Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for a very, very important hearing.

S. 1001 addresses head-on the broad concepts that our nation must confront in order to wean ourselves off of foreign petroleum products.

Difficult budgets also provide reason and opportunity to simplify and streamline programs so that they work better for the people that are relying on them.

Thank you, President Simon. Good morning, Chairwoman Stabenow, Senator Roberts.

Senator Roberts and I have talked about that as one of the major issues for us going forward.

we help rural communities improve their economies and offer good jobs to their citizens.

Thank you for your leadership on this important issue and for inviting me to share the story of my family forest.

I think there are great opportunities that meet environmental needs.

I do not think we have an economy or a middle class unless you make things and grow things.

Thank you for your strong leadership during the last farm bill.

when we talk about the farm bill, as we all know, it is really a jobs bill.

Fundamentally, we write farm bills to help producers in the face of real challenges and to conserve natural resources.

It is a national security issue.

It is certainly a priority for me.

true democracy was based on the capacity to have people across all walks of life have access to the best information

There are some real opportunities for us.

Thank you, Senator Stabenow, for your leadership on the last farm bill.

we help real people who struggle to put food on the table in difficult economic times.

So I very much appreciate all that you are doing.

This is not only a challenge for us. It is a moral issue.

I urge you and your fellow Senators of this committee to protect funding for SNAP and to support hungry children and families in accessing available benefits as you focus on the upcoming reauthorization of the farm bill.

Investments in research, every dollar that you spend, ten dollars return.

I suspect that Senator Johanns knows what those conversations are kind of like, where you essentially say, look, we are looking at potentially a 25 to 30 percent cut in our discretion budget.

Every dollar that we spent in trade promotion generated $35 of economic opportunity for farmers and producers and business leaders and job growth in the country.

We are never going to get out of debt with 13 million people out of work in this country.