Culture, read the implementation of federal farmer Disaster Relief, will come to order. Thank you and welcome to this joint hearing of the subcommittee on general farm commodities and Risk Management and livestock and foreign agriculture. Im pleased to be joined by my colleague and fellow chairman mister custer and Ranking Member mister thompson, livestock and Foreign AffairsRanking Member, and chairman peterson and fellow texan, Ranking Member, mike conaway. The first joint hearing comes at a very important time for farmers. Usda and Food ProductionConservation Mission area and Farm Service Agency in the middle of a huge job. They are the home of 3 critical efforts to address the needs of farmers, ranchers and Rural Communities in our country. The Market Facilitation Program which is meant to assist farmers most direct we harmed by the administration of trade war, the expanded wildfire and hurricane endemic program which will aid in Rural Recovery from Natural Disasters and programs like arc, prc, and other supports within title i of the farm bill which provide a Risk Management framework for farmers and ranchers. It is our job on this committee to ensure these programs are structured in a way that can efficiently and most likely serve farmers, ranchers and small towns that need them right now. It is also our job to ensure these programs are implemented in a way that is fair, transparent and consistent with the law. We can get farmers the help they need while conducting appropriate and necessary oversight. I have concerns about the path usda is on when it comes to staffing. I hear from farmers alltime about understaffed local offices, resources at fsa are stretched thin. I would like to hear what plans usda has to make sure these resources are managed effectively. On top of their immediate media stories about Software Glitches and unprepared staffs to process disaster payments. It is clear usda wants to find efficiencies but is it prepared to make changes needed to deliver these Important Services even if that means increasing or decreasing staff and resources . I look forward to hearing your testimony today, mister undersecretary. I recognize chairman thompson, chairman peterson for an opening statement. I recognize Ranking Member conaway for an opening statement. Appreciate this important hearing and having us focus on the way usda is going about its business of helping farmers and ranchers in Rural America across this country but at the junction that it is difficult the process of the last eight days is shameful. It is one thing for xi jinping to use farmers and ranchers as a weapon against donald trump he knows trade negotiations with Something Else to have the powers of this body using the same good people is leverage because you dont like donald trump. This committee and usda trying to make sure america is protected and eliminate the certainty we can. But this has gone away about the cr taking the ccc funding hostas using those folks at a weapon. Shame on us for allowing that to happen. It should never happen. We are increasing this body to a terrible state. It is one thing for one of our colleagues to list donors of donald trump to harass their businesses and hurt them financially, it is entirely different for this body, this body to do the exact same thing with this funding mechanism that has always gone forward without impediments. My colleagues on the other side might say this has been done before, restrictions placed on this budget as a result of others affected future promises, not current promises at one time. These promises on Disaster Relief have been made and for us to threaten Rural America that payments would not go out in regular order is terrible. Shame on us for doing the same thing. My colleagues will say we fixed it but you didnt. You left restrictions on their. Theres a report in the face of all the things the chairman said they had to get done and added another report by october 30th or 31st of that workload and shame on us for doing that. We have not been funded. We have given certain funding as opposed to moving to 30 billion so from now on congratulations, from now on as the chairman said yesterday on the radio from now on this process will be a weapon that both sides can use to take it to their advantage, shame on us for doing that and i yield back. Mister chairman i recognize chairman peterson. I want to tell members, having been here 29 years, some of the history. This was put in place by the Republican Party in 2010 and was put in place, this restriction because at that time the republicans thought secretary bill sack was using the ccc to help Blanche Lincoln who was chairman of the senate ag committee, to earn reelection because it was a disaster in arkansas and the senate wouldnt do a disaster bill because she was up for election so what happens . They did instead is put a limitation on bill fax so he couldnt use the ccc to do it. You guys put it in place, not us. So what has happened ever since is the Appropriation Committee has waived that provision. They didnt change it but they waived it so this time it became an issue. Not a Single Member of this committee had anything to do with this, period. I object to making these accusations our members are complicit in this. We were not. I found out this came from the senate, not the house, the brouhaha came out of the senate. Whatever it is, my concern about this which i said on the radio yesterday, this is legitimate, there werent a handful of members who understood what the ccc was before the started. That is not just the latest. The president using this fund for farmers has elevated this thing. I have had people talk to me from the liberal side complaining they never knew there was a ccc or how it operated and yesterday the Freedom Caucus starting to weigh into this thing. Thats what im concerned about. Nobody on this committee had anything to do with that and without this committee this might have happened and it wasnt the house that was pushing this. It was the senate. That is where these troubles usually start so i wanted to clear the record. I now recognize the gentleman from pennsylvania, Ranking Member of the farm commodities and Risk Management subcommittee, mister thompson, for his opening remarks. Thank you for holding this important hearing regarding implementation of the 2018 farm bill provisions and Disaster Assistance. Thank you for your leadership, for attending and providing an update on the status of these important policies. Those of us representing Rural America know firsthand times are hard for farm country. Over the past years it seems there isnt a single region of the country that is immune from mother natures devastation. Not only are producers having to grab a hold of the extreme weather but profited by bad markets and everchanging landscape for global trade not to mention the policy uncertainty coming out of washington. That is why it is so important to get the 2018 farm bill completed without the threat of extensions which would only have exacerbated challenges facing farmers and ranchers. Im pleased with the timely rollout from usc and the key farmville programs despite having numerous other policies to implement which im sure we will hear about more today. House republicans made some key targeted improvements to the farm safety nets which should not be overlooked and in conference we negotiate against a senate bill that would cut 700 million out of the baseline of these critical programs. Talk about kicking farmers and farm families when they are down. People would be advocating erosion of the safety net at a time producers are looking for any lifeline available to keep their family farms and business. Im proud we are able to hold the line and produce a conference report that provides improvements from title i programs to the benefit of all crops and regions of the country. One area where congress could act now to ease the concerns of the every Culture Community would be to act swiftly to approve the United States mexico canada agreement, usmc a which made key improvements to nafta and is expected to provide 2. 2 billion in additional exports for producers particularly for dairy, the main commodity produced in my district. Beyond the access it provides usmc a send a signal to other trading partners in talks that the United States has the wherewithal to follow through on commitments made which will lead to other opportunities to expand trade like we saw with the agreement for japan. Congress wants to approve usmc a now. Failure to do so. Relationships between our negotiating partners notice for this administration future administrations as well. Thanks for holding this joint hearing, i look forward to hearing about the access to aid our farmers and ranchers. I recognize the gentleman from california, chairman for the so committee on livestock and foreign agriculture. Thank you, mister chairman. It is important these two subcommittees meet together this morning at this hearing the deals with the review of the implementation of the federal farm and disaster programs and the challenges we are facing today in farm country. For all the members that are participating, i thank you. I also want to note that it was important for chairman peterson clarify the history and the record as it relates to these activities that were most recently involved in the continuing resolution we need to pass this weekend obviously have a budget because frankly it is irresponsible to shutdown government. I always felt it is irresponsible and past actions by previous congresses to do that for political agendas is inappropriate period. Surveying the president hurt us in a hard way last year, at least i hope he did. The history of the ccc which is chairman peterson pointed out is really not known by the majority of members of congress until this last week, is important to note because frankly we should not be politicizing this. Some part of this committee my sense is that came from the senate as well but we have to deal with it. What we are dealing with today is to talk about where the safety net is. Where is the safety net for farmers and ranchers and dairy people across this country and as chairman of the subcommittee on livestock i am very interested in overseeing the new Dairy Margin Coverage Program, the reauthorization of the last farm bill and the administrations Market Facilitation Program is properly implemented and that is why we have the secretary here today in part. The dairy margin coverage for 2019 was set to end tomorrow. It is important we give dairy men and women every opportunity to sign up for this program. We will ask the secretary where we are in terms of that sign up and whether your numbers coincide with the numbers i heard. I hope there can be some flexibility with that deadline tomorrow. This year, given we have a brandnew program, at the same time you have the challenge, signed up for the 2020 program. I am sympathetic to the challenge the department is facing in that instance, but it has been tough across the land. We know the large fluctuations and amount of dairies that have gone bankrupt and been sold in every region of america, we lost our fair share in california. Men and women who have been there for generation, having to sell the dairy and it is tough and it has economic ramifications and communities where those dairies have been. Nationwide, a program in terms of success is triggered, over 1 billion in health, a quarter of 1 billion, excuse me, accord or of 1 billion in help to Dairy Farmers throughout the country and that is what the intention was. I have an issue with the president on this, i have been clear about that. The president has said farmers are better off with Market Facilitation Program payments than the access they had to china. Before the trade war. I think in the usmc a we made some headway on section 7. I can tell you the dairy market is important for california and mexico. When i talked to farmers it is not just my disagreement with this, everybody has leverage. Farmers in california are feeling the pain of it and they agree. They think it is important they have access to markets and they maintain those markets and are very fearful because of the current trade war we may never regain them and that is a concern i have. The Market Facilitation Program and how those moneys are used dont come close. The example in dairy, youre getting 16 18 in the margins may stave off bankruptcy or foreclosure by a bank for a certain time period the . 12 is not going to save dairy so i dont know what the leadership thinks. I have questions how the Market Facilitation Program is set up and how you implement it. Thank you for hosting this joint hearing with me. You have a farm background and you know how difficult it is in farm country and appreciate your participation to give us a sense with your testimony where we are going with this so i yield to the Ranking Member of our subcommittee. I have a prepared statement i would like to submit for the record and a couple comments for the sake of time because i would like to get to the real meat of the matter here but first it is important that we recognize how critical it is that we and agriculture stick together, republican and democrat. It is unfortunate that so many colleagues the dont have the opportunity to represent rural areas, lack of understanding of agriculture is significant. There is a wide gap and it is not uncommon around the countryside either. Most folks have no idea where their food and fiber comes from. We take for granted everyday of our lives it is really important we as republicans and democrats on this committee stick together and promote and educate and cajole and persuade as best we can other members of congress so they understand the nature and gravity of what we are doing as relates to production, agriculture, and a country that can feed itself quote itself is in an enviable position enabling us to be prosperous as well. The other thing i would like to mention. I have been around agriculture in these debates for a long time back to my debates on senate staff and back then i never understood why we didnt have in addition to Crop Insurance some type of Catastrophic Fund of some sort so when these disasters hit we are not waiting on congress for eight month or 12 month or 14 months or whatever it may be, but have a program in place like we have with fema where Congress Makes an appropriation every year and we have it and when disaster hits you have a base and if you need to come back and supplement that congress can. And it very clearly has Crop Insurance is valuable, you take a situation in my home state of North Carolina you have economic losses year after year after year, the hurricane of economics so to speak in the weather hurricanes coming through that absolutely devastate your areas. Farmers had millions of dollars tied up in the ground, hurricane hits in Early September and they dont have an opportunity to get anything from that investment. Meanwhile it comes at a time they stalled equity due to the economic hardships they faced over appear go of time. Then it Takes Congress month to get a disaster aid package across the finish line for a variety of reasons. This is an ageold problem. We have to come up with a better solution than we have now, Crop Insurance is valuable, very helpful, but so many times we face when it is not just quite enough. And weve got to have extra help. That is where we are. I look forward to your testimony and look forward to questions and answers. I yield back. Thank you, each of you for your views facing aquaculture in your state and across the country. I would like to request Opening Statements by other members be submitted for the record to begin his testimony and to ensure there is ample time for questions. We would like to welcome the honorable bill northey, undersecretary for farm production at usda, he is a fourth generation farmer from iowa and served as iowa secretary of agriculture from 20062018. Undersecretary northy, please begin when you are ready. Distinguished members of the committee, i am honored to be with you to discuss the work usda has accomplished and continues to deliver as we implement the 2018 farmville. Thank you for your leadership providing the Funding Authority that lets us support our nations hardworking farmers, ranchers, i am privileged to be the undersecretary for f pack, comprising three farmer facing agencies of fsa, rma and an rcs. Since Congress Passed and donald trump signed a 2018 farmville into law last december, one of the highest priorities has been implemented the dairy coverage program. Sign up began june 17th, fsa began making payments for the dmc on july 11th. As of last evening we had over 21,000 producers enrolled in the