Tom Vilsack

The Congress was not clear, and was not definitive and specific.

MIDAS is designed to address that.

Make no mistake about that. Because there is a direct correlation between agricultural productivity and research.

It's primarily a software issue.

These are not easy decisions, trust me. We did not take these lightly.

I think we really need to be careful about the permission we grant.

I'm not going to whine about it. I'm not going to complain about it. I'm going to manage it.

The office closings themselves are about $6.5 million.

In fiscal year 2012, it's $112 million.

Mr. Chairman, we do believe it is adequate.

It's not so much the equipment. It's the software.

These are tough decisions, and obviously, people are going to come and they're going to talk very passionately about the need for their individual office.

Our funding has been flat-lined, for the most part. It hasn't been increased dramatically.

The Forest Service's important role in water and watershed management.

Assisting and empowering these aspiring farmers to get off to a successful start should be a top priority of Federal farm policy and programs.

We are going to continue to work hard with limited resources to provide as many housing opportunities as we can.

I think there are a number of cities, major cities, the city of Chicago--I talked to Mayor Emanuel about this.

I hope that you will take that back to the President and tell him to get behind what some of us are trying to do here in the Congress to open up those markets in those three areas.

we should not chase bad money with good.

I hope that the President will get behind those of us here on both sides of the aisle who have been pushing for market access.

There needs to be the political courage to stand up and say we are not going to have this issue divide this Nation.

Last summer, the President announced the creation of the White House Rural Council.

My personal preference would be that we make good on the commitments that we have made in the past.

If you are going to have it, it needs to be adequately resourced.

These are tough decisions, and, candidly, if you were designing this system today, you probably would design it a little differently than it is.