Heidi Heitkamp

We write to thank you for your direct response to our letter of September 8, 2017 calling for direct action.

Building this coalition and building this sanctions regime is absolutely critical

Time is money. And as a result, money is short.

Just very quickly, I wanted to make sure that I stopped in to impress upon everyone here that we are serious about this process.

I think we have got some real challenges in taking a look at how we provide a real remedy to consumers in this situation.

We do not stand alone in securing credit and providing a safety net.

Well, we are going to find out in North Dakota with bad crops this year.

I think the other point that we all want to make is that without a strong crop insurance program, without a strong Title 1, access to credit is going to be very, very difficult.

One of the things that we have been concerned about in the downturn in commodity prices and the additional challenge is access to credit.

We do need MAP and FMD funding increased

We appreciate your work on that

We look forward to working with all of you on that

The best safety net is a free enterprise system where we can sell our products

I always tell people the single most important job for a North Dakota Senator is a farm bill that works as an effective safety net.

We can sit here and yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and then nothing happens.

We are losing that in rural America, and we need to figure out how actions here are driving that.

Again, just to reiterate, we need to get Postal reform done because these things, they all land in your lap, and you are there alone.

I do not think there is any doubt that we have failed in our oversight responsibility and our management responsibility of the post office.

I continue to be deeply concerned about the lack of systemic reform within the Postal Service.

This should concern all of us.

Before the chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations leaves, I also would like to put into the Record that, recently, in a raid that was performed in the Philippines, some very interesting documentation was seized about…

The JOM program has proven to be an effective and essential program for Navajo students attending public school.

What is the average adverse childhood experience of Native American children? We do not know, do we?

I look forward to working with Senator Merkley to mark up these bills and move them forward for our consideration.

We cannot get a count, so we need to fix this problem.