Transcripts For CSPAN2 Sonny Perdue Answers Questions About Trade And Threats To Food Security 20170324

On cspan2 if it becomes available. Yesterday, former georgia governor sonny perdue was on capitol hill for his confirmation hearing to be the next agricultural secretary. This is about two and half hours. Good morning members of the committee. I call this meeting of the Senate Committee on Agriculture Administration and for street to order. This morning we welcome governor sonny perdue. The president s nominee for u. S. Secretary of agriculture. Members of this committee have great appreciation for the Farmers Ranchers and consumers and other stakeholders that are directly affected by the decisions made by the secretary. The department of agriculture is made up of 29 agencies and offices. It employs nearly 100,000 men and women that work in all 50 states around the globe. The department provides leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, World Development, nutrition, Scientific Research and related issues that impact americans every day. Throughout our nations history, our farmers, ranchers and folks in Rural America have survived drought, disease, floods, tornadoes, and. Fires in kansas, and whatever else Mother Nature throws at them. Year after year they produce the safest most abundant and affordable food supply in the world. However, today, growers from across the country are facing tough Economic Times with multiple years of low prices. These same producers need a strong market for their goods. During this article time, our Agricultural Industry cannot be overstated. If that was not enough, over the past previous years farmers and ranchers have been burdened by regulation from agencies all across the federal government. I have heard time and time again, as well as many members of this committee about the costly and hard to understand regulations that endanger the ability of our producers to stay in business. This committee will continue its efforts to make government a partner to success, not an adversary. This committee has a lot of work to do including the reauthorization of the farm bill. We intend to do that work in a bipartisan fashion that has served us so well in the past. I want to personally thank Ranking Member and former chairperson of this committee, the senator from michigan. Now more than ever, agriculture needs a voice and advocate at the highest levels of government. Governor purdue has been nominated to serve in that role. He is from georgia and spent his entire life in and around agriculture. The governor was raised on a farm and was a practicing veterinarian but before returning to his home county to work in the grain business but he was elected to serve in local and State Government including two terms of governor of georgia. While serving farmers throughout the northeast to gain firsthand experience with the complexity of transportation and the Global Commodities market. Governor, the senates role of advice and consent is an important responsibility. Today is a key step in that process. We look forward to hearing your testimony and to asking you questions about how you view the role of agriculture secretary, should you be confirmed. In addition to the governor i would like to welcome and recognize his wife mary, his four children and their spouses and his 14 grandchildren. The governor has also been joined by many of his friends and former staff from georgia. We welcome you all to the committee. I am especially glad to have our former add Committee Chairman and senator from georgia and georgia congressman david scott who serves on the house Agriculture Committee. He is with us to provide introductions of our nominee and congressman Sanford Bishop is here in the audience to support the nominee as well. Its good to see you again. Before we hear from the congressman, i want to turned things over for any remarks the Ranking Member would like to make. Thank you. Its great to be with you today as i move forward on this great position. Welcome governor purdue. Its pretty impressive that youve got some beautiful grandchildren as well as children and family members and we know you are proud of your grandpa and were happy to have you here today. To my friends, we worked on a lot of farm bills together and thank you for your service as chair and someone advocating for georgia and all of the interest. Its great to see you. Weve got a lot of Work Together with our colleagues in the house to be able to get the next farm bill done. We look forward to doing that. Its clear that agriculture and rule america need to have a seat at the table. We always do, but its clear we need to make sure thats happening with this administration. Looking back at our history, our president knew that farmers were the foundation of the country. Thats why president linking created the fda and called it the people department. He understood that agriculture is a cornerstone of our economy and that the department has a special relationship with the people it served. Americas farmers and ranchers grow the safest most affordable food supply in the world. We should be very proud of that. I always say Food Security is national security. Having a food secure nation makes our country safe. Its usdas job to ensure we can continue to make things and grow things in every state. Michigan is the second most diverse state in the country. Its important that they are voice for kansas, georgia and all of those across the nation. Large and small, conventional and organic, those who sell overseas or to their neighbors. We need a voice for all the farmers. In agricultural secretary will need to look past regional divide and partisan pressures to support all farmers, all families in Rural Communities. Right now we need an advocate to stand up for them with this administration. Usda not only helps a farmer weather storms, they save them from wildfires in the west and make lakes and rivers safe for families to enjoy and ensure children have the healthy food they need to learn and grow into healthy adults. Rule america is the economic backgrounbackbone of our countro many economies are struggling to recovery from the great recession. Over the past eight years they have made targeted investments and world economies and now we are beginning to see these communities on the road to recovery, but we need to make sure these Investments Continue so we can keep moving forward. Unfortunately during the two months of the administration, its clear that role america has been an afterthought. Even before President Trump took office he sent a message by waiting to the last minute to name his pic for agricultural secretary. The Budget Proposal made it clear that role america is not a top priority for this administration. The proposal cut u. S. Funding by 21 . The Third Largest cut to any federal agency. In addition to eliminating critical World Development and International Food aid programs, the administration has put a target on hundreds of critical programs that go through the appropriations process. In fact, under the budget, important resources for farmers and families are facing cuts averaging 33 . We need a secretary of agriculture who will advocate for the Important Services u. S. Da provides and rural families and farmers need. We need a strong voice to insist the president listen to the 500 groups that are saying that agriculture, conservation, Food Assistance and other Farm Bill Program should not be cut further after agreeing to a 23 billion cut in the last farm bill. We also need someone who will partner closely with congress, especially as we put together the next farm bill and look at other key issues like immigration and trade that have a tremendous impact on farmers in Rural Communities. In the 2014 farm bill, we made bipartisan reform that sa saved taxpayers billions and protected the integrity of the farm safety net. The Budget Office estimated recently that the current farm bill, if we made no changes, would save 80 billion more than initially projected the next ten years. Its largely driven by Crop Insurance costs going down and reduced spending on Food Assistance as the economy has improved. This congress we working hard to move another bipartisan farm bill. I am excited for this challenge. With usda leadership and all of our stakeholders, i know we can get it done. We worked together before and we will do it again, but a community that we represent the entire country. Especially during the times of low pressure and uncertainty emma we need the next secretary to be an unapologetic advocate for all of rule america. We need someone who will be tenacious like a georgian bulldog. Governor purdue, we need a champion and i know you know that. Right now, more than ever. Today i look forward to learning more about your views and qualifications to lead one of the most important departments in our federal government. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I think the senator from michigan. It is my privilege to recognize a distinguished former member of this committee, our colleague and friend. I am truly honored to be here today. I am humbled to be on this side of the dice. I am particularl particularly pe here to introduce my good friend, the governor of georgia, sunny purdue who was chosen to be the next secretary of agriculture. I spent 12 of the best years of my life right here. When people ask me what do i miss in the senate im quick to respond that what i miss all the good friends i made over my 20 years in congress. Members of this committee are at the top of the list of those best friends. Its on both sides of the aisle. I truly am pleased to be here. When i was sworn in as a new member of the house of representatives in january 1995, i was given the next to the last seat on that committee which was made up of more than 50 members. The chairman of that committee was a gentleman from kansas, mr. Mr. Chairman, youre probably the only person in the history of our both committees and i will still your phrase because ive heard you say it so often that it sometimes a powerful add committee, but you are to be congratulated from having the honor of chairing both committees. Governor Sonny Perdues note stranger to agriculture. He grew up on a farm in georgia. He graduated from Veterinary School at the university of georgia and after a two or in the air force returned to be actively engaged in crop farming as well as in the operation of very successful Grain Elevator business. When i was elected to congress, he was a constituent of mine and it was by that time in his life a member of the Georgia State senate. We shared the interest of defense as well as agriculture and are respected positions and we began a dialogue that has lasted to this day. In 2002 sonny decided to run for governor of georgia and i iran for u. S. Senate. Needless to say, we spent many hours campaigning over the next year prior to that election. When you eat a lot of Fried Chicken and barbecue and ride a bus with somebody for a long time, you get to know them and i got to know sunny well. That november he was elected as the first republican governor in our state in 130 years. His been a leader and everything hes been involved in doing. As a farmer he was a leader in the field of agribusiness in our state. As a member of the senate he was elected by his. To be the president of the senate and as governor he was the chairman of the republican governors association. When he was elected governor sonny did what good leaders do and that is to surround himself with good people. He went out and found an experience ceo and cfo. He also improve the states leadership by implementing a meritocracy in that he went out and found the best and most qualified people to run every one of our state agencies, irrespective of the local affiliation of those individuals. He committed to make georgia the best managed state in the nation and he receives Significant National recognition for his accomplishments. When he was elected the state couldnt produce an audit so he created the first state Accounting Office to focus on the timeliness and usefulness of financial information. Technology and purchasing systems at the state level were antiquated. Under his leadership those systems were updated and the state purchasing system received many awards for its efficiency and accountability. A new state data center was established and much of the appropriate technology was outsourced in order to stay current and technologically state of the art. We all know that technology at usda today is way behind the curve. Its inefficient and it is not farmer friendly. This will be a challenge to sunny but i am confident he will be up to that challenge. One of his most significant initiatives was the Customer Service focus to treat citizens of our state as customers and to create services for them that were faster, friendlier and easier. That reduce the time and improve the Customer Experience in everything from getting a drivers license to getting a tax refund. It also produced a cultural change as the employees bought into this initiative. Such an effort at usda would be a vast improvement in the relationship with washington and its largest customers at usda, farmers and ranchers. This kind of executive experience and leadership, combined with sonnys knowledge of usda programs make them ideally suited to be the next secretary of agriculture. Mr. Chairman, i would urge this committee to approve this nomination and bring his confirmation to a vote on the floor of the senate as soon as possible. I thank you very much. Thank you for next line statement. On behalf of the governor it is my personal pleasure and privilege to introduce a member of the House Agricultural Committee. Currently is david scott. David we are delighted to have you here in the upper body. We will go any farther with that. Please proceed. German roberts, thank you for that, but i do want to make one slight correction. When you said the house agriculture was sometimes influential and powerful, may we add an addendum to that so it will go out that the House Agricultural Committee has always been and will always be powerful and influential. I appreciate that correction. It was just only one chairman that had the tenure when it was sometimes powerful. [laughter] touche my friend, i will take that into consideration. General roberts, i am greatly honored and very thankful to have this opportunity to come and stand with my dear friend, my longtime friend sonny perdue. I want to take a few minutes to share with you some things about sonny that you need to know. My good friend went into great detail to share with you his immense qualifications, his education, the fact that he went to the university of georgia the veterinarian school, but i am here to explain to you why sonny perdue is indeed the right person at the right time to do the absolute best job. The talent that i have shared and have witnessed with him, in coming up through Georgia State senate. You see committee members, i was chairman of the Senate Rules Committee in georgia for ten years. My good friend sonny perdue was the president pro tem. Im not saying that to shake about on our credentials, but i think if you put that in the context of the Georgia Legislature and, i assure you the georgia legislator was one of the most exciting places to be, every 40 days that went on for almost 80 days. Now, sonny and i had to meet every single day to Work Together to set the agenda, to determine what bills got onto the floor in the house and the senate. Sometimes night after night, and when we did that we had to also sit with the governor and the speaker and you talk about some fireworks, there were plenty in that Georgia Legislature. But you get to understand a persons temperament when you are on the battlefield with them. Their courage, their decisiveness, and sonny perdue was just that person. And so, on all of the major pieces of legislation, that affected eve every georgian of y strike of every condition, setting perdue had a very integral part of that. And so, i want to take just a few minutes, if i may because whats important to me is to make sure that my friend sonny perdue becomes the secretary of agriculture very quickly and that he comes with his record unblemished. Thats why i wanted to you to know at the outset, sonny perdue and i worked into the midnight hours night after night. You get to know person. He and i were like brothers, and i am grateful for that relationship. I want to take just a minute to address an issue that i know may or may not come up. I would be derelict in my duty if i did not set the record straight on the confederate battle flag business. It has been in the air. I want to make sure that when you measure sunny purdue on that issue, as well as all issues, that you measure sunny purdue right. Now, let me just give the committee, and the nation a preview and a setting. First of all, sonny perdue and i came along at a very significant time when georgia made one of its most hysterical moments in changing the confederate battle flag emblem from our state flag. It took time, it took experience, it took talent, and it also took committee members, gods providence, his divine intervention at a very critical need when we needed it most. Because of leadership at that time, there were three governo governors. You cant just tell the story with just one governor. This has been an ongoing proce process, and it took education, it took commitment, but the people of georgia, black and white, rose to that occasion. I want to just state that the first governor that had the courage to step forward, to change that confederate battle flag was zell muller. , one of your former colleagues here. That took courage and he paid the price for that. Its very important to know that it was the white leadership in georgia that stepped forward, to lead that fight, took great risk to do so. Then, there was the second governor, governor roy barnes, and as i said, god puts the right people in the right place at the right time, and governor roy barnes, one of the most courageous governors, a man of sterling strength chose to do it, and he put forward the new flag. He to, let me tell you something committee members, many of those state senators and state representatives, when they stood up to vote for that, many new that they were not coming back because they were defeated. We have to measure people correctly. They build on the foundation that each one laid. Then came sonny to do. It was on everybodys mind. When you judge a person based on the circumstances he was placed in. He let it known when he was elected governor he put forward a referendum. It was a tremendous campaign. He lost the governorship for that. Many members of the house and the senate lost their position for that. They deserve to be pointed out, respected for that. They paid the price, and when it came time and sonny was elected, he promised a referendum because the people of georgia, it was their decision to make. You talk about achievement and a tough area, sonny perdue negotiated the compromise and put together the referendum and gave the people a choice, and he put governor barnes is flag there which had a small emblem of the confederate battle flag on their, and then, governor sonny perdue did a tremendously smart thing. He got an agreement on another flag that did not have the battle flag emblem on it. He put that flag there with georges state seal and he said, people of georgia, choose which one. You know what chairman and committee members, the people of georgia chose the one flag that sunny purdue provided the leadership that did not have a Small Confederate flag that roy barnes had. We didnt get to that point easily, but it was a great moment for the white and black people of georgia, and it could not have happened if we didnt have a person with the levelheadedness, with the brilliance and the tactical maneuvers, the willingness to sit and bring together democrats, republicans, urban and rural together to solve that and let the people saw that. I often refer to that experien experience, i call the reference three people. Giselle muller had to go up and wrestle with this issue. Then came our motive, roy barnes who provided the leadership right to it. Then we had our joshua that got us across the jordan river. With that, mr. Chairman, i urge you with all urgency to please confirm my good friend, a great georgian and a good american, a Great American who will make one of the best secretaries of agriculture this nation has had, sunny purdue. Thank you. Congressman, thank you for that very inspiring endorsement. I think every member here, if they would like to be endorsed for anything, would welcome you to do that. That was very special. I appreciate it very much. Parred me. Senator purdue would like to have the opportunity to endorse governor purdue. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I promise to be brief. You can take all the time you want. You are waving your hands and i couldnt see you over there. I just want to make a brief payment, as its been stated, governor purdue and i are first cousins. We grew up together. We have a strong family. Its an extended family. I know this man all my life. I can think of no one in the United States more qualified to be the next secretary of agriculture. In joshua they call us to be strong and courageous. I know this man to be both strong and courageous. Today he will answer all our questions and the only thing i can say is good luck. Governor purdue, would you please rise and raise your right hands are. First, do you swear the testimony you are about to present is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth . So help you god. I do. Second you agree that if confirmed you will appear before any duly constituted committee of congress if asked to appear . Yes i will. Thank you. Please proceed with your testimony. Thank you. Good morning. It is an honor to be with all of you here today as the president s nominee to serve the nations 31st secretary of agriculture. Before i go any further, i want to thank both of my good friends and fellow georgians, for their words of encouragement and inspiration as well. I also want to thank my good friend congressman Sanford Bishop whom we served in the state senate together for being here today. I know for many of you in your offices there was some anxiety over whether there would be a secretary of agriculture nominee, and i must say, with all the humility i can muster, i think the president must have saved the best for last. I would like to thank each of you for taking time to meet individually with me over the last few weeks. I hope and trust our meetings were not just be introductory episodes but an ongoing opportunity to listen and learn from one another. My goal today is to answer your questions transparently. Also to your satisfaction, not only to earn your vote, but your trust. If you will afford me the opportunity, i will carry out this job with integrity, complicit with the laws and policies that set forth by congress and with the compassion of a golden rule heart. Before i get started, i would like to take a moment to introduce my family members who are with me here today. I am accompanied by my wife ma mary. I had no idea when i married her 44 years ago she would be such a prolific grandmother. As you can see, seated with her our four children and 14 grandchildren. They are more familiar with my being called big buddy rather than any other fancy title. Im humbled to have more than 30 of my former coworkers with me who labored sidebyside while serving the state of georgia and its people. Governor, pardon this interruption, we would like your family and coworkers to stand, if you would please. Thank you all for being here. [applause] and a diversified crop in georgia. I never really fully realized the blessings of parsifal meaningful work with certainty as well as they have in my life. When i was a young boy feeding the cavs and plowing the fields i was an integral part of the workforce there on our family farm. [shouting] my mother was an english teacher, 42 years. [shouting] governor, if you would just season for a moment and will take care of this problem. Now, please proceed. Yes, sir. Thank you. My mother was also an english teacher for 42 years so i benefited benefited from her teachings as well, not just by raising me with a delete i hold dear to my heart today but being an english teacher, she also made sure i knew about dangling participles. It was a great life and i had a blessed upbringing with wonderful memories. My favorite hobbies as a youngster or playing Little League baseball, training for dogs and riding my horse trigger or even as a youngster i was determined and goal oriented. Early on i set my heart on becoming a veterinarian, having been influenced by dr. Davis, a kind and gentle veterinarian who cared for our dairy herd. So after high school i enrolled at the university of georgia were i walked on to play football for the university of georgia bulldogs, send it in. Plate is probably not the operative word but i was on the team. Realizing my future was not on the football field, i decide to apply myself to my studies. As i entered that her new 1967, you may remember vietnam was roiling Veterinary School. I signed up in the United States air force. As i finished my veterinary education in 1971 i was assigned to columbus, ohio, as base veterinarian whose primary responsibilities were food safety, Public Health and sanitation. Lets come as i completed my active duty commitment i joined a small animal Veterinary Practice in raleigh north carolina. I soon realized out even to our practice was thriving and i missed our farm and my former agricultural way of life. So in 1976, mary and i and her two small girls moved back home where i parted with my brother lost to build a Grain Elevator in her home county which didnt yet have one. Sadly, my brotherinlaw, by far the past after three years at the age of 43. So ive been in the business in 1977, the founder and operated of three agribusiness and transportation firms serving farmers across the southeast of the United States. Farming and farmers have been my life ever since. Ive lived and breathed exhilaration of a great crop, and the despair and devastation of a drought. Ive learned by experience what my father told as a child, if you take care of the land, it will take care of you. So lets fast forward to your probable interested in, my years as a public servant. I want to be clear. Growing up i was not one of those young men, young boys who shut the president s and a digit 16 and aspired to run for office. I was tuned into Current Events but absolutely no interest in elective politics. I did understand we all have civic rents likely to cheer our local planning and zoning commission. But after ten years of the service, the state senate became open and was asked to run for the seat. I initially declined but after a preplanned Family Vacation to williamsburg virginia i changed my mind having observed the founders demonstration of citizen engagement. 1990 the people of district taking elected me to serve as a member of the Georgia State senate pick i served for 11 years and during my tenure was elected by my colleagues as congressman scott said to be president pro tempore, the Pinnacle Leadership in the body from 199698. Youve probably heard and its interesting to note that i served both as a democrat and republican in the Georgia State senate. In 200 2000 euros elected the ft republican governor of georgia in more than one in 30 years as center champus reminds us that i assumed that often believing it was a big job, not just a position. Our teamwork striving to make a georgia the best manage state in the nation. As you remember that. The period of time from 20022011 were not the best Economic Times in our nation. But we learned with help of a joyful state workforce that we could continue to provide value to the citizens of georgia even in times of extreme budget pressures or even the georgia may not compare to some of your states in some Agricultural Sectors, im proud to say that i come from a state that is not what economic driver is agriculture. In georgia agriculture is one antiwar democrats and republicans consistently reached across the aisle and Work Together. Im pleased to know reaching across the aisle is common practice within this committee where partisanship doesnt get in the way of Good Solutions for americas farmers, ranchers and consumers. If confirmed, as the secretary of agriculture, i look forward to working with you, all of you. The makeup of this speaks to the size can reach a diversity of americas Agricultural Sector. And it includes at least one guy i think i picked water melt with sidebyside in my youth. Although i have a lifetime expense with farming and agribusiness i appreciate that the department of agriculture touches the lives of americans in many ways that go beyond just farming itself including in the very small way improving the lives of the least of these. To continue that role if im armed with senate confirmation, i will work tirelessly to advance for primary goals. Each is focus on important constituency that stakeholders of american agriculture. First i will maximize the opportunity, ability of the men and women of americas agriculture and agribusiness sector to create jobs, to produce and sell the food and the fiber that feed and clothe the world come and to reap the earned reward of their labor. We want to remove every obstacle and given every opportunity to prosper. Secondly, but the american taxpayers come our customers, i will Customer Service every day. They expect and have every right to demand that we conduct the peoples business efficiently, effectively and with the utmost integrity. Third is our taxpayers are also our consumers. They expect a and secure food supply and usda will continue to serve in that Critical Role of ensuring the food we put on the table to feed our families meets the strict Safety Standards to which weve established and are accustomed. I will never forget that we are the fortunate beneficiaries of past generations who put a premium on smart stewardship protecting, preserving and entrusting us with those valuable resources. Thats the basis of our fourth goal. America. American agricultural by comes directly from the land, and today those Land Resources to stay more than 320 million americans and countless millions more around the globe. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your time this morning and rest assured that if confirmed, i look for to working with the dedicated men and women of the usda are committed to serving the peoples department. Department. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you very much. At this time before we begin questioning, senator chambliss and congressman scott, if you would like to excuse yourself, why, please do so. [inaudible conversations] governor, ill begin by saying that our farmers and ranchers depend on strong trade relationships around the world. Expanding Market Access management that our producers have a level Playing Field is absolutely critical to our world economy. The u. S. Department of agriculture and office of u. S. Trade representative have a history of working handinhand to make sure you use agriculture has an influence you will see at the tray table. As this administration take shape i have concerns that there may be too many, too many cooks in the kitchen when it comes to trade, and we want to make sure that they are familiar with the main ingredients. In addition to the ustr, the president recently established a new National Trade council at the white house and increased trade responsibilities under the department of commerce. The question is, what is the best way that the department of agriculture can continue and strengthen its involvement and establishing strong trade policies . How can we best work with the u. S. Trade representative, the lead trade negotiator, along with other officials throughout the executive . To make sure the agriculture is a top, and i men top priority. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Youre absolutely correct and i think as a center staff and i mentioned, agriculture needs a strong advocate, a tenacious advocate regarding what of the top issues were blessed in this nation to be able to produce more than we can consume. Where grateful for that but obviously that implies when you do sell the bound all over the world and youre correct, the relationship between the usda and its trade representatives as well as ustr as well as secretary ross and commerce will be vital. Those really begin with relationships i think personal relationships. Ive had conversations already into spending time, awaiting confirmation, to discuss with mr. Leiter houser and a conversation with circuitry ross over the great opportunity they have to use the bounty of american agriculture to promote Agricultural Products and to sell those parts around the world i think building goodwill as well as doing mor aspect of helping to feed that world. I thank you for your response. Governor, let me advice on the committee will have a second round. I know members of other things and other responsibilities and other committees or meeting that we will have a second round. In preparation for the 2018 farmville, this year the committee has already started a process listening to farmers, ranchers and other stakeholders. Before we write any farm bill in Committee Examines the program and asks what is working and what is not working. We will continue the listening and learning process over the weeks and months to come as we crafted the next farm bill. I would greatly appreciate your commitment of the departments resources to assist our committee during this entire process. Can we expect support regarding our efforts on behalf of americas farmers and ranchers . Mr. Chairman, i look forward with great interest to be involved with you all as you look to deliberate integrate the 2018 farmville. I will absolutely commit to you, if confirmed, the resources and the Research Abuse department of agriculture provide you the information you need to make good decisions. I value my own self as governor in being a factbased data driven decision maker, and i think its important that we take those facts a thing set of work to come learn from the past composing set of network and create a farm bill for the future and 2018. 22. I know that you and the Ranking Member are already on the job and doing that in your respective seats, states, listening to our producers across the country as well as our consumers. So i will actually commit to you that you wil have access to the resources of the department of agriculture anything you believe you need to the depth that you need the, if im allowed to be secretary, to utilize those resources. Theres great talent over there. We know the minute women of the usda have a great wealth of knowledge of career employees been doing this for years, it is a great opportunity to learn from them as well as our producers. I see the 2018 farmville as an opportunity to meld the wisdom of those career people and with what you all here in your home districts to make sure that the 2018 farm bill meets the needs of our producers, our consumers and the american taxpayers in 2018. Thank you governor. Weve already had the first three in manhattan kansas, 600 people in attendance, thats what the building held. Thats what the fire marshal said would stop. And pretty much all of them as i recall, senator, we had 21 good witnesses. And im going to michigan state. I will probably have to wear green and white, and may apologize for the 20 point to victor okay, you can stop now. [laughing] i wore purple, i just want you do know that. I wore purple for the chairman and he, you know, reminded me of something i would like to forget. Maybe you could wear black or something. [laughing] senator stabenow. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Im actually going to defer to former chairman, senator leahy who has responsibility in the judiciary committee. We know theres a very Important Supreme Court nominee being considered and he does need to leave, so with your agreement im going to defer to senator leahy. The distinguished senator and father of the northeastern dairy compacts, always presented to us at the 11th hour and 59th minute is recognized. [laughing] dont forget about the organic farm bill, too. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Senator stabenow, thank you for your usual and gracious courtesy. We know how important the department of agriculture is in support of our nation farmers, our Rural Communities are hungry, malnourished families here and abroad, forest lands, consumers. Also innovation, research and energy and environment, climate crisis. We have to address what is happening in climate change. Nearly the doubling of acres burned in western part of the last 30 years and, of course, governor, you know that problem in georgia. In ten years, two out of every three dollars, just think of this, two out of every three dollars that we appropriate for the forced service we spend on fire programs. Of course that also lots of life. Last year we lost a young vermonter who was killed while battling a fire in nevada with the hotshots. So we have to work on this. And i would commit to you as i did when we had a private meeting that dedicated, competent, loyal federal employees, Agriculture Department employs, many of them, and they deserve your support. It is a time when they wonder what is happening with hiring freezes or cutbacks. You should spend time with them. Now, im going to submit a number of questions for the record, but as i was reminded by the chairman, never wouldve thought of this otherwise, i should mention, same with our Dairy Farmers. They are desperate for a new farm bill. They are asking for some time your support in developing muchneeded Risk Management. Is he this is for milk producers. Dairy farmers will not be left behind. Theyre looking at cotton farmers in georgia and arkansas who were given generous payments like the 300 million last year in the cotton gin costsharing program. I think we have to have help from our Dairy Farmers. I would hope that we have as weve had direct support provided to Cotton Producers by the usda outside of the farm bill. I recommend or recommended by the usda for inclusion in the next farm bill. Will you work on a proportional and immediate support for hardworking Dairy Farmers . I will commit to you as a son of a dairy farmer and having dairy myself, i understand the hard work, seven days a week, 365 days a year that are farm femmes, particularly smaller farm families, particularly in your area and others go through. These are family operations and you dont take a holiday. They dont take a break. I understand the pain when the profitability of these farms when the milk prices are just not there and it puts many farm families under duress to do that. I appreciate that. One of the problems that they face, too, they have a welldocumented farm labor shortage. Now, the federal temporary agriculture should be the program in which helps, its worked in your state of georgia. The trump winery uses it, allows for seasonal farmworkers. We had, the senate had passed comprehensive Immigration Reform which the house did not take up. They said, even though it would have passed it would violate the apparent sacred rule, the Dennis Hastert rule, as they didnt break it up. But now were having with the operations of ice and others. I ask you to support find equally to include dairy farms which require yearround labor. You can have someone come in for six month and say okay to the cows, ill be back in six months to milk you again. Your own experience, you know that doesnt work very well. So we have sheep and goat herders have that exception. Will you work with us to find a way to have dairy farms, gary farmworkers in the same program the same way goat and sheep herders are . If im honored by your confirmation of the senate, then i will commit to you certainly advise and counsel the administration over the need for an Agricultural Program thats for workers that is yearround, as you indicated. Cows cant be milked half a day. There are 365 days a year, and a very well aware of that. So theres a need, obviously. Many of our dairy workers are immigrant workers, and while there are exemptions of the place certainly i believe derek qualifies for that as well. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. A few senator saban now. The chair recognizes the distinguished senator from michigan. Thank you very much, mr. Cha, Governor Perdue, and we are glad to have this hearing. We need a secretary of agriculture and we need to move forward. I appreciate the fact that you understand the agency and agriculture and grew up in it and support the mission of the agency. So thats very, very important. I want to first start where i think senator leahy left off in terms of dairy prick you and i about this and i know growing up in a dairy farm you understand the challenges, and certainly with a look at the last farm bills, chairman roberts and i worked very hard to expand Crop Insurance. We didnt expand a specialty crops which are been important with the weather challenges in michigan and other places for our growers, and to expand help for young and beginning farmers. But Dairy Farmers have not been able to qualify for Crop Insurance. As you and i talked about yesterday, three National Groups that speak for Dairy Farmers, both the American Farm bureau, National Farmers union at the National Milk producers, have suggested away that the usda could provide additional Risk Management tools for Dairy Farmers in the short run. Because while we putting together the farm bill, we have folks, family farmers in michigan and across the country that are in very, very difficult situation here and so what if you are confirmed if you will commit to working with me and working with the industry and all of colleagues who care about this to use Administrative Authority available to you to provide our nations Dairy Farmers with reliable Risk Management tools, including the Crop Insurance proposal that was put forward in the letter by the National Organizations . Senator, i welcomed our meeting yesterday and i was intrigued by your suggestion at that. As i indicated to you many of your colleagues have regretted the fact that the 14 farm bill really didnt meet to your expectations for Dairy Farmers or maybe even the Cotton Program as well, not under title i. So as i indicated yesterday, i am absolutely committed to look for a way i can give immediate and temporary relief for even prior to the 18 farm bill, if its within the discretion of the secretary, if i am confirmed, and also weve got to be mindful obviously a budget. As well so its got to be within the parameters that meet the budget as well. But i think the ideas have been proposed are intriguing to me. I have no philosophical difference with those definitions that have been suggested, and i would absolutely look forward to us providing a short and a longterm solution for the dairy and even the Cotton Program that may help really in the context information of the 2018 farm bill. I think would be great if we had some ideas that we believe could work even prior to that time. Thank you very much. I think we do have an opportunity and i really look forward to working with you. To achieve that. He mentioned the budget, and i have to focus on the budget because im deeply concerned about the budget put forward by the administration, the signals in terms of lack of understanding of agriculture. Ive always said to have an economy and have a middleclass, youve got to make things and girl thinks that its clear the president has focused on making things, which i appreciate in michigan, but not growing things which is equally important. When we look at a 21 cut in the budget, its extremely concerning to me and to so many of us do care about small towns. The fact i grew up in one of the small towns in northern michigan. So id like to just go through a series of questions quickly just in terms of, and get just yes or no and whether or not you would support those things. Do you think that small communities should have the same access to clean water as large cities . Of course. Do you think its important for individuals in small towns who live far away from a Health Center or a hospital to access to Telemedicine Services . Like you, as a product that Small Community community, i absolutely do. Do think its important farmers have access to the latest research and tools to make the fonts more productive . Certainly. And do think rural Small Businesses should have access to capital to keep them competitive and grow their business . Certainly. Jubilee organic farmers have a place . I think consumers across the country have demonstrated that. Sorry senator leahy had to leave. Do think its important to feed seniors and children in need of assistance . Just spew i indicate all this because these are some of the cuts, some of the areas of data been zeroed out like rural water and sewer or have taken severe cuts in the budget what are deeply concerning. And so if you just in the final moment here, if you could tell me first if you had any input in this process of the budget and secondly, how do you move forward when were looking at this cuts, how would you a secretary of agriculture address this to be able to meet the needs of Rural America . I think youre probably aware, without confirmation and not being confirmed, ive had no input into the budget. Obviously i think you probably saw it before i did. I also have some concern obvious as a member of the administration, i view this budget similar to what has come in when i would get a revenue estimate that it didnt like as well. I didnt like it but we managed to it. And my goal, i think you indicate the words in your Opening Statement that you want a secretary can be a strong advocate and tenacious advocate. If i am confirmed i want to get under the boards and get some room and work for agriculture producers and consumers to let this administration and any of the people that are making those decisions in that budget area know whats important to america. I think the president understands that many of his of votes came from the areas youre mentioning and referred to. And i hope in the context of a balanced or a budget that meets the objectives that we can get agricultural share their. These are important programs. I recognize that and i will do everything within my power, within the confines of the Administration Working there to match what our desires are. I flippantly say sometimes, i grew a29 dollars budget in georgia to 16 billion in the 20032011. Come not necessary voluntary but with the dedicated work of the civil work force in georgia who really worked hard in those areas. We did do more with less. So thank you. Speaking of the budget, senator bozeman, you will be recognized next but first wed like to hear from the chairman of the distinguished Senate Appropriations committee and the former chairman of this committee. And would remind everyone that everybody knows, the president proposes and the congress disposes. Senator cochran. Mister chairman, thank you very much for your remarks and my interest in agriculture and the obligation that we have as a government to ensure the fair funding of important Government Programs that in many cases help farmers when they are in desperate straits with weather, disasters and other challenges that come along from time to time that really put our country in very difficult economic situations. So i know you are familiar with most of the programs that are authorized by that committee and first recommended by our committee and passed and signed, nurtured by both houses of congress. Youve got a lot of people watching you and encouraging you to do this and that and im confident in your leadership and your insights, your experiences, all to be brought to the challenge of the office of secretary of agriculture. And im confident that you are going to do a fine job and we look forward to working closely with you to identify problems when they arise, that can be addressed in a positive way to suits our countrys interests, economic interests as well. Thank you. We thank the distinguished chairman, senator boozman. Thank you Governor Perdue for their willing to serve. I enjoyed visiting with you in the office and getting to know you over lunch and getting to know more about you and your wife. Youve got a big job for you and yet you have a history of doing big jobs so we do appreciate your willingness to throw your hat in the ring. Arkansas is such that agriculture is its number one industry. Around 25 percent. Its interesting when you look at the statistics though, agriculture, farming comes from 124 billion 62 billion so literally half which is a real problem in much of our state because much of our states are rural in nature. One of the things we can lessen that pressure is looking for other markets and in arkansas, cuba would be an important market with Rice Production in various other things, poultry. Could you talk about efforts that you would take and its not only cuba but other markets throughout the world so that we could have the attitude that weve got customers here but very importantly, customers spread out all over the world. Certainly, i think it respect specifically to cuba, for those of you on the gulf coast and those on the east coast, theres little that even mentioned by your colleagues in the upper midwest. I think we would love to have cuba as a customer in many things. I lead an aggie delegation from georgia to cuba as governor in 2010 and i found then that as much is the problem there regarding demand was the ability to pay and ability to finance their as much as anything. I think they would love to have our products and they are appropriate customers for the rice that louisiana grows and arkansas grows and other beings, edible beans in the upper midwest that they grow and for that reason i think if you all could see fit to look into the private financing operation, one of the things they mentioned to us is they had to buy the restraints go through europe and have a financial haircut in that regard of being able to purchase the products so i think we have the product they need and they would like the product. The real issue i heard regarding cuba was the financing part and certainly that would come probably under another area, not the usda but i would support their efforts to get private financing. Regarding other areas, in central south america, europe and Southeast Asia as well there are new and developing markets there and i hope we can work closely with trade representative lighthouse are as well as secondary commerce loss in order to put agriculture first in their repertoire of things to trade. And i believe we have the ability to produce a very efficient crop and products, Food Products as well as other products for clothes and other things around the world. And i look forward, thats certainly convincing with most all of your colleagues, trade was right at the top of the list. When you talk to farmers around the globe, thats what they are most concerned about. We have a worldwide fly and demand issue weighing heavily on prices and were seeing some of the lowest prices in many years, putting a lot of pain out there which is a direct result of the financial situation you mention your in your comments, that farmers are struggling to be profitable, hold on and many times even the best farmers are not able to produce a product even with the best production capabilities they may have a y think trade is really the answer. I look forward to being an advisor and the council of this administration specifically about the benefit that we have Farm Products to sell around the world thats excellent and as you said in regard to cuba, financing really is key so we actually have a bill that says not governmentbacked but if an individual or a private bank or whatever once to do that, they will have the ability. Im out of time but i want to comment, one of the things i have concerned about and i think the committee does is you have the feeding programs in the schools, summer comes and then you have a bunch of kids that dont benefit from that. What were trying to do is get a smooth transition and just, if you would just affirm your recognition of the importance of that, those rules that govern that transition and stuff havent been changed since the 60s so if you could just in five seconds. Certainly, i was able to share with your colleagues who mentioned privately in their office is that i would love to facilitate that transition to make sure those kids are able to get meals while they are at school or able to continue that through the summertime and they dont fall into a problem during that period of time to keep kids healthy. Thank you. Senator bennett. Thank you so much for Holding Hearing and Governor Perdue, congratulations to you and your family on your nomination. I was raised as senator boozman did, thats a bill he and i have together on School Lunches so im glad to hear him raise your comments. I was going to raise trade and im so pleased with your answer because Commodity Prices are just terrible right now for all of our farmers in colorado, a Rural Community has been led. The recovery for us coming out of this terrible recession. They now face Commodity Prices that challenge them as they are, their inputs are higher and higher. And there was so Much Negative talk about trade during this president ial campaign that i think we are looking to you to help resurrect that with respect to agriculture in the United States, 80 percent of the week that we produce in colorado is exported. All the growth for Dairy Farmers is going to come from trade with countries, many of which were involved with the tpp. Our Potato Growers in colorado need to have access to these markets so knowing you will be a zealous advocate for trade on behalf of our agriculture sectors is enormously important to my state and if theres anything i can do to help you, help translate that to this administration, i commit to do that. I also wanted to raise with you the issue of our National Forest area a lot of people dont know that that comes within the department of agriculture and you mentioned in your statement the importance of smart stewardship. One place where we have not had smart stewardship was with the maintenance of our National Forests, you and i discussed when you were in my officelast year we spent over 50 percent, i think it was 60 percent of the budget , the Forest Service budget writing fires. Weve had in 2015, the Colorado State Forest Service has made around 834 million dead standing trees in colorado, thats up 30 percent in 2008. I said to my colleagues on this committee and other places in the senate, if you are downstream from colorado which almost everybody is, you need to care about whats happening in the headwaters of these rivers and the forests are managed you folks if you are confirmed to let me say this, will you come to colorado and look at these forests firsthand . I would look forward to that. I saw the ravages of that terrible fire over at north of glenwood, i think it occurred 10 years ago with loss of life and i still see on those beautiful mountains there what the effects of forest fires from years ago so absolutely i will come and look forward to visiting with you as well as many of your western colleagues. They mention this is one of their primary areas. I hope maybe you could say a word about this to, senator boone and others have been concerned about this every year. Secretary bill sachs has tried to put something in the budget to end this process that we have to make sure that either we treat these fires like every other disaster we have where somehow we budget directly so that we can do the mitigation on the front end because what we are doing is we are spending the money in the most expensive, least illogical way possible. I wonder if youve got a comment on that. I certainly do and i heard your colleagues loud and clear. I also had an extensive conversation with secretary phil sack about the upside down portion of the budget and his continuing having to borrow to manage those forest fires to help put out those forest fires. Thats a bad way to do. We talked about on the front end as you know that healthy forests are helpful in preventing forest fires and whether its the underbrush, the deadfall that we havent been able to get to, using two thirds of the budget to fight, we are upside down on that. We need to do two thirds there of the budget and managing healthy forests in order to prevent forest fires so my goal would be to reverse that and i would love for you and your colleagues to consider looking at forest fires like we do many other natural disasters, to put a funding mechanism in there where just like hurricanes or tornadoes or other things that we use would qualify for those type of funds because secretary vilsack was very disheartened by the fact of having to come up with millions of dollars, many times from other parts of the budget and borrowing their and its not very effective. Well, if you can break this gordian knot, you will be a hero in my state and probably others so i look forward to having you in colorado. I look forward for us to break that gordian knot. Lets do it. Mister chairman, thank you. Senator ernst. Thank you mister chairman. Governor perdue, thank you for being here today and i want to thank your lovely family for joining you as well, its good to see everybody there. As some of my colleagues have stated, the ag economy has been in a downturn the last couple years and a lot of our producers are hurting, especially those young and beginning farmers that have gotten their start in the last 10 years. The Renewable Fuels revolution bolstered demand for our quality driven by the renewable fuel standard and Energy Programs included in the farm bill. Trade deals like nafta help to fuel grain and meat exports which are vital to our producers profitability. As we have seen so many times before, farmers continue to innovate and find more ways to grow in new food with fewer inputs and have not only met this new demand but theyve exceeded it and done quite well, leading to the slump in Commodity Prices weve been feeling so acutely. When i travel around the state i engage in a 99 county tour and i consistently hear how challenging it is to be a farmer or a rancher right now. Not only to the low prices but also because of the onerous government regulations. I hope you are prepared to work with all those who are engaged in our economy to ensure it remains one of the strongest in feeding and fueling our growing world. Whenever i do visits with farmers and ranchers and others within the ag community, one of the common refrain inside here is about federal regulations, especially from the epa, how they are harming their operations and making their lives difficult, whether its through delays in approving ag bioproducts, the epa seems to have an agenda against those in the agricultural community. How will you commute kate with the epa to work with helping rather than hindering our farmers and ranchers . I think like any solution it begins with personal relationships. Ive taken the opportunity to visit with administrator pruitt already regarding some of these issues and i think not only in the eighth but all agencies we develop silos that are important because as you well know, many of our producers when a regulation is replaced whether it be labor or epa or others, our guys are the ones that get pushed off the boat and by goal is to have an Ongoing Communications team identified with each of these agencies that may be, whether its fda, epa, labor, osha, others to identify the things that would be maybe the unintended consequences of regulations and to Work Together ahead of time for those regulations are promulgated to give us an opportunity representing usda both agriculture conditions and consumers to let these other agencies know what the impact would be and what the costbenefit reward would be to agriculture producers so i think it becomes, im kind of a facetoface sort of person. I believe in going directly and communicating transparently about the needs and about the desires there. I come from a part of the world that has seen our farmers as good stewards. They want to be, if they have the right tools from a conservation perspective, they want to care for the land. They are the ones making a living out there and i believe they want to do that. Other than prescriptive, onerous regulations lets give them the ability to do that and incentivize them in a way that they can be better than in the past but the rest youve indicated weve made over the last several years, we are doing more production with less input, precision agriculture, better use of water and those kind of things and all those sorts of things in preserving our soil. Our producers are doing a good job, they want just a fair shake in being able to produce without the onerous prescriptive type of regulations that harm their ability to continue to perform. I appreciate that very much and i certainly support your willingness to work with the other departments and heads of those agencies. We simply cant operate in a vacuum and developing those relations and keeping those relationships is very important and i think you are absolutely the right person to do that so i appreciate that very much. I also want to make a comment to, i know that in the 2014 farm bill, congress recognized the importance of trade and congress directed the usda to establish undersecretary for trade and Foreign Agriculture Affairs and i hope you will take a look at that and make sure we have the right person for that job established as well so thank you very much governor, its good to see you. Thank you mister chair. Senator galvani. Thank you governor for being here and thank you for the heating that we had previously. I want to talk about immigration, its a toxic debate that has been harmful in our state. One area where is particularly harmful is in agriculture because we rely on immigrant labor for a lot of our specialty work we carry so i hope that you can seek to President Trump and secretary kelly about the effects of Immigration Enforcement and the policies the president has been doing and how it impacts our agriculture sector. 50 percent of Agricultural Workers are immigrants and so if we dont have proper Immigration Reform and a debate about holistic policy, it is going to harm families in new york, going to harm agriculture workers in our firms throughout the us and long island so i hope you would make a commitment to making sure ourfirms have the workers they need. I will commit to you that senator, particularly in your eight dairy industry and others. Thats not a seasonal job and i think going to dairy farms around the country youre going to find most of the time those cows being milked by immigrant labor and i do plan to be a voice in administration to persuade policymakers there over this issue. I recognize that many of our producers both seasonal types of crops that you mentioned as well as dairy farms have been in society about that, and i will absolutely commit to you. The otherarea as you mentioned , our age to a program is, a visa program to approve temporary workers on a seasonal basis. So it doesnt work for us, its cumbersome, its difficult so i would ask your commitment you would work on that specifically to streamline it and make it available for alcohol agriculture producers. Ive heard that from people close to me at home and our customers in georgia as well. You mentioned obviously your state but i think julie every state in the nation is affected by that to some degree. I think theres things we can do with h2 a and at if im confirmed, i will commit to you that that and trade are two issues we will begin posthaste. As you know, we are significant dairy states, where a producer of four most recently in the country and i would love it if you would come to upstate new york and do a field hearing. I know you have to do to colorado but could you please come to upstate new york . Wed love to talk about Dairy Pricing because the Pricing System as you know has been so destabilizing and is not something that farmers can rely on, the Insurance Programs we have written are not working. So i really need to do a top to bottom reform of how you do Dairy Pricing in this country and create Insurance Programs and products that can work for small dairies, particularly in the market. If you promise not to make me milk anymore cows. But youre right, the volatility of prices, the there is no business got that can survive with the volatility of range of prices that Dairy Farmers have had to undergo last few years. I had some high prices but the prices they are experiencing are unprofitable and even the best family farms should not survive under those. Another issue very important to you new york state is the snap program. It is so important that we have food for our families. Some of the work that youve done for making sure that against rural families using farmers markets, making sure that we can do summer meals that work, i would ask your commitment to focus on how we can deliver more food to more families throughout this country as our secretary. I hope we can do that even more efficiently and effectively than we have. Its certainly important to the children and families of america do that and i hope we can Work Together to accomplish that. Thank you. My last issue is flexing and budgets. I was concerned about the president s budget and how it would take away access to Water Systems. We have so many unmet sewer needs in new york state. Our rural Water Systems are in desperate need of estrus, and we had desperate needed investment for rural broadband, its important that we can get highspeed internet to all our rural areas, our farmers depend on it, Small Businesses depend on it and the Usda Services program is important so id like your commitment that you will work with this city which has bipartisan support for this development. Certainly, im hopeful obviously for the president s proposal for infrastructure to be recognized as agricultural broadband issue. If were going to keep kids on the farm, if our rural areas are going to be able to thrive and survive like cities do the density, weve got to have a collectivity. It is important now as sewer or clean water or other things to connect with the world and thats what we are advocating, will advocate and continue to advocate. I know members of the usda have already been in the meeting with the White House Infrastructure Team over that and we will certainly promote that to the best of our ability. Its time for you serve. Thank you mister chairman. Its almost high noon so its time for me to ask questions but thank you to Governor Perdue for taking this on, youre the right guy for the job, these are tough times in agriculture because we got commodity problems and lifestyle problems through the cost of production, concerns about fees and the two crowd years left in terms of implementation of this farm bill before we start writing a new one. I look forward to working with you on the next farm bill as well as continuing to implement this one. I know we dont have problems getting you to come to south dakota so i expect to be there. Ive got a number of questions quickly so if you can answer yes to all of them, that would be. In terms of the current farm bill, the past administration showed a lot of inflexibility with regard to administration. In a number of areas and commodity, title i, the art payments, the data that was used to calculate those payments. Crt vegetative cover management product processes and acreage distribution were all things that we dont think the past administration was following the intent of the coverage so with two years left on the farm bill, would you be willing to work with my staff on these issues to make improvements in program administration, the nature of those programs are operating in a way in which congress intended. Thank you. Governor perdue, i know you are aware of the recent tainted brazilian meat scandal which has resulted now in usda issuing a press release announcing additional steps they are taking to ensure our food supply is kept safe. None of the facilities implicated in that scandal have shipped to the United States according to the usda. The question is do you believe that the accelerated testing of all the incoming shipments of raw meat to brazil will provide adequate protection or should we begin to think about triggering usda to impose an outright shutdown if theres no safe meat . I believe the men and women of the fi s, fsi are doing a wonderful job going to the hundred percent for inspection theyre coming in. Im concerned obviously if we go to and bar going for these plans, were not shipping to us, if we go to embargo or putting a shut down there, there will be retaliation therefore our product of maybe around the world as well. We already know weve had some Avian Influenza in and some countries have responded in that way so while thats very localized, i dont want to portion another country but i do want the usda inspectors to be on the job with 100 percent inspection of any products coming in to the United States. We both come from states where we grow trees, trees of south florida grow a little slower than the plane trees dues in your home state but the last half decade weve seen a rapid increase in mortality, up 53 percent and a decrease in growth down 51 percent in our state. Our situation isnt unique, with over 82 million acres of National Forest under stress. I know center bennett touched on this but can i get your commitment to focus on turning around the National Forest and expanding the management that we need to create jobs in healthy strands of timber. I absolutely you have my commitment, i think that i view the United States Forest Service and United States forest as the challenges, opportunities closed and challenges right now and theres a real opportunity to make these forests healthy. I come from a state where its mostly private ownership. My sense from visiting with many of you is that we have not really been Good Neighbors and a lot of places and taking care of the public stewardship portion where many private landowners would so i look forward to getting those management practices, leading and inspiring United States fire service to take pride in the way they would care for it on their own. I know this got touched on more floridian as well but agriculture of course helps a strong us economy. Its a number one industry in my state but its critical from the National Economy and in our Rural Communities. And the rfs has been an essential driver of growth in rural areas and the certainty of the policy has created jobs and spurred research and development. Can you commit to ensuring we will have a strong rfs to provide security for these Rural Communities . Im happy to have the president s commitment of his concern and interest in that area as well so you absolutely can have a commitment. My time is expired and i thank you again for taking this on, we look forward to working with younot only on as i said, this part of the bill but the one to come which will be Getting Started on soon. I think the senator, i know he has a gate at high noon. So you can excuse yourself at any time. Senator heights camp. I think my colleagues who went out for a cup of coffee or Something Else with me. Governor perdue, welcome to your beautiful family. What legacy you leave. Theres someone that looks a whole lot like you back here. He used to be a lot more handsome when he was younger i think. It was the first human cloning. Its remarkable. I was just checking it out, thinking wow. It used to be very handsome with my dad. I want to associate myself with the remarks of senator stone who talked about the importance to really have flexibility as we implement the next farm bill. We saw some great flexibility but ran into some roadblocks and so i appreciate your commitment. I also know that you kind of had me in when you were visiting and when you entered my office and said three words, trade. And i knew that you and i were on the same wavelength. That is a critical component but my concern is what we are seeing out of the white house and out of the budget. It doesnt seem to be rural or proagriculture so we need you to be as absolutely voracious and active fighter on behalf of Rural America in that white house and with other agencies such as epa and omb and the ustr. Can you commitment to doing that . Agriculture is in my heart and i look forward to fighting for the producers of america, because as i said, we know how vital it is and i will absolutely the tenacious advocate and fighter where necessary to do that. I hope you will engage us. We are a very bipartisan Collaborative Committee and we all represent agricultural states but also know how vital agriculture is to our National Economy. A couple unique north dakota issues, we have a lot of prairie potholes, its part of what we do. In terms of the resources and it provides for some great hunting. But we have a lot of farmers would like an opportunity to farm their land and not just raise docs and i think one of the problems we have is not only running into maybe an attitude sometimes that the wetland is more important than the farmer but also not having enough staff to do the work that needs to be done in order to make the determination within usda, can you commit you will staff up so we wont have farmers waiting to find out if they can find. Not only staffing up but i think relationships when we talked about earlier with the administrator of the epa to make sure our producers and farmers dont get called into some of these unintended consequences of rules that have gone awry in a confiscatory type of way because thats important. They tried to be compliant but sometimes they get caught into a web of rules that are very onerous and i will not only try to provide the staff that they can do Good Conference or patient or good soul preservation but to work with our administrator of the epa to do that as well. We love our neighbors to the north that come sometimes, we like maybe a little tougher enforcement on some of the grain standards, weve been working on a project out of my office as it relates to the treatment of our brain which becomes feed category as opposed to what it really is which is good quality week. We offer a different opportunity for canadian brain. Can you commit to working with the ustr to change their policies to continue to prevent discrimination against grain. Certainly, this is one of those areas where many people have talked about thebenefits of nafta. As we look at that there is inequities and unilateral issues in cattle and milk products that we can look to our neighbors to the north for which we had a great relationship but we want to make sure that it is a fair proposition for all. The program is critical and im not sure, i havent been here for the whole hearing, i dont know if anybodys raised this is been a program or indeed a steady supply of sugar to this country. I think its done equitably, doesnt cost the United States taxpayer anything and yet it provides that valueadded opportunity and in my community and my state and the state of many states across the country, will you continue to commit to supporting the Sugar Program as its been outlined in the farm program in the past . If confirmed, i commit that i will look to that in a Foreign Program going on and will support the best benefit of that. Also thats another issue where maybe trade tothe south, we need to look at some of the issues over sugar , inequities that may be coming into the country that have been harmful to your growers. I was hoping for a yes area thanks so much governor and congratulations on your nomination. Senator perdue. Mister chairman, for the sake of the republic, i will withhold questions. It would appear that its under strain, welcome to committee. Thank you very much mister chairman, its an honor to be the first alabamians over 20 years to be on the Agriculture Committee and i look forward to serving with you and my colleagues on the committee. Im lees to welcome you Governor Perdue this morning. Its nice to have an essential future secretary who speaks the same language i do. As your neighbor to the west, i enjoyed watching you in your career and i look forward to working with you. Im going to also spare the committee lengthy questions today, we talked about it privately but i want to build on something that senator martin said, for the last six years i was honored to be the attorney general of our state and i got to work closely with our now epa administrator scott pruitt. We spent a lot of time litigating against the federal government and its overreaching federal agenda as we saw it, successful in a lot of cases. One of the things i took away from that experience and i discussed this with administrator pruitt is the lack of cooperation if you will between the federal agencies that affect agriculture. Agriculture is the biggest part of our economy in the state of alabama as you know because we share many of the same industries, forestry, catfish farming and all types of other farming activities and the lack of cooperation between those agencies is frustrating to our farmers and what im hoping you will follow through is to make sure us secretary of agriculture are communicating with administrator pruitt and others so we are eliminating unnecessary inefficient and inconsequential barriers to our farmers so that they can produce the products that we need in this country internationally so i appreciate your comments, i dont have another question right now but thats a big concern to me because its a realworld concern for people that live with the regulations that we pass. Thank you senator, like i mentioned to senator ernst, if im honored with confirmation thats one of the things i love most forward to because weve seen that harm that it causes when one agency looks like they are working at cross purposes with another and i think we are all americans and we are all beneficiaries of all these agencies and i look forward to developing the relationships of most of Mutual Respect with other Department Heads that and other agencies that can communicate hostile unintended consequences so thank you for mentioning that. I look forward to continuing to work with you as you assume your responsibilities and i wanted to welcome your beautiful family and thank you for your public sacrifice. Your families in this venture as i will know. Senator donnelly, you were a wall last time. I want a written response back to me as an excuse but im going to recognize it anyway. I was afraid you were going to send me to iwo jima sir which would have been a great honor. Governor perdue, i noted you played football for the university of georgia and on september 9 in the state of indiana in notre dame, georgia is playing notre dame and i want to invite you to the game. We would like to have you there, we will have a big pork barbecue in your honor, all indiana farmers there and you can see the irish the bulldogs, would you like to come . Ill accept that invitation except for the last part. I wanted to talk about salvage her. Its critically important to my state, its something we are going to be working on in the farm bill and to my farmers in indiana, that is something that they want to make sure is strong and stays protected and i wanted to get your views on it. Thank you senator, i thought you all in the 14 farmville made a lot of progress in the crop area. Obviously it can always be refined, and be made better but its viable. And to farmers, good producers there that need that safety net, of both the risk of production and pricing. That you all so well in that area. And i hope we can even continue that and enhance that and as some of your colleagues have mentioned, look at riskmanagement proposals and other commodities to make sense. To me, i think the american taxpayer gets a good value for that and hopefully we can Work Together. I look forward with working with you all as we continue. If im confirmed to make sure that the Crop Insurance program is sound, solid and a good economic value for both not only the producers but taxpayers as well. One of the things that we are all shooting for, i know in kansas and michigan and indiana and mississippi is for growth of our rural areas and maximizing Economic Opportunities there. That is a passion of mine to make sure we have 92 counties, that every county has a chance, every community has a chance area the chance to buy a home, raise a family, take a vacation, retire with dignity and the secretary of agriculture is a huge role in Rural Communities especially. We need to make sure our Rural Communities have broadband so companies located there can compete with those across the world. And that they have the same access to Educational Opportunities our children do. As in the city. To expand Market Opportunities and so i want to make sure that as secretary of agriculture you look at this in a way that you will be looking at things like broadband and others to maximize Economic Opportunities for our Rural Communities. Not only Broadband Center but the opportunity the usda has in Rural Development and other areas. The vitality of our small communities around your state and all these states depends on a strong agricultural economy. The usda has in the past , in his Rural Development program has been able to help communities maybe get them over the line, to do things they wanted to do whether its healthcare or other types of things to do that and thats one of the great benefits and i look forward to being able to confirm to make the lives of people across america in rural areas better because of the presence of the usda. One other thing that we work on a lot of conservation programs, we are very proud of our recovery programs, i think were first in the nation with that. And as our chairman and Ranking Member talked about, nobody cares about the environment more than the farmers and families that lived there and so we want to make sure that as you look at your job Going Forward, youre going to commit to support and improve the conservation programs. And an rcs is a big part of american agriculture and theres more farmers learn how to preserve and care and create green water, reduce runoff, use more efficient use of water and irrigation and precision agriculture, those are, the research arm of the usda and extension on pushing that education information out is critical to continue to improve. One thing i like about farmers is they are all about continuing improvement and their competitive and want to do better each and every year. Im running out of time so i want to ask one last thing, usda is working with access to treatment for opioid and heroin abuse. Is breathtaking. Theyveassisted in creating transitional housing , funded initiatives to improve education and raise awareness to the dangers of perdue has been an amazing partner in all of this and i want to make sure the usda is our partner in this critical battle against opioid and heroin abuse. I had an extended conversation about the ability to do that and one of the things i was mentioning in the ability of the usda and itsRural Development program to add value in Rural Communities, even areas of healthcare so certainly , marines are my hero and id be honored to go to the mess with you anytime you want to bring me, ill be your wingmen. Semper fi. Notre dame. Thank you. Ranking member, Governor Perdue, thank you for doing this. To step up and serve as our next secretary of agriculture, this is a big deal for my home state. As agriculture is our states number one industry, 6 billion a year back home. Without agriculture, it does not have a strong economy. Our farmers, ranchers produce sugarbeet, crops and one of the nations leading producer of pulse crops which is been exciting to see in our state with diversifying our portfolio. Our products play a Critical Role in feeding our country but feeding the entire world. Act production across the nation is diverse, montana presents a unique and especially specific challenge. What great opportunities. I want to make sure i extend an invitation to come to montana, we have an accenture and great falls, its ground zero in montana. Id love tohave you considered coming out. If nothing else we do preseason elk scouting in the fall but. Regarding trade, 95 percent of the World Consumers are outside the United States, certainly we have more spending power today on a per capita basis. What we think about the longerterm as Wayne Gretzky famously said, state where the puck is headed, not where its at. Trade is important i think not only for todays generation of farmers and ranchers, we are seeing a low commodity price, Community Farming comes as i have my barley and weeds in my office the last few weeks, cattle producers, its a tough climate right now because of low prices. And any access to foreign markets, longterm growth, i believe it cant be overstated. The vast amounts of wheat are were barley, pulse crops, our expert every year and that helps us in this price arena, helps create jobs, help grow our economy. Governor and secretary , how do you ensure that acts voice is heard loud and clear within this administration to fight for our farmers and ranchers to ensure we have access to new markets abroad. And not face retaliation. Thank you senator, the good news is weve got a growing middle class around the world, hundreds of those cracks and food is a noble thing to trade and as ive indicated several times before, weve got a great story to tell you weve got producers here that can produce more than we need to consume. Thats not the case in many parts of the world so why dont we use that boundary to supply one of the fundamental leads of mankind around the world. And i will continue tirelessly to advocate that within our administration and in conjunction with you all. In development of the plan to be on site as the usdas chief salesman around the world to sell these products, to negotiate these deals sidebyside with secretary ross and our whole team. But i believe that the usda will be involved in the personal, on the ground boots on the ground negotiations that stables around this world with administers and foreign dignitaries there telling our product. That will be music to the ears of montana farmers to have an advocate like yourself but as a governor, you bring that unique experience of being the chief salesperson. On behalf of your farmers and ranchers across the world, i want to shift gears and talk about forced management reform. We always refer to this committee asthe committee and highest priorities. The agriculture and nutrition for three committee , that came to one of my highest priorities is restoring active management to montanas National Forests. Fortunately, federal regulations, and laws we have litigation from extremist groups and have limited management of our National Forest. A healthy forest is a forest that is actively managed. When we move forward through collaboration, and conservation groups, folks in the lobbying industry, the move forward and are litigated at the end of we oftentimes lose our cases before the ninth circuit as they are unfortunately have continuous irrigation area unfortunately we have a recent ninth Circuit Decision of the Cottonwood Environmental Law Center versus the forest that has added another layer of unnecessary red tape threatening dozens of Forest Management products. The Supreme Court wont hear this case unfortunately but we think we can change the outcome here statutorily and i have a bipartisan support legislation and i would ask, would you work with me to reverse this disastrous decision we seem from the ninth circuit . It confirmed i would welcome the opportunity to work with you. Ive seen your proposed legislation and i agree with it wholeheartedly. At some point you got to say the end is the end and rather than stopping things or things that have been agreed to with continuing legislation or litigation is just unproductive and creates what you talked about, the unproductive and unmanaged forests. At some point weve got to say thats it, weve done that, weve made a decision and are moving forward. Many of your colleagues products we havent gotten to yet. Thats a top priority but to continue to move forward, i am hopeful senator that if we continue to demonstrate good stewardship and management of the us forest, the litigators on the other side will see this is good, this is productive. Forests are renewable, healthy, and are for everyone when they are managed well rather than letting them die upon themselves so hopefully we can do that. X mister chairman. Senator clover chart. Thank you governor, i enjoyed our meeting and as you know, minnesota is fifth for agriculture, weve discussed the differences of the southern and midwestern, they are some things in common. One of them navy birds as well as you know, we were hit by the avian flu hard in the midwestand around the country. As a result, almost 9 million birds died causing epic losses of 650 million. Given the recent detections in tennessee, alabama and wisconsin, are you prepared to respond to prevent the possible spread of these disease if and when you are confirmed . You know the poultry production of this country is amazing. The whole ecosystem thats been developed around protein, being able to export work worldwide whether its eggs or poultry protein is critical. Im very proud of the work that ive seen that the usda has done in tennessee and they are very quick and fine, working in cooperation with state of alabama and tennessee. The hardworking people in that Animal Health area have done a wonderful job. I think they learned a lot from the 2015 operation where we might have been slow there. But they got on very quickly. We are praying that thats can find it so certainly we cannot afford an industry such as our poultry industry area in any sector to be affected by the damages of a very severe high pathogen elite avian influence. One of the proposed 41 percent cut to usda went through, you think that it would be the priority that it is, . Im hoping we can work with you and the appropriators, we understand what the president s proposal is what i hope that you all will help in looking at. And the amount of money, thank you. Thats a good answer. Im the lead sponsor of the senate bill to end the embargo with cuba and how would you respond to farmers who are concerned about the administration putting up opportunities for American Business in cuba or somehow changing residents of obamas executive order . Wed like to go further of course and pass legislation but we are where we are. Answered earlier that i think if we can get the private financing done there and theres proposals already to do that, i think agriculture both in the upper planes and gold coast and east coast have a wonderful opportunity to reedit that the country thats hungry. I led a delegation there in 2010 in georgia and they wanted our product, they just could not afford it and pay for it there. Based on the financial crisis they were in so hopefully we can mitigate that. I know senator soon after about the rfs and will you work to advocate for a strong renewable fuel standard interagency review with some of your other secretaries. Thats a great answer to. The dairy program, what would you do if secretaries to ensure the resources needed are available for the Margin Protection Program to be of meaningful safety net for Dairy Farmers . Thank you senator, i think ive heard some recent ideas that will even enhance that marginal Protection Program with our Risk Management program for immediate relief as well as the possible solutions in 2018 farmville. The volatility of the prices weve seen in derry are unsustainable and youve got not only Family Dairy Farms but large dairy farms that are just unprofitable and many of them dont have the equity to continue in that area and it will change their whole lives. Thank you very much, senator dane, stepping forward with you, in the 2014 farmville i worked on expanding the Good Neighbor authority to give the course additional flexibility to work with willing state and private landowners to implement ors management practices. You commit to ensuring the Good Neighbor authority and other tools to approve health from the 2014 farmville are fully implemented and emphasized as we continue to work on the next farmville . I love that name Good Neighbor and thats what i hope we can become. I think again, where the us Forest Service becomes a welcome art of the community and willing there and working with private citizens there. Not only for jobs but Forest Management and literally being Good Neighbors is another good way to say that. Last, im cochair of the Senate Broadband caucus. I am also on the Commerce Committee and i talked briefly in my office about the importance of broadband to rural areas. Do you want to end with that and what you like to see coming out of the usda . Id like to see them get it done across the country with the infrastructure proposal. Were going to have a seat at the table there. The white house has asked the usda for their ideas about that, thats number one. As well as water resources. Very good. Thank you very much governor. Senator owens. Mister chairman, its great to see you and i want to welcome you and your beautiful family. Thank you for being here and for your willingness to serve. I chair the Appropriations Committee though i want to express my appreciation for senator klobuchars question and express my appreciation for your answer. And i look forward to working with you on an important issue. Also, one of our former colleagues senator mike johann as you know was an outstanding secretary of agriculture and he visited north dakota on several occasions. So i want to ask if in fact you would be good enough to show up and visit our farmers and ranchers in dakota who do a fantastic job and would love to see you. I dont know but i know julianne was there on multiple occasions. You cant let them fill you up so i need a commitment. I look forward to surpassing my mentor. I appreciate it. Can you build a coalition we need to build in the north and south and midwest the passive farmville that works for our producers . Probably we can. In working with you all and you working on behalf of your constituents i think that we can. I think there was a great progress made in the 14 farmville, we know weve got a couple areas that will have left out and we talked about those today and i think we can get ahead of that and its even more critical today in light of the prices and where they are, if you get a safety net not only for our producers but also our consumers and Going Forward so thats the challenge i look forward to if im confirmed to work with you all in providing resources and enabling you all to get a farm bill that will be embraced by american agriculture. It takes that northsouth Midwest Coalition to get it done . As well as the nutrition people as well. You agree that its the heart this morning, the heart and soul of Risk Management comes down to that counter safety net building on art and appeals and making sure we strongly, strongly supports cross Risk Management, do you agree with that and you see that as the heart and soul . Absolutely, a wellmanaged, welldesigned, well administered program. It gives farmers a lot of confidence. We talked about the importance of ag research. We talked about the importance of trade and i agree with that but ag research is making such a difference in the crops we can grow , disease resistance, yields which leads to profitability. This goes back to the budget issue but talk about your commitment to add research. Its interesting, we talk about hightech manufacturing, i would submit to the president and anyone that our Agricultural Sector is in the highest tech Manufacturing Industry weve had in this country for several years, the Phenomenal Growth and productivity with less input and less water and better management, better soil preservation. Its phenomenal, its really wonderful and the basis of that as you said is not only good basic research and are landgrant universities and others but the transmission of that information through our Extension Services as well. Are you committed in supporting Sugar Programs . I have as i mentioned earlier. And certainly i think you have done a great job in the past in the Sugar Program and for those who grow the beach as well as the cane, you all, they come together with unified front. Talk about trade, it looks to me like we are in kind of a new era on how we are going to trade. The administration likes Bilateral Agreements over a larger Group Agreements which can work. But really important, that we continue to press the trade issue. How do you go about doing that as ag director leading the world of agriculture. I think speedily because our farmers cannot wait very long. The tpp had been around for a while and negotiated and a bilateral will take time and we need to get about the business of selling us product so if confirmed, my first stop is going to be at mister light hausers office door. Weve already discussed some of this and he indicated to me that eight percent of what you heard it was about agriculture so i felt that was good news and weve got to get on it. Obviously we are back on so strong on ag across the board but your background and knowledge of trade is very important that you were a lead player negotiating agreements. Great to see you, thanks for being here and for your willingness to serve. I remember well back in 1918 when senator Joseph France became a member of the committee, he was a good man. Very willing and able to work with. 99 years later, we have the benefit of senator van holland coming from maryland to join us on the Agriculture Committee, welcome serve. Thank you mister chairman and thank you for noting that very private fact that im the first senator to serve on this subcommittee since 1922 i believe. You serve as you began in 1918. And governor, its great to see you and i enjoyed our conversation as well and i want to pick up on the things we talked about which is the Chesapeake Bay which is a national treasure. Its also vital to the economy in the state of maryland, having a healthyand clean they both for the water man , the oyster men and the crabs which many people around the country enjoy. To our Tourism Industry where people stay because of its beauty. And the boating industry. And what weve worked in maryland to do his work closely with our farmers to make sure we have a vibrant farming industry on the Eastern Shore of maryland along with a healthy answer to the conservation programs are important to our state and the base states as many others and in the 2008 farmville we work closely with our Ranking Member and others to create a Chesapeake Bay conservation program, that became popular in other states with water bodies who are understandably interested, it became the Conservation Partnership program and are conservation efforts also rely on the equipment program, the constitutional reserve program. My question is do you agree that these are important programs that weve got in place that we need to continue . I agree because we cannot continue the progress thats been made in the Chesapeake Bay and you articulated what a vital resource nationally it is. Certainly for the people who live in that watershed and around the body of water for so many reasons but i dont believe we can continue the process made much to the credit of farmers, agribusinesses and others who acknowledge that the runoff in hospice manage that and i hope we continue by again, education and the national and rcs. , that we could continue that program so id certainly hope that we will label that and even increase and continue the progress. I appreciate that and we worked on a very cooperative rule relationship with farmers in connection with this particular program and stewards of the land, its important that we have a good working relationship. I do want to say a number of senators have raised the issue of the proposed budget cut in rural water and waste disposal, loan grants program, i listened carefully to the chairman of our committee who said the president proposes and the congress discloses. Its good to have the chairman here as well as the chairman of the subcommittee of appropriations. 15 of marylands 24 counties would be in top positions if they dont get the benefit of those loans and i also look forward to working with the chairman of the Appropriations Committee on the epa budget, the Trump Administration proposal wipes out the Chesapeake Bay program which has been a bipartisan support in our state of maryland so i want to raise that issue. Senator johnson talked about insurance and dealing with risk. In maryland, most of our farms are small and mediumsized and especially with respect to specialty crops, some of the way that crops are currently design does not fully meet their needs so i just want to hear from you a willingness to talk and explore ways where we could modify some of those provisions to make sure we address the needs of some of those smaller mediumsized farmers. Congratulations on your desire to be on this committee, many people dont understand the value of agriculture but it is significant and your smaller farms particularly, the 14 farm bill recognizes the need for Crop Insurance and specialty crops in many ways. I think that was a great beginning, can we go further, i believe absolutely if we look at how we can alert what we learned from the farmville how we can continue to enhance that and to make smaller specialty crops of smaller farmers of viable alternative for them. All right, finally on the food and Nutrition Program i want to add my voice to the senators who have said how important that is our state and also if i could say we have in maryland a 1980 landgrant hb you, Eastern Shore. Its doing innovative work and you know our hpc you is in basic challenges including maintenance funds and others and i know youve worked on this issue. I would just like to get your commitment to follow up on the conversation to try and address the issue of strengthening the 1890 hbc use. I would welcome that, we obviously have those in georgia and well and i think i was pleased to see our president welcome them as well and in commitment and make commitments about those areas so i look forward to workingwith you directly regarding your specific age , we have a particular challenge and issue at one of our hbcus. So thank you. Thank you and welcome. Thank you, my colleagues dont know but during the designated time in the air force, in columbus ohio, now rickenbacker in the budget will always put ohio second right after georgia. Senator van holland had a couple of points i wanted to reemphasize. One is the importance of the Chesapeake Bay, a lot of those same exact factors applied to great lakes and the president has cut it almost 100 percent which is ludicrous, senator portman and i and senator stab you know, all of us on the great lakes date, the irony is won the election and im old enough to remember senator stab you know is not old enough but im old enough to remember what the great lakes looked at life and is one of the great accomplishments of governments and communities of the federal government especially to clean this up and we cant see us backslide so i would emphasize the importance, Chesapeake Bay is important and the great lakes s largest collection of freshwater in the world, it would be great to drink freshwater so anyway. You can object. Also i want to, chairman roberts comments about ad and attrition in the farmville holding it together when theres always pressures to divide it up, i know the governor supported that too but thank you chairman roberts for your statements about that. And the statements of senator van holland on the historically black colleges, its really important and i wanted central state and my state, youve worked with georges hbc as governor and for valley state universities in land grants. But if you would give us real briefly because we are running out of time. What specifically are your thoughts and ideas of the next step you plan to take in support of those universities . Again, i was pleased to hear the president welcome them and commit to doing that. As i think you referred to fort valley state and our jason county and we know the work they do as a landgrant university and the niche programs there in the state and i look forward, theyve got a value to serve and i look forward to helping them with the research, providing and asking them for particular Research Projects with usda that has the opportunity to do that, give them an opportunity to compete in those areas and to listen and learn from them as well as they can provide good information for us in areas in which they operate. I appreciate your sensitivity to historically black colleges unlike your soon to be colleague in the cabinet who said they were about choice or something. They came to black colleges, it was a peculiar statement, thats not you. Senator donnelly mentioned opioid. My state has more opioid deaths than other any other state in the country. The repeal of the Affordable Care act or 200,000, right now 200,000 ohioans that are getting opioid Addiction Treatment that are on the Affordable Care act, i know thats not your issue exactly although its your parties issue and the president s issue. I asked if something happens and that insurance is taken away as it would be with the house bill, for all those people that have opioid addictions that are getting treatment, i would ask you if you go back omb and the white house to protect funding used in the battle against opioid addiction in rural ohio and Rural America. Im not sure you heard when i mentioned a great conversation with terry vilsack, he was proud of the input the usda had in the sad opioid and the sad thing about that is much of this is in rural areas of despair so i will absolutely be an advocate for the betterment, obviously the usda doesnt have the capacity to supplant everything in healthcare but it does have an opportunity to help in that regard and i would welcome doing that. My republican governor, my colleague in the senate, senator portman both expressed great concern about the Affordable Care act and what would happen to medicaid. Hundred thousand ohioans are on medicaid. Its Pretty Amazing to me that a bunch of us in this body to get government supported insurance, taxpayers subsidize our health insurance, that people in this body and the other house want to take away insurance for a lot of lowincome working people, those are the Medicaid Expansion people and im not beginning to say that because its such a big part of the ongoing picture. Last issue and i know youre getting impatient mister chairman thank you, i work with editors boone, the last farm bill on the Coverage Program. The program protects against unforeseen declines when either prices or low or for production is low because of unforeseen circumstances. That people have a safety net , that farmers have a safety net, the administrations Budget Proposal including sharp cuts to the ad Statistics Service which raises questions about usda having the resources necessary to collect the independent unbiased price and yield data so the arc can be implemented with the proper information. One in seven jobs in my state depends on agriculture, thats why im on this committee. I need to know farmers can depend on you, i know your specialty is not the same agriculture as most of the agriculture and Ranking Members of my state. I understand and expects that what i want to know that you will work with us and use your authority to make sure that age, we can find ways to carry out the arc, the actress Coverage Program and you can help with the second part of that program, shortterm assistance with Dairy Farmers, you mentioned that recently and i need assurance on both of those issues. Weve affirmed assistance on the dairy Risk Management but the farmers have to rely on the credibility of good independent data through the nas s to provide that information because they are, the arc and plc program depend on it and that the information source thats trusted worldwide, supply and demand and move markets so that the critical part of the usda and i certainly will support that to the best of my ability. Governor, you can tell your children and grandchildren that your confirmation hearing was in the caucus where the titanic hearing, where the watergate hearings the markup of the Affordable Care act, where the mccarthy hearings of the 1950s were in this room with your children and grandchildren are here, now you know. If theyre not here, tell them. I think you just told them. Senator staten oh. Thank you mister chairman. I know we have a vote coming and this is about to wrap up, i have questions that i will submit for the record. As well as the letter that i represented earlier regarding gary and replacement in the record and thank you very much. All members understand they can submit letters for the record. I do want to mention that the committee has received a number of letters in support of the nomination and including one from 3700 organizations. Across the agriculture and food value chain as well as one from six former us secretaries of culture representing republican and democrat residents. Governor purdue, thank you. For your willingness to be considered or service to agriculture and Rural America as secretary. This committee has a history of working in a bipartisan fashion as this hearing has demonstrated. As opposed to others that have been going on in this senate. Drafting legislation and considering nomination. We will move as quickly as possible to consider your nomination, as you know we will not be voting on your nomination today that will work to schedule business meeting asap for a committee vote. And again, i ask members to submit any additional questions you may have for the record. By 5 00 tomorrow, the record will remain open for five Business Days for members to submit a statement or materials. Back you to everyone for your time today. The man with the red tie who seems to be anxious to leave. Weve got to read ties. Weve got you man. We are adjourned. Thank you mister chair. [inaudible conversation]. [inaudible conversation]. [inaudible conversation] in the house, a short time ago the vote on the Health Care Repeal and replace measure cancel for a second day. House Speaker Paul Ryan holding a press conference underway now, watch that live on cspan. The speaker saying this is a setback but not the end of the story. He went to the white house earlier today to talk to President Trump to say there were not enough votes to pass the measure. The report, President Trump asked the speaker pulled the bill from the floor after gop leaders one unable to get enough votes to pass the measure. The speakers remarks underway now on cspan, also streaming on cspan. Org. Members of Congress Meeting about the canceled boat, Team Jeffries right trump and housre