The vote for the republican candidate and just over 40 for the democratic candidate. We are live in birmingham alabama where the headquarters are tonight and will have a speech coming up later this evening. The population area around tuscaloosa and Montgomery Alabama and we are live in the headquarters in Montgomery Alabama. What you are looking at right now though the headquarters in the room to listen for just a moment. [inaudible conversations] thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] [applause] [cheering] it will still be a little while you will watch the numbers as decline. With live coverage on cspan2 we will have the speeches when they come to the podium. 52 republicans and 48 democrats. The republicans are losing one seat and again our live camera in Montgomery Alabama and the headquarters and birmingham alabama. Want to go to the New York Times website to get a better sense of the votes remaining. According to the New York Times they estimate 775,000 votes yet to be counted and you can see the heavy blue areas of population areas above worming him and montgomery and mobile alabama in the southern part of the state those are both yet to be counted. Right now roy moore is ahead. All of it live. Phone lines will be open as well. The results in alabama. Up next from today that National Press club talking about the debate over nafta and also the farm bill and the impact it has on the farm bill debate earlier today from the National Press club in washington. [inaudible conversations] good afternoon and welcome to the press club. I was president of the club in 2010 and cover issues for bloomberg that may explain why ive been selected for todays luncheon. We are pleased to have the speaker of agriculture and we welcome him for the first time to the National Press club joining the other distinguished roster of speakers and first of all i would like you to please put your phone on silent. I would like you to live to tweet this event if we can follow it online. We would also like to take a moment and distracting devices to introduce the head table. We would like you to applaud and then you can erupt in applause. Starting in my left and youre right we have in agricultural reporter. Paul mary and the senior white house correspondent, the washington correspondent for the atlanta constitution. The Deputy Communications director for the secretary of perdue and a senior editor. The deputy secretary of agriculture that is the number number two for sonny perdue. The cochairs of the Headliners Team up together the event. Next we have the Communications Director for the department of agriculture, Allan Ferguson covers agriculture and trade of ct rollcall and finally the executive director of the communications and American Farm bureau federation. Thank you for being here today. [applause] we would like to acknowledge the members lisa matthews, james horovitz, laurie russo as well as press club staff. For the Radio Audience is pleased be a where. Any reactions you hear isnt from the working press or unemployed press in a media environment. The family operated a farm in georgia. A degree from the university of georgia and he served in the Georgia State senate before becoming governor. He has run Small Businesses and it was that background he brought to the nationwide listening to her that he recently completed. They are trying to inspire the next generation of farm and agricultural leaders. Please join me in welcoming to the National PressClub Secretary of agriculture sonny perdue. You show your hospitality. We are hoping that they would be in the National Championship as a former bulldog. Since you write stuff down i will read from the prepared remarks that have been vetted from the general counsel so we ought to be good today. We want to start with a premise that may not be so provocative that Something Like no other departments to claim. When i say that i think the last time i checked in order to enjoy a great meal. There is an international discussion. They come to the country and i dont think they bring a lunch with us and come back often healthier as an example of that. So, nonetheless that wasnt persuasive. But we know even the people that send their kids to school with school lunch affected by the usda policies shopping affected by the usda take it a step further the last time i checked we had to live, breathe, eat. Part of the usda is affecting us as well. I think hyperbole may be a better cornerstone of the town but when it comes to personal daily touch for everyone beyond its borders i want to submit to shoot today usda matters. You may feel like i should come with some flashy policy proposal today that i resulted in my heart a long time ago what people want i think from their government is not so much paul, a revolving door case of showcase agendas but they want to see a government that works for them and i tried to do that when i was governor. People want a government that works, not necessarily talks out of both sides of their mouth when the her campaignin they art dont do those things. It would make the usda work for them by turning it into an aspiration for the most efficient and effective and customer focused best managed department and that is what i want to talk to you today how we plan to do that. It is a great aspiration. I spoke to one group and gave them to ask aspiration. We want the delivery of tools and solutions for people out there today so it starts with the people that we serve and people ask me all the time i like being in washington and the secretary of agriculture. I love the job. Some of you got that. They wont let me tell a word from georgia but if the word i would love it even more. Nonetheless, our office is here in dc and the fact is, our customers and those in the constituency of the usda are not in dc and they are all over the country since taking office weve been traveling over 30 states and six countries promoting u. S. Agriculture. One in wisconsin, minnesota, illinois, indiana we traveled about 2200 miles and have two more for 2018. Why di do we do that . Because people are seriously interested in the leaders who will listen. There are so many listening session sitting down with people whose livelihood and lives depend on the usda in the go upstate new york crowding into a dairy barn to hear my vision. 250 people busted out of the seams of a machine shed and a late friday afternoon. 150 people on a sunday afternoon session of the Central Valley of california. 100 people filled the front lawn of a farm bureau press in rural massachusetts on a gloomy thursday afternoon. 500 people filled a rodeo floor in kansas city with virtually no notice. 100 people piled under a ten in a cornfield almost an hour outside of springfield illinois and just on friday, 120 college kids interested in a future agriculture came to visit and have a roundtable with florida a m university and goes on and on as an example of the kind of hunger that we see. I say these things to let you know people want to hear and see people out there working. They are emblematic of how hungry the American People are in this town to listen because they want us to quit talking to them and to listen and that is what i enjoy doing to understand the word towards Common Solutions and i think it is fair to say that demand was pent up would be the best description. They want to listen to their issues and problems and hopefully work to solve some of them. So this is a perspective into different worlds, politics you know it well. Its here and the other is outside of this area that dont know about what goes on here and i dont want to hurt your feelings, but i dont care too much. I dont get questions about the things everyone in washington seems to be talking about. I dont get asked about the latest scandal were asked even about the president s twitter account. I dont want to burst your bubble but those were the things that seeme seem to be importanto people in this town. Those are not the things on the mind of the American People generally. 150 people get out of a freezing day in rural upstate new york to talk about agriculture. What are those folks saying . You may know one of the top issue is his trade. Maybe they ar theyre interestee trade policy but because of this, they are responsible for more than 20 of the u. S. Foreign income, 20 cents of every income dollar derives from these products. They are on and off the farm so the farm bill called for a new position for the Agricultural Services added that position was nothe position wasnot created un may and from hearing from the people out in the field they believed the trade was important and i know from my experience it is important so we created that position and invited ted mckinney from indiana to fill that position and he hit the ground running. We met this morning to hear about the latest trips to colombia, panama and brazil and in just a few weeks he had 30,000 Miles Airport wise so hes on the road hitting the ground running or flying i gue guess. It is up 10. 9 billion from the Previous Year and the thirdhighesthirdhighest level n spite of lower commodity prices. When you look at the exports it is fungible because you have different price points to deal with but they are the third highest on the record. The most recent is over 140 billion in fy et which is right on track so the surplus is expect t it to go 8 from 21. 3 billion to more than 23 billion in 2018. Very concerned about the trade deficit i remind them every time agriculture contributes to the trade surplus and he needs to recognize that. For the first time in 13 years, we opened china for the First Time Ever and were still working out some of those details. We got u. S. Ports back the First Time Since 1992. They would be surveyed which uses the interest into the market for production costs and we also announce for the u. S. Shipping potatoes and from idaho for the first time in 11 years. Vietnam is also dividing the u. S. Of the imports and imports of u. S. Poultry and poultry products including fresh eggs. All of that is good news but i may grow it and sell it kind of guy. That is what the undersecretary is all about. I suspect more than a few of you will ask me about nafta if i dont address it now. I intended to ask santa claus for a perfect final trade deal wrapped up nicely and put on the tree for all American Farmers but then i remembered it might be too close to canada for things turn out well for us comes all joking aside, let me say this, that i do remain optimistic about the trilateral relationship advisors like to say this is an original of me that if you look at mexico, the United States and canada, i think that we live in the best neighborhood on the planet. And to have a deal that would take advantage of those relationships logistically it makes all the scents in the world. Sense in the world. We know that theyve benefited from nafta and we believe with some adjusting it can continue on so that is important for our department and the note that President Trump is a tough negotiator and we will wind up with a renewed nafta. Our Department Official motto i think because the economy of the u. S. And agriculture. It is the foundation of commerce and that is a pretty powerful statement when you think about it. We too were a lot of great facilities, one in illinois but created manufactured sprayers. These are things many people donthe things many peopledonte is it is imperative for the rest of the economy to thrive as well and trust me, our producers will do their part in that progression. We need a fair functioning nafta agreement to continue that. So as far as trade goes we will reach a deal and put some tough things on the table as we showed that we should reach a deal that works for everyone. Second, we have a farm bill coming up very soon in 2018. There are a lot of opinions. Anyway, i think we are on track for a good farm bill but the good news about it is i dont think theres going to be a revolutionary deal. I think that the farm bill is going to be more evolutionary. Theres a couple places that didnt make it quite as good as many people had hoped such as the 14 farm bills we will see some things to address that. The members of congress responsible for the farm bill can make good on a factbased data driven farm bill based on the traveling we are working on what we think is the right approach in their relationship to congress. Some of these principles are the result of what i heard from people and agriculture during my travels and they are the ones that lived with the policies day by day to execute the policies that he created and frankly they have some of the best ideas and what works from the previous bills and what doesnt work as well. We will be talking about a few of those across the Mission Areas in the usda and all of the responsibilities. I dont think that the 2018 bill will have a departure in changes. We are going to make some improvements in those areas and ultimately it is up to the congress to decide what they want us to implement and we stand ready to provide whatever counsel congress may believe you may require as our opinion on these things. You may remember on the day i was sworn in, President Trump signed an executive order and that was for agriculture and prosperity. It remains a backbone and the breain thebread basket of policn the president signed the executive order in the task force on agriculture and prosperity they asked us to cheer about and wchair that andd relationship with 22 other agencies about how to make a difference in Rural America. Much of america has recovered were certainly is in the beginning stages of recovering the great recession. Progress is lagging behind. Weve got to do a better job in providing the hope and Economic Opportunity for those in Rural America and involved in agriculture. During the tour and our other visits, we listened and held town Hall Meetings together in information working with my counterparts from other cabinet we came up with a report after the 188 timeline. We have some specific action items that we think will be helpful in making specific recommendations on how we think we can help Rural America succeed and thrive and that includes things like access to capital, Infrastructure Improvements so i dont want to preempt that. Stay tuned for the record. Report. As you know early on in my time is the secretary i announced a broad reorganization of the usda and part of that is the interface of the Rural Development. We elevated our Development Senior person to be writes to the secretary to have privileges to come in and discuss ideas off the cuff to make a schedule and to come in and say weve got this idea and we would like to do this, what do you think and get to kind of a no go person for the ideas and positions right away. I consider this to be an elevation of the development and i think that its turned out that way we look forward to having great things from the Development Staff across the country. Next, we heard trade, labor and regulation a lot. When you talk to farmers, they will complain to you about regulation and has you know, one of the first action the president took through the director of epa is to resend the most groups felt this was an onerous type of rule that would damage the way they farmed in a fairly significant way. So they considered reversing and reducing those kind of regulation and for every action we are under the obligation to publish the regulatory actions, so if they have an impact the total regulatory costs must be offset by savings and we were reporting the cost savings of the deregulation to the president for the fall of john, we submitted 28 final dvd three actions and these we believe will generate measurable cost offsets totaling 26. 15 million in annualized savings. One of those regulations has to do with our relationships to the states. This president , this administration understands we all serve the same people to have an integrated relationship across the level of government that i have never seen before. I am envious as a former governor to have had that kind of relationship with the federal government. To maximize the flexibility of the states is possible. One of my first actions as a secretary is to provide flexibility in the state and local School Systems regarding School Lunches. This got generated by a childhood friend of mine who told me after i was nominated, he said i told my granddaughter of the response of these of the secretary of agriculture were and it included School Lunches. Shes had great, do you think he can make School Lunches great again . So that is kind of the way things happen. But also when i started talking to the school lunch professional, we found out how the professional nutritionists and dietitians were spending more time in front of a spreadsheet van they were in the ability to do their job and flexibility. Also as you are reading recently more flexibility in the snap program. We told the states is to provide support for families as they are strengthened and enabled for selfsufficiency. It is to maintain the integrity of the system by reducing fraud and ulti