Transcripts For CSPAN3 Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue Testifies On Rural Economy 20170517

House building on capitol hill where shortly agriculture secretary sonny perdue is set to testify. Hell update members on the state of the Rural Economy. Actually, governor perdue, seen on your screen right there, live coverage here expected to get underway momentarily on cspan 3. Many which we dont even know. On this occasion, we ask a special blessing on our agriculture industry, and that your blessings come upon our new secretary of agriculture, sonny perdue. Dear heavenly father, finally we thank you for your holy spirit. For oftentimes we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but your holy spirit intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. We thank you for that. And we ask your holy spirit to enter this room today. These and other blessings we ask in your son, christ jesus name, amen. David, thank you. Mr. Secretary, welcome. You and i have had several conversations before this morning. Let me officially congratulate you on becoming our nations 31st secretary offing agricult. We cant be happy. Were eager to work with you. We know you have great heart and concern for americas farmers and ranchers. We know you have both the policy and political acumen to get a lot of things done. I dont think theres a better man for the job of secretary of agriculture in these challenging times. It took time to get you confirmed. I want to commend you for landing on your feet. I appreciate you weighing in with the administration on the vital importance of trade to our nations farmers and ranchers particularly regarding nafta. Put in place a new rule that respects private property rights, federalism and no fewer than three Supreme Court rulings is critical to helping dismantle this attempt at federal land grab. Your successful support of the issuance of an executive order by the president to revisit the myriad of regulations affecting american agriculture could not be more appreciated. And again, thank you for taking on these challenges. Restoring common sense at the School Lunch Program and putting the halt on regulations and would force organic producers to comply with Animal Protection welfare practices are welcome actions. As you begin the work of implementing these i hope you exercise the same kind of prudent judgment. Thank you for your role and helping to insure the United States if forces trade laws including those of mexicos Illegal Dumping of sugar into the u. S. Market. I want to underscore the importance of your leadership to continue building the case against chinas Domestic Support and tro administration trq administration for corn, rice and wheat. If we are to regain americas confidence in trade, we must hold our trading partners accountable for their commitments. On the topic of the importance of trade you nounced this week youre embarking on a reorganization of the department of agriculture. I look forward to hearing more about your ideas and how to make the department more effective. Even if it does so within the confines of tighter budgets. I think its important to point out our current bill is expected to save 23 billion over ten years but the most recent cbo protection show 2014 farm bill is targeted to reduce spending by 104 billion. Nearly four times that anticipated. This achievement is made possible of the hard work and determination of the members of this committee and our counterparts in the senate. I hope youll make sure the president will know this as he makes tough decisions. Farmers and ranchers have seen their net incomes cut in half. Times are difficult on the farms and ranches across the country these days. And if those who are paid to make forecasts about these things are correct, Economic Times in the farm and ranch industry will not be any better over the next several years. Its my experience that a bad farm economy can adversely impact the entire economy. A good farm economy can boost the nations economy. Its my experience that strong u. S. Foreign policy sees our farmers and ranchers through hard times but impacts jobs. Weve had a safety net in place that is working as intended with exceptions of cotton and dairy. Cotton farmers have rallied a way to mend their safety net to make it more effective. We believe that you have the Legal Authority to effectuate this policy. Congress would have done this a couple weeks ago, but for a recklessness of a couple folks in the other chamber it doesnt happy. Well continue to state that over and over, it was reckless and inappropriate. While the dairy industry continues working on a unified approach to mending its safety net i believe theres ample opportunity for you to help them as well as did your predecessor. Well be in a much better decision to deliver on the president s promise of a strong farm bill. Ill recognize my Ranking Member for any comments he has. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Im very pleased to welcome secretary perdue to the agriculture committee. It took a while for you to get here, its nice to see youve hit the ground running. Now youre at usda i think i speak for all of us when i say were ready to work with you. The administration has been in need of someone that understands farm programs and their impact on Rural America. Hopefully now that youre there youll get them to reconsider some of the proposed 4. 7 billion in cuts to usda that was outlined in the march budget. I know you werent part of that and i just dont think in the white house understood what hes cuts would mean to Rural America. This hearing is focused on the Rural Economy. And as youre well aware and everybody is, the Rural Economy is trending downward. We had a pretty good year last year, relatively high yields that kept things afloat in spite of the fact that the prices arent what they should be. I worry we can find ourselves in real trouble if we have an ordinary year or somewhat of a down year this summer. So this is why its so important that the farm bill safety net be set right. So ill be looking forward to your thoughts on what you think needs to be done on the next farm bill and what your roll, what you anticipate the role of the administration is going to be in that process. The farm bill one of the many topics i expect us to cover today. I know our members are looking forward to hearing from the secretary, so with that, mr. Chairman, ill yield back. Thank you, the chair request other members submit their Opening Statements for the record so our witness may begin his testimony and insure theres ample time for questions. With that id like to welcome to our witness table the honorable sonny perdue. Mr. Secretary, the floor is yours. Thank you, chairman conway and thank you Ranking Member peterson. Its a delight to be with you this morning. I look up there on the podium and i see my good friend mr. Scott who showed out at my confirmation hearing if yall are not familiar with that. Thank you for those very kind remarks, and i see some other georgia homeboys with you today as well. My staff was a little concerned since this was our first date and i hadnt had a chance to meet you. They had 15 pages of prepared remarks, but im going to not do that to yall. You can read my remarks in the written record. I want to share a few things with you. Youve indicated correctly that 2017, 2018 is a different Economic Situation for our farm and Rural Communities across this land than it was when the 14 bill was promulgated. Im excited about being at the department, what i found is a cod codre of hardworking people out there. Theyre passionate about american agriculture how we can make it better. My goal and i stated internally and externally is to make you as the committee on agriculture nat house proud of the way the usda is run. My goal is to make it the most effective, most efficient, the best managed, the best value agency in the United States government. We had an opportunity in georgia to do some of that. Weve begun already in looking at that and i know some of your questions will hear about my ideas for reorg, i call it realignment today. I look forward to hearing those and answering those. But the challenges we face now, you know that our farm economy is down about 50 drop in net income from where it was in 2013 as you all were working and contemplating the 14 farm bill. Weve got several members, particularly younger farmers have levered up in the situation where the revenue is not supporting their debt structure and theyre in some dire straits that way. The safety net you all referred to and had worked very well, that you said without maybe a couple of situations that we can improve on. Has been a safety net. Our Crop Insurance combined with the a. R. C. And p. L. C. Programs i think have worked very well generally. Were in some dire straits out there. And the government payments total almost 13 billion in 2016. And based on those great yields that chairman or Ranking Member peterson talked about that we cant continue to depend on, its going to be less than that in 2017. So the Crop Insurance, again, has been a good support, but the other thing is Rural Development has been a wonderful program. What ive learned about usda, how vast, how broad, how helpful it can be in Rural America overall. Thats why i was glad to see and glad to participate with the president in his signing of the executive order interAgency Working together determining what are those barriers to american agriculture and how can we eliminate those and mitigate those for the prosperity of Rural America. Its not just the producers, you know if farms arent doing well in our Rural Communities, those Rural Communities dont do well. Were looking at how we can help those thrive as well. I look forward to explaining my vision for Rural Development upon your questions. So you also know that usda provided approximately 243,000 loans to 35. 2 billion to farmers and ranchers, that led to a full utilization for the Program Level for fiscal year 16 and with record loan levels at 6. 3 billion. Those are the kinds of things we help will help the safety net out here. I look forward to engaging with you personally here today, but also in your offices and your phone calls about the issues that per tatain to your constituents in the ag communities so we can resolve their fears and anxieties over where the future of agriculture goes and address those in a way that makes sense for the shareholders, the taxpayers of the United States of america. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, thank you very much. The chair members will be recognized for questions in order of seniority for members who were here at the start of the hearing. After that members will be recognized in order of arrival. I recognize myself for five minutes. Thanks for being here. Were looking forward to looking with you across this myriad of issues we have Going Forward. As i mentioned in my opening comments i represent a lot of cotton farmers, i believe we had a very elegant fix to the issue with respect to cotton in the program that didnt work. It should have been in the omnibus bill but our colleagues, particularly two of them in the senate refused to see the wisdom of that. And for their own purposes and own benefit, didnt let that happen. So now were left with the same wreck in cotton. I hope i can count in working with you across whatever tools that we have, obviously, we think that cotton seed could go under the title i program. There will be challenges about making that happen and i look forward to working with you on that and other issues with respect to getting help to offset what china and india has done to the market that doesnt allow our producers to compete properly. Id like to turn to the undersecretary youve done, obviously, authorized in the 14 farm bill. Thank you very much for seeing the wisdom of that. Can you talk to us a little bit about how you see your undersecretary working with the other array of trade entities whether its the usdr, whoever that might be and the role that undersecretary would play, not only in making sure the negotiations go the correct way, but also making sure that the administration keeps a close look on enforcement of the various trade things we have out there. So could you walk us through your vision in that . Certainly, id be happy to. Mr. Chairman, before i get into the answer to that question you and i have had conversations i was pleased that the National Cotton council came up with a very innovative and creative budget neutral idea and its disappointing we were not able to get that done. But we can look at the resolution in the 18 farm bill as you indicated. As i went around visiting, i visited with really 75 of your members on the other side of the house, and i think trade was on all of their minds, really, because were fortunate to live in a nation where we can grow more than we can consume. Thats the essence of trade, doing what we do well, and also a noble endeavor to feed the world. Our new motto for usda is do right and feed everyone. Thats what we want to do. We want to feed the hungry here in the United States and around the world. And our producers and ranchers have demonstrated the capacity to share and to do that. Thats what trades all about. I think in the 14 farm bill you all recognized that. And suggested very strongly in the undersecretary for trade, happened to agree with you. It was not an easy thing to do. There were several components that had to come together and were working through those details right now. We felt it was important because trade was almost number one on everyones mind that i spoke with internally, externally in the senate and for those of you who commented as well. Weve got to sell our way out of this supply demand situation and the depressing prices in the u. S. Now. Thats what we hope to do. Youve seen weve seen early successes of that and will continue. The fact is, my opinion is that people do business with people. And i wanted someone every day that woke up with that on their mind, where can i go to sell United States agriculture products around the world. Who is hungry, who will buy how can we do the deal. My role is to provide the expertise, the content to the secretary of commerce, secretary ross, and to our new trade representative, mr. Lighthouser in order to be triumph in sales. The secretary has a broader port foliar th folio than we do. So ive been impressed with secretary ross and his sinking his teeth into ag issue and ag products there. Were pleased with the progress weve made so far. We believe the secretary of trade will be on everyones front door as often as can be. This guy is going to be a million mile flyer around the world to be there in person. Because we know that foreign interests love to see you in person. Its an honor for them for us to come to their doorstep and call on them and say, heres my card, we want to do the deal. And thats important. We can do conference calls, we can do videos, but the pres nsz is important. That person could not do that when they were charged with the Foreign Service agency of having all these multiple offices around the country dealing with those customer facing issues every day. So i felt very strongly that the segregation of that, having a undersecretary for trade, was vitally important to get the job done of selling these bountiful products. Again, thank you, mr. Secretary for being here. I look forward to working with you. I recognize Ranking Member for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman secretary i want to let you know i support the cotton injury and finding a fix for them. And whatever you can do to help, i will be there to help as well. The Rural Development issue has caused some consternation here and there. I take you at your world that youre getting oing to continuee that a priority. Youre the secretary, you decide how the department should be run. The only thing id say is were going to watch to make sure that Rural Development gets the same kind of emphasize it has always. You said that and i expect that will happen. Another issue that i hope you and secretary ross and i think you will, keep the mexicans feet to fire on the sugar issue and try to get that resolved. So far youve been doing a great job with that. So one of the things i went through here recently, we had a high path outbreak in my district. The department did a great job responding to it. And i had firsthand look at this, and its clear that the time to start a conversation with our trade partners regarding the use of vaccines to minimize the impacts of high path, doesnt need to happen during the course of the outbreak. You know, it seems like its you know, what we do. I think it needs to happen at a different time. You know, thats when the [ inaudible ] such as a stamp out procedure should begin now, rather than when we get into the next i think its, wise, obviously, sometimes i guess the saying we have in georgia when the mules out of the gate its too late to close the gate. You dont get that opportunity after an outbreak has occurred. I think youre wise in considering a vax eeccinevaccin. I will comment on the fact that while the 15 outbreak we were slow to respond at the state and federal level. The outbreak we had in tennessee and north alabama this year, i was very, very impressed with the process there. The biosanitary process and protocols our producers have learned. The speed in which usda moved over the indemnification issues. There was no confusion there. To their credit that was confined, very very tight. And thats the best kind of insurance we can have. I think this committee and congress is very wise to consider a foot and mouth disease bank, maybe avian has well because of the damage to the market psychologically. You know what happens when we have these outbreaks, you go by to vse almost 15 years ago, thats how long its taken us to get beef into some nations. It damages the market, not just for that period of time, but it gives people a loss of confidence in our reputation of safety in the u. S. So we know that a vaccination is effective. And i think youre wise to consider those efforts. You know, thank you. I think youre right. People have learned a lot. You know, we better prepared to deal with this. But would you program for Animal Health during the Disease Program and it would be helpful in your opinion in managing disease threats . Certainly. I think from a food safety perspective, from an Animal Plant Health inspection, i think the usda are probably second to none in the world. Thats why the usda stamp is valuable and revered around the world. People trust it and we want to continue to maintain those high standards in those areas. So you tasked the Farm Service Industry by looking at a revamp of the program, did you give them a specific direction . Congressman, im just beginni beginning my fourth week on the job. While we are waiting for some of the other people to get into that, as you know, with the realignment, were talking about the fsa and rma being colocated and speaking with one voice and database, frankly. Again, the opportunity to deal with those type of issues, i know topic of interest to concern in crp. I look forward to visiting with you again. Im not giving specific directions, my comments about that is i think we can have some flexibility in the crp program, maybe take out some of the least productive areas and use that rather than whole field type of philosophy weve had at crp. We need more flexibility in that way. You know the qualifier, we gave flexibility regarding raising on some of these areas as well. We wont be flexibill be flexib train through fsa and rcs our farmers to utilize the least productive acres, those that cost the most, and they may even have a better higher net income if we dont try to plant wall to wall. Thank you, mr. Secretary. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And mr. Secretary, it is indeed good to see you. You mentioned a moment ago on some of the burning issues, lets talk about that for a minute. I think most of my colleagues are aware in the early part of march a serious of wildfires, over a million and a half acres of land in western oklahoma, kansas and the texas panhandle. These fires killed thousands of head of catting, destroyed hundreds and hundreds of miles of fence, impacted countless families, businesses, and its hard to estimate the impact on the little communities. On the fourth of april, 2017 usda authorizedmer emergency grazing on lands for 90 days. The flexibility to graze on crp was and is critical to the s survival of many operations. It will take longer than 90 days to regrow the forage, rebuild facilities needed to maintain a contain and care for the surviving live stock. Last week i along with representative marshall on this committee and representative thornberry sent you a letter requesting an extension past the current 90 day authorization. Would this extension be something you would be willing to consider, mr. Secretary . Absolutely. I think its a reasonable request. As you know i didnt get to the burned areas but my first trip outside was kansas city. I heard directly from many of those affected about that its a reasonable request certainly one we would consider seriously in a reasonable request effort, because we know that grass doesnt necessary grow right back. Absolutely. Ive lived all my life in northwest oklahoma, but i have never seen anything of the magnitude of these fires. Drive for 20 miles and see not one living creature. Its the most amazing thing. The potential for that extension would have a tremendous impact i think upon my constituents. To touch on one other point that my colleagues have talked about already, in concept, the nrcs, the fsa, and the rma coordination would improve could improve by being under Single Mission area of farm production and conservation. And i am particularly sensitive about these issues because my district was ground zero in the Great Depression and dust bowl of the 1930s. Part of why in the drought of the 1950s and the early part of this decade, things were so dramatically different were all of those conservation efforts properly practiced out there, encouraged by the predecessors of the Soil Conservation service. How will you insure that will not be diminished under this new Management Program and the voluntary based Incentive Program which is the way weve practiced it since the 1930s will be the highest priority of the department . Mission is no change at all, personnel no change, all were doing is trying to bring the family together where we can communicate better to serve in that same customer. Whether theyre signing up for a farm program, a. R. C. , p. L. C. To come in. I view it as an economy of scale issue. If youve got nrcs in one area and youve got fsa and theyve got two people in the office and one of them out, our customers are suffering. If youve got four people out, thats a little bit better economy of scale to serve people. We really talking about the same customers. Now from a family perspective, how do we communicate . How do we operate when farmers and ranchers walk into those offices, i want to say, you know, whoever greets them, how can we help you today, not thats not my job. And thats the purpose of the realignment. Well learn better to communicate, well learn better the real needs of the farm rancher customer that walks in the door. Helping to do a farm plan for them. If theyre signing up for one thing and were right there, then we can say, well, lets do an nrcs Waterway Program that way and help them be more aware of all the things that nrcs can do. I agree with you, the technology of better water, cleaner water, were making Great Strides in our Farm Community is really understanding their Stewardship Authority or really opportunity better than they ever had. They now understand theyre responsibility for the off flow off their farms and they want to do things. Nrcs is critical in enabling them, teaching them educating them how to do that. No change in mission. Were realigning in a closer family atmosphere where we can have a Critical Mass to help People Better. Thank you, mr. Secretary. I yield back. Mr. Scott . Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary, all of georgia is very proud of you. And this nation will soon find out why, youre a wonderful, wonderful person. And were delighted to have you as our secretary of agriculture. Mr. Secretary, were faced with a very serious National Crisis. And that National Crisis is the expanding age of our farmers. Theyre now the average age of our farmers is right at 60 years of age. And we in this committee have put together a bill to address that. It is House Resolution 51. Let me just tell you weve been on this mission for over two years. It gives us an opportunity to utilize the 1918, 1890s, africanamerican institutions, land grab. Which youre familiar with for v valets a case in georgia. And you know the whole history of that. We were able to make sure that we had these land grants. We have the university of florida, florida a m and so forth. The president s of these universities have come before this committee and addressed this need. So we have this bill. Its House Resolution 51. What it does is this, it will allow us to utilize these to address this issue and get our Younger Generation into farming. Into agriculture. And more than that, agriculture is now farming, its far beyond a mule and plow from past. Agriculture is a very Sophisticated Technology driven science driven engineering. These africanamerican institutions have curriculum applied to address what we refer to as s. T. E. M. , science, Technology Education and math. And so what we want to do with this bill, is to change some language in the farm bill, which would one, right now, these universities can only spend the money we give them in education, research, and extension. But we want to change and add a fourth area that they can spend it in, which would be student scholarships. Weve also set aside, were working with the ccc. Which is the Commodities Credit Corporation to make sure we have the efficient funds available. Were offering one Million Dollars for each of the five years for each of the 19 schools. That comes to 95 million. It is something that these universities who have been there in the fire and have helped to find young people a way out of no way. And we have not exactly been efficient in applying funding. But this would be the area to do it. I want you to know that this is a bipartisan bill. We have like kevin cramer from north dakota is a sponsor on the republican side. Myself, several on this committee, ms. Fudge, mr. Lawson, ms. Adams, another republican. Ms. Love out of utah. So what i want to ask of you i know youve been on four weeks we want to make sure we sent the bill to your staff and certainly we want you to really get familiar with it and help us. Get this bill through our committee here where it is now on to the floor and to the senate and to the white house. Weve been in touch with the white house. Were work ing with the senior legislative director there, mark sharp. Mark is very familiar with it. And our blue dog democratic meeting, he and i talked about it. And President Trump is interested in this type of effort. And, of course, when you read it, if they havent already informed you, the administration of this particular bill will be through the department offing a a aculture. We cant get it done without your help here. I want to ask you for your support and to work with the committee and help us get this through the house, through the senate and over to President Trump. Congressman scott youve identified some real challenges. You talked about the age issue, but you know those are particularly significant and disadvantaged opportunities as well. You know that im very, very familiar with fort valley State University, having grown up in the county next door. And the beneficiary of one of their honorary doctorates. We understand the land grant universities across the country. Our Extension Service is responsibility for the productive capacity for that. If we can use scholarship dollars to bring these young people in who have a desire many times they havent had the advantage of growing up on a farm. Were seeing this in 4 h and ffa. Young people understand the science, the technology, the big business, the problem is the high capital barrier to entering a aricalture. If we can can train people in these institutions i think youve heard the president affirm his commitment to that, with funding, i would welcome the opportunity to utilize those kind of funds across the hbuc community and those land grant facilities where we can use that for the betterment offing a rutural. I hate to tell you your colleague, mr. Bishop has beat you to the punch. Hes got my the copy of that. Wonderful. Im familiar with it. Great. Thank you, mr. Secretary. Gentlemans time is expired. Mr. Gibbs, five minutes. Thank you, chairman. And congratulations, mr. Secretary, and thank you also for the willingness to take on this endeavor. Its not an easy task. I want to thank you for doing that. I see in your bio you do im from ohio you spent a little time in ohio as a veterinarian during the vietnam conflict. You got a test of the buckeye state. We were in southern ohio recently, but i was south of columbus at the air force base there. I got familiar with a lot of your farmers in the south gate of that base. They had pretty nice pheasants at that time. I hope theyre coming back. I hope so too. About three years ago i was asked to make some remarks daat hilton head. I remember this after i made my remarks, you came up and introduced yourself and we had a nice little chat. Thats my only interaction ive had with you. And it was a good memory. I appreciate that. A couple things, i want to also thank you for reevaluating the School Lunch Program. Bring some common sense to that. I wish somebody, maybe it be you, not only talk about the nutrition aspects, but lets talk about exercise and activity. You know, kids, School Age Kids can burn a lot of calories. I dont think were getting the activity and exercise and the like we used to when we were kids. And you know, i think its good were putting i guess we have 2 milk, 1 or skim milk, and do commonsense and reasonableness. I know my Dairy Producers will appreciate that, were a big dairy state. I want to thank you for your on the regulatory side, some commonsense there and working with administrator pruitt to go back to the states and work out a rule that addresses the Supreme Court decisions. Also, i want to ask a question first of all on the Crop Insurance. Do you have any thoughts how we can make Crop Insurance better and more essential part of the Safety Net Program . As a policymaker when i talk to nonfarming public, you talk Crop Insurance, nonfarming public can understand that better. I would argue in a ten year budget window it probably isnt that much cost to the taxpayers. But it really helps in the years when we have a disaster like a widespread drought. But on the revenue side and the weather side, can you maybe give us your thoughts on what we could do to make Crop Insurance better . I think it would work for the prs aspect. Id be happy to, congressman. I think, again, what we see, i agree with you. I think an Insurance Program for our producers is a much more palatable Safety Net Program better. I thought you did a good job of transitioning. Plc backed up with Crop Insurance which puts responsibilities on the producers themselves. That Insurance Program is not perfect. We have things we need to readjust. On cotton, weve got a quality issue, the quality degradation is not right. We hope to adjust that. The other thing sometimes your producers if theyre on a. R. C. May have a county payment in one county or might farm in both counties and its different. They dont understand those differences either as well. There some fine tuning, overall, i think the Insurance Program has been a great addition. We need to look at more specialty crops how we can cover a more specialty crops in that area and more. We dont want to create a program where our producers are farming for the program. That happened in the past. That creates some unnatural Market Forces that we dont want to have happen. We want a true safety net for those who are doing right. We dont want People Farming for insurance payments, either. We want them legitimately. But the insurance ought to be u utilized whether there is a loss and how can we design that program. I think you all had a great start and well look forward to working with you all as we go through the 14 farm bill to make sure that the rma program is more effective Going Forward. We know the Stacks Program was not as helpful to the cog produces as you would have helped and the dairy program, certainly on some of those issues. Im concerned about the dairy. I dont want to run out of time. Hopefully we have time to question on trade and especially asia and nafta. I yield back now. Chairmans time is expired. Mr. Costa. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Again, welcome, mr. Secretary. We look forward to working with you and you, like myself and many of us here have reflected generations of farm families. And we, obviously, welcome you to this important effort as we look at reauthorizing the farm bill. I dont want to repeat what has been discussed already. Farm credit Crop Insurance, cotton and dairy, but id like to focus on some california issues specifically. As the number one agricultural state and the diversity and breadth and width we take great pride in the production in california. I know youre aware of it, my california colleague and i here on the dias would like to invite you sooner than later to come out to california where we could have a conversation with our farmers, ranchers, dairy men and women and talk about the complexity of californiaing a ruture. We worked hard in the last farm bill to provide the opportunity for the California Dairy industry to participate in the federal Marketing Order. Were now completed the process of the due diligence, usda is moving on this. Id like to get your thoughts on the current timeline and can we tackle this before the end of 2017. The quota issue, if you havent been briefed on it, is a key part of whether or not the Dairy Producers will provide a 2 3 vote to join the Marketing Order. I would be happy to answer as best i can. Im not sure i ever understood the Marketing Orders, but i hope to understand it better Going Forward. Back to your original question about the diversity of comments about diversity of agriculture in california, i had the pleasure this past week of meeting with about 30 of your western growers there that comprise california, arizona, a little bit of nevada there. They said you did a good job. We talked about that. I think they were thrilled to know that while i grew up on a diversified row crop farm, my fathers first love was truck farming, melons and beans and sweet corn. So we kind of got down in a brotherhood bond with those guys. But the milk order, you got a very significant dairy industry in california. And the Marketing Order is important for stability and predictability in the milk prices. As i understand it, we just completed a first step in the 15th of may releasing that. I will commit to you that we will complete that Marketing Order by the end of the year. All right, let me move on because time is we dont get a lot of time here, obviously, conversation to be continued. Trade, obviously, is very important. I was disappointed when the president withdrew from the all the work that had been done on the tpp. Nonetheless there were a lot of elements in there that applies to both mexico and canada. And i want to applaud your efforts to take that map. Id like to see that map you took to the president and talk about our trading partners in mexico and canada. Do you believe that some of the elements that were contained in the tpp can be the basis of moving forward as secretary ross and yourself and the trade ambassador do what the president has requested and that is to renegotiate nafta . Absolutely. I think many of the principles that were included in that and actually in tandem with the renegotiation of nafta. You might could see a sort of a trilateral tpp. Im just suggesting that, but many of the principles you all did, you all had in that negotiation, i think are still viable. Its just matter of fine tuning those in a way that makes sense that im i dont think this administration is not against free trade at all. It really is more concerned of fair trade. Well, and to that point, you know, it works both ways. I mean, in 2010 dealt with the mexican trucking issue and last year with the, you know, country of origin labelling. If we play that game they can play that game with reciprocity. And then they i think it becomes a real problem. I think we need to understand that. We stand ready to work with you on that. Then, finally, Agricultural Labor is a big issue. I know the western growers brought that to your attention. It is something were going to have to continue to fix a broken immigration system in this country. And we would look forward to your support and efforts along those lines. Absolutely. Again, i want to define my definition of fair trade. You dont have trade unless its fair for all those involved. And we understand that. Thats the essence of trade, actually. And we got they got some pretty good negotiators on the other side as well, so i dont think you have to be too concerned about us taking advantage of anyone. No, just twoway street. Right. On the labor issue, it was trade, labor, and regulation as i heard over and over again. And i think critically important is Agricultural Labor. The president understands the contribution that many immigrants are making to the ag economy. And i were going to help to provide a way forward for our producers in that area. Thank you. Mr. King, five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And mr. Secretary, i very much appreciate you being here. I want to start out with a retraction of a statement that i made when i first heard of your name coming forward as secretary of agriculture. And i will say i thought it was candidly, but i said i hope its more than about peaches and peanuts. And you came to iowa 11 days after confirmation and it was absolutely clear its much much more than about peaches and peanuts. And i was gratified to hear many of the things you had to say there in the heart of my district. I just wrote down a few of them here from memory. I think there will be a lot of colloquialisms that will come from our new secretary of agriculture and it adds flavor to our rural life. For example, speaking of the trade that this you grow it, well sell it. I like that bumper sticker. I have every confidence that will be the policy coming out of the usda. One of the other things you said is, an oath is stronger even than a contract. That stuck in my mind as a deep piece of wisdom a lot of us can apply to our job every single day. Lets see the equipment might be a little different, but the people are the same. Thats another thing i thinks true all across the country. Its something we can keep in mind here in this committee. Ill leave out the full story about the cows tail. That made it all real, mr. Secretary. I wanted to welcome you to the ag committee and i look forward to many discussions ag committee and i look forward to many discussions that well have in the future years. I think they will be very productive. One of the things on my mind, though, as far as an issue was concerned is the fear of foot and mouth disease. And its some of the things that weve been working on for id say a year and a half or two years now in my district and beyond. Its the worst calamity we can imagine as far as a biosecurity situation is concerned. And i know that been doing some work there through iowa state and their request that i see across the industry is for a vaccine bank that starts out at about 150 million and then rotates, sells off some of that vaccine and keeps always a fresh supply there. Weve got another way to go where i think we can genetically design a vaccine that is going to be cheaper and can be reproduced more quickly. So you went up the road to afis and i wasnt able to tag along on that stop, but i wondered if you had any fresh thoughts on fmd and what you might be able to tell this committee on how you would approach our preparations for potential calamity. Well, as a veterinarian, i obviously understand the benefit of vaccination and the fact that we cannot psychologically afford even a foot and mouth disease scare here at all. We saw what bse did to us and we talked about that earlier. But i want to compliment you on how well you listened and i was delighted to be in your district and the moves up from the farm are a very innovative family farm operation there up to the ames facility. I was very impressed. We talked specifically about vaccine banks there. You know there along with a repository, responsible for vaccination protocols, as well. Hopefully we can i look at vaccine banks as insurance. And you cant have your house burn down and take own insurance after the fact and it pay off youve got to have vaccines and youve got to have a Vaccine Availability ahead of the time. So i look at it as a wise Insurance Program. And i know there have been some estimates out there on what kind of a cost it might be if we have an outbreak of fmd. But do you have a sense of that . And i dont want to hold you to that on oath because those things are amorphous, but can you gives a sense of the scope that your perception is . I dont have any numbers, but i think it would be the an advertise sis. I want the record to show that i absolutely support for Risk Management. Especially Young Farmers. Its essential to keep our family farms on the farm the one we have left. I just asked the question this way. Would i be your belief that a preyumm for Crop Insurance should be for risk. Any valid Insurance Program, whether its Crop Insurance or any other Insurance Program has to reflect the reality of risk there. Thats what insurance is all about. As i said, as we continue to perfect the Insurance Program because i agree with you. And as you well know, credit in these Economic Times is getting more tight, lenders are requiring an insurance product maybe forward contracting, as well. So that the producers can demonstrate ability. As we go through there, yes, i agree that it ought to be commensurate with risk. Thats a tough issue, with you who do we do that individually or by county or by region in a way to do that. Thats why reporting is so important for our farmers. The census is so important for our farmers and producers to make sure we have accurate data so we can make good, wise actual decisions on. Thank you, mr. Secretary. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman, and thank you, mr. Secretary. Mr. Secretary, it was very good to hear you talk about feeding the world. Thats very different from the president s budget which is cut almost every single feeding program or zero them out. So im hopeful that you will win. I am, as well, concerned about my Ranking Member about Rural Development. Its indicated until the reorganization plan that there would no longer be an undersecretary. It was going to be elevated in some way. Im not sure how that is, except because the undersecretary reports to you now. So im not sure what that change will be. We will see how it goes when we move forward. Youve been really busy in a few short weeks. This is a major reorganization. So im just going to be watching, as is the rest of the committee, to see how we progress with that. Mr. Lucas raised the interest of nrcs, which im also concerned about. And my first question to you is, should we, in the future, look forward to seeing any kind of mergers within the agency or plans to close any of our nrcs offices . And my second question is relates to the office of advocacy which congress put in place so there would be an advocate. Last year, the usda elevated that office to report directly to the secretary, to you, sir. Your proposed plan now drops it back down to reporting to the assistant secretary for departmental administration. I just want to know what your thinking is on that. Those are three important issues and ill be happy to address all of them. If you dont mind, i think again from our perspective, i welcome the accountability. Im an outcome kind of guy. As i understand the current organizational chart, the undersecretarys report to the deputy secretary and i view the rd portion of this, particularly in limited resources, possibly with an Infrastructure Program for the administration and from you all. Im not a micromanager, but im a hands on manager. And this is an area that i think secretary vilsack and i had wonderful conversations about how the potential of usda has been used across the country in Rural Communities, both in water systems, with both in utilities and both in community facilities. This is something i guess i jealously wanted to be a part of. And when i say elevated, i mean elevated to a portion where that person is going to be sitting close to me with walkin privileges over this is a great opportunity, the this is a deal, what can we think about and how can we do better to do that . I welcome your oversight in the rd portion. The mission is not going to diminish whatsoever. The Distribution Network thats been developed out here with great great people all over the country. It is not going to be diminished at all. The people in r are d are going to report to the assistant secretary who will have direct access to the secretary. And i consider that an elevation. You might can think about it in nomenclature, but there was no way a diminishment, if you gave me the opportunity and a corporation to have direct access to the c he o on walkin privileges over ideas versus a title of a vp, give me that direct access anytime. Thats the influence, thathe power is access. So thats the way i view the rd. And i look forward to your accountability in that. Nrcs, mission is not going to change. People arent going change. Maybe some locations might change from an economy of scale perspective as i explained earlier. If weve got despairit people in maybe two per office and we can combine there to have an economy of scale that makes a difference of service to our customers, we may consider doing that. Theres no in fact, i think theres preclusions about closing any places. So were looking if theres any combination of bringing the family into one house rather than being scattered out in a impound, then we look to have Better Service in that way. Thirdly, thesy and there theres a strong there, secretary vilsack made a lot of progress there. I dont see that diminishing whatsoever. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Thank you. Governor. Mr. Secretary, marys husband. All great titles. Im not sure if youd be mending fence or checking cattle right now if she hadnt agreed to marry you. Glad to be here. Great man, great family. What youll find from sonny purdue is if he can help you, he will help you. If he tells you hes going to do something, hes going to do it. Ive always appreciated that from you. And governor, just a couple of quick comments and questions maybe. I was at ufca research station in byron this last week. As you know, research is not something that you can simply cut on and off. Its a longterm commitment. Its a longterm investment. And that investment has to be coupled with extension before it can actually get to the fields and help the farmers and our economy. And so they brought up while i was there the hiring freeze. And certainly hope that as we go forward were able to come out from underneath that hiring freeze and that you have the flexibility to put the people in the most effective areas with regard to research. And that that partnership will be there with the states i know for you to actually get that research to the field. Your commitment to 4h, your commitment to ffa, those are extremely important to Rural America and i know those organizations will benefit from you being in that position, as well. One of the things that has changed on the farm in the last couple of years, and its changing is the use of technology. We hear we know that President Trump an Infrastructure Program that will be put forward. The Rural Broadband, as you know, we need that quite honestly more than we need roades and bridges in many of the counties that i represent. You know from growing up in houseton county, youve got metropolitan areas and then just a few miles down the road, you have areas like you grew up in in bon air and i lived in ashburn for a long time. I tell people i live in tifton now, but i live in chul la, georgia. So if you could speak to the Rural Broadband issue and any assistance that you believe that the usda can give us with making sure the Rural Broadband is a part of President Trumps infrastructure package, i would appreciate your comments on that. Be happy to, with friend. First of all, let me talk about Research Just a second because you mentioned that. And youre absolutely right, the reason our producers are so productive today in the 21st century is because of the research and the foundation thats been laid. Its not something that can be cut off and on. And the other thing is, is the Delivery System of that basic and applied research to the feel through the Extension Service has been sort of the wonder of the world. We see what difference its made in our productivity as we have to feed 9 billion people by 2050. So thats important. But you made a great point. Another thing thats just as important is the technology because you know your producers in middle and south georgia are using technology for better water usage, Better Technology for precision agriculture, for monitoring crop needs, whether its whatever adding, and the telemetry thats needed out there is dependent on Wireless Technology and wifi. And while the other thing sociology logically, congressman, in todays world of connectivity, it might be true in your house with wells age if the water goes off, thats kind of a disadvantage. If your lights go off, oh, bummer. If your heat goes off, youll get a blanket. But if your wifi goes off, thats a crisis and thats kind of what happens out there in the world today. Sociologylogically to davids point, to congressman scotts point, were not going to keep these young people on the farm, attracted there, if they dont have the connectivity theyre used to when they go to college. Theyre not going to come back. And its vitally important. The good news is, this is square on the radar scope of the president as well as the fcc chairman. Ive had conversations with them. He is actionly awaiting the infrastructure plan where we can ambitiously take Rural Broadband ubiquitously across the country. As you know, there are place necessary our home state, you cant even get a cell signal in other places. So weve got a lot of challenges. But im convinced of what you hit on. Its the modern day road, sewer, water of the 1st century is connectivity. And i look forward to promulgateding as much of that as we can across the country. Mr. Secretary, thank you. And wells is most upset right now that its not duck season, turkey season, and Fishery Services just took the snapper season away from him and we give him three days. So any help with that would be appreciated. The gentleman yields back. Mr. Montgomery, five minutes. Thank you, mr. Had secretary, for being here. And i appreciated reading that your new motto at usda is, and i quote, lets do right and feed everyone. I think we all hopefully share that goal. And i was a little surprised in your Opening Statement and in your written testimony, i didnt see any testimony of snap which is the premier antihunger program in this country. We have 42 million americans who are food insecure, who are hungry. Many of them rely on this program to put food on their table for themselves and their kids and, you know, its one of the most efficiently run federal programs we have. I want to take this opportunity to thank the men and women who work at usda who work and complement this program because it has one of the lowest error rates and frog rates of any federal program we have. We with might want to consider lend something of those staff to the department of defense to oversee their defense contracting. They might get it better over there. But the bottom line is, this is a good program. And i worry because theres lots of talk. Of members of this body. And some people in the administration looking at snap as a place to basically try to find money to pay for other priorities, essentially using it as an atm machine. And i think that would be a mistake. We have heard talk of putting more restrictions on the program, putting more hurdles in place, making it more difficult for people to be eligible for the program which i think would be a mistake. You know, the average amount of time that people are on this program is less than a year. And the benefit, i would argue, is inadequate. Its on average about 1. 40 per person per meal. Which is you cant buy a coffee for that nowadays. So i guess my question to you is im looking for some assurance here that youre a strong defender of the program, that youre not advocating structural changes or trying to put more hurdles in place to make it more difficult for poor people to get food because its a concern of a lot ooh people in this country and so id be interested in hearing your views on what you plan for snap. Thank you, with congressman. I did not include that because i was hoping you would ask me the question. I thought you would. I agree with all that you said. Its been an effective program. Im a conditioning guy. Can we continue the processes and the protocols there . Yes. We have some disparity between our states of how theyre implementing and executing that and the cost over delivery and id like to see more unanimity in those equity programs, learninging from one another how they deliver those programs even better. But as far as im concerned, we have no proposed changes. You dont try to fix things that arent broken. When the motto is do right and feed everyone, i view that as very, very inclusive. I find that reassuring. One other point, theres been a lot of focus on this group of people called ablebodied adults without dependents. And such have suggested we be tougher on that population because the rules are if youre on the program and youre not working or youre not in a job training program, you know, in three months you lose the benefit and youre not eligible to get it back for over three years. The while it may sound nice to go after that population, the bottom line is its a complicated population. We mentioned the issue of commitment overseas. Again, acknowledging that you were not here when the president drafted his budget, i am worry that the programs like dole, International Food program which has fed millions of kids around the world in school settings, it has been a tremendous success. Ive visited these programs. Its zeroed out in the president s bumt. I worry about the future of food for peace. So im hoping youll away strong advocate to put the money back in for those programs because i think they represent the best of our country and i think they contribute greatly to our National Security. I cant disagree with you again, with congressman. Im be in a program on friday as we help transition them into those jobs. As you well know, the Supplemental Nutrition Program was a time limited program in a tough time for a period to help them get a job. So we want to be part of growing the economy, of help restoring these veteran toes a likelihood and frankly we need them in agriculture. So thats the heartbeat of usda regarding veterans in there. We also support states waiverbility for veterans in that, as well, on those kind of restrictions. And i hope maybe beyond veterans, too. Its not just veterans, but sometimes there are vulnerable populations in addition to that. Time has expired. Mr. Crawford, five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary. Thank you. Good to see you again. Just been a couple of weeks that we turned some of the devastation in my district. Let me thank you for your responsiveness, your departments responsiveness and your personal attention on that issue. I think our hundred year floods are coming a little more frequently than every hundred years. This is our third in six years. You saw that yourself. As i mentioned before, and as been talked about here, Crop Insurance is an important component, no question about it. As it applies to rise, the practical to replant division there, i think has really added more confusion than clarity. So im hoping that you can and im certain that you will work with us on actually trying to provide some flexibility on that because, as you know, after may 15th, its strictly not practical to replant rice and expect a yield. So having some alternative would be much appreciated. Congressman, i agree with you. You know that those contracts are set and it cant be changed for this incident and this tragedy that just happened. But the rms or rma has learned from that and certainly on some of these dates on practical replant makes a huge difference regarding yield production, the quality of seed, the hybrid seed and other things of the chemicals that are linked with that. So i think youll see and i will commit to you that youll see some changes in the rma practical dates Going Forward for the 18th contract. I appreciate that. I also want to thank you for your comments during your confirmation hearing with regard to cuba. I think thats very important, as weve had a chance to visit about that. The Value Proposition that presents for u. S. Farmers and ranchers. And i know at this point, the white house is right now undergoing a cuba policy review and considering whether or not to reverse course on our recent expansion of regzs with cuba. I just i hope that youll be a vocal advocate on that score so that when they do develop that policy, that it would be inclusive on the ag front. Certainly the financial policy that you all have faced is beyond my pay grade, but i think the someone said it earlier, if our folks grow it, i want to sell it. And they eat in cuba, as well. Absolutely. On that note, hr 525 is something weve been working on for a while now, the cuba ag exports act removes the financial restrictions that you mentioned. Right now, we can sell ag products in cuba, but its cash up front requirement that is really an impediment to fully realizing the potential of that market for u. S. Producers. Many of the members on this committee are cosponsors of that legislation including the chairman of the Ranking Member and i hope that you would be able to review that sxen doors that bill because we want to try and move that forward as quickly as we can and provide more greater access. As i said, i think thats something i would be supportive of if folks around the world need private credit to buy our products and im all for that. I probably would have some personal concern if we were doing public credit to the nation of cuba. I share that sentiment and thats the bill is written to address that very provision that it is strictly a private transaction with no taxpayer back stop and i think thats important to note. So go back to cotton real quick. I wanted to echo the concerns of the chairman in regards to the problems that were fait facing in Cotton Country. And were behind you by one. Were number three in cotton and georgia is number two and the chairman will claim credit for texas being number one and cotton product. But were all in this together and Cotton Producers need relief and they need it yesterday. And you know when we start to lose our gen infrastructure, as the old saying goes, you can cut douj an oak tree in five minutes, but it takes a long time to grow it back. So as we start to see our instruct disappear, i its going to have an impact on the broader economies and in the broader sense on our economy in the state and in general. So i just i hope that as youve indicated, and im sure you will, use every tool at your disposal to help us address that issue of the Cotton Producers beltwide. Thank you, sir. I hadnt told the chairman yet, but i think our chief economiest just said georgia was number one in cotton. Is that right . Depends on which year. Well, i appreciate it, mr. Secretary. And we certainly look forward to working with you and i congrat ewe wlat you. You certainly are the right guy at the right time and we appreciate you. Thank you. Miss russo, five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Secretary purdue, thank you for joining us today. I look forward to working with you as i represent the northwestern part of the state of illinois. I want to start with a quick question, i hope, and then go into something a little more indepth. To start with, our aging locks and dam system. Theres 37 billion in agriculture and Food Products that flow through the illinois ports and waterways. Upgrading aging lottes and dams on the upper mississippi and illinois rivers is a top priority for the growers that i represent in my region. Congress has authorized these upgrades, but the administration has to request the funding. What i would ask of you, if you can answer with a yes or no, that would be appreciated. Can we count on you to push this administration to invekt in our Water Infrastructure . Specifically, will you push for 1200 foot locks on the upper military and illinois rivers infrastructure plan . Yes, in the broad answer. Specifically on the 1200 foot dam, well look at that and see. I was at the white house yesterday inn over an infrastructure meeting. Inland waterway is right at the top of their list over the contribution to the economy. We know how important it is to the ag economy. You know i was on the banks of the ohio river in cincinnati the other day. And saw some of those barge loading facilities. Its a real its a huge advantage for u. S. Economy and producers especially. They dont have the infrastructure. That wonderful River Network that runs through your state and all through the middle of our nation is a vital resource for our world economy. Anything we can do i commit to being a serious advocate for american agency. The logistics part is part of that and the waterways are in the front of that. And i would like to offer an invitation to you to come and see the locks and dams through the mississippi river. Thats the entire western border of my district and seeing the locks and dams that were built in the 1930s that really need a lot of attention. But we would with love to have you come and visit us. So consider that an invitation. Quickly shifting gears, yesterday the joint Economic Committee released a record outlining many of the economic challenges in Rural America, which id like to have entered into the record. But id like to acknowledge something that congresswoman fudge said earlier that im concerned about the Trump Administration budget that calls for 21 cut in usda. Including eliminating cooperative service, just a big concern. And i think that can be echoed. But the reorganization eliminates the Rural Development missionary entirely as well as the Senate Confirmed undersecretary which youve addressed for a molt. But its my understanding that youve submitted the organization to congress for the mappedtory 30day notification period. However, just today you sought Public Comment for a federal register notice on the proposal. So wondering why the formal reorganization plan to congress, why that was presented to congress before seeking impact or feedback from the impacted stake hoes holders. Just your thought on kind of that order of that. Im not sure i can answer that question specifically, other than ive given my vision and we are progressing in the protocol as i understand it directed by our general counsel to implement this. I visited with your chair and Ranking Member here, the chair and Ranking Member of ag appropriations to let them know of my plans and to do that. So just i may not be as attuned to the federal requirements of permission as they are, but all i know is my heartbeat is to make good and to do well and to make sure usda continues to serve process question. Okay. I think your mike might have gone out for a second there. We still want to hear you. All right. Im hoping that you will listen to that feedback. Thats offered and im sure you will. The other thing is, will someone in your office take on the daytoday management responsibilities of leading Rural Development with this new structure . Its a staff of 5,000. Its a Loan Portfolio of more than 225 billion. And for that to go straight up to you, the concern is just the attention thats going to be given to Rural Development. Its a big concern. Were going to have the assistant secretary directly reporting to me. If it makes you feel better to call that person undersecretary, enjoy that. But that person is going to have not only the responsibility of managing that portfolio, doing what we were doing that way, but also having direct access to we can move quickly and nimbly with a vision of improving Rural America. So that is important. That person will be Senate Confirmed in that area. So youll have an opportunity to visit with that person and ask them all of those questions. Ill yeed back. Five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Good morning, secretary purdue. Your presence is greatly appreciated here this morning. I represent tennessees fourth Congressional District as home to the 10th National Walking horse celebration. The tennessee walking horse industry, directly or indirectly, employs over 250,000 people in larger rural areas and farming communities where Economic Hardship is commonplace. The Previous Administration obstructed progress and refused to cooperate with the industry to replace the current sukted methods prone to error. Can folks in tennessee count on you to be supportive of the walking horse industry to elimination soaring so that people can continue to enjoy this time honored tradition . Certainly. As you know, we delayed that rule in order that we can get the facts about that. Theyre beautiful animals and need humane treatment and i think the reputation of the wonderful people in the walking horse industry, they want the bad actors out as much as anyone does. Thats what we hope to have a regulatory protocol that will ensure that how the enforcement operates in that, how thats done, best assures the public that these animals are not being created treated inhumanly in order for them to perform. So i welcome that. Well look forward to working with you on that. The tennessee walthsmans association appreciates the establishment of undersecretary for trade position created in the 2014 farm bill. How are the Bilateral Agreements progressing with the countries that have been part of the tpp agreement and many of these countries, you know, offer significant Market Opportunities for us beef. Under your leadership, these Bilateral Agreements. I hope well be able to announce very soon and show you a picture of u. S. Beef going into china, which is a huge market. So i think your kalthsmen are looking forwa cattlemen are looking forward to that. There are technical issues to resolve when dealing with some of the international buyers. Its the yogi berra philosophy, it aint over until its over. Thats what were working on. Any updates on japan . Japan, again, secretary ross, the president , obviously, with asked me to write him a letter that he could deliver to the president of japan to indicate the protocols that we need to get back in there, as with well. And the nations poultry industry has been reeling from high outbreaks of Avian Influenza the last couple years, most recently which occurred in my district. A report last week was that the usda has taken significant steps to respond to the crisis. But a few ways to determine the effectiveness of these steps. In your opinion, how can our farmers enhance biosecurity and make their livestock less susceptible to the introduction of disease . As indicated earlier in my testimony, im very, very pleased with the conjunction of our people over the containment of the recent outbreak in South Central tennessee. I thought that was the way the system should work. There was very timely action towards eliminating that disease. So i think the system is working. We learned a lot from 2015 and your state to alabama and the states of georgia all collaborated very, very well to make sure that the high path was contained. So i think i think were making progress. Can we do better . We can always do better. All right. Well, again, congratulations. Were glad that yush finally in place. That took too long, but were glad to have you. I yield back, mr. Chairman. Commissioner echs, five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Good morning, mr. Secretary. How are you . I know, mr. Secretary, you are a veterinarian by trade. And that pennsylvania is the home of one of the greatest Veterinary Schools in the nation, the university of penn. I was visiting that school last week. Can you share the importance of veterinary programs that you look to strengthen as it relates to our nation. I dont hear a lot with about that and obviously im really concerned and the aspect of diversity added to the element of veterinarians. Can you speak to that . Well, when it comes to food safety, congressman, theres a zero tolerance policy. Thats what americans expect, thats what we come to benefit from. And the veterinary profession is inmently involved in that. When i graduated from Veterinary School in 1971, i had volunteered for an assignment in the United States air force. I dont know that i realized that that would be a food safety and Public Health mission there. So when i served in ohio, it was food safety and Public Health and i got a really a Broad Perspective of how important that was. The food Safety Industry and profession had not matured at that time in the 70s, but i learned a lot about it and was trained in that area. Weve got great veterinarians in our Inspection Services all over and while youre correct, your veterinary skill in pennsylvania is one of the renowned ones along with iowa state and kansas and others along with my Alma Mater University of georgia have done a great job pruning out professionals who are part of that food safety network. We also have great career professionals in usda under the guidance of veterinarians who are making a great work in that. Much of the foodborne illness you see happens after that and the supply chain, the delivery and others. Were committed to a zero tolerance policy to make sure that the food that americans feed their families are safe. Mr. Secretary, in pennsylvania, i was in state legislature and we dealt with the issue of Pennsylvania Food desertes and Food Insecurity. And came up with a program called the ffi program which was a Public Private partnership that worked to address food deserts. How do you steek to address food deserts . I think some of the programs that you all fund thad we have the opportunity to award some grants regarding fresh vegetables and others, its a Healthy Food Program that we are finny is one of them in that area as well as another one that has to deal with those problems. Theres very little money in that, frankly, but we have pilot projects to make sure we can understand how the food is not readily available and have access, be it local farmers markets other other ways and to be able to use their food Supplemental Nutrition Program to access those. So we look forward to understanding better how we can even do better in that regard. Ive always said that food policy is foreign policy. We know that food is a bipartisan issue that we all have to eat. What will you do to ensure that everyone on the spectrum from neighborhoods to global food can be prioritize the importance of food policy . Well web talked about i want the motto to be more than just a motto, do right and feed everyone. We have an awesome opportunity in this country as abundant food suppliers in the world and that doesnt exclude our american citizens, too, who are less have less opportunity for food safety and food nutrition. But the fact is is that whether its a po480 program, food for peace from governor dole or others, with i hope that we can see these programs sustained and be able to use the production of our american producers in order to be a weapon for peace around the world. Mr. Chairman, i yield back the balance of my time. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And welcome, mr. Second. Its great to have you here. And i hope things are going well for you in your transition. Its also very heartening to hear the colleagues you know the best, the georgia colleagues have welcomed you here today in a nonpartisan way and everybody likes working with you. Thats a good indicator compared to some of the things going on around this town. So many issues here. Im hoping, you know, we see a rebound and commodity you know, ag commodities there and we can see exports, you know, expected to comeback up a little bit from a peak of just a few areas ago. We have a lot of issues going on. I have a Northern California district top of the state and one of the things that were very, very concerned about is usdas oversight of the Forest Service and the need to be much better managing our federal lands and moving more into biomass using these this overinventory we have of Forest Products out there that really need to be managed much better as we have wildfires every year and a biomass situation. So as we work on the federal land issue, what do you think we can do to grow the markets for biomass, have more Economic Activity that would be jobs right in our own backyard for material that needs to be moved right out of our own backyard for private land and federal land . What do you think we can do more in that area for biomass . That has not been talked about in our realignment had to the with alioning nrcs and missionary with farm fsa and that. That leaves nre, really, with the responsibility of managing our u. S. Forest service. Thats where over a third of the employees in usda are. Thats frankly where some of the Biggest Challenges have come from. We fait face litigation, we face nipa challenges and other kinds of things in order to utilize the Renewable Resources on all of our millions of acres out here, Northern California and many other states to do that. Actually, that means jobs, as well. The good news about the fact is a healthy forest is less vulnerable to fire and you all know that the fire budget has kind of gotten upside down in the Forest Service. Were spending more to fight fires than we are to prevent fires. We hope to get that corrected with your help and reestablished, but i believe, again, a mission area thats focused directly on here utilizing the renewable aspects of whether its dead fall going into biomass or recovering these trees that might be down, theyve got a certain period of time that you can harvest them and they would be good lumber to get ahead of that curve. The challenges right now, so much of that budget is spend in suppression rather than prevention and weve got to get ahead of that. But thats my desire. Its switched from onethird of the budget to twothirds over the years. Were trying to adjust that with other legislation. Thats right. And you mentioned nipa, too. Thats very frustrating. After a fire youve had the need to get in there and salvage in a short amount of time. We have to get it done and sometimes you waste a year, a year and a half and the value of the wood is pretty much shot by then. Then its a detriment out there. Also, you did mention merging nrcs and others. That sounds like a great idea to have these folks be able to speak in the same language. I also have a very large rice acreage thats in my district. In my real life, im a rice farmer, as well. Talk with mr. Crawford about that a lot. California is number one in medium grain. And thank you for meeting with some of our california folks earlier this week, as well, to rice. We just need, you know, a little more help and the exports on that getting more of that product into japan. Theres a lot of disappointment over gpp with opening up another 50,000 tons, which mean about 700 growers grow that ourselves. So that didnt mean a whole lot. Maybe as that comes back around, we can see more entry for rice as well as other exports. Lastly, and id like to hear what you think on this. We heard a mention of snap earlier. Weve had a lot of hearings on that during this last year, very comprehensive. And it keeps coming up, the issue of snap which i think this committee very strongly supports. But the way its targeted and theres a lot of issues with some of the products being used for snap is being used for. Soda and candy and things like that that arent generally healthy. Where i think the original intent was ag products that come from here. Can you touch in general on what you feel the direction should be with snap and what kind of products we should be using with that. Thank you. I think our desire as parents and grandparents is the people who take advantage of snap would use them for healthy products. Thats the balance of what level do we want to become a nanny state of directing how people you know, what they feed their families. So thats the challenge in that. And i reasonable lean more to the laissez faire rather than the descriptive in that area from a perspective of not wanting to if parents and people who use the snap benefits are not doing that at home, i dont know that we can corral them enough restrictions and snap to make them do that. So its a really dicey issue of how we do that. I think we try to do it through education and through examples and allowing snap to be used at local farmers markets. Making sure in our School Program that the free vegetables and fruits are there. So our kids can get used to that and hopefully wont ask mom and dad for more of that than they would other things. But i know weve got and someone mentioned earlier and i wanted to comment on it then, weve got a serious obesity problem in our youth. How do we not ohm get a good food and nutrition program, but how do we get a good Activity Program going, as well. All of that is complicated, complex, and it needs to be all of our business about that. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman, ill yield back. Five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman and secretary purdue. I represent central florida, your neighbor to the south. We all here today have in of the great orange juice thats developed in central florida. But i want to say if we dont get Citrus Greening under control, it will be brazilian orange juice pretty soon. Our production is down 70 over the last decade. While were developing resistant root stocks, i wanted on to gauge your commitment on continuing the robust funding to address this crisis that could eliminate all florida citrus if we dont get a handle on it. Done. Its obviously a serious issue. Its been a tenacious pest and research is important to get that done. We needs to build that barrier. Youre well aware of how many acres have piled up in florida over in the citrus industry. So im a great consumer of that product you have in your hand there and i want us to have more of it. Well, we appreciate that. In addition, we have a large cattle industry in and around our district, including the largest herd in the nation and we appreciate your commitment to help modernize the northern american fnd vaccine bank. Do want to bring to your attention, what you may already know, we had a small screw worm outbreak in the keys, which was a pretty strange place for that to happen. While thats under control, it highlights that we have a risk to florida cattle. One other thing i know my local cattle ranches will be sending you an invite to the ram rodeo. Its part of our tradition there. The other issue i wanted to bring up is theres been reports that foreign farmers are bringing in fruits and vegetables labelinged as organic that are not organic. And in florida, were working on protecting a fruit and Vegetable Industry that is really struggling under low wages coming through areas like mexico and central america. So its a twofold question. What do you think we can do to assist in making sure or fannic means just that, particularly from foreign commodities and what do you think we could do within the nafta confines to trigger higher wages under the existing provisions of nafta in mexico and other areas . Regarding the organic issues, certainly its been a value brand as we see the growth from consumers wanting more of that. The way the oversight works from the usda is we authorize or legitimize the certifiers. Many times state agencies to go out and make sure this the principals and the processes and the programs that define organic are being carried out. As you might imagine, thats not a 24 7 type inspection. It works much like the Environmental Protection agency authorizes state epds to work in that regard, as well. So thats a challenge. I think our goal is to have better authorization of these certifiers and do do some auditing out here, the no only of the certifiers, but on the ground, as well to do that. We want to jealously guard the legitimate and i think theres legitimate concern regarding the cheaters coming into the country and organic labels that arent following organic processes. So its a very important responsibility of usda. We have to leverage that because theres no way for usda to have enough inspectors on the ground everywhere to certify organics. But in working with our authorized certifiers and well just try to do a better job in making sure those people who are violeting the rules are not allowed to do that and continue to do that. And then on the wage disparity through nafta in mexico and then also in other trade treaties in central and south america, how can we help make sure that our agriculture products and fruits and vij s vegetables can be competitive under existing provisions . Certainly i think our vegetable and produce state of agriculture and your people in florida have maybe been the ones that have not benefited as much from nafta as the rice or the grain producers or even dairy in that way. Its a real challenge, but most of the challenge comes from the Counter Cyclical culture of growth. I mean, theyre lower in the hemisphere than we are and can grow things different seasonally in had that way. But we have to make sure that the safety of those products is just what we insisted on in our american producers, as well. Regarding nafta and the negotiations, my open, my advocacy will be that we dont go backward in that, but you see thats one of the areas where i think we probably can improve our situation basically mexico with regarding fruits and vegetables. The gentlemans time has sxiefd. Five minutes. Secretary purdue, thanks for being here. I feel a kind rid spirit being a fellow veterinarian, and i dont know whether to call you doc, governor or secretary. If youre like me, you probably prefer doc. I look forward to helping you achieve your mission. The way you opened up and everything youve said, im in alignment and it sounds like you have common sense i can only feel that comes from working on the south end of a horse or a cow in your past. But what you were talking about, i look forward to helping you achieve your goal making a realignment of the usda to make it the most Efficient Agency in government. And we have to do more with less and i look forward to working with you on that. You also talked about the usda stamp is the most it should be revered and trusted. And i agree. Because that stamp around the world stands for a the highest quality product that you can get. And i think its so important that we protect it. And several of the things i wanted to talk about were already talked about. Your understanding of fmd is its music to my ears. There was a point up here where it wasnt talked about much. And we know the threat. We havent had that here since 1929. If it comes here, it would be deaf stating and certainly we know what happened with bse with the three cases that were here. And how long its just now taking us to recovery after 15 years. And that was with no depopulation of any of the herds and certainly if we had an fmd outbreak, it would be devastationing and take years and years to recovered not just our herd, but our trade. I look forward to working with you on this coming, the new farm bill to make continued improvements in the Cotton Program as was talked about. And but not at the sxend expense of other crops, i come from florida and South Central florida. The cotton seed program is something we talked about to help give diversification to the cotton growers. Thats something that i hope you would consider in looking at. But what we know is with these programs, you cant have one at the expense of the other one. And with peanuts, we certainly know within that one program you have discrepancy because you have the people that have generic and or base acres and you have the people that have neither and are growinging peanuts right next to each other. One is at a disadvantage because they dont fall into a program. And we have seen people switch from cotton to grow peanuts because of the farm program and theres some things that can be fixed in that. And i hope youll look at that. And not to penalize anybody, but just to give that, i guess, pair parody on one peanut field to the next so those farmers can stay in business, especially the Young Farmers that we see. Weve got several things that we have put together. What id like to do is have a meeting with you, maybe your staff and go over some of the things. And then coming from florida, we have over 360 specialty crops in florida. Florida is known for specialty in florida. We are down to under 70 million boxes. Its something that has to be dealt with and we look failure to the robust funding that usda has done. I guess one of my asks for you is the research and development that were doing is so vitally important. And, again, you sda has been great on this. We take that research and development because we know one of the cure sess probably going to be a gmo tree. To have the usda help in marketing those products, and thats something i would like to see usda go the get involved now to move to where we can Start Marketing that stuff. Do you have any thoughts about that . Well, let me address, you mentioned several things. Let me think of that and then i can address your final question. But certainly from the vigilance over foot and mouth as well as any other disease, dr. Congressman, you know that we thought wrp done with screw worms and yet we have these things kind of break out. And very quickly contain. But its you have to be vigilant other. You know with your professional training, even the zoanoses that threatened us around the world, weve got to be there. And i think the uda inspectors and the food safety are the front line safety net that we have in doing that. So i look look forward to discussing that with you. Secondly, on the issue of peanuts and generic base, i think there probably needs to be looking at maybe some adjustments on generic base and the way theyre used Going Forward. That would be be our recommendation. But thats time for another discussion. The goal and the principal in the foreign bill, whether it be Crop Insurance or the arc or plc is let the market determine what our producers grow, not programs. And thats my goal is to let had them look at market signals and determine what they want to plant. Not that ive got to plant this because its a Better Program crop right. Than here. So we dont want to change peoples habit of what they do well and how they do it. And weve seen some of that change, obviously, from cotton to peanuts through the 14 farm bill to do that, as well. Now, youre going to have to repeat your last question for me because ill send it to your office. Im out of time and i appreciate it and i look forward to talking with you. And thank you for being here. Thank you, doc. Mrs. Blountrochester. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Secretary purdue, on behalf of the state of delaware, id like to say congratulations on your confirmation and also to welcome you. I have a good friend who is our secretary of agriculture in delaware, mikat scuse, and he said to say hello to you and that it would be a great pleasure to work with you, so im looking forward to that. I want to follow up on a question that representative bustos asked earlier. In my first roles in the state of delaware, one of them was as state personnel director. When you talked about the reorganization and the realignment, i was interested specifically in the undersecretary positioner for Rural Development. And i know that it is one that carries significant weight. You talked about it, as well, the different responsibilities. And now pulling it closer to your office. And i just was hoping you could clarify, its my understanding that there are many functions that the undersecretary is legally able to perform that a special assistant would not be able to perform. Is that correct . Im not familiar with that. I dont know that that would have influenced my decision had i thought that. I think with the assistant secretary reporting directly to me, i cant believe that those would be diminished. Youre going to have directors in the three areas of Rural Development with utility seniorses, water and community facilities. So youll still have directors in that with the same subagent Mission Areas there. My expectation is that those people will continue to report. If their powers or ability to operate are diminishinged, we will have to just figure out how to do that. And my other question, the other secretary was Senate Confirmed and this was appoi appointed . You aour expectation is this assistant secretary would be confirmed, as well. And the other question that i had, i was really pleased to the want to sell it. And the whole focus on trade sparked my interest. And giving your high priority in enhancing trade opportunities, can you share with the committee your views a programs like the Technical Assistance for specialty crops and the man Market Access program . Do you support these programs, remaining as critical tools in usdas trade tool box . Absolutely. You represent a state that is independe understood in your poultry entry how much export and trade affects that. The good with news is we have a poultry ecosystem in this nation,ing delaware, georgia, arkansas and across the country that is just unable to be replicated from the fee grains and processing and growing and its a great blessing to do that. So on all these tools, we have to have those tools and more available because our producers are going to challenge us. They can grow it, they have demonstrated they can grow it, the challenge would be to feed that hungry world with trade and exports. So we need all those tools available. Great. Thank you so much. I yield back my time. Mr. Abraham. Were glad to have you, a fellow farnlg mer, were glad t have you. And im sure general bacon who is right in front of me as an air force veteran is glad that he has a fellow air force veteran sitting in your chair. Were so happy. We certainly look for a close relationship and for a man that is governor and stood on the Capitol Steps and prayed for rain and then addressed record flooding, i definitely want to be closer if things go south. So youve answered certainly most of my questions. The chairman had one on the cotton seed issue and that is near and dear to me in louisiana. Ranking member brought up the state director ship of Rural Development and fsa when they would be filled. And then i think mr. Crawford brought up the practical to replant issue which hit us right between the eyes in louisiana with the flooding last year. The quick question i want to ask, in louisiana we appreciate the rice crop. And with the irrigated rice, they tend to use the blast resistant seed. And thats a fungus that affects rice and definite investigation at a times yields. And if they use that blast resistant seed,investigation at a times yields. And if they use that blast resistant seed, proiks duction up, water usage goes down. So its a great thing. When can we expect final approve of this process to take place . Congressman, you have me underwater on your Rice Production right now. Ill submit to you. Thats something that we will have to check on to understand that. Thats no problem. As a nonrice farmer, im familiar generally with the protocols, but not specifically. And i cant give you a specific answer. But i can assure you well get you one. Fair enough. And one other quick question on my sugar farmers, rma has kicked their Crop Insurance preemt ymip about 45 and the Farm Bureau People dont have any actuarial numbers to explain the increase. Does your agency yet have a reason as to why the sugar farmers got that increase . Again, we can get you the answer. The rma has a board as you know that is responsible for setting the actuarial risk tolerances in that. But that is part of usda. And i think you and your constituents have a right to answer to that. Im hoping the answer would be that its actuarially risk based and thats what has been demonstrated. If thats the case, its hard to argue with withat. If they have objective data, that would be good. But talking to the Farm Bureau People, they say the data is not there. But well have the discussion. I look forward to working with you. Mr. Lawson. Thank you very much. I represent northwest florida. And so but one of the things that is interesting, within my district, one in every four floridians have been on snap. At some point over the last 12 months, twice the national average. And so what level of commitment do you see that we can give to those of us in congress that have this kind of Food Insecurity in our area to either enhance the snap program, and i was very interested in some of the information that you talked about earlier about education when someone said about what do people have in their baskets in the Grocery Store because growing up in a rural area, the community where ive done a lot of farming, all of us as kids wanted Different Things in that basket as a part of what kids actually do. How would you advise food banks to prepare for the added demand if snap cuts in the farm bill . I think one of the ways and what you indicate in your distri district, what we need to educate people on is snap is not just urban areas. We have a huge rural utilization of snap as well in those areas. And the good thing about using those fresh fruits and vegetables you all grow down there is extremely helpful. Food banks i think one of the things that we can do in food banks is develop a wonderful Progressive Food Waste Program where many of these foods that we ought to be ashamed as a nation of our waste while some people go hungry. And i think to develop programs where we can coordinate with the food banks and underserved areas with safe food waste issues, policies that make sense. And maybe removing things that dont make sense. And early on congressman scott spoke about the 1890 institutions. And i happen to represent florida a m university that is one of them. And in the early years, there was quite a great deal of interest in agriculture and in about fact my fatherinlaw was farm manager at the university. And there was a great deal of students coming out. And i came up, as you say i was in the faa, 4 gsh h club and all those areas that help you get very being a quabted with farm products, growing cattle and poultry and so forth. But they have been underfunded. And i really feel similar to what and i know you have an institution in georgia which is right across the line that we really can enhance that opportunity for students that are going in. You made a statement earlier about if you dont have these out here, these cell phones and other being a stiftactivitieact young people need and the technology that goes along with it. So my question is that what can we do when working on the farm bill to make sure we engage the institutions more with the funding they need to develop more farms. My father was tuesdskegee where they did a lot research with with the peanuts and all this other stuff. And so that sets the mold for the future of feeding everyone like you talked about. But those institutions need to get more engaged. You represent the rattlers . Yes. I think you mentioned fa acha and not only what congressman scott talked about, the opportunity toe start earlier is helpful in these areas. And what im really impressed about faa and 4h is i had a tele town hall with faa across the country in about six or eight places when i was in the school in virginia. And the minority participation was amazing. And it thrilled me to see young minority students there interested in faa projects. And not only from a production standpoint, but the leadership it provides. So anything you all can can do, anything we all can do to encourage these young people, thats how well change that question of the aging of american al gri culture and how that does. But connectivity, we have to make it where are they want to come back and we also talked about the science and technology. We have to help them with the capital inputs there on the front end to let them start and understand how they can grow bigger in that way. But education. Worki working with 4h is critical. I know people who would been on the streets if it werent for faa and 4h. So i think its money well repaid many times over. Mr. Kelly five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Welcome secretary. Im from mississippi and as youre a warks conditions in Cotton Country arent good right now and i know the chairman started out with that but farmers in my state are telling moo th me they cant make it through another year without some relief from somewhere. I cant overemphasize how important this is because as you know, once we lose that cotton infrastructure, you just cant go back and reget it there. And so i want to make sure that you will explore all the options that you can to work with us to take care of our cotton farmer so is we dont lose the ability to produce cotton in the future. Ill commit to you to do that. Certainly the disappointment in the latest budget issues was a tough shrug for us because it limits my opportunities, limits my ability extremely there. But ive committed to the chairman, you know that hes concerned about that, to do anything we can from usda to help relieve that. And i would be remiss when secretary vilsack was here, i brought up to him he ruled that Cotton Seed Oil was not included in the other oils. I disagree from a legal standpoint being a lawyer. I just with hope that up relook look and make that your assessment, not his as he saysment. The law is not always balack an white. Sometimes its gray. But i can see whether reason only minds can differ. Is so i ask you relook. Cotton producers believe the secretary has that authority. As a nonlawyer, i have to rely upon my general counsel in that area and will do so. And then i guess the final thing is im also several stakeholders are contacting me about your reorganization plans for replacing the usda under secretary for Rural Development. And what can you do and are you listening to their fears and the things, are you listening to them and what are you doing to go alleviate those fears . I think the fears is the proof is in the pudding. Im willing to be held accountable. Weve talked about it a good bit here this morning about i view it as an elevation with influence and access in Rural Development rather than just a title. Its unfortunate that the media chose to portray it as a diminishment of importance for Rural Development. Thats not the case. Were doing everything question we can to persuade people and were willing to be im an output kind of guy. On we can to persuade people and were willing to be im an output kind of guy. So wait and watch and see what i do. Thats what id tell your producers. Ive brought this up and im convinced they want to do more, not less. Im proud that youre here. We have High Expectations from you, but most importantly im glad that you dont have an accent like most. And with with that i yield back. Mr. Secretary, congratulations on your confirmation and thank you very much not only for your past service to the state of georgia, but for your future service to our nation. Thank you for come being here and its an opportunity to have this opportunity. I represent the Central Coast of california, salad bowl of the world. We have plenty of specialty crops in that area. And at this point ill be so brash as to personally invite you out to the Central Coast of california so you can reinforce your understanding especially crops and also what it takes to harvest these specialty crops. And what i mean by that and what you know and what youve heard is labor. Thats bhaneen an issue. California experienced some droughts. Excluding this year thankfully. But even during that drought, the number one issue for our people in agriculture was immigration, was labor forbes. And now based on the political atmosphere in this country, based on the changing socioeconomic at moss fire mospt about company and central america, based on congress failure do anything on immigration since 1986,nextabou america, based on congress failure do anything on immigration since 1986, its not just an issue, its an emergency. And every sinkicindo de maysin speak to, they will tell you that the lack of labor be force is the number one most pressing issue. So i appreciate your statement to senator gillibrand when she asked if you had a commitment to make sure they had access to far workers, an and u7d i will commit to that and imhelp to provide a way forward when it comes to immigration and making sure that there is labor there to help us harvest our crops. If i could, mr. Secretary, could you please elaborate what your commitment is and how you will help provide a way forward . Certainly. I smile because western growers the other day, we were talking about produce and melons and those kind of things and we were talking about this have i issab. My father loved truck farming, watermelons, beans, sweet corn. But i was that immigrant labor right there handling those wa r watermel watermelons. So i know its very difficult to get Domestic Labor to do that any longer. And its not really a matter of taking american jobs at any cost. We had a situation in grk where the legislature felt like they needed to have a tough immigration bill and it really flushed out a lot of the harvest labor that we had there in georgia. And there was an example where the governor said well let probationers do this. And so they did that for a day or so. But after about a half a day, the guy said can we go back to prison because they just werent willing to do that work. So we understand it. The good news is i think the president understands it, as well, this round table that we had, i think he understands the contribution that immigrant labor has made to our fields and farms in processing and other things. We know from poultry processing and other things, there is a lot of immigrant labor. When i said a way forward, i dont know that i can elaborate on the path today. But i have specifically hired a young woman who is a lawyer from nebraska whose expertise is in farm labor. And what we want to do is to give to my bosts, the administration, to thread the needle how we use immigrant labor in this nation. I believe the heart is there. The how to and the process right now is what we have to figure out. But i can tell you trade, labor, regulations are job one, two and three. I appreciate that. Thank you. And briefly, in about order to make up for the lack of labor, does the usda 34r57b on any sort of investment in Agriculture Technology in ways forward . Yeah, its interesting. I gave those guys the same example of that while we got the wonderful land grant institutions that congressman scott talked about, we also got some Technology Schools that are using great processing technology, harvest technology, and preserving technology to make a lot of sense. So were going to look at where our Research Dollars go. If it makes sense to have a processing harvesting part of the whole supply chain to benefit agriculture, well do that. Our example in georgia is that while our land grant primary land grant is the university of georgia as well as valley state, georgia Tech Engineering school does a lot of work with how to more efficient and better. So those are the type of things we look at to make sure that we use the Research Dollars wisely, not just maybe in the applied production science, but how we get that product in a safe palatable way to the consumer. Thank you. Mr. Secretary, everything ive read about you is excellent and just hearing your testimony is reassuring to on me. Ive always said i think it should be a prerequisite that u. S. Secretary of agriculture should have a farming background. And you have an excellent track record and im looking forward to working with you. I represent 35 counties in kentucky. 35 rural counties. When you look at the total agriculture sales, overwhelming majority come from are tthe fir Congressional District of kentucky. Tobacco is still very important crop in kentucky. My question is, in many instances the Previous Administration promulgated regs that were unachievable. For example the fda pushed forward a proposed rule at the very last minute that would limit nnn in smokeless tobacco to levels lower than growers can achieve. Will you commit to use sound Scientific Data in rule making in drafting regulations to ensure that they are realistic and practical . I will, congressman. I think again my mantra has been sound science, fact based, data driven, customer focused decisions. That is a balance obviously. As you know today, we view science in a way that sometimes comes from about an ideological perspective. And we have sound science definition is in the eye of the beholder. So we have to make sure usda we have an agendaless investigation and things that come out without a predetermined conclusion over our scientific discovery that help us lead. Im not smart enough to create intuitively programs and policies without data, without science, without facts to do that. So i agree with you. The other part about that when you talked about the agency that promulgated that, dr. Tom price and i, secretary price and i, served on the state senate. Weve already talked about with some inner Agency Working between delineating fdas role and usdas role in some of these areas. The good news about the president s inner Agency Task Force over rural prosperity was we get to talk about with different people how your rules affect my people and how my rules may affect your people in that regard. So we want to on collaborate in a holistic approach to government i think like ive not seen before. That is the secretary of interior, fda, hhs, commerce and energy and those working together, epa administrator. I told scott pruitt, i think my guys are much more excited about you than they are me. We like you both. Thats very reassuring. The fdas proposed rule on nnn invites usda pursuant to the Tobacco Control act to submit an Economic Impact statement on growers for the record does the usda intend to submit such a report . If thats what the requirement is on this rule, again, i cant im into the knowledgeable specifically about that. Well get you the specifics on it. But if that is what were asked to do, our economists certainly will talk about the impact of that rule. And thats where we need to look at risk rewards on here irrespective of how we feel about tobacco. My father convinced me it was unhealthy when i was in the sixth grade, but we know its an industry and important to your district. Thank you. One quick question, when im back in kentucky, one question that always comes up in talking with ag groups, when will we have a state fsa director. Do you have any idea a time line for the nomination of state fsa directors . Id love to say as soon as possible. Were collating those nim names. You have a role to recommend who those people are because you know your People Better than we do. We understand those state offices and Rural Development and fsa, we need those as quickly as possible and well commit to doing it as compete expeditiously as we possibly can. And ill close with this. When i was with kentucky ag commissioner, we had two new crops come on line in kentucky because we had processors. We had canola and Industrial Hemp. After the last farm bill, kentucky inch ple themplemented Industrial Hemp bill that has been a Great Success and i want to bring Industrial Hemp forward as a legal viable commodity. I look forward to working with you and the usda to find a reasonable responsible about path forward for Industrial Hemp and give our farmers another tool. Both your senators have made sure i knew about the Industrial Hemp and we just have to figure out policies of how that is corralled in a way it doesnt get abused. Thank you, mr. Secretary. Mr. Halleran. Thank you for being here. Mr. Kelly brought up the issue of cotton. Youve heard that a number of times today. I just want to make sure that i said be incorrect by not making sure that i highlighted that arizona grows a lot of cotton, also, and some of the best in the world. And that my farmers are having the same problems as has been expressed here across this committee today. And the other issue with a lot of them is they want to be able to pass their farms on to their children. And Current Conditions might not allow that to occur. And the immigration issue has been brought up in every one of the round on tables ive had with thing a gri Culture Community within the state. But getting to a couple other issues, my district is about 1,000 square miles, smaller than ghrg. So i have a lot of small towns in there. And i have a lot of native american tribes, actually 12 of them. Navajo nation is one of the largest in land mass in the country. Were not going to be able to compete unless we have broadband, but high capacity broadband. We have to compete with those sectors that are outside rural arizona to be able to draet an opportunity for Knowledge Based economy. The other area that i have a real concern this is rural economic development. And some of the programs going on there. The water and infrastructure issue is critical. Budget calls for elimination of water with and waste water programs. And i just have id like to hear from you how were going to address these issues in a meaningful way because they have been issues decade after decade. And just to give you an idea, navajo have are 48 unemployment. My White Mountain apaches where i cant get a cell signal is unemployment of 80 plus. So id like to get an opinion how you will get there. Well, again, you know im a former governor. And sometimes i didnt like what the revenue estimates were, but we dealt with it. Now, the other thing i learned as governor was i proposed a budget, but there was another group that had input into what that budget was going to finally be. They were called the appropriators. So i understand that very well. I think you all have a collective wisdom regarding from your constituents over where these things need to be placed. And my commitment to you is whatever comes out of that, im going to make it work to the best of our ability. I hope you all have the wisdom to know where those needs are and i trust that you will. But at this point, im not a proposer, im an administrator and ill take what comes out, well see the budget next week, you all will have your shot at it and whatever you determine, ill make sure that we get as much value from that budget as we possibly can. Thank you, mr. Secretary. My constituents expect leadership out of me. Exec about difference branch of government and other people that its necessary to find that leadership. I believe you have the capability to have that leadership and have proven that in the past. So the last issue i have is forest fires and the type of funding. It takes a huge amount of money away from the ongoing maintenance of the forest and preventive issues that will help us out in not only maintaining a critical natural resource, but clearly identifying the need Going Forward of lessening the impact of forest fires on our costs. So if you can give me an idea what direction you might be going in there. We want to get the federal fire budget corrected and not from being upside down as soon as possible. I know its appropriators are in a different section, but were working with them on the house and senate side to help get that corrected because, you know, Renewable Resources not only we have a great asset out here in the u. S. Forest Service Lands out there that ought to be productive, revenue generating, jobs creating. And that is my going is to get the u. S. Forest service right sized where were in the prevention business and not the suppression business. And the prevention part of that means Economic Activity. It means jobs. That means we have to have the money to restore roads and make sure that loggers can can get in here and get that out and it means we have to do regulatory work over getting the litigation issues out. And the ultimate goal is to be good neighbors. I would love for our u. S. Forest service to manage our public forest lands just as well as our private landowners are across the land. So that is my goal. Its a big about challenge. It requires your help in the fire budget and maybe policy wise in getting forest fires treated like natural disasters like floods, hurricanes, tornadoes. That may be one part of the solution. So its a challenge i look forward to. And i hope that in two to three years youll see we have a much more productive renewable forest, u. S. Forest, than we have now. Thank you, secretary. Dr. Marmarshall. Mr. Secretary, welcome. On behalf of all the hard working farmers and ranchers that make the big First District of kansas the largest agriculture producing district in the country, welcome. As congressman lucas mentioned, kansas has faced more than her fair share of natural disasters this year. Early in march, we lost about 600,000 acres of grass, 10,000 head of cattle and hundreds of miles of fence to the biggest wildfire on record. We thought wed had enough and then Mother Nature gave us 15 to 20 inches of snow a wheat fields. These areexamples of a safety net and i appreciate all your department has done to help work with us in an efficient manner thp they were gentlemen, professionals every one of them and we appreciate their help. One safety net that we have seen is 9 chthe challenge of current payment limits. I understand most are statute. And im interested what authority the usda might have to modify its limits on the Emergency Conservation program. Ecp is the primary program used. Replacement of fence costs 10,000 a mile making a 200,000 payment limit a major barrier to families trying to recover. Raising that to imagine the emergency Forest Program would go a long ways helping our producers build. Thank you very much. And whenever you see these kind of tragedies, its heartbreaking to know these are people,ivelih it matters. The problem as you mentioned, most of it is statutory regarding those limits. I can assure you we will use the resources of usda, i appreciate your kind comments about the indemnity program. Oftentimes some of these programs, we say government is here to help you and its a year, 18 months later and they are out of business then. So i appreciate the work of our fsa people there on the ground and the intedemnity providers. Y50irks ur7b8g9sd ecp program, my understanding is we have exhausted that as well, but any flex and thibilit have, we will execute. Were excited to hear your tone about trade and mai want t echo that i feel like we have successful Market Access program in the Foreign Market Development program that they are doing a great job and we want to being aaccentuate the positive. We doctor ahave a create secret will help further. Im sure youre familiar with the programs. What can we do in congress to help you do your job be better, to help promote trade . What do you need from us to work with you side by side . I have somed why e ideas. I dont know that im prepared to go there this morning. But i can assure you by the time the budget comes around, farm bill comes around, well have specific requests over that in looking at the barriers that we feel like are the International Tra trade. I think the ability to have the undersecretary for trade is one step that we can go and travel and being on their doorstep saying what can we sell you today. So well have better idea of where the specific areas that we need help in and we wont be very bashful about asking for it. And im sure youre familiar with the Market Access program and the Foreign Market Development and just want to know what your on assessment is. I know youre very early. They are important. That is one area where the foreign agriculture ri kury cu our secretary acting secretary has been very helpful. Our secretary of commerce would love to hire him away. Hes been like a right arm for them. Im proud that we have can reha people there to help. Ill have more specific ideas about the needs and what we can ask for later on. Thank you, mr. Secretary. I yield back. Thank you, mr. Chairman and thanki you mr. Secretary for being here. Were pleased to have you working with us. First of course i have to touch on a local issue. Want to make sure that i take care of my people first. Thats what Representative Government is all about. Let me of course first let you know that everyone has invited you to their direstrict but i have the best, the Virgin Islands. And would he have extended that invitation to you as well. With your additional responsibilities, im sure you need a field trip now to the Virgin Islands more than ever. One of the things that our local farmers are concerned with, and i spoke with our commissioner of agriculture just recently about this, the usda has many offices that service the injuvirgin isl but not in the islands themselves. For example the farm Service Agency support is funded and administrated through florida and nrcs services depend on the usda staff housed in puerto rico. That is a particular concern to us because we having a growing and burgeoninging Agriculture Sector and we want them to have the assistance needed. So we rely on the staff to travel to the vish begrgin isla provide that assistance. And due to travel restrictions, budget shortages and other reasons, we have trouble getting them there. One of the key irrigation engineers has not been in the Virgin Islands in over two years and others have not been to saint th saint 24078 that thomas in over three years. Im asking foer a commitment to work on issues of deficiencies and where we can meet the needs of access to Usda Services for our farmers and also for our cooperative Extension Services at our university which doesan amazing job but also lacks that support. Id love to on be able to call on you and those within your office to assist us. I hope we can learn more broke the specific issues and how we can maybe build a team to come on and assess that. I cant commit right now to redeploying assets there not knowing where they are currently, but i can assure you that the burgeoning agriculture in the Virgin Islands is just as important as it is in puerto rico or other places. And Technical Expertise that you know is needed there, whether it be irrigation, technology or other things, we look forward to providing. Id love to get more specific information about those specific needs and look at deploying a team there to maybe hear from your people about how we can do a better job that way. Id love that and would appreciate that. I know that there has been much discussion about the position in terms of Rural Development and how it will be administered. This is probably the lawyer in me asking for specifics. If you say that the assistant secretary dealing with Rural Development, that it will be a Senate Confirmed, will that be below the undersecretary or is that reporting directly to you . How would that structurally be done . Thats a good question. Assistant secretary will be a direct report to me. It will manage the three Mission Areas of Rural Development both utilities and community facilities, water and other areas there. They will report to her. The reason i wanted to elevate that, because as i indicated earlier, i dont consider myself a micro manager, but i do consider myself a hands on manager. And this was an area of Rural Development with a lot of resources, the ability to provide a leverage a lot of resources out to communities with frankly a good deal for the american taxpayers. Negative sublg be cisidies. Im break impressed with the Banking Experience of our Rural Development people in that regard. So im just curious enough and jealous enough i wanted to be involved in that. And that was the best way i knew how to do that. And will that assistant secretary will have other areas . No, just that Rural Development piece. That is a big chunk and big responsibility. Ill just be their assistant. And then the last thing was regarding broad bachbd. When we talk about the minority leader in the senate talking about an allot mgt for Rural Broadband deployment, and under the senate proposal, funding willing available to projects currently eligible under existing programs in the department of agriculture. Will your office be advocating for inclusion of supplemental Rural Broadband or do you see an area in which we can support that . Indicated yesterday in the infrastructure meeting, Rural Broadband is at the top of the list. They know that broadband enhances economic development. The connect tiflt oivity out in aert areas. And rural prosperity, that is just as important on as roads, water, sewer and other things in todays society. And plus sociological impact of just are keeping kids there where they are connected. Thank you so much. General bacon. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here. Congratulations on your confirmation. We look forward to your leadership. Im not only a fellow veteran with the air forks im a fellow veteran picking watermelons, sweet corn, all that on the farm. A great upbringing. It is a great way to grow up. If i had to put the top issue in nebraska for economic is trade. Were dependent on soybean trade, beef cattle, pork and so forth. And with prices down tat 50 , supply high and demand being suppressed, best about thing we can do is open up the doors in china, japan, perhaps great bit continue after brexit, getting a trade deal with them. I do hear concern talking to our agri Culture Community in nebraska with with some of statements that have come out, whether it be nafta, tpp and so forth. Can you give confidence that the Administration Knows the importance of our products overseas . I really hope that has already been demonstrated with the president s decision on nafta, knowing that nafta is very important to nebraska and that middle part of the country and how they really agriculture has benefited from that nafta agreement. As well as the agreement with china. You grow a few causes in nebraska and they will benefit from opening that market, as well. On so hopefully were on the way. And as secretary ross likes to say, would he have oneve only. We do a lot of things well and i hope that we can get those things done, as well. But im an outcome kind of guy. Im again show me rather than tell me kind of thing. So hopefully were showing. Thank you. I do believe that is our number one economic issue for nebraska. And if i had to put a top three issue for like our cattle and pork producers, it is foot and mouth disease. So i want to thank you for your commitment already that you want to make sure that we have the right safety plan in place about and precaution that could prevent a catastrophe if that breaks out. That would puts back years if about that would happen. And i hear that a lot of last thing i want to ask you ing , e considering the stamp program, ive met with Different Industries and their top concern is being able to hire full you are time employees. They get a lot of parttime requests, but they having a hashr hard time filling with fulltime work. Many think its the cloak effect with a lot of the programs. If you earn over a certain amount, be ill set you loose. So they would like to see a more tapered decline as you earn. Do you think the snap program has that built in or do we need to do more work on that to ensure more graul declidual die . I think that is a good point. We know snap benefits are not that large any we, but in georgia we tried to give people a step out with using some of our resources over training and transportation, child care, in order for them to get a job. But i would welcome the consideration of a tiered pathway down rather than jumping off a cliff in that way. And i think that could have the effect of being more encouraging for people looking for work in doing that knowing that weve had some anecdotes about people not wanting to take a job because they would lose ben benefits. And i think if we had a tiered approach, it would make more sense. And i think if we had a t approach, it would make more sense. Benefits. And i think if we had a tiered approach, it would make more sense. That was the kofconsensus ofe number one issue you, so i appreciate your consideration. And i want to xhirt commit to yt we look forward working with you. What you do has a tremendous impact on our state and we thank you for your leadership. Thank you, sir. Congratulations, mr. Sec secretary. I know we have a unique relationship in the department of agriculture with the 1890 land grants. And in the next farm bill and through other legislation that comes through congress, i want us to focus on the things that we can do to help prepare these universities which in many of the places where they are located, they are the economic engines in their communities. And one issue i want to raise with you today is the level of state matching funding that 1890s receive from grants from usda. Currently North Carolina amt receives less state matching funding for grants than their fellow 1862 institutions in the state like North Carolina State University. And so while North Carolina State University receives well above a 1 1 matchassembly, amre0 ppts 8 ch. 8 1. Its my understanding that the states have to commit a work plan through nifa that outlines how 1890s and 18 62s will usee funding that they receive. So my question is, would you support your department publicly disclosing how much total funding by state that 1890s and 1862s receive so we can determine what state governments are doing to match the federal commitment and hold themle accountable for the level of funding provided to the land grant schools . I think that constituent has done a good job promoting their issue to the president. And ive heard his commitment as well. And usdas perspective, we believe in transparency over knowing if youre going to be fact based data driven, you need to share those information, let people know what facts and data you are making decisions on. So search wed be happy to disclose that. That is within every persons right to know. Okay. Thank you. So let me ask the question about snap. As we approach the next farm bill, weve had continuous discussion from key congressional leaders that snap could be reauthorized separately. Do you support the farm bill that includes the snap program in its current form and does not convert to a Block Grant Program . I think it would be unwise for congress to try to promote a separate farm bill without snap included. I just think the coalition between advocates for food and nutrition as well as agri culture is a Strong Coalition do that and i think it would be unwaze do otherwise. Hurricane matthew was devastating to those already struggling from loss. What is the status of proposed changes by the Risk Management issue for the quality loss adjustment standard for cotton . I think that is one of the areas that they missed the mark on. And as i told you, those 17 contracts are already issued and we cant change that because that is an insurance product and youre dealing with other peoples money. But i can assure you i will have my voice heard in the 18 contracts regarding the quality loss on drops, cotton being treated like other drops are with degradation of quality. And a strong Rural Economy is knows healthy Economic Growth in urban communities like charlotte. Should we be expecting additional cuts to rural programs specifically those that promote food access . I missed that. In terms of should we be expecting additional cuts to rural programs specifically those that promote food access . I hope not. I hope not, too. Thank you, sir. You and i have a bond, congressman. My grandmothers name was alma. Good woman. Thank you very much. Thank you. I represent a district in upstate new york, from hyde park to cooperstown, from vermont to pennsylvania, a large rural area and i very much appreciate your nomination and confirmation and i hope that you wont forget places like upstate new york. Sometimes folks from other parts of the country think new york and they think new york city and urban, but we have a lot of beautiful areas. Beautiful upstate. And your agency has been helpful to us on certain flood mitigation projects and rehab projects with the National Conservation service and also your recent issuance of a guideline on food nutrition allowing flavored milk in School Lunch Programs, vitally important to a part of the country where are our Dairy Farmers look perplexed at the fact that the usda will restrict certain milk products in School Lunch Programs, and ive always thought its unusual that the same usda that says you cant sell whole milk or flavored milk or have is it t in a lunch prog allows us to purchase 3 billion worth of soda in the snap program. I have yet to hear anyone say that soda has any nutritional bin with fi benefit, be and yet we cok do t. The thing the apple growers and other faer farmers keep raising to me is getting season on al workers into the country. And there is complaints about the time, effort and expense of dealing with the Labor Department and im wondering if you would have an opinion on how we could expedite these h 2 a visa and that process on. Because my farmers trying to harvest apples in the fall this year are not going to be able to hire locals because locals as you mentioned alluded to previous aly will got that work and its vital that we are able to bring seasoned Agricultural Workers who have experience and knowledge to work on these farms throughout our region. Could you respond to that . Id be happy to. Im aware obviously personally and through my briefing here that the h 2 a program has been essentially unworkable with recent additions in that way. Were familiar weve got a lot of h 2 a utilization in georgia and i know from growers that its become much more burdensome, much more expensive to comply with that. This person i mentioned earlier that we had hired with farm labor experience has been directed by me to look at the h 2 a program, see if that is the vehicle we need to go through currently before we can get maybe a broader farm labor resolution. And well be working on that, presenting the administration and you all some ideas from a regulatory perspective how we can streamline h 2 a to be a more dependable source, a more reliable source. And of immigrant labor to harvest those crops. Thank you, mr. Secretary. Because this is truly vital and i talked to an apple grower in my area in columbia county, my hometown, just yesterday who told me that the prospects of a great harvest this year are looking well. And they are very encouraged. But if they cant get the workers to help harvest this crop, it is going to be for naught. So i hope that you will take this back to the administration and to the president and tell him that its vitally important that we have a stream of workers who can come into the country and perform these seasonal tasks that is critical to our economy in my district and i know in districts all across the country. Agree wholeheartedly and the good news is i do think that is the president s heart and well continue to be very strong veracious advocates of that. Thank you so much. And if we can just remind folks here in washington, d. C. That september and october are just around the corner. We need these workers here in this country. We cant wait until the last minute. We have to give certainty to our farmers. I very much appreciate your service as governor of georgia and your service now to our country as secretary of agri culture and i look forward to working with you and your department. Thank you so much on. Welcome, thank you very much for your service to our country. I hope that you will find this to be one of the bipartisan committees on capitol hill and in particular so many of the things that both of my colleagues have mentioned on both sides of the aisle, i echo in my district in new hampshire. I want to focus in i see that in the skinny budget, 21 funding reduction to usda, so i imagine a lot of the discussion today has been taken up by that. In particular, one program was eliminated that has been very, very effective in Northern New England and the name of that is the Northern Border Regional Commission. Are you familiar with that, mr. Secretary . Does that have to do with the restoration programs . Im not sure that i am. Frequently we use it in my district, communities do, in conjunction with Rural Development funding. And it has the same kind of leveraging impact. Its Grant Program for primarily economic development. I represent in the northern part of my district a region that was heavily dependent on paper dep mills, furniture, this kind of thing, manufacturing thats left the area and just to give you a sense of this. The former groveton mill in a very small town called North Umberland received funding from the Northern Border Commission to repurpose the mill into an Industrial Park thats now attracting new manufacturing jobs. Many of them companies from canada moving to the United States to make products in america and help the middle class make it in america. So, i would just ask you if you would go back and talk to your team about the Northern Border Regional Commission and urge you to support funding. The leveraging impact alone is really extraordinary. Im just looking at the awards in 2016. 1. 8 million awarded, 19. 5 million in matching funds. So it a small amount of money goes a long way and i know youre frugal with our tax dollars and as i am. I didnt recognize the name but its very similar to what we have done in the south with appalachian regional commission. Yes, yes. Very involved. I chaired that governor part of that issue and i can tell you the good its done and through that area. Im not familiar with the northern but it sounds like a very similar commission. Very similar. Im very its modeled after it. What states are impacted by the northern border . Maine, new hampshire, vermont and new york state. Well, im very familiar with the good that can be done through those commissions so its really been an incredible program. So i urge your support. I also wanted to focus in continuing that line on the u. S. D. A. Rural Development Program and i note in my briefing that this is being moved around somewhat in your organization and i just i wont spend a lot of time on it because i need to get to two other questions but i would urge you to that the Rural Development program is critical and right now im the bipartisan cochair of what we call the heroin task force. We have 85 members of Congress Working in a bipartisan way. Rural america is just being slammed by loss of manufacturing jobs, by this influx of heroin and opioids and we cannot do without the economic development, the health care, all of the different types of development from Rural Development, including an amendment that i was able to get on the farm bill that those funds can be used for Community Colleges so i can get back to you, up line with that. Because i do want to my time is very limited. Im going to sub mate letter to the record in support of the organic livestock and poultry practices rule signed by 334 Certified Organic beef, pork, dairy and poultry producers representing 2 billion in sales. We made great progress in the last farm bill for organics in a bipartisan way. I hope we can work with you. Certainly. But the question . Just i hope well be able to work with you Going Forward in the farm bill in support of organic trade. No question. I think its been a great consumer win for a lot of people, and smaller organic farmers have given them an opportunity to get in the marketplace and sometimes now we may see and thats the issue over making sure theyre certified. We see some of them may be crowded out with larger operations, as well. I look forward to working with you. Ill yield back and i want to submit the letter for the record. Thank you very much. Mr. Barrington. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Congrats, mr. Secretary. Thank you. On a distinguished career in Public Service. And thank you for your willingness to serve our country and make the sacrifices i noticed you have 14 grandchildren so you do have other things you could do. Thats right. Thank you for continuing to choose. Im proud of our president who is put the philosophy overarching philosophy of his Decision Making of america first. American manufacturers. American producers. I was giving my colleague a hard time in the hallway. I said if the secretary if he enjoys the Virgin Islands, he is going to love west texas. This is an ocean of cotton out there as you know. Thank you for being so gracious about taking my call the other day. Yeah. Im just going to repeat some things because its too important. Its life and death for my region. And that is our Cotton Producers. West texas and agriculture is life. Its our identity. Its but cotton is king. And all ag producers are struggling. You know that. For all the reasons that you already know. But cotton is the only commodity out of title 1. Just completely exposed to the market risks and volatility and market manipulation that we have seen from china and others. And its its a crisis. And im just asking you and pleading with you, mr. Secretary, move with the speed of the crisis and the sense of urgency that our producers, our economy, cotton ginners, Farm Implement dealers, ag lenders, it is devastating. Devastating. And you know, one of the most sobering and enlightening experiences i have had is when we had a panel here of experts, policy, ag policy, economists and i said, i asked the question, if could you use the same rationale that the World Trade Organization with the brazil case, could you use the same rationale or could someone make the case for other commodities using the same rationale that would ultimately lead to pulling corn or sar gum or wheat and the answer was yes. Someone could make the case of how we support other commodities in this country and could cause us to pull them from title 1. If were not willing to do that to all commodities, we shouldnt be willing to do it to one. So i apologize because i had another hearing. Id like to hear your thoughts about cotton and the devastation and the crisis and what you can do. And i know there are different avenues and i implore you to look at all strategies to save cotton production as we know it in america. Thank you very much. As i told you on the phone the other day, were well aware of that. Certainly, the best thing is that we continue cotton prices continue upward. Thats the ultimate solution. The good news is supply and demand is improving with more consumption than production recently. So all of those are good news but that doesnt necessarily negate the fact that producers are already hurting. I know that as i understand it, there was a decision among the integrated cotton Industry Based on the fto adjudication earlier that they would prefer not to poke that in the eye regarding being in title 1. Unfortunately, the Stacks Program was not as successful as you all, congress had hoped it would be. And that brought some issues. The disappointing part is that final deliberations of the budget reconciliation bill limited my options severely but i will commit to you that within the statutory authority, within the budget tear authority of the u. S. D. A. Secretary, im going to do everything i can. The problem is i dont want to give false hope because those options are really limited and we talked about those. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for that response. And if i achieve anything as the representative from west texas district 19 i hope its working with you to find relief for our cotton farmers. And equity in the treatment of cotton as a commodity relative to the others. I was at a texas and southwest cattle raisers event the other day when we announced china opening up the markets to the u. S. Beef. Could you comment on that and kind of the next steps, please, and i yield back, mr. Chairman . Yes, sir. Go ahead. Were obviously optimistic and excited about the potential of getting back into china. Our beef into china. Thats important to texas, as well. And much of the southwest. We dont want to you know, exult too much just yet. Exult in that we have work to do from a protocol perspective. We have work to do from technical. But i believe that we and they are very serious about this. And well do the victory dance hopefully pretty soon. Thank you. Mr. Davis, five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And welcome, mr. Secretary. As we know, theres never any geographical turf battle coming to agriculture but as somebody that comes from the midwest, i have heard nothing but compliments about your appointment as secretary of agriculture. A lot of optimism. A lot of hope out there that your experience and what you can bring to the position is going to be very beneficial for our farmers in the midwest and also agriculture as a whole. I want to say thanks again. As the subcommittee chairman of the bio tech horticulture and research subcommittee, i especially interested in the Research Title and among the other issues that we deal with on that committee because i represent the Land Grant University i call it the best Land Grant University ever, the university of illinois, but also, nonland grant universities like the illinois State University that rely upon a very robustly funded ag research program. You know, its my belief, too, investing in Research Today will save us costs tomorrow, especially when it comes to agriculture and i saw that the president s 2018 budget blueprint indicates it supports farmer focused research at land grant universities and requests 350 million for afri. And furthermore, indicates that the Ag Research Services funding should be focused on high priority, agriculture and food issues. Mr. Secretary, i know that my colleague austin scott and my other colleague jim any pi net that mentioned agriculture earlier in the hearing, can you expand on your response and even more perspective how you feel research should be funded when it comes to agriculture . Well, as an advocate for agriculture generally, and also aware that research extension, the transfer of applied and basic research to the field has been the reason for our wonderful productivity in illinois and other parts of the nation regarding that. We have produced our way into a surplus that we are suppressing prices. Now we have to sell it. But the fact is we cant stop research because the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050 will be insurmountment if we dont have the new technology, genetics and other things to feed a hungry world. We will be an advocate for research, basic research, applied research. The applied extension of those best practices on the field. To help preserve the environment and help to produce more. So i dont know how else to expand on it to let you know that as a product of public education, from the high school to the public Land Grant University, im a big believer. Well, thank you. And i know that youve been here a long time. I shuttled back and forth between two hearings today and you have sat there answering every question and i know how difficult that is and i appreciate that and appreciate your candor. Im glad you mentioned bio tech. Another area of the subcommittee has jurisdiction over. Technologies approved in the United States but not internationally. As we know, they face serious risk and uncertainty when we try and operate in agriculture in the global marketplace. And thats sometimes prevents some of my farmers in illinois from gaining access to that global marketplace. Last week the administration released a statement detailing the priorities of the 100day action plan with china and it contained a commitment to review pending al alibi owe technologies and many of the pending applications have been waiting for more than five years for chinese approval. Is there anything you can do or anything youre planning to do to ensure that chinas held accountable when they review these products in this 100day plan . Well, the bio tech issue is right up there with beef and working out these ishlss with the hrates that we are looking for clear opinion on that. We have demonstrated on our part the science that confirms these are Safe Products and beef and bio tech go hand in hand so i think for the assurance that our u. S. 0 deucers can have that these are exportable. They cant be wont be embargod. Wont be denied as we are having right now into some markets. And i think when we get that done with china, we can persuade other markets over the safety and the ef that sy of these products into their food chain supply. I look forward with you to address the very important issues in the farm bill and obviously the midwest is very concerned about who is going to be the administrator at the rma so i look forward to working with you there, too. I yield back. Mr. Allen, five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And first, secretary, congratulations. Its great to have a fellow georgian sitting here at this table. And, of course, we go way back. I was with you in georgia as a i was working in the business and Small Business environment when you under your leadership as governor. And boy, all i can say is you like a challenge. Because from a colleagues benefit, i think georgia lost like in 2008 Something Like 360,000 jobs. And because we were very dependent on the Home Building industry. Lost over 41 banks. It was a critical, critical economic time in georgia. Much like we have in this country today and we have in agriculture today. Now, georgia is the has been named is the best state to locate your business for four years in a row. And we have had a growth of about 500,000 jobs. And i think because of your leadership, thats why georgias where we are today. We do have a number of challenges. I mean, we have all talked about that. But i think youre certainly up to the challenge. You and i had a good time at the airport while we were waiting for a flight to talk a little bit about why we were doing this. I have 12 grandchildren. So i know what youre missing. And i may get to 14. I dont know. But i hope so. But so i know the great sacrifice that youre making. Also, you like me were in still in the business. So you have to have good folks back home taking care of that. But thank you for what youre doing for this country. Agriculture you know, like and to talk about the 12th district, you know, the 12th district, we cant have peanuts without cotton. I mean, one is totally dependent on the other so we have a Great Program in peanuts. Plc program. Everybody likes that program. We got nothing in cotton. And we have got some challenges that you know well. I dont need to and we have talked about that at length here today. Obviously, thank you for your help as far as the freeze with our blueberry crop. And also, with some of the storm damage we have had down there in the u. S. G. A. And we talked about Rural Broadband and those i think are probably similar in every district but one thing i thought i might share with you is a couple things our office has been working on here is the barn act which would move the h2a program to the department of agriculture and you might comment on that as far as what your thoughts are. We have also introduced legislation on the rule, although the president has rescinded that and has been tied up in the courts. We want to codify that in law so that that law is understood. Exactly what a navigable waterway is. And, you know, the thing ive observed and frankly, i didnt realize. I mean, when you walk in a Grocery Store, just like turning on the light switch, you just expect the food to be there. And we have this tremendous tension in the country between our metro, urban and really our rural areas. Particularly among taxpayers. Particularly when it comes to the to helping our farmers sustain our farmers. And so, we got the farm bill coming up. Its always contentious. It divides a lot of the country. And somehow from an education standpoint, people need to understand that that food just doesnt appear and that quality of food doesnt appear. I mean, the strides that this country has made in what we have done in agriculture is enormous and frankly the farmers have very little influence because theyre such a small part of the population. 100 years ago we were 9 of the population. Today its 2 . Thank you, congressman. I appreciate your patience in sitting here and listening to the conversations but all of these things are important, certainly. And trade is important. You mentioned the difference between the different programs. I think well have to address that in the next farm bill but food safety, all those things are important. This is an awesome opportunity that were looking forward to. And how we do you know you represent a lot of Educational Opportunities in your district, as well. And we want to make sure that research continues. But these are all challenging things but i think the education part that you talked about between urban and rural, were really all in this together and i think the more that we can help people understand that food literally is a National Security issue, i think the Insurance Program helps it to be more pal atible to the public out there as an insurance rather than a direct payment. Maybe, you know, the mantra of being paid not to farm, that does away with that. So i think we have made progress in the 14 farm bill. Can we do better . Yes. Will we do better . Yes. Thank you. Please know that you have my full support any way that i can help you. Id be glad to do it. Yield back. Gentlemans time expires. Governor louhan grissom. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Secretary, it is an honor to have you here and im lucky to have a gracious chairman who makes sure that i always have an opportunity to weigh in and im grateful for that. Thank you. Thank you. I want to talk about a bill and an issue. The issue is lunch shaming. Its gotten lots of national attention, mr. Secretary, and it may be something youre aware of. Last week i introduced a bill last week with my good friend rodney davis and im the Ranking Member and so weve got great opportunities to work together. And in a nutshell, basically, its getting at schools who are having trouble clearly with the number of students and whose families cant afford the lunch. And instead of figuring that out and working with the parents or looking at programs or making sure that its a snap benefit or whatever else it is, many districts around the country engage in lunch shaming. Which means, they throw away those lunches for those kids. They im going to in a minute ill do it right now. I mean, we have an article, mr. Chairman, in the New York Times and a photo of a stamp placed on one such students arm that says i need lunch money. And the school was stamping all of these kids and without i would move we put it in the record, mr. Chairman. Without objection. Thank you. And there are other and very similar, very draconian practices around the country and new mexicos the first state in the country to now ban lunch shaming at a state level. I certainly want to ban lunch shaming at a federal level. And given that i know that your desire based on your earlier testimony even though i wasnt in the hearing, paying attention to the hearing, so thank you, that youre concerned about poor americans and making sure that the snap program is available and really looking at strategies that shore those up and others. Im interested in what your personal opinion is and or knowledge about lunch shaming in this country. Id be very interested, congresswoman, to work with you over maybe some technology that we can help with our Lunch Programs around the country to figure out how the reasonable expectation of payment versus the inability to pay could be dealt with rather than confronting kids in a line or else humiliating them in some way. Middle schools tough enough as it is. But we want to make sure our adults or those in authority particularly are not contributing to those issues in that way. I dont know if theres a technological answer or what the ultimate answer is to balance the, again, the expectation of whatever contribution it is rather than confronted in a public way, in a shaming or a humiliating way to do that. So i would i dont know if theres direct authority at u. S. D. A. I would encourage you to look at it. I would love to have the departments support and i dont disagree that making sure schools are better equipped to look at what their Lunch Program costs and to look at whats occurring with families who arent paying or cant afford which is a combination. But to make it the students problem and to do two things. I mean, two things will occur in this environment that are very troubling to me. One, that you would force these kids to work in the cafeteria, throw away their food, you would stamp them. That you would highlight that there are kids not paying for the lunch who are poor. And then, you dont give them a lunch. Both things happen to these kids in school. There is no reason it seems to me that we should allow any school to make this the problem of the child. Were just creating more problems in our school system. I understand that we got to deal with the money aspects but i agree with you. That seems to me to be completely an entirely separate. And whats really shocking for me is that its such a prevalent problem. Im embarrassed to admit to my colleagues on this committee in addition to my own state that was engaged in lunch shaming i had no idea that it was a national phenomenon. And part of it is were so strict i guess in terms of making sure that schools account for the Lunch Program in a way that instead of dealing with parents and finding Creative Solutions that they feel perfectly justified in treating their students in this way and, in fact, its led to the loss of jobs where food workers have refused to come to work and quit because they were told they have to lunch shame. So id love a partnership to say, were not going to stand for that as a country. Well, again, as no respect to persons were our motto of do good and feed everyone, i think that also means you treat everyone with respect irrespective of their ability, their economic ability. How we figure out the direction to our lunchroom professionals over technology of things that work id welcome the opportunity to work with you on solutions about this. Thank you. I yield back. Governor, you survived your first one. I dont remember a full Committee Hearing in which every Single Member showed up for some period of time at your hearing and almost everybody used up their five minutes. Thank you. Your stamina is well admired. Were going to have a hopefully a long time together working on a variety of issues that we have all talked about this morning. Gt thompson was here. He had questions for the record. If you could get back to gt on those. Im also looking forward to i think you had like 180day window on the Rural Task Force to get that. I think all of us are anxious to see that report as you begin to draw all those other agencies together to take a look at things that can affect positively or things we can do to, you know, address the negative effects that are out there. Clearly, jody and i and rick have an issue with cotton. Thank you very much. One last show across the bow to senate colleagues. We had an el gabt solution for cotton. Should have been in the omnibus bill. Just because you dont represent cotton farmers in michigan and nn nn is no reason to take them hostage to get something that you knew would never work and thats a dairy solution unpaid for to the tune of 800 million. While service on the house agriculture committee, i dont know what it is in the senate but in the house jag committee you have to represent all of agriculture. Not just the folk that is directly vote for you. While thats happening with jody and i, that did not happen when the senate stabbed our cotton farmers in the back because they couldnt come up with a solution of dairy. Pitting one industry, one segment of our industry against the other has never worked except when you want to use it as a tool to get your own way is what happened in the senate with senator stabenow and leahy. Shame on them. Other than that, i dont have real strong feelings about that issue. Mr. Secretary, thank you. From our perspective, our first date went very well. Splendidly, as well. You have my number. I hope youll call again. I have one thing. You sent me an emoji message. I have to get with you and figure out what you were sending me. Under the rules of the committee, todays hearing will remain open for ten calendars days for supplementary written responses of the witnesses. Any question of a member. This hearing is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. If you missed any of this hearing, you can find the whole event online at cspan. Org. Just type in sonny perdue. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. And is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. This morning, North Carolina senator tom tillis lapsed cla psed during a race in washington, d. C. He was taken to the hospital where an hour later he tweeted a video update. Heres a look. Hey, everybody. Im fine. Just running about 2 1 2 miles in. Got overheated. No cpr. No special measures. Just checking me out. See you back on the hill. Senator tillis shared a picture of his team before the race which was organized by the American Council of life insurers to raise money for an organization that provides guide dogs to the visually impaired. He was one of several members of Congress Running the race, including arkansas senator tom cotton, texas senator jon cornyn, and georgia congressman tom graves. This morning, President Trump traveled to new london, connecticut, to deliver the commencement address at the u. S. Coast guard academy. Heres a look. [ cheers and applause ] thank you very much. Thank you, john. Thank you. Thank you and congratulations to the class of 2017. Great job. And general kelly, i want to thank you for your leadership as the Coast Guards Service secretary. You have really been something very, very special to us as a country and to me and our administration. Youve done throughout your entire life an incredible job defending your country. Thank you very much, john. Thank you. [ applause ] and john and all of his folks are also doing an incredible job protecting our homeland and our border and im thrilled that my first address to the Service Academy is the Graduation Ceremony of the United States coast guard. Believe me. Its a great honor. N. Applause ] ive been here before and its a very, very special place. Every cadet graduating today as your commander in chief, it is truly my honor to welcome you aboard. [ applause ] and you should take a moment to celebrate this incredible achievement. Govern governor malloy, thank you for being here. Governor, thank you. Were glad you could join us and i know how busy the governors are nowadays and theyre out there fighting. Its never easy. Budgets are a little tight. But were doing a job. All of us are doing a job, working together. I want to also thank admiral zucroft and his leadership. His leadership has been amazing. Todays graduates will be fortunate to serve under such capable and experienced commandant. He really is fantastic. Thanks, also, to admiral rendone, the academys superintendent. Admiral, i understand you come from a true coast guard family. Two brothers, a nephew, a cousin have all passed through these halls. Thats very impressive. I guess you like the place, right . [ applause ] somebody in your family has been doing something right. I can tell you that. Im sure that they are very proud just as we are very proud of the fine, young officers who are graduating today, admiral, on your watch. I would also like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to all of the parents and the grandparents and family members who have supported these amazing graduates. Give your parents and everyone a hand. Come on. [ applause ] because america has families like yours and well keep all of those families safe and very, very secure. Youre keeping your family safe now. If you are not already, youre about to become military families. So starting today, i hope you feel the full gratitude of our nation. These fine young cadets are about to take their rightful place on the front line of defense for the United States of america. Cadets, you deserve not only the congratulations but the gratitude of each and every american. And we all salute you. A proud nation. [ cheers and applause ] and youre a part of a very, very proud nation. Which salutes the 195 cadets of the Coast Guard Academy class of 2017. Good job. [ applause ] and i understand from the admirals that this has been a very special class. Youve been trained here to handle the toughest of situations, the hardest of moments, really that you can experience and the hardest in peoples lives and to help the weak in their hour of need. But even for the coast guard, this class has been exceptionally dedicated to Public Service. You served breakfast at the local food bank every single weekday. You rebuilt a home with habitat for humanity. Last year, you led cadets in donating a total of 24,000 hours, a lot of time, to community service. Youve done amazing work and in the true coast guard fashion you had fewer people and fewer resources but you accomplished the objectives and you did it with skill and with pride and id like to say under budget and ahead of schedule. Were doing a lot of that now in the United States government. [ applause ] were doing a lot of that. I wont talk about how much i saved you on the f35 fighter jet. I wont even talk about it. Or how much were about to save you on the gerald ford, the aircraft carrier. That had a little bit of an overrun problem before i got here. Still will. Well save some good money. And when we build the new aircraft carriers, theyre going to be built under budget an ahead of schedule. Just remember that. It will allows