Hearing. And topics are farm bill, and trade relations with china and the status of the disaster aid programs. This is about 2 15. This joint hearing of the subcommittees on the general farm commodities and Risk Management and livestock and foreign agriculture in order to review the title of Disaster Relief will come to order. Thank you. And thank you for coming to the joint committee on farm commodities and risk committees and farm agriculture. I am pleased to be joined by my chair mr. Acosta and the esteemed Ranking Member mr. Thompson and mr. Rouser. Welcome to the chairman Collin Peterson and my texas Ranking Member mike conaway. This is coming at a important time for farmers. The usda and the food conservation area, and the farm agency is in the middle of a huge job. The fpac and other needs of farmers and ranchers and Rural Communities that is meant to assist the farmer most harmed by the administrations trade war and the expanded wildfire and Indemnity Program or w. H. I. P. Plus to aid in Rural Recovery of Natural Disasters and plc and dmc and other supports within the title i of the farm bill to provide a Risk Management for farmers and ranchers. It is the job on this committee to ensure that the programs are structured and implemented in a way to be quickly, and efficiently and most directly serve the farmers and the ranchers and the small towns that need them right now. It is also our job to ensure that the programs are implemented in a way that is fair, transparent and consistent with the law. We can absolutely get farmers the help they need while still conducting appropriate and necessary oversight. I have concerns about the path that usda is on, and especially when it is coming to staffing. I haer from the farmers all of the time about the understaffed fsa offices and resources at fsa are stretched thin, and i would like to know about the plans that the usda has to make sure that resources are managed effectively. On top of that, many media stories about the Software Glitches and unprepared staff to process the payments. It is clear that usda wants to find the efficiency, but is usda prepared to make the changes to deliver these service and inkrecreasing and not decreasin the staff and resources. I look forward to the testimony today, mr. Undersecretary. I now recognize chairman peterson for an opening testimony. You waive. I recognize chairman conaway for statements. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for having us to this hearing to help usda to help the farmers and ranchers in Rural America in this country, but it is difficult when the chairman has mentioned everything that going on. And the process in the last eight days on the c. R. Is shameful. It is one thing for zee gxi jin to use the powers of this body to be using the same good people as leverage because you simply dont like President Trump. This committee and the usda is doing the yeomans work to make sure that Rural America is protected and eliminate the uncertainties out there that we can. The way that has been gone about this ccr is now taking these folks to be used as a weapon and shame on or us for having that happen. And we are reducing this body to a terrible state. It is one thing for the colleagues to list the donors of President Trump to harass the businesses and hurt them financially, but it is entirely different for this body. This body to do the same thing with the funding mechanism that has always gone forward without impediments. Now, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle might say that this has been done before. The restrictions placed on this funding as a result of the Blanch Lincoln and vilsack efforts to affect the future promises and not the current promises at that point in time. These promises on the mfb payments and Disaster Relief have been made and to threaten Rural America that those payments would not go out under regular order is terrible, and shame on to us get to that exact same thing. So, my colleagues will say that we fixed it, but you didnt. You left the restrictions on, there and there is a report that the usda has to do in the face of all of the things that the chairman shade th maman said had now we have added another report to the workload and shame on us for doing that. We have not fully funded it and we have a date certain funding as op posed to moving the 30 billion and so congratulations from now on as my chairman said on the radio yesterday, from now on this process a weapon that both sides can take it to be an advantage and shame on us to be able to do that. I yield back. I recognize, mr. Chairman, mr. Peterson. I want to tell the members who have not been here 29 years some of the history. This was put in place by the Republican Party in 2010. And it was put in place this restriction, because at that time the republicans thought that secretary vilsack was using the ccc to help Blanch Lincoln who at the time was the chairman of the Senate Ag Committee in her reelection, because there was a disaster in arkansas. And the senate would not do a disaster bill, because she was up for lek shelection, and so w happened is that they put a limitation on vilsack so he could not use the ccc to do it. So you guys put it in place and not us. And to well, no. No. What has happened ever since is that the Appropriations Committee has waved that provision. They did not change it, but waived it, but so this time it is an issue, and there is not a Single Member of the ag committee who had anything to do with this, period. So i am objecting to make these accusations that our members were complicit in this, because we were not. I found out this is coming from the senate and not the house. This whole brouhaha came out of the senate. So whatever it is, and my concern about this, and what i said on the radio yesterday is, and this is legitimate, there werent a handful of members that understood what the ccc was before this all started. You know, that is not just this latest dustup. The president using this fund for farmers is elevating this thing, and so now i have people talking to me from the liberal side and complaining about it, and they never knew that there was a ccc and never knew how it operated and yesterday the Freedom Caucus is starting to weigh into this thing. That is what i am concerned about. You know, but it is nothing, and nobody on this committee had anything to do with that. And without this committee, this thing might have happened. It was not the house that started this, but the senate. I wanted to clarify the record. And the recognize the gentleman from pennsylvania on the Ranking Committee and his opening remarks. Thank you for holding this important hearing regarding tim ple mentation of the 2018 farm bill provisions and Disaster Assistance and thank you to secretary northey for your leadership and attending and providing us an update on these policies. As for those of us who are representing Rural America, times are tough in farm country and there not a single region of the country that is immune from mother natures devastation. Not only are the producers grappling with the bad weather, but buffeted with the bad markets and the global trade and not the mention the policy uncertainty coming out of wkt. That out of washington. That is why it is so important to get this farm bill completed without the extensions that would have exacerbated the challenges facing the farmers and ranchers. I am pleased with the timely roll out of the key farm bill programs despite having numerous other policies to implement which i am sure that we will hear more about today. The House Republicans were able to make key targeted improvements to the farm safety nets which should not be overlooked and do not forget that in conference we were nesh goit yag gai , negotiating against Baseline Program and talk about kicking the farmers and the families when they are down. It is unconscionable for me that people are advocating for the erosion safety net at the time when the producers are looking for any safety net to keep their farms and family in businessment at the time that we can hold the line to prooduce a bill for the benefit of all title programs and crops in the country. In one of the areas that the congress could act now to ease the Agriculture Committee is to improve the usmca which made key improvements to nafta and expected to provide 2. 2 billion in additional exports for our producers and particularly for dairy the main commodity produced in my district. Beyond the access that it provides the usmca sends a signal to the other trading partners in talks with the usdr that the United States has the wherewithal to follow through on the commitments made which is going to lead to other opportunities to expand trade just like what we saw with the agreement and principle reached with japan. Congress must approve the usmca now, and otherwise it is going to erode negotiating with partners and not just this administration, but all future admin adminstrations as well. Thank you for holding this joint hearing and i look forward to hearing from usda chairman northey. And i now recognize mr. Costa. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I think it is important that these two subcommittees meet together this morning. This hearing that deals with the review of the implementation of the federal farm and Disaster Program is fitting and appropriate given the challenges that we are facing today in farm country. And for all of the members that are participating, i thank you. I also want to note that it was important that chairman peterson clarify the history and the record as it relates to these activities that were most recently involved with the continuing resolution that we need to pass this week, and that we need to obviously have a budget, because frankly it is irresponsible to shut down government and i have always felt it is irresponsible and the past actions of the previous congresses to do that just that for political agendas, and inappropriate, period. And certainly, i think that the president learned that lesson the hard way last year, at least i hope he did. The history of the ccc which as the chairman peterson pointed out is really not known by the majority of members of congress until this last week. It is important to note, because frankly we should not be politicizing this. It is not the part of this committee. My sense is that it really came from the senate as well, but we have to deal with it. So, what we are dealing with today is to talk about where the safety net is. Wheres the safety net for farmers and ranchers and dairy people across this country. And as the chairman of the subcommittee on livestock, i am interested in overseeing the new Dairy Margin Program that i worked hard on and the reauthorization of the last farm bill and the administrations Market Facilitation Program is properly implemented and that is why we have the secretary here today in part. The dairy margin coverage signed up for 2019 is set to end tomorrow. Now, i think it is important that we give dairy men and women every opportunity to sign up for this program, and well be asking the secretary where we are in terms of that signup, and whether or not your numbers are kind of coinciding with the numbers that i have heard. I hope that there can be a little bit of flexibility with that deadline tomorrow, and this year given that we have a brandnew program, and, but at the same time i know that we get the challenge, because we have the signup of the 2020 program, and so, im sympathetic to the challenge that the department is facing in that instance. But, it has been tough in dairy country across the land. We know that with the large fluctuations and the amount of the dairies that have gone bankrupt and have been sold in every region of america, and we certainly have lost our fair share in california. I know that dairy men and women who have been there for generations that now find themselves having to sell the dairy. It is tough. It has economic ramifications in the communities where those dairies have been. Nationwide though, the program i think in terms of success is triggered im told over 1 billion in help, excuse me, let me correct that is one quarter of a billion. One quarter. So i have a difference with this and the president , because he said that the farmers are better off with the Program Facilitation payments than they had with the access to china before the trade war. I think that in the usmca we have made some headway with canada on the section 7. I can tell you that the dairy market is very important in for california and mexico. But yet, when i talked to farmers, it is not just my disagreement with this that no one wins a tariff war, because everybody has leverage, but farmers in california are feeling the pain of it. They agree. They think that it is important that they have access to markets, and they maintain the markets, and they are fearful when we lose these markets, because of this current trade war, and we may never regain them, and that is a corner that i have. So the Market Facilitation Program and how the moneys are used for the payments dont really come close, and with the example of the dairy, and 12 cents per 100 weight. You are getting 16 to 18 per 100 weight and 12 cent, you know, it is in the margins. It may stave off a bankruptcy or a foreclosure by a bank but 12 cents per 100 weight is not going to save the dairy. I dont know what the usda leadership thinks, but i am interested. I have a few questions on how the Market Facilitation Program was set up and how you are implementing it, but chairman, thank you for agreeing to host this joint meeting with me. And secretary northey, you have a farm background, and you know how difficult it is in farm country, and we appreciate your participation this morning to give us a sense of with your testimony where we are going with this. And so i now yield back to the Ranking Member of our subcommittee or my subcommittee mr. Rouser for any comments that he wishes to make. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and i have a prepared statement that i will submit for the record. I just have a couple of comments for the sake of time, because i want to get to the real meat of the matter here. But first, i think it is important that we recognize just how critical it is that we in agriculture stick together republican and democrat. It is unfortunate that so many of our other colleagues that dont represent or have the opportunity to represent rural areas, you know, lack of understanding of agriculture is significant and a wide gap there. Of course, that is not uncommon around the countryside either. You know, most folks have no idea where the food and the fiber comes from. We take it for granted every single dale y of our live, so is important that we as republicans and democrats on this committee stick together and promote and educate and cajole and persuade as best we can the other members of congress so that they will understand the nature and the gravity of what we are dealing with here as it relates to production and agriculture and clearly a country that can feed itself and clothe itself is in a very enviable position, and enables us to be prosperous here at home and stronger as well. Another thing they would like to mention and i have been around agricultural going back to my days on the senate staff, and back then, i never understood why we didnt have some type of an addition to Crop Insurance and some type of Catastrophic Fund of some sort so that when the disasters hit, we are not waiting on congress for 8 months or 12 months or 14 months or whatever it may be. But have a program in place similar to what we have with fema where Congress Makes an appropriation every year and you have it there, and when a disaster hits, you have a base. Then if you need to come back and supplement that, you know, congress can. So very clearly, as valuable as Crop Insurance is, you take a situation in my home state of north carolina, and you will have economic losses year after year after year. That is the hurricane of economics so to speak, and then the weather hurricanes coming through that absolutely devastate your areas, and farmers have millions and millions tied up in the ground. The hurricane hits in early september, and they dont have the opportunity to get anything from that investment. Meanwhile, it is coming at a time when they have all stalled the equity due to the economic hardships they have faced over a period of time. Then it Takes Congress months to get any kind of disaster aid package across the finish line for a variety of reasons. And so i am just thinking that i have got to and this is an ageold problem that we have to come up with a better solution than we have. Crop insurance is very valuable and helpful, but you know, there are so many times that we face when, you know, it is not enough. So we have to have extra help. That is where we are. I look forward to the testimony mr. Northey and look forward to questions and answers. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you, each of you on your views of the Current Conditions facing agriculture in your state and across the country. I would like to request that Opening Statements by other members may be submitted to the record so that the witness may begin his testimony so there