questions today which i know that we have not. I will submit that i would respectfully have the thanksgivings response in writing. International trade is critical to ohio in the United States agricultural producers, the most recent outlook for the trade deficit nearly doubled last year to 30 billion. Strengthening the ability to meet Global Demand detailing trade losses driven by the livestock treatment area export. For this reason i am working with several of my colleagues including forte, craig on a letter to you. Mr. Secretary, finally get to the question. I am out of breath. For roughly 60 years agriculture trade surplus, that is no longer the case. Resident expert counsel, to expand expert Market Opportunities can you please detail your plan for the global trade market. We recently announced our break room Agricultural Program design to expand and some of the lesserknown Market Opportunities that we know to diverse and five. No longer to live reliant on china. The chinese economy suffers, basically export software. When our economy is stronger than any other economy in the industrialized world, our consumers are able to purchase more. That impacts exports. The fact that for too many years we have ignored our infrastructure needs allowing our competitors to catch up with us. That is also part of it. We did put this program together in an effort to invest in our present, more trade missions, or promotions, or ability to get the word out about u. S. Products i think will be cost competitive we did have record years. I anticipate that we will get that surplus back. It will take a year or two. Thank you for the detailed answer. Calming National Security for Foreign Countries. All i asked that we question patient. Periodparagraph the problem still exists. I think that you recognize this. Not having the capacity to access these programs. If funding is being distributed unevenly and inefficiently. Can you discuss with us why would usda announced new initiatives, some authorized, some not without having the capacity to assist farmers and municipalities. With all due respect, i do not think that that is accurate. We have expanded to cooperative agreements and contracts with a number of organizations and entities helping farmers all across the country being able to Access Programs and assist them in applying for programs. I do not think that this is anecdotal. Farmers have consistently seen the inability to access that. We have literally over 100 organizations we will be contracting with. Thirty organizations contracting with fsa. The assistance is there and the help is there. As a number of the new initiatives as we set aside earlier is series of resources to provide for Technical Assistance. I was a mayor of a small town. I came from a local government background also. Councils of government. Basically providing that service im surprised that new york does not have those Regional Government to basically help with the grant writing. I dont know. New york does not have an institution when it comes to grant writing and i am heartened to hear that you do not believe that there is additional need for those initiatives. Farmers and communities have consistently said this to me now in this role. We are simplifying the process. We have cut the application process for loans and half. We have created a loan Assistance Program to maybe make it a little bit easier. We have simplified the programs. I appreciate that. I would encourage them to take an earnest look. We will communicate where we think in the state, certainly new york there are some concerns i did want to ask at least one other question. Upstate new york to our dairy farms and fair milk pricing and farmers are anxiously waiting for determination from the usda. Hoping they will be restored to the higher of the Pricing System can you provide to us any incitement for the decision announcement. The announcement of 12,000 pages of transcript. They need to be analyzed and reviewed by their folks at usda and the economist and so forth. That will take some time. We will try to get this done. Sometimes within the next 10 11 months. Sooner than that, probably. It is of concern to many farmers across america. Mr. Secretary, we have an open invitation to visit the west end of upstate new york. The folks at cornell would love to see you. Congresswoman for five minutes of questioning. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Secretary, for coming before the committee. I will jump right to it. National security. It is important we do everything that we can to support and protect american grown products. As you know, unfair competition is a growing problem for our producers. In florida, this is a growing concern. We know that mexico has on their schemes. Everything from peaches and honey in apple juice from china. All of which is ending up in american schools. What is usda doing to making sure american grown products are being served in american schools and if there is a requirement to be used in schools. There is a requirement that proves we purchased and has to be produced and processed and every aspect of it being done in the u. S. What are we doing to ensure that that is in fact happening . We are finding products from all over the world and our school systems. If you want to give us information about the pacific specific circumstance, we have a process in which we can do the best we can to ensure that purchases are being made with the rules and let regulations. By the end of the corner, we can have a conversation and go through that. I would be interested in the School Districts that you alluded to so we could take a deeper dive into that particular area. Perfect. Moving on, as of february 9, there are currently 1550 applications for ecp applications with the usda that are either approved and not paid , not approved are still pending. In the wake of Hurricane Ian. We have chatted about this offline. It has been a year and a half since Hurricane Ian in six months since hurricane a daily. The few that we have been very helpful. We know that that is also an issue. The ability to processes applications in the aftermath is simply put inadequate. Mr. Secretary, can you explain the delays and our producers getting the assistance when they needed the most . We are doing the very best we can to get the resources out. I know that you wanted to ensure that the state would be allowed to do this block grant process. If you authorize at the Congress Grant the opportunity and we would be more than happy to utilize that program. In the meantime, we are doing the best we can with the resources that we have. The resources your secretary can take to make programs a little bit more flexible and get the money out the door faster. I encourage you to utilize that authority. You mentioned the Biden Administration historic assessments to ensure small amid side producers get a bed shake. Other agencies are proposing that will regulate these very users that you are saying you want to protect their will regulate them out of business. They include waters of the u. S. The limitation guidelines and standards for meeting poultry products, reporting and the politicization of Crop Protection tools. The disclosure rule just a few. I had the administer of the epa tell me to my face that he had no idea what it was or vegetative straps were. Yet his agency is doing this for those we are trying to protect and support. Other agencies are playing in the sandbox. They want to dictate what producers grow and how they do it. Instead of advocating for farmers and ranchers that attended expanding and funding policies related to what they believed to be climate chart Climate Smart. You testified multiple times that you do not want other agencies to tell you how to do your job. Every other opportunity, other agencies are telling our farmers and ranchers how to do theirs. You and your written testimony asking if we are okay losing another 400,000 family farms in the next 40 years. Overregulation by the other agencies in this administration outside the usda are exactly, they are on the path to do exactly what your testimony is outlining. And set up idalis standing by i would encourage to take a very active role with this administration in which you serve to advocate not only in your department but across the other agencies that are pushing us out of business. I give back. The gentlemans time has expired. She no other questions to be asked by members, before we adjourn today, i want to offer my closing comments. Ranking member scott had an unavoidable conflict. Not able to be here for his closing comments. First, mr. Secretary, i want to thank you for joining us today. The agriculture which is the industry itself, it is so complex. Being commended and for the same goal that we want a highly effective farm bill. You have made the case for that. I think we have worked together to achieve from a policy perspective if that and all. Where we disagree, perhaps, quite frankly we have to find a way to pay for it. It is kind of a pipe dream. The good bipartisan work that we have done. I want to thank our members for participation. We have almost everyone. And thank our staffs for doing such a great job for putting this together. Im about frostbite here. [laughter] the as a few points i want to make. I heard about the inability to pass a farm bill. I just have to say Agriculture Policy takes teamwork. And we all need to be working as a team and, quite frankly a lot of reasons why we have not gotten a farm bill done it the fact that this farm bill, the senate has to take action and reconcile, i do not know how soon they will be ready. But, with that said, we are still waiting on Technical Assistance. We have at least a dozen that have been submitted three months ago. We have gotten great Technical Assistance. We are still bending from usda. We need that assistance to make sure that we are on track with great policy. Coming along. They cannot proceed without them we have a syndrome going on in this committee and i would say in the executive branch we have funding denial. I will come back to that. For the record, this committee has not been idle. Each member here has been invited to the countryside to hear from the very people that we are charged to represent. I have been very appreciative and thankful for the bipartisan participation that we have done over the last three years. Thousands of miles, meetings, roundtables, visit illustrated today. Seeing agriculture in action. That is how you build a great farm bill. Democrats, republicans and quite frankly the industry. Does our office that we have brought to the table. I have engaged in round tables and discussion. We have also heard today a lot of cherry picked data points. The farm economy has positive it the departments own analysis tells a very different story. With many different farmers and ranchers it is a really different story today. Struggling. Also gathering this administration frankly of all sizes. Cases where they do not subscribe to a far left climate agenda. Hopefully everybody in this room and most people watching in no that i appreciate the fact that our farmers and ranchers are climate champions. We dont give them credit for what we do already. Knowing that american agriculture can be defined as Science Technology and innovation. It is not static. It is dynamic and we will move it forward with this farm bill. The fact is they are good ways to do that in their ways that really are not helping the American Farmer. This administration embracing continued inflation, record cost of production, i appreciate some of the things we have talked about have come down a little bit. Not down to where they were to that in past years. Really, destruction, what leads to destruction of the Agricultural Landscape. I guess that that is a complex way of the loss of family farms we have heard and uneventful Market Basket update to solely allow them to increase the state. It is disingenuous. Using the data is at best. Not like he ample opportunity. It includes being prescriptive. Article one authority in terms of nonabusive way of how a future threat to food plan is evaluated. I have heard so many time the word cuts when it comes to that proposal for being prescriptive of the food plan. It is disingenuous. The leading factor in terms of hunger for many families that are struggling, really and poverty, is the cost of living. The impact of inflation adjust other factors. Supply chain disruptions. Think that would drive up the cost of living and the costofliving adjustments is not being taken away in this proposal. If that is the primary driver of increased costs and financial burden on these families, it is disingenuous and that is being nice. I could think of a few other words of saying our proposal makes cuts. A lot of talk about the climate pilot. Which, quite frankly, better done now by using ccc which should be there to directly help our farmers who are challenged financially. I would say that that is much better under what is been rolled out by usda under research. I am pretty confident there is a bipartisan consensus. We are still ahead of our competitors around the world. And thats not where we want to be with american agriculture. There working through the research file. For vote. Frankly it is a unilateral assertion to the private marketplace costing billions in taxpayer dollars, 0 metrics for success, 0 transparency and self composed fiscal cliff. That includes the ira moneys. 2,030 one whatever is not spend, we hope it is all spent in an accountable way as an investment, not just getting it out the door. The remaining dollars go away. The proposal we put on the table means that by rolling it into the farmville base that money for conservation would be there for farm bills in 20152055. It would continue to grow and increase investments. Also frustrated by the fact of lack of an answer but we will follow up personally with you on this. When asked about the sustaining act, you talked about the interest. We know there is interest. Thats how we built that piece of legislation that President Biden signed and that was 14 months ago. If we are serious about getting investments into conservation then we will want to bring the private sector to the table and i think it will come in a big way but that wont happen until the regulations for implementation are written. In 14 months at a time we all know conservation is so important its too long. To my friends on the other side of the aisle, leadership has been hesitant to share with you my proposed funding framework. For example, your number one priority is to reduce hunger. I agree thats incredibly important. The proposal which i freely admit is a budget gimmick, dont understand how cbo gets 30 billion out of this but it allows us to provide snap populations, we could expand snap, limited or no access to snap, we are actually increasing access to people who have not been eligible for it and frankly we maintain once again the costofliving adjustments which means we are not cutting theft, to cut benefits. We think that is why reducing hunger means those expansions. To do that and have that, it seems to not be translating, that if we put this in place, the next administration, there will at some point be a future administration that may be more inclined, i hope not, im a big supporter of the nutrition title, may be inclined to decimate individual snap benefits. Our proposal for funding would prevent that from occurring because it would be prescriptive staying within the lines. We have almost unanimous support for the doubling for constituents directed by Congress Instead of the whims of any administration. All members appreciate the depth and breadth of Conservation Programs and we will reinvest the ira to continue the great work of our original conservationist farmer and do that for more than a 10 year window. Research and scholarships are given, scholars will be made available to ensure institutions have the tools. This goes on and on. I would assert to the record a list of democratic priorities i have here, here it is. Send to me by the new coalition. When example of the litany of requests that we are trying to accommodate, a list of one hundred 25 bills or priorities that does carry a significant price tag of billions of dollars. It will require the ability to approve mandatory dollars into our current baseline so which is it. So which is . Do we for all my colleagues do you want, do you want your priorities funded or not . You need to be at the table not just on building great policy which i think weve done over the past number of years, weve got to be at the table figuring out how we fund this because without the funding its not going to be a reality. The funding framework is thoughtful, balanced and will not disrupt existing programs or benefits which i would argue in the long run they will be beneficial, for expanding the benefits we see under these programs and the leadership and each and every person, and your leadership says these will not work, your leadership says these will not work so quite frankly, send me your realistic pay fors, blaming the speaker does not offer a real solution for farmers, small or large or Rural America and with that under the rules of the committee, the record of todays hearing will remain open for 10 calendar days to receive additional materials and supplemental responses from witnesses for any question posed by a member. This hearing on agriculture is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] cspan is your unfiltered view of government funded by these Television Companies and more including spark light. The greatest town on earth is a place you call home. At spark late it is our home too and right now we are all facing our greatest challeng