Joseph Skeen: “I will work with him to assure that the FSA provides a smooth transition to a common computing environment for Minnesota…”

“I will work with him to assure that the FSA provides a smooth transition to a common computing environment for Minnesota FINPACK users. FSA has provided me with a copy of the contract they are entering into with the University of Minnesota to facilitate that endeavor. In addition, I wish to provide for the Record a letter from Mr. Keith Kelly, administrator for the Farm Service Agency, that outlines the agency's plan for using and integrating agency software with their financial software, including FINPACK, and the proprietary software mentioned in the gentleman's statement. FSA field offices have been required to use the Agency's automated system called the Farm and Home Plan (FHP) system for many years to produce FHP's for our farm borrowers and to perform various farm planning and analysis functions. FSA has continued to fund the yearly maintenance and allow Minnesota to use FINPACK until the Agency had developed an interface that would allow for all of the historical FINPACK data to be loaded into the official FHP database housed at each of the FSA field offices.”