Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the opportunity, and I appreciate this Committee. It is great to be back on the Agriculture Committee and the Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee this Congress.

So do we need more assistance--funding assistance?

An important priority of mine this Congress is identifying ways to expand access to care and treatment within incarcerated settings.

I applaud this bold investment. I want to ask about your goals for this funding.

A catalyst to our recidivism crisis is that our justice-involved population does not receive adequate healthcare, particularly when it comes to treating mental health and addiction.

The funding request for HHS put forward by the Biden-Harris administration is exactly what we need in this moment to address the many challenges facing our country.

Moving forward, Congress has to work to address the remaining inequities that limit access to mental health telehealth services for underserved communities.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, our health-care system was grappling with an unprecedented workforce shortage.

Fortunately, Congress has legislation to address this gap in coverage with a bipartisan bill entitled, the Nutrition Counseling Aiding Recovery for Eating Disorders Act.

I am working on a bipartisan basis to promote domestic R&D, including through bipartisan tax legislation with Senators Young, Cortez Masto, Portman, and Sasse.

Promoting R&D investment in the U.S. is key to out-competing China.

I am grateful to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro and to the GAO analysts assisting him today for their testimony.

Currently, the United States Mint spends nearly twice as much money producing the penny and nickel as the coins are actually worth.

I am committed to ensuring that Congress does its part to eliminate duplication, overlap, and fragmentation to achieve billions in savings.

Sen. Hassan's Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act eliminates the unnecessary and counterproductive requirement that prescribing providers obtain a waiver.

I was glad to support it.

It has also created a global food security and malnutrition crisis, which you know very well.

there is plenty of money to be saved.