Thank you for your passion and for your compassion.

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.

the law is clear and California is violating the law.

It is about the result. It is not about--I mean, FSMA is designed in a way to create safe food, not a regulatory checklist.

I would ask if you would assure me that you will do everything as the commissioner to see that our subcommittee, its members, get appropriate, full, complete, and timely responses to inquiries we make to the FDA.

My hope is that a few months into your job as we get through the appropriations process, that we would invite you back.

I would ask you and encourage you to consider the appointment of a veterinary medicine practitioner, a doctor of veterinary medicine, to that position.

I am an advocate, obviously, for expansion of those opportunities in places that are unserved.

Commissioner, I saw recently that the Director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine announced that she was leaving the agency.

Commissioner, let me turn my attention, our attention, to FSMA and the topic of guidance documents.

I think it was 2010, maybe 2011, the law was changed to allow the sales.

But my view is that the government program is the subsidy, not creating additional service in places that are already served.

I am concerned that the FDA is often slow in communicating with us and with our staff.

my understanding of the current state of the law in regard to Cuba is that we can sell agriculture commodities, food, and medicine to Cuba for cash.

Food aid, and particularly the McGovern-Dole--in Kansas, we would say the Dole-McGovern program. You are proposing reductions in the spending in that area.

I applaud those efforts. We have seen a number of just individuals--Gary LaGrange, who is retired military in my hometown, has created opportunities for veterans returning with traumatic injuries to enter farming, in this case, beekeeping…

Agriculture supports more than 16 million jobs nationwide and forms the backbone of our rural communities.

I would highlight for you that our Subcommittee intends to have a hearing in the next several weeks on this topic of how to bring veterans into agriculture.