Good morning, members of the committee. I call this meeting of the Senate Committee on agriculture, nutrition and forestry to order. This morning we welcome governor sunny 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 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 and around the globe. The department provides leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, Rural Development, nutrition, Scientific Research and related issues that impact americans virtually every day. Throughout our nations history, our farmers, ranchers and phones in Rural America survived drought, disease, floods, tornadoes, and lately, yes, lately, prairie fires in kansas, and whatever else Mother Nature throws at them. Year after year they produce the savest, morse abundant foot and fiber 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 the critical time the importance of trade for 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 be regulations from agency all across the federal government. I have heard time and time again as well as many members of the committee, about the costly and hard to understand regulations that endanger the ability to producer to stay in business. This committee will continue its efforts to make government a partner in their success, not an adversary. And this committee has a lot of work to do over the next two years, including the reauthorization of the farm bill. We intend to do that work in the bipartisan fashion that has served is so well in the past. And this respect want to permanently thank the distinguished Ranking Member and former chair person of this committee, the senator from michigan. Now, more than ever, agriculture needs a voice and advocate the highest levels of government. And Governor Perdue has been nominated to serve in exactly that role. He is from georgia and has spent his entire entire life in and around agriculture. Race raised on a farm and a practices veterinarian before returning to his home county to work in the grain business. He was elected serve in local and state government, including two terms as governor of georgia. While serving farmer throughout the south egained first hander and yes with the come mixty of transportation and Global Commodities market. Governor, the senates role of advise 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. In addition to the governor i would also like to welcome and recognize his wife, mary, his four children, and their spouses, and his 14 grandchildren. The governor is also joined by so many of his friends and former staff from georgia we cant count them. We welcome you although commit all to the committee and im especially glad to have our former ag Committee Chairman and senator from georgia, the honorable Saxby Chambliss and georgia congressman david scott, who serves on the House Agricultural Committee pardon me the sometimes powerful housing Agriculture Committee to provide introduction of the nominee and i see congressman Sanford Bishop here in the audience to support the nominee as well. Its good to see you again. But before we hear from senator chambliss and congressman scott i want to turn things over to senator stabenow for any remarks the distinguished Ranking Member would like to make. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Its great to be with you today as were moving forward on this very important position, and welcome, Governor Perdue, and pretty impressive that you have some beautiful grandchildren as well as children and family members and we know that youre proud of your grandpa and we are happen to have you all here today. And to my friend, senator chambliss, we are worked on 0 lot of farm bills together and thank you for your service as chair and somebody advocating for georgia. And representative scott, welcome as well. We have a lot of Work Together with our colleagues in the house to get the next farm bill done so we look forward to doing that. Its clear that agriculture and Rural America need to have a seat the table. We always do. But its clear that we need to make sure that is happening with this administration. Looking back at our history, our president s knew that farmerred were the foundation of the country. Thats why president lincoln called this the Peoples Department because he understood that agriculture is a cornerstone of our economy and that the department has special relationship with the people it served. Americas farmers and ranchers grow the saveest affordable speed nye in 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. Its usdas job to make sure we can grow things in every state and that means celebrating the do is verity of american agriculture al west. Michigan is the second most diverse agricultural state in the country. And its important that usda is a voice for michigan farmer as well as kansas and georgia and all of those across our country. Large and small. Conventional and organic. Those who sell overseas, those who sell to their neighbors. We need a voice for all of our farmers. An agriculture secretary need to look beyond regional devices and partisan pressure and support saul family in rural committees and we need an advocate to stand up for them with this administration. Usda helps a farmer weather storms storms storms and save communities from wildfire in the west and make sure children have healthy food to grow. Too many rural towns are struggling to recover from the great recession. Over the past eight years, usda has made targeted investments in rural economies and now were beginning to see the communities on the road to recovery. But we need to make sure these important Investments Continue so we can keep moving forward. Unfortunately, during the two month of that argues in its clear that Rural America has been an afterthought. Even before President Trump took office he sent a message by waiting until the last minute to name his pick for agricultural secretary. Last weeks Budget Proposal has made it clear that Rural America is not a top priority for this administration. Their proposal cuts usda funding by 21 . The Third Largest cut to any federal agency. And in addition to eliminated critical Rural Development and International Food aid programs, the administration has put a target on hundreds of critical programs that go through the appropriations process. And in fact, under the budget important resources for farmers and families are facing cuts average 33 00 . We averaging 33 . We need a secretary of cultural that will advocate for the Important Services usda provides and rural families and farmer need. We need strong voice continue zest the president listen to the 500 groups saying that agriculture, conservation, Food Assistance and other farm bill programs should not be cut further after a agreeing to a 23 billion cut in the last farm bill. We 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 and rural communities. And in the 2014 farm bill we made bipartisan reforms that saved taxpayers billions and protected the integrate of the farm and Family Safety net. The congressal Budget Office recently estimated that the current farm bill, if we did no changes, would save 80 billion more than initial i projected in the next ten years. Largely driven by Crop Insurance costs going down, and reduced spending on Food Assistance. As the economy has improved. And n this congress well be working hard to move another bipartisan farm bill. Im excited for this challenge, mr. Chairman. With the u. S. Sda leadership and our stakeholders i know we can get it done. We have worked together before on the comprehensive bill. Well do it again for the communities that we represent and the entire country. Especially during the 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. We need someone who will be tenacious, much like a georgian bulldog. Governor perdue, 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 thank the senator from michigan. It is my privilege and pleasure now to recognize the distinguished former member of this committee and chairman of this committee, our colleague, our friend, the honorable Saxby Chambliss. Were chairman, Ranking Member stabenow, distinguished members of the committee, im honored to be before you today and im humble to be on this side of the die dias and glad to be here but im particular live pleased and hoards to be here tied to introduce my good friend, governor george irvin sunny perdue, President Trumps nominee for the next secretary of agriculture. Spend 12 of the west year of my life here and when people ask me what do i miss im quick to respond i miss the good friends it made in congress and members of this committee are right the top of the list of those best friends on both sides of the aisle and im pleased be here. When is was sworn in as a new member of house hover representatives in january of 1959, i was given the next to the last seat on that committee, which was made up of more than 50 members. The chairman of the committee was was the gentleman from kansas, mr. Roberts. Mr. Chairman youre oonly person in the highlight of our country to chair both committees and im going to steal your phrase because ive heard youve say so it often, that sometimes powerful ag committee but youre to be congratulated from having the honor of theyring chairing both commit e. Governor sunny perdue is no stranger to agriculture. He agree graduated from vetter in school the university of georgia and after tour in the air force, return to georgia to be actively engaged in crop farming as well as in the operation of various successful Grain Elevator business. When if was elected congress, sunny was a constituent of mine. It was by that time in his life a member of the Georgia State senate. Now, the county is the home of Robbins Air Force base so sun request and i shared the interest of defense and agriculture in our respective positions and we began a dialogue that has lasted to this day. In 2002 sunny decided to run for governor of georgia and i decided to run for the United States senate. Needly to say we spent indianaless to say weapon spent mary hours come campaigning and when we eat a lot of Fried Chicken and barbecue and ride a bus with somebody for a long period of time you get to know them and i got to know sunny well. That november sunny was elected as the first republican governor in our state, in 130 years. Sunny has been a leader in everything he has been involved in doing. As a farmer he was a leader in the field of agribusiness in our state. As a member of the state senate he whereas elected by his peers to be the president pro tem of the senate. And as governor, he was the chairman of the republican governors association. When he was elected governor, sunny died what good leaders do and that is to surround himself with good people. He went out and found a very experienced ceo and a very experienced cfo. He also improved the states leadership by implementing a merit the found we best qualified people to unour state agencies irrespective of political affiliation of those individuals. He committed to make georgia the best managed state in the nation, and he received Significant National wreck mission recognitioning for the accomplishment. He create the first state Accounting Office to focus on timely ms. And usefulness of financial action. Technology and purchasing systems the state level were antiquated. Under sunnys leadership those system were updated and the state purchasing system that received many awards for efficientty and accountability. A new state data center was established and much of the appropriate technology was outsourced in order to stay current and technology cli state of the art. Now, we all know that technology at usda today is way behind the curve, its inefficient and it is not farmerfriendly. This will be a challenge to sunny but i am very confident he will bell up will be up to tt challenge. His initiative was the Customer Service folk tuesday to treat citizens of our state as customers. And to create services for them that were faster, friendliyer and easier. That initiative significantly reduced the time and improved Customer Experience in regular from getting a drivers license to getting a tax refund. Itsles produced a cultural change, as state moneyees bought into this anywhere employees bought into the initiative. Such an itself at usda would be a vast improvement in the relationship with washington and its larger customers also usda, farmers and ranchers. This kind of executive experience and leadership combined with sunnies financial of usda practices make him suited to be the next secretary of agriculture. I thank you very much. Thank you, senator chambliss for an excellent statement in behalf of the governor. Its mr. Personal pleasure and previous to introduce, congressman david scott. David, were delighted to have you here in the upper body. We wont go any further than that. Please proceed, sir. Chairman roberts, thank you for that. But i do want to make one slight correction. When you said that our house agriculture was sometimes influential and powerful, may we add an addendum to that so it will go out that the house Agriculture Committee has always been and will always be powerful and influential. I appreciate that correction. Just was only one chairman that had the tenure when it was sometimes powerful. My friend, i will certainly take that in consideration. Chairman roberts im greatly honored and very thankful to have this opportunity to come and stand with my dear friend, my longtime friend, sunny perdue. I wanted to just take a few minutes to share with you some things about sunny that you need to know. My good friend, senator Saxby Chambliss shared with you his immense qualifications. His education, the fact that he went to the university of georgias veterinarian school. But im here to explain to you why sunny perdue is indeed the right person the right time to do the absolute best job, the talents 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, first africanamerican to get that position mitchell good friend, sunny perdue, was the president pro tem of the senate. Now, im not saying that to shake a bell on our credentials here, but i think that 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 be every 40 days that went on for almost 80 days. Now, sunny and i had to meet every single day to Work Together, to set the agenda to determine what bills got on to 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 fireworks. There were plenty in that Georgia Legislature. What you get to understand a persons temperment when youre on the battlefield with them. Their courage, theyre does their decisiveness and sun where per do you was sunny perdue was just such a person. On all major pieces of legislation that affect it every georgian of every stripe, of every condition, sunny perdue had a very integral part of that. And so i want to take just a few minutes, if if may if i may pause what is important to me is to make sure that my friend, sunny perdue, becomes the