Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing. I appreciate that you and Ranking Republican Stauber made it up to Minnesota.

We want to help out the folks in rural America and make sure that the people that happen to live outside of big cities have the same opportunities.

Might know the area and customers better. Might have more of an interest in making sure that it gets done right and that the people are serviced long into the future because they are probably going to be doing business there for a long…

I agree with my colleague from Iowa, this is a lot like the REAs and delivering that last mile or two of electricity to the farms.

I think everybody in the room is on the same team. We want this to work. We want to help out the folks in rural America.

One of the reasons I wanted to serve on the Agriculture Committee was twofold: to make sure that we can sustain our incredible system of agriculture that produces the finest-quality, affordable products in all the world for the American…

They should be able to go choose the mental health provider of their choice, not necessarily have to rely on the VA.

I just want to talk about the issue.

I support a grant program that would allow doctors to go into rural areas and to practice there.

We appreciate the work that you are trying to do here to expand our markets, to drive down barriers.

I am for free trade, open trade, reciprocal trade, whatever you want to call it, but when the other side cheats or does things to undercut U.S. interests in our companies and agribusinesses, that is not right.