to order this morning and we're so pleased to have everyone with us and have our secretary the department of agriculture with us, secretary vilsack, welcome. in addition to thanking you for being here today, i want to thank you and your 100,000 staff members who undertake every day to support american farmers, small towns and consumers alike. and all your work to protect our food system, both locally and globally. you've been very busy on a number of fronts making sure wic moms can get baby formulas amid a natural shortage, i appreciate how quickly once notified you went into gear and thank senator boseman and the whole committee working together on a bipartisan basis to take action that was important for our committee to do last week. you have been creating more opportunities for rural small businesses and strengthening opportunities for american farmers, both at home and abroad. mobilizing usda to respond to the climate cries equipping our supply chain for the pandemic and putin's war on ukraine and the challenges facing our farmers and families and rural communities right now. turing the pandemic we saw how highly concentrated food supply chains left both farmers and consumers vulnerable, essential workers were on the front lines without adequate protection, farmers had no choice, but to destroy the crops and livestock they could no longer sell. and millions of families could not have enough-- did not have enough to eat. the previous administration gravely mismanaged usda's ability to address any of these crises. under your leadership usda has i am mrited the rescue plan and consolidated act to support local and regional businesses and get the supply chain moving again and after four years of disastrous trade policies, putting our farmers back on solid ground with our trading partners, has been no small task. this has been even more critical as putin's unprovoked war in ukraine strains our global supply chain as we know, putting the food security of millions in peril and causing crisis for everything from diesel fuel to fertilizer to skyrocket. while congress and the usda have responded quickly with humanitarian aid and resources to grow domestic production, we know there's more. usda is helping to empower small towns and rural communities, and expanded high speed internet and is investing in roads and bridges that keep main street moving. mr. secretary, i hope you can expand upon how these investments will increase the quality of life for millions of people who live in rural america, but we won't have a home for future generations if we don't tackle the climate crisis. wildfires and droughts out west, early thaws in michigan, and the great plains put at risk our ability to produce and distribute food that's costing us quite literally. the good news is while farmers and forests are directly affected they're uniquely positioned to address it as you know. and they're eager to partner with usda and innovation to increase yields, to participate in usda conservation practices to protect the soil. and to invest in climate friendly practices that are profitable and practial for farmers. it goes hand in hand with the work the usda is doing to help farmers lead on the climate crisis, finally, all of us can agree that we want to make sure that we have a rural economy that helps small towns thrive, gives producers a good return on all of their hard work, and keeps food on our tables. so, again, welcome to the committee, secretary vilsack and i'll turn to my ranking member, senator bosman. >> new, madam chair and we appreciate having secretary vilsack at the committee. before i turn to today's hearing i would like to congratulate the chairwoman for hosting a very successful hearing in april on the campus of michigan state university. this was the kickoff to the 2023 farm bill process. i enjoyed learning more about the issues that are important to michigan's agriculture producers and rural committees and share many of the goals for our next farm bill highlighted by our witnesses. it's amazing as you get out, whether it's in arkansas or throughout the country, farmers really do have so much in common and share the problems that they're facing. i'm delighted that the chairwoman would be joining me in arkansas next month for a second field hearing. the committee will formally notice the hearing today, but i'm pleased to share with the committee that we'll be holding our next field hearing in jonesboro, arkansas june 17th and excited to share the views of arkansas's hardworking farm families with our chairwoman and members of the committee. it's unprecedented time for agriculture. as we come out of the a global pandemic, the war in the bread basket in europe and choked off a portion of the grain and seed production. and global and food insecurity is acute, the head of the world food program recently told me he's faced with the decision it take food from hungry people to starving people. and filling the gaps, faced declining farming comes at steeply higher income costs and we'll put those into the record. usda can play a constructive role to help american farmers and ranchers to meet here and at home globally, also, i applaud the nomination of alexis taylor serve as undersecretaries of trade and affairs, the and america desperately needs laser focus on working with our partners and competitors across the globe for the benefit of u.s. agriculture at this critical moment. i would encourage usda to stretch itself and fellow agencies to make the tough decisions necessary that will help bring down food prices and enhance global food security. food prices will decrease when the costs from the farm to the fork go down. the answer is more supply, more oil and gas development for lower energy prices, more participation in the labor market, more land and productions and more certainty for our farmers and ranchers. and until the administration starts to focus on the core issues that are driving record food costs, there will be no relief and american families will continue to suffer. i will keep making that case to the administration, and my colleagues and encourage them to work with us to help create an environment where those factors start trending in the right direction and prices start to come down. i appreciate the announcements from the usda made this morning that will allow some additional flexabilities for those with expiring crp contracts. i think it's a great step in the right direction, but i believe that we can do more. one suggestion is look to the past, in the 2014 farm bill, land owners enrolled in the conservation reserve program were given an opportunity to end their contracts early without penalty. we should give serious consideration to this, to this penalty-free incentive again until grain production returns to the normal. i believe this flexibility would allow potentially millions of acres to return to food production. the world cannot afford for prime farm land to lie fallow and second, i believe there should be a two-year pause and regulatory changes to currently approved crop production tools. producers need the regulatory predictability to plan for the future and companies that need the inputs need the regulatory certainty to bring the tools to the market. american agriculture can meet that unprecedented moment, the federal government should assure it's not in the way and with that, madam chair, i yield back. >> thank you very much. >> looking forward to hearing. >> i am very much looking forward to coming back to arkansas. so, i'm looking forward to it. thank you so much. again, i want to welcome secretary vilsack back to the committee. my first turn as chair from 2011 to 2014 coincideed with his first term as-- at usda. as secretary for agriculture under president obama, secretary vilsack put americans back to work by investing in the rural economy, advocating for american producers, and he helped them see record crop prices and farm exports and made sure that americans have access to safe and nutritious food. prior to his current term as secretary, served as the ceo and president of the u.s. dairy export council. and secretary vilsack was the 40th governor of iowa, a former member of the iowa state senate, and a former mayor of his hometown of mt. pleasant. so thank you, senator vilsack. a pleasure to have you before the committee and we look forward to your comments. >> thank you, madam chair. appreciate the opportunity to be here and appreciate the invitation from you and the ranking member for an opportunity to be in front of this committee. i think would be helpful if i could highlight three recent announcements from the department in my opening statement and obviously be glad to respond to the questions that the committee has. as we all know we're tealing with a situation involving infant formula and thanks to the quick action of congress you all have provided the department of agriculture additional authority in terms of wic that will allow us to work with those who produce infant formula in this country to create nor supply. we sent a letter to state health commissioners to gerber, nestle and mead johnson, indicating a willingness to work with them to provide wavers to expand contract brand options in terms. wic state agencies, allow the use of contract brand alternatives that were not previously authorized as well as temporarily to use noncontract products to be substituted. we will pay the rebates in the wic budget itself so that companies will not be at risk financially for these substitutions. i think it will help assist in expanding access to product. we also filed today in an effort to try to create more, new and better markets for our farmers. beginning of a process on our packers and stock yard act. we start with the poultry rule. two components to what we have disclosed today. the first is for interfreight integrators. it's modeled off the franchisee disclosure efforts and designed to help producers with the better costs and risks they're taking with a contract with an integrator and allows them to manage that risk by knowing a bit more who they're doing business with. we're requesting that they, the integrators provide the employment and stock density, a history of payments under prior tournamentments so folks may appreciate where folks might be in the process, a bit of information about the background of the integrator whether they've been in bankruptcy at any point in time and involved in litigation and the ability of producers to be able to share that information with their financial advisors and those who are providing them legal assistance so that they're in the best possible position to understand or appreciate the risk. there will be an exemption for very small live poultry dealers in this proposal. in addition, we've provided additional disclosures concerning the inputs that a farmer is receiving both the time of placement and time of settlement. we want the farmer to be able to understand the breed, the facility that was breeding the stock that they're providing. the sex, the flock age, the health issues that may have cropped up and essentially, at the time of the settlement, understanding the distribution of inputs, the housing specifications and all of this is designed to eye void deception and provide farmers with the ability to understand precisely what they're getting into. a 60-day comment period. we believe, from our analysis that the benefits of transparency and additional disclosure exceed the costs. we will also be filing a study that was done on competition in the retail area. and we r announcing 200 million evident to assist feed and poultry, an intermediary program to provide to co-op's and help the facilities to remain in business and announcing as well a $25 million efforts to try to expand work force through our programs. and we think this is an opportunity to expand capacity and this goes along with additional opportunities that we announced in terms of additional processing capacity. we received 263 applications for the $150 million grants that are available. it totals about $895 million of interest. 46 states, 111 beef applications, 44 poultry, lamb and goat. and there's obviously great interest in in program. and i might say in my remaining time, we also saw great interest in the climate smart agriculture and forestry product partnership initiative we received 450 applications, $18 billion in requests from all 50 states a diverse pool of applicants. nonprofits, cooperative, for-profit organization,government entries, forest groups, tribes, universities, small and large corporations, a wide range of commodities involved. this is the first of two application deadlines, june 10th is our small application deadline. about $8 billion of additional leverage so there's a tremendous interest in this program as well. be happy to respond to questions from the committee. thank you, madam chair. >> thank you, mr. secretary and i know that leader mcconnell has to go to the floor to help open the floor so who says bipartisanship is dead. i'm going to refer to senator mcconnell and please go forward with your questions and we'll continue, thanks. >> thank you, madam chairman. senator boozman, i'm here, mr. secretary, because i've got a particular problem that i'm trying to address, but it's ultimately coming down to you. here is what happened. last december, we got hit by the biggest tornado we've ever had. it actually ended up being on the ground for over 200 miles. it hit and largely destroyed the town of mayfield, which is the biggest grain storage facility in our state. completely wiped out. so, look, i want to thank you for what you all have already done to help on numerous occasions as we try to recover. but as part of the destruction with this grain storage infrastructure gone in western kentucky, not only do we lose millions of bushels of storage we've got a problem that has to be fixed or we're basically out of business this year. so what i did was put a provision in the appropriations bill that asks you to identify funding sources that we can address pretty quickly to not completely lose our ability to have storage for this year's crop. i don't know whether you're already familiar with this or not, but i wonder if you have any awareness of it and if you'd give me any assurance that maybe we can address this issue by your decision shortly. >> senator, i am aware. i know that our safe staff has been in touch with the farm bureau in your state as well as your staff. i understand that there is an idea for a series of pop-up storage facilities there. i think there are some concerns how cumbersome that particular solution might be, but we are very commit today working as expeditiously as possible to provide an alternative and provide the resources that will allow your farmers to have storage. totally understand and appreciate the challenges that this presents and we're commit today trying to get it resolved as quickly as possible. >> well, i really, really appreciate it. it's an emergency. the only other question i would ask, i suppose anybody at the table could also ask, and that is the -- this inflation issue that we're all hammered with and it amounts to well over $5,000 of increase costs annually, including $780 in additional costs for food in a rural state like mine ayn members of the committees have similar states. family businesses and farmers are hit at the both ends. and the conversation was farmers, increased costs at the forefront. a recent study texas a & m, despite higher commodity prices farm price profits will drop 60% in 2022 due to these higher input costs. since january of 2021 animal feed increased by 43%, diesel fuel 115% and natural gas 202%. fertilizer, 220%. agencies like epa and interior, and others seem bent on driving these costs up even further. have you worked with your colleagues across the administration to inform them how this regulatory onslaught is contributing to the burdens the farmers already have? >> senator, our focus at usda is to try to figure out ways to provide assistance and help on a number of issues that you've raised. first of all, we're looking at ways in which we can increase productive land going into production, obviously, as senator boozman indicated, supply does have a tendency, go down and potentially increase income. in terms of fertilizer, a number of things that we're doing, we're working with farmers to make sure that they are fully aligned with the right application, the right time and the right location, the right amount. we have also provided a new risk management tool that encourages split application of nitrogen to reduce the costs to farmers with picking up the loss of productivity that may occur if they're unable to fertilize twice in a year. we also have allocated $500 million towards looking at broad array ever options, in terms of how we might be able to expand fertilizer capacity in this country and not be as reliant and as reliant as we have been on outside sources for fertilizer, and we're also looking at number of strategies, ways we can better utilize precision agriculture in terms of fertilizer in the appropriate time and amount. so there are a series much things we're doing and also, would i only finish by saying, part of our responsibility is also to provide help and assistance to the families as you mentioned that were struggling. that's the reason why it's important to get the snap program where it is and it's important to continue to promote the wick bonus buy in our budget and taking a look at the way we can help our schools deal with the consequences of all of this and why we ask for a continuation one more year of free schools. a number of ways to provide assistance for families to get through this difficult time. >> thank you, mr. secretary. thank you, madam chairman. >> thank you very much. mr. secretary talking about fertilizers and inputs and costs gone up, we hope in michigan to be able to help with this. a new effort to have a potash facility created for moving the important part of the ingredients, an important part that hasn't been produced in the united states and we hope to have more production of these materials in the united states and so we're less dependent on what's happening around the world. the climate crisis, i'd like to talk with you more about this. we know, i mean, whether it's what happened in kentucky, whether it's what happened last weekend in northern michigan in a small town, gaylord, michigan, which i don't ever remember having a tornado and certainly not one that went through and wiped out a very important housing project, mobile home park and downtown small businesses and people are picking up the pieces for a long time and the climate crisis and what carbon pollution has been doing, 100 years of carbon pollution in our face right now. so i encourage the efforts that you are putting forth and i know you said you've received a tremendous response to the partnerships for climate smart commodities pilot project and i'm wondering if you could talk a little bit more about what that means and also, how our efforts on growing climate solutions act, senator vaughan, senator boozman and myself and others in the committee putting together something that passed overwelcoming in the senate. not often you have 92 out of 100 votes and transparency and expertise and so on. wondering if you might speak to that as well. as how that effort, which is unfortunately, i haven't moved yet in the house, but fortunately, we're going to get this done and get it to you and how it will help farmers as we look at the climate effort that we're all working on together. >> well, that act, madam chair is extraordinarily important. it provides a vehicle through which we provide the technical that the farmers and ranchers need in order to understand smart practices and providing technical