Pat Roberts

the President's budget is inadequate--in fact, requests no money this year for the continuation of that project.

a delay in its completion ought not be anything that we tolerate.

I would again encourage you, as the Secretary of Department of Homeland Security, to release the $40 million.

We have a good, solid starting point.

the number one issue that we hit whenever I am out in Kansas--I just spent 10 days there--is overregulation and enforcement.

If this bird is listed as threatened or endangered, ranching as we know it in the Western United States comes to a halt.

I would like to welcome Jeff Trandahl, the executive director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

All right. You just hit a home run, and my time has expired.

A single program will not meet the needs of all producers, but we have gone too far, in my view, in the other direction.

My goal during this farm bill process is to help maintain options for producers while simplifying the programs.

Today's hearing is an important step in our farm bill process.

When you have chaos, you have instability. When you have instability, you have terrorism.

Let me stress again that good progress was made on the conservation title last fall.

Show me a country that cannot sustain itself in regards to its own food supply, you have got chaos.

I look forward to hearing from each of you as we talk about the next farm bill.

I and most Kansans were surprised... when the President's budget came out on Monday and proposed no construction funds in 2013.

I was very disappointed to see--yet again, I might add--a proposal that cuts nearly $8 billion out of the Crop Insurance Program.

I think this whole NBAF thing needs a whole fresh look from the beginning as to whether or not it is better economically and also for our national security to upgrade the Plum Island facilities.

It is our hope that we can get unity on this Committee during that open process.

I think we have made some real progress on crop insurance.

What keeps me up at night is immigration.

I have been in contact with the Governor of Kansas virtually every day on this project, and the Governor, quite the opposite, did not say that they were not committing funds.

Unfortunately, our current budget situation leaves us with very little room for error.

Mr. Secretary, do you believe construction of this facility is vital to our Nation's food and agriculture security?

We will rely heavily on our witnesses to tell us what programs are working, what programs are not working.