Jerry Moran

I know the National Rural Water Association well enough to know that I assume that your request would be additional dollars put into those programs.

I co-chair a caucus in the Senate with one of my Democrat colleagues. It is about competitiveness.

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

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.

Without that predictable and sufficient and sustainable universal service, that demand may not materialize in the form of taking our infrastructure loans to bring broadband to rural Kansans.

Okay. When you make a determination about an RUS loan to provide broadband services, the subsidy that is provided by RUS, is it what is designed to be the sufficient amount of additional revenue to make the service available to make it…

I look forward to exploring that.

How dramatic of a consequence could changing the Universal Service Fund be to the ability of your borrowers to pay back their loans they have borrowed?

That requires us to have the best information possible to make those decisions.

Thank you Chairman Moran and Ranking Member Merkley for allowing me to testify and I would be happy to answers any questions that you may have at this time.

One of the primary interests in my running for public office was a belief in rural America and desire to see that it prospers

We have never been officially notified of a shortfall to begin with.

I would tell you, Mr. Chrisman, in Kansas, the most common conversation I have with a Chamber of Commerce executive, an economic developer, a mayor, a city councilmember, when you are visiting a community and you want to talk about what is…

I want express my care and concern for the president and CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative, Jo Ann Emerson.

I guess I am also interested in--you tell me that you communicate with them, what do they say?

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

I appreciate your testimony. Thank you for joining us today.

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?

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.

The topic of today's hearing is Rural Development.

Fifteen percent of the proposed area of service is the requirement for the loan?

Many issues facing rural communities are unique to those areas in an ever-increasing urbanized and technologically-advanced world.

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?

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.

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