Not that still makes sense in todays market. They are putting together that work plan. Will be more than happy when that process is completed to obviously provide you Additional Information on precisely what were thinking. The key here is to make sure that the Playing Field is level between those who are owners and those who are producers to make sure theres not an unfair advantage in the relationship and to make sure in difficult times that those who have invested a lot of hard earned resource and time are treated fairly if a contract is terminated order for some reason a contract is modified. We have had examples where folks have been dealt a very serious and difficult blow in tight circumstances. The Avian Influenza situation was important. Particularly those who lost birds. We found not all the payments were going to the producers who were economically suffering as well. We want to make sure its a fair and equitable relationship. Thats the purpose of the review of the rules. What do you. He picture the tiexpect the time to be . What schedule are you on . I suspect some of the rules may be finalize and some may be proposed. G g given the nature of the concerns expressed in the past. I would hope we would get work plans completed and something over relatively soon. I would hope we would get that done sometime in the early spring. Then theres the review by omb which can take sometimes up to 90 days or longer. Then hopefully, that process is expedited so that sometime in late summer, early fall were in a position to provide information specifically to the public for their comment and review. At that point, any adjustments that need to be made can be made. Hopefully by the time the year ends, we know what the rules will be or what they are proposed to be. Mr. Secretary, you mentioned avian flu. Is there something this is a topic of conversation that you and i had one on one. Certainly in the hearing that we had a year ago on your budget, this was a significant issue and concern. Is there something that usda has learned that we would be in a better position should this kind of occurrence reappear . And then if you would bring me bring us up to date on whats transpired in other countries in regard to our exports in regard to avian flu. Well, we have learned a great deal, mr. Chairman. First of all, we learned that necessity of making earlier determinations and quicker determinations. So we beefed up our laboratory capacity. We would like to make determinations within a 24 to 48hour time period when something arises on a farm. We would then like to be able to work with the producer to depopulate within 24 hours. We learned there are a multitude of ways in which that can be done under each particular circumstance. We learned the need to preposition assets or to have an wearness and understanding of how disposal will be handled in advance as opposed to after the fact which can delay disposal which can create greater risk. We learned our indemnification systems need to be altered to reflect a more appropriate balance. We were cleaning up situations in some of the facilities that hadnt been cleaned up for a decade as opposed to cleaning up the specific cause or the problem with Avian Influenza. There was a better balanced approach there. The difference between providing the owner of the birds allindem equitable distribution. We learned the necessity of constantly researching this. Its constantly mutating and evolving. And we have learned the necessity of at least having prepositioned vaccine. Not that we would use it. But there may be a circumstance or situation where it is appropriate. We have sort of war gamed what that would look like and what we would have to do in order to utilize vaccine. In terms of the trade issue, we are seeing many of those who initially banned all poultry seal sales are beginning to understand the need to look at this regionally. We have seen some that have become even state specific and some bans that have been very specific to the county or counties. So we have seen an expansion of opportunity, about 77 of the poultry exports are currently in the right place. Were still working with some of our friends in china, for example. For the most part, people have taken the right approach to regionalization or statewide bans as opposed to countrywide bans. It seems as if you learned a lot. Which i assume means better usda, the federal government, better prepared for another occurrence should it arise. Is there any legislative changes that are required to help you accomplish a greater or better response . Well, i would only say, mr. Chairman, i think the research aspect of usda needs to continue to be beefed up. Were constantly dealing with things like this. I dont know that we necessarily need a legislative change. If there are, i will be happy to get information to you. I dont know of anything off the top of my head. Thank you very much. Senator merkley . Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Secretary. Were well along in the journey now. An eightyear journey serving president obama. I believe you are the only member of the cabinet who has been there from the starting line and is still with us. I assume planning to go across the finish line. I want to thank you for these eight years of service. Thank you. And as you indicated by the chairman, i know you wrote a lot on so many issues. Certainly in your introduction, you mentioned food, water and shelter. That is everything from snap to Water Purification programs to housing programs. It really reflects on the essential functions that your department has for millions and millions of americans. I just wanted to note, your march 7th speech where you talked about called upon congress to pass mandatory gmo labeling. I know you and i have a very different definition of what that would look like. But i stand with you shoulder to shoulder in that cause of mandatory labeling. I wanted to turn to the housing component. One of the issues we had last year is that under rent al assistan assistance, we where ran out of money to pay the share of the rent that we were responsible for as the federal government. That appears to be fully addressed in the budget for fy17. But i just wanted to raise it and ask if people across the country who were involved in providing projectbased housing can rest assured that weve got did covered this time. Senator, i think we do. Its what i have been told. I certainly appreciate the work of yourself and members of the this committee to resolve that aspect of our rental assistance program. We have, as you know, the other issue of maturing mortgages and loan payoffs which will result potentially unless we deal with this in a lot of the units coming out of the program. Which case, you are going to have a lot of families looking for housing and not be able to afford it. You turned to my second topic. We have recently been able to get some data from the department on maturing mortgages in oregon. Its important that across the nation we know when mortgages are maturing so that nonprofits can attempt to buy them and places where they would go to a higher market race. I know your team has been working on this issue. I just wanted to emphasize how hard it is to recould have they are hourecover this if we lose out of the affordable portfolio. I worked on a Program Years ago. It was a very similar situation, only in urban settings. Now we have this in rural settings. Anything that you can do im sure many members would say the same to assist the department in trying to make sure we identify the expiring use projects and do Everything Possible to preserve them, certainly, would like to see happen. Senator, 75 of these loans potentially will become due and paid off in the next ten years. So thats 75 of the units. One thing that you may want to think about is the ability of vouchering those folks who are in a position where their unit ultimately gets out of the program. Another way that were looking at is being able to extend the mortgages and refinancing so that the improvements can be made to the property with the savings that results from extension and refinancing. So there are some creative solutions. We need to get focused on this. I look forward to exploring with the subcommittee the possibilities. This will be very important to the Housing Stock in america. I want to turn to the Rural Energy Savings program. The Energy Saving program, consist was we could create jobs in Rural America if people could take loans on their electric bill and be able to replace their windows or add ensinsulat. It put a lot of people to work. Often the Energy Savings would pay for the improvements themselves. Plus, virtually all the products are made in america. So we get more bang for the buck, because we get the local Construction Contractor employed but it also creates jobs in american manufacturing. We had the initial program funded last year. I was wondering if you have any information on whether it get it stood up on its feet and have it running. Senator, as you know, we worked with a program that was similar to what you proposed with an Interest Rate that was high, higher. And we were in the process of implementing that and learning from that. Recognizing that there were some serious learning curve for what we were dealing with. We recently announced a statewide initiative in vermont where we learned quite a bit. The proposal that you were the leader on, we expect and anticipate to stand up this spring. We would anticipate and expect there will be an interest an interest free or zero interest program. Now that we know how to set it up, i think we will see more of the projects. Because i think it is popular. I think theres a great deal of potential there. I can tell you in oregon, the employment rate has not rebounded at all in rural airs the way it has in urban areas. I know this the case across the country. Its a Win Win Program on several levels. Help us fix the fire situation and that situation in rural oregon will change. Thank you, chairman. Secretary vilsack, i want to join merkel and moran in appreciating your service, appreciating really how much you bring to this job i think every year more than the year before. Its amoazing how much there is to learn. Im impress by how you dedicated yourself to learning how important this is. The future challenges and opportunities for agriculture is great if not greater than they have ever been. Hopefully, we can figure out how to make the most of that. Just two or three pretty quick questions here. One is, i continue to hear from our friends in agriculture the desire for more streamlining in the reporting process. My good friend, who is the chairman of the Missouri Farm Bureau was telling me he has to go into the fsa office and file his report on Crop Insurance. Then he has to go to his Crop Insurance agent and then the agent has to refile the same information with Risk Management. Are we making any progress in trying to steam line that time cost both to federal employees and to the people that they work for . We are, senator. Last year we launched and this year we implemented fsaplus, which is allowing folks to access records at home. This year we will do we started with a Pilot Project in iowa and illinois to test market how we would be able to have better coordination between rma and fsa and the reporting. We then extended that to a number of other states. Now we are prepared this year to go nationwide. The concerns that he has expressed i think by the end of this year he will be much happier than he has been. He will also be able to access all of his records, awful his maps, all of his information from his home computer with fsaplus. I know this is a project that has been out there all the time youve been running the department. Frustrating and challenging for all of us. I look forward to seeing it come to a conclusion. You will remember my mom and dad were dairy farmers. I come to this next topic with my own personal point of view, which is pretty strongly held. I believe that there are significant parts of the country now where packaged bottled water is being offered as a substitute for milk in school cafeterias. Histor historical historically, usda recommended schoolchildren consume 2 1 2 to 3 servings of milk every day because the potassium and vitamin d and calcium. I believe the facts thats an accurate statement about water as an alternative. Is packaged bottled water reimbursable in the National SchoolLunch Program . I believe it is. I dont for a fact know that. We can check. I do know that we are encouraging more dairy products. It doesnt necessarily have to be milk. Greek yogurt is now a protein substitu substitute. Theres a lot of interest. Were trying to be responsive to what School Districts are asking us to provide them with. And for. I will check on the reimbursement issue. Im not a big advocate for us buying water as one of the alternatives at lunch. There are other ways to get water, i would think. Usda being funds being used, you think thats through the National SchoolLunch Program then . Or might be and you are going to check and get back to us on that. I will check on that. Senator mccakackaskel wrote letter. Our concerns are the remaining Funds Available under phase two of the connects america fund critically important that rural constituents all over our letter was focused on missouri have the same access to fiberoptics and other advanced Broadband Networks as their urban counterparts at a comparable price. We have conveyed those same sentiments to the chairman. Thats our hope is that as they look at connect america and some of the other programs that we are will continue to see an expansion of broadband. Also we believe its going to be important for us to continue to stay in the game from a grant and loan perspective. Thats why our budget has an increase in the broadband access. All those things matter. Maybe social access may lead to my last question, which is one you and i talked after the president asked you to play a leadership role in this effort to curb heroin and opioid use on the floor of the senate this morning as were trying to move through this bill, i made the point that actually more people die of drug overdoses now in Rural America than urban america. More people die outside a metropolitan statistical area, even if they live quite a than they do if they are in a metropolitan statistical area, even though that area may be far from the hub of that. Do you want to talk a little bit about the challenge to Rural America of this epidemic of opioid and heroin use and overdose . Its a complicated problem. Its one that requires a series of steps. We have to have more prescribers trained in the appropriate prescription of pain medication. I think we have to have frankly reasonable expectations on the part of patients as well in terms of precisely what doctors can and cant do in terms of pain relief. I think its going to be important for us particularly in rural areas to have First Responders to have access to the overdose reversal drugs that are available that are nasal spray, more readily available. In fact, we might want to consider a general prescription that would allow family members to have access to that reversal drug just in case knowing if a loved one is in trouble being able to respond quickly. Its going to be necessary for us to look at ways in which we can encourage states, specifically the state of missouri, to have a more a better Monitoring Program so that we can prevent doctor shopping and we have int interoperability. Its important to look at ways in which we can increase support for medication assisted treatment and having perhaps not just limited to physicians but perhaps physician assistants or some other medical professional, particularly in rural areas, involved in the prescribing in materials of meeting the needs. You mentioned broadband, telemedicine and access to services may be a way of providing Services Without necessarily a brick and investment. We need to understand services are covered by insurance. Theres i think a lack of understanding about that. We frankly need to engage the entire community, the faithbased community, in making Recovery Support efforts more readily available. I know in my own personal circumstances, my mother struggled. She would never have been able to recover but for aa and some of the support that she got from people similarly situated. There arent places today in many Rural Communities where those meetings can take place. Faithbased organizations have a particularly interesting role and opportunity there. It takes a broad approach. I think the administration looks forward to working with you and others to make sure we put the resources behind all of these solutions. Because it is a hproblem and people are dieing and thousands hundreds of thousands of families are being impacted and affected by this. Thank you for your leadership there and other areas, mr. Secretary. Chairman, thank you for time. Thank you, senator blunt. Senator chester. Thank you, mr. Chairman. For allowing me to speak and giving these glasses so i can read. Its good to have you here, secretary vilsack. Im going to start out right now with a station in sydney. I dont know all the information about it. It was just pointed tout eed o today by a producer from eastern montana that its being repurposed or potentially maybe taken a step towards closure. I want to get some input from you on whats going on. If you dont know, you can certainly get back to me. These guys do incredible research and a incredible facility. On soft lie, other pests and the issues with barley scab showing up. These Research Facilities are important. Can you give me an idea what the plans are for that . Go ahead. The budget that we propose requested an increase. Part of that would be targeted towards t