we will continue our oversight responsibilities in a partnership effort with you.

So RUS made a loan to a utility company expecting the life--they loaned the money to build a power plant or to improve a power plant.

I believe that GMOs are safe. I believe we should have them available to the globe.

For those of us who grew up in rural areas, it is a lifestyle we cherish and hope to preserve for our children.

I cannot understand the public policy of that. It does not benefit the utility. It does not impact the end-user.

It does not solve the problem permanently, but it certainly solves the immediate problem.

The loans do not go away. They are still going to be due and owing.

If you can provide the utility structure, including water, at a rate that is more affordable, the chances of manufacturing returning to the U.S. from someplace abroad is enhanced.

Agriculture remains one of the bright spots in our nation's economy, supporting more than 16 million jobs nationwide.

We will continue to press Rural Development for more clarity, because we believe they have the authority to do what needs to be done.

We want clean water. I represent lots of communities in which there are not enough ratepayers.

I have been worried for a long time, going back to the original order of the FCC particularly related to the Universal Service Fund.

We think that is part of it. That is part of what we try to do as well.

This issue of the lesser prairie chicken or endangered species, and now the more recent clean power plan, what is wrong with those whose suggestion is just have the utility companies raise the rates?

Do you have any sense that Rural Development is advocating for a position beneficial to the repayment of their loans and to the continued expansion of broadband availability with the FCC?

The point I would make, and ask you to agree or disagree, is I often think of this issue of the order of 2011 as an impediment toward a telephone company's ability to repay loans that already are in existence to RUS.

On my first trip to Kansas, I had the opportunity to visit Emporia, and along with Senator Jerry Moran, recognize USDA Rural Business Development Grant recipients.

Tell me once again what you understand Congress' direction to be in that regard.