Communicate to the president the needs of american agriculture in a very sincere way and he was very sincere as his response regarding hosting them here today and signing an executive order regarding agriculture and rural prosperity. Hes charged us with inner Agency Cooperation that will enable us to work cross agencies in this task force to report back to him in no less than 180 days all the barriers to rural prosperity and agriculturial productivity. So im looking forward to that. We had a big charge today in many ways and im excited about the opportunity, ready to go to work, roll up our sleeves and make sure that we make american agriculture as great as it can be in the future for a rural prosperity and for jobs. So ill be happy to answer any questions and but your experts are behind me and well probably call on them to answer some of your questions as well. So thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, what did you say to farmers who are concerned about trade prospects and perhaps some uneasiness about nafta and now canada, seems like theres a lot of problems. You can still expand trade or should they be worried . I think there are opportunities to expand trade. President made a great point today in where we countrys have some surplace pluses with the u. S. Were in a powerful position to expand trade and call upon them. He gave personal commitments today to have personal interventions with the leaders of these other countries of which we would love to trade certainly beef in china to make a personal commitment to do that and charge me with getting him memos about the opportunities that we see in agriculture to do that. So the were excited. Obviously i know theres bane lot of anxiety, about the blessings of america is that were so productive our American Farmers and ran chers have been so productive over the years that we have an abund thans we need to sell. And thats going to be my task go around the world with secretary ross, with our u. S. Trade representative, and our undersecretary for trade to make sure American Products are on the tables all over this world. Mr. Secretary, is there anything youre willing to do right now on the issue of Dairy Farmers and the trade relations with canada . Is there any specific action that youre planning . I think what the president has done yesterday and secretary ross and the timber counterveiling terrorists there sends a signal we need to play fair. Thats the president s issue with nafta we wont a freetrade agreement thats free and fair. And obviously what canada has done with their Dairy Pricing has been very unfair to our northeastern Dairy Farmers in wisconsin and upper state new york particularly, and thats not right. What we have shown is theyve benefitted from their lumber exports to the u. S. For many years, and this president S Administration and secretary ross are willing to say, enoughs enough, lets play fair and we can get this thing straightened out. President s already on it. As a dairy farmer i can say that kantd canada has changed some classifications within that milk price system that has given them what they feel is the cover to work underhandly within nafta. So they made some changes and if the secretary and the president doesnt get a handle on that, other countries that we trade with will look for opportunities to work underhandedly as well. Sir, how many jobs do you think will be created it. Im a dairy farmer from michigan. My name is hank choke. Last name is spelled. Choter. Listen together president today gave us an opportunity to strengthen trade because we recognize that 95 of the mouths that need to be fed are outside of the u. S. And each and every one of us are willing to step out and do that. How many jobs in lumber do you think will be created in the United States because of the tariff . Well, weve got a timber owner here from florida whos battled this for years regarding the discrimination of canadian lu lumber and canada coming across. They own much of the timber lands and they juch just give a stumping fee. I cant quantity fight number of jobs right now, but the product activity of our american for rests are prix tremendous. One of the interesting challenge iz look forward to is beginning to utilize the american forest owned by the United States forest again to make them productive again. Jobs all over this country where theyve been cut ought because of litigation and Environmental Concerns over nonharvest we create fire traps. So when we get those communities working again. Are you talking dozens, hundreds, thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Of jobs. Yes. Hundreds of thousands of jobs. Hundreds of thous. Secretary, what wh are you planning on talking with commissioner hogan with when you meet him later this week. I dont have any specific things on the table but we wanted to build relationships. You do trade person to person. Thats the good thing about the president , he believes in relationships and with president xi and abe of japan, hes going to communicate with them directly. I want to build a relationship with eu, theyve been good partners in the past, we would love do more with them. There are not going to be any specific issues other than just building relationships where we can communicate with trust going forward. So in follow up to building the jobs would be if youre going to bring in hundreds of thousands of jobs the fear is that will raise the price of homeowner ship of new homes. What kind of price influx are you expecting by that . I dont agree with your premise. Im not expecting any kind of influx. I think, again, to utilize the productive capacity of our american forest owners is going to be jobs that not does not necessarily increase pricing, it just increases opportunity. Mr. Secretary what do you check the task force, what are the top issues youre going to be looking at and when did you expect to convene that task force . Were going to be starting pror probably as early as june for the task force to convene and well be looking for any barriers to agricultural productivity and rural pros parts. Again, inneragency is very important. Hes placed these other secretaries secretaries on there and, as you know, Agricultural Policy is affected by the epa, labor, finance, and many others so i look forward to working with these other secretaries to cooperatively determine where we can help american rural areas be more productive. There are any bear rerz could you talk about immigration. Lul we talked about labor and the president talked about labor today. What were some of the things about immigration particularly in terms of farm labor . He challenged us to have a plan to bring to him regarding yearround type farm labor on our dairy farms as well as the nonseasonal work to get a program. We talked about how we can work with the secretary of labor in the Guestworker Program and to make it work like it should again. And we look forward to that. [ sirens j. This young ladys from minnesota. Im valerie from minnesota. What do you snee terms of your teacher. Yeah, today was a great day meting with the president and just gave me a lot of hope for the future of agriculture and certainly congratulations to you and thank you for all youve done for us already and the future of agriculture. We have 650,000 members across the United States in puerto rico and the Virgin Islands who goont back to agriculture careers. We are looking forward to that challenge and feeding the growing population so thank you for what you do. Valerie and kids like her give me hope for american agriculture. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Secretary. Thank you all. Coming up on cspan 3 a hearing on u. S. egypt relations and aid to that country. In a town hall bheegt congressman matthew cart wright of pen. After that, global nationalism on elections. Larlt a look at medical research and patient treatment options. Next a hearing on u. S. egypt relations and the millions given to that country annually. Three former state Department Officials testified before the Senate Appropriation subcommittee on state Foreign Relations and programs. This is 90 minutes. The hearing will come to order. We have a lot of our democrat colleagues are in transit. Well get started. Senator leahy is going to be a little late but as soon as he arrived well let him speak. The hearing today is on United States assistance for egypt. Id like to welcome or witnesses, elliot abrams, senior fellow for middle Eastern Studies has been in the government in a variety of roles back to the reagan