Leap on Scientific Research and related issues that impact americans virtually every day. Throughout our nations history, our farmers, ranchers and folks in Rural America have survived drought, disease, floods, and tornadoes and fires and whatever else Mother Nature throws at them. Year after year, they produced the safest most abundant food and fiber supply in the world, however today, growers from cross the country are facing high prices. These strong producers need a strong market for their goods. The importance of trade for agriculture, our agriculture industry cannot be overstated. And if that was not enough, over the last previous years, farmers and ranchers and Rural Businesses have been burdened by regulations 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 in their success and not an add veer sear and 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. In this respect, i want to thank the distinguished 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. And Governor Perdue has been nominated to serve in exactly 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 vet before returning to his home county to work in the grain business. He was legitimated to serve in local and state government, including two terms as governor of georgia. While serving farmers throughout the southeast, he gained firsthand experience in transportation and the Global Commodities market. Governor, the senates role of advice and consent is an important responsibility. And 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. I would like to welcome his wife mary, his four children and their spouses and his 14 grandchildren. The governor is also joined by many of his friends and former staff from georgia. Committee. You to the and i am especially glad to have our former ag Committee Chairman and senator from georgia, the honorable Saxby Chambliss and georgia congressman scott who serves on the Agriculture Committee pardon me, the sometimes powerful house Agriculture Committee to provide introductions of our nominee and i see congressman Sanford Bishop here in the audience to support the nominee as well. But before we hear from senator chambliss and congressman scott, i want to turn things over to senator stab naw stabenow. Senator stabenow it is great to e moving forward on this mportant position. We know that you are proud of your grandpa and proud to have you here today. To senator chambliss, we worked on a lot of farm bills together and thank you for your service as chair and someone advocating for georgia. Its great to see you. And we have a lot of Work Together with our colleagues in the house to get the next farm bill done. Its clear that agriculture and Rural America need to have a seat at the table. We always do, but its clear we need to make sure it is happening with this administration. Looking back at our history, farmers are the foundation of the country. Thats why president lincoln called the usda and called it the Peoples Department because he understood that agriculture is the cornstone of our economy and the department had a special relationship with the people that served. Americas farmers and ranchers grow the safest and affordable food supply in the world. Food security is national security. Because having a food secure nation makes our country safe. Our food and Agriculture Sector supports 16 million american jobs. Usdas job to ensure we continue to make things and grow things in every state and that is celebrating the diversity of americas agriculture as well. Michigan is the second most diverse agriculture state in the country and important usda is a ice for farmers in michigan, georgia. Large and small, conventional and or beganic, those who sell overseas, we need a voice for all of our farmers. And ag furnish secretary will need to look past regional divides and partisan pressures to support all farmers and families in Rural Communities. And right now, we need an advocate to stand up for them with this administration. You sda not only helps a farmer weather storms, it also saves communities 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 to be healthy adults. Rural america is the economic backbone of our country and too many rural towns are struggling to recover from the great recession. Usda has made targeted vemplingts in rural economies and we are beginning to see these communities on the road to recovery, but we need to make sure these important Investments Continue to so we can keep moving forward. During the two months of the administration, its clear that Rural America has been an afterthought. President trump sent a message by waiting to the last minute to name his pick as agriculture secretary. Last weeks Budget Proposal has made it clear that Rural America is not a top priority for this administration. The proposal cuts usda funding by 21 . The Third Largest cut to any federal agency. In addition to eliminating critical Rural Development and International Food aid programs, the administration has put a target on hundreds of critical programs that go to 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 importance that usda provides. We need a sfrong voice to insist that the president listen to the 500 groups that are saying that agriculture, conservation, Food Assistance and other farm bill programs 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 Committee Issues like immigration and trade that have tremendous impact on farmers and Rural Communities. In the 2014 farm bill, we made bipartisan reforms that saved taxpayers billions and protected the integrity of the farm and safety net. The Budget Office estimated that the current farm bill if we did no changes would save 80 billion more than initially projected in the next 10 years. Largely driven by Crop Insurance costs going down and reduced spending on Food Assistance as the economy has improved. In this congress, we will be working hard to move another bipartisan farm bill. Im excited for this challenge, mr. Chairman. With the usda leadership and all of our stakeholders, i know we can get it done. We worked together before on a comprehensive bill and do it again for the communities that we represent and for the entire country. Especially during these times of low prices for agriculture and uncertainty around the budget, trade and immigration, we need the next secretary to be an unapologetic advocate for all of Rural America and someone who will be tenacious like a georgian bulldog. We need a champion and i know you know that. 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. Senator roberts i thank the senator from michigan. It is my privilege and pleasure now to recognize the distinguished former member of this committee, our colleague and friend, the honorable Saxby Chambliss. Chamcham im honored to be before you today and im humble to be on this side of the dais but glad to be on this side for a number of reasons. But im particularly pleased to introduce my good friend, governor sonny perdue who is President Trumps next nominee to be the secretary of agriculture. I spent 12 years of my life right here and when people ask me what do i miss in the senate and im quick to respond, what i miss are the good friends i made in my 20 years of congress and members of this committee are right at the top of the list and both sides of the aisle. Im truly pleased to be here. When i was sworn in as a member of the house of representatives in january of 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 the gentleman from kansas, mr. Roberts. And mr. Chairman, you are probably the only person in the history of our country to chair both committees. And im going to steal your phrase, because i have heard you say it so often that sometimes powerful ag committee, but you are to be congratulated of having the honor of chairing both committees. Governor perdue is no stranger to agriculture. Sonny grew up on a farm in georgia. Graduated from vet school at the university of georgia and after a tour in the air force returned home to be actively engaged in row crop farming and the operation of very successful Grain Elevator businesses. When i was elected to congress, sonny was a constituent of mine and it was at that time in his life a member of the Georgia State senate. The county is home of an air force base and we shared the interest of defense as well as agriculture in our 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 decided to run for United States senate. And needless to say, we spent many hours campaigning over the next year prior to that election. And when you eat a lot of Fried Chicken and barbecue and ride a bus with somebody for a long period of time, i got to know sonny well. That november, sonny was elected as the first republican governor in our state in 130 years. Sonny has been a leader in everything he has been involved in doing. As a farmer, he was a leader in the field of agra business in our state. As a member of the state senate he was president pro tempore important of the senate and as governor he was chairman of the republican governors association. When he was legitimated governor, he did what good leaders do and that is to surround himself with good people. He went out and found a very experienced c. E. O. And experienced c. F. O. He also improved the states leadership by implementing a plan that he went out and found the very best qualified people to run our state agencies irrespective of the political affiliation of those individuals. He committed to make georgia the best managed state in the nation and he received Significant National recognition for his accomplishments. When he was elected, the state couldnt produce an audit and 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 old. Under sonnys leadership, those systems were updated and the state purchasing system has 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, it is inefficient and not farmer friendly. This will be a challenge to sonny, but im confident that he will be up to that challenge. One of sonnys most significant initiatives was the Customer Service focus tore seek and treat citizens of our state as customers and create services that were faster, friendlier and easier. That reduced the time and proved the customary experience from everything to getting a drivers license to getting a tax refund and produced a cultural change as state employees bought in. Such an effort at usda would be an improvement with the relationship with washington and its largest customers at usda, farmers and ranchers. This kind of executive experience in leadership combined with sonnys leadership of programs make him suited to be the next secretary of agriculture. Mr. Chairman, i would urge this committee to approve his nomination and bring his confirmation to the vote on the floor of the senate as soon as possible. And i thank you. Senator roberts thank you for an excellent statement. It is my personal pleasure and privilege to introduce a member of the house Agriculture Committee, congressman david scott. David, we are delighted to have you here in the upper body. We wont go farther with that. Please proceed, sir. Mr. Scott chairman roberts, thank you for that. But i want to make one slight correction. When you said house agriculture as sometimes influential and powerful. May we have an amendment to that so it will go out that the house Agriculture Committee has always been and will always be powerful and influential. Senator roberts i appreciate that correction. It was only one chairman that had the tenure. [laughter] mr. Scott touce, my friend. I will take that into consideration. I am greatly honored and very thankful to have this opportunity to come and stand with my dear friend, my long time 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, senator Saxby Chambliss went into great detail to share with you his immense qualifications, his education, the fact that he went to the university of georgia vet school, but im here to explain to you why sonny perdue is indeed the right person at the right time to do the absolute best job, the talents that i have shared and have witnessed with him in coming through georgias state senate. You see, Committee Members, i was chairman of the Senate Rules Committee in georgia for 10 years. My good friend sonny perdue was the president of the senate. Im not saying that to shake a bell on our credentials here, but i think if you put that in the context of the Georgia Legislature and i assure you that Georgia Legislature was one of the most exciting places to almost 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 on 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 temperment when you are on the battlefield with them, the courage, the decisiveness. And sonny perdue was just such a person. And so on all of the major pieces of legislation that affected every georgian of every stripe, of every condition, sonny perdue had a degree 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 hat he comes with his record unblemished. Thats why i wanted you to know at the outset, ladies and gentlemen, sonny perdue and i worked into the midnight hours night after night. You get to know a person. He and i were like brothers. And im grateful for that relationship. I want to take just a minute, though, to address an issue that i dont know may or may not come up, but i think i will be deer electricity in my duty if i did not set the record straight on the confederate battle Flag Business that has been in the air. I want to make sure that when you measure sonny perdue on that issue as well as all issues, that you measure sonny perdue right. Now, let me just give the committee and the nation just 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 historic 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. And because of leadership at that time. There were three governors. You cant just tell the story with just one governor. This has been an ongoing process. And it took education. It took commit mnlt, but the people of georgia, black and hite, 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 miller. One of your former colleagues here. That took courage and zell paid the price for that. But 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.