poles because it getses our xhounity provided. i am not going to sigh -- look, in it was up to me, it's a sg prodpranl, we are twoing it to all we can to promote it. it goes to everything i talked about >> i appreciate that. your answer is good enough for me. the committee will call to the

sobt of recess. sobt of recess.

proposal to hold spending on the project has prompted a partisan dustup. it refers to the senator kyl who called president of hamas economic plan and effective and following that apparently several letters were written from the administration to a state governor and one apparently came from you and in it as far as i know, you can correct me if i'm wrong it says to the governor if you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to your state please let of snow.

is that correct? and blight would you pick his one state to send that letter to? >> it is correct that i did send the letter to the governor. the money from our economic recovery portion is going to the states. it's not going through congress. it goes to state the ots. >> supplied to pick his states and not all the states saying one senator doesn't want this spent so we're going to ask all the senators. was this just done because you are trying to make political hay out of the situation? why would you pick just one state? >> because senator cardin who is a friend of mine was on national television on sunday talking show saying that he thought that the money didn't need to be spent. if they didn't need the money maybe we should send the money back to washington. i just wanted to double check with the person in charge of the money.

senator kyl -- senator kafeel is not in charge of the money, congressman. the governor is and i wanted to be sure the governor wasn't in the same line of thinking as senator kyl and the reason i did it is because -- let me finish on going to answer -- >> it's my time. >> it's your time but do you want me to answer or not? >> i will ask the questions and he will answer. >> i haven't answered yet. >> why did -- did he say he didn't want the money going to his state? >> if you go back and look at the transcript of that program, but he said is that we should send this money back as not being spent. and i wanted to check with the person responsible for spending the money. that's why i sent the letter. >> so he wanted the money sent from his state. >> he was talking about arizona. >> and he said the money is being used effectively. regardless whether he's talking about his state or all the

states is inappropriate for a cabinet secretary to contact the governor of that state to request whether the money should come back. could you see if you're sitting on the other side if you're wearing your head is a congressman could see that as a threat from the administration would you have considered that if you remember, chris? >> not at all. >> he wouldn't think that? >> not at all. >> should have any concerns that i would get a letter sent to governor quote of new jersey singing the congressman voted against the stimulus and so therefore we are wondering whether you want to receive the money? >> congressman. it will send because of a statement made on national television about maybe we should send the money back and i wanted to check with the elected official in the state that has responsibility. it had nothing to do with anybody's vote and by the way i've worked very closely with governor course lined and as a

result commodore state congressman, has received millions of dollars for projects putting people to work or working today that were on unemployment in january or february. your government has been a leader in this by the way. >> so there is legislation out there right now that suggests the rest of the money hasn't already been spent should go back to treasury so if i got out publicly and support that legislation, i have not voted on it, would that lead -- anybody else the supports the type of legislation make public statements would that lead anybody from the cabinet? >> we don't base our decisions how people vote. >> do you base than by public statements apparently? >> i wanted to check to insure arizona wanted to make spend the money and by the way we allocated $20 million for the transit program >> did anybody else in the administration or outside encourage you to write that letter? >> i don't need any encouragement to write letters to the vendors, congressman.

>> did anyone in or outside of the administration contact you? >> i don't need encouragement from anybody to write letters. my job is to -- >> just answer did anybody inside or outside the administration encourage you to write that letter? >> congressman, my responsibilities to work with governor -- let me answer it. >> it is yes or no. did anyone inside or outside the administration to encourage you -- >> i don't need encouragement. >> can you answer the question whether you need encouragement or not -- >> i don't need encouragement, that is my answer. >> mr. chairman with the witness please answer did anyone inside or outside the administration encourage you to write the letter whether you need the encouragement or not did anyone encourage you to write that letter? >> nope. >> did anyone talk about writing the letter? >> nope. >> it was entirely your decision? >> ,, you want me to answer or go on? negative answer is we work with governors all the time. that's our job.

and so we wanted to contact the governor of arizona because of what the junior senator of arizona had said on television. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> ms. tsongas. >> thank you for your testimony and your hard work to help our economy recover and get the country back on track. we've heard today and we will continue to hear claims here and in the press that the recovery act has failed and while we are not specifically discussing the education fund in the recovery act i did reach out from across my district and wanted to share some quotes from school superintendent because i think they reveal how critical this funding has been and will continue to be. the superintendent of the school district which is the largest city i represent the less, quote, thank goodness for the

stimulus and for stimulus money next year. without we would have had to cut 120 teachers. 120 teachers represents roughly 10% of the staff. at a much smaller community we heard, quote, without the stimulus funding we would have had to lead eight teachers go with funding we were able to keep them. and in a mid-sized suburb, quote, we were able to replace outdated textbooks, replace ience equipment, trained staff and maintain 14 teacher speed these communities and others i've heard from have had to make real sacrifices and suffered deep cuts and while these numbers are not large in and of themselves given the tremendous loss in jobs we could imagine how important they are to each community and how multiplied across the country what a difference it has made in saved jobs and in preserving education for our young people. furthermore, for those individuals who have lost their jobs in my district the

communities of lowell on the planet is in the double digits while and warrants, mid-sized city, on employment is over 17%. almost twice the national average. and unemployment compensation food stamps and other forms of nutrition assistance funds included in the recovery act have been a crucial lifeline. and i thank you, secretary vilsack, for your work in getting that finding out. but i have a slightly different question. when we pass the recovery act we committed to closely monitor the use of funds to deport waste, fraud, and abuse. very important, and the in massachusetts have learned a hard lesson with a big date of not closely monitoring how we spend public funds. as a result, the recovery act has been one of the most transparent spending bills passed by congress. but unfortunately, one side effect of that is that the administrative burden required to get the recovery funds quickly is very high on local communities and agencies.

in fact i have communities that don't even have great writers. .. we won't even as the folks to determine whether they want to apply for usda or the commerce department money. we will do this by zip code and

by virtue of the information that we have. we will make sure it gets funneled to the right department. this is one way of trying to get resources to people as quickly as possible and to have them be able to apply as easily as possible. we are also very committed to transparency. we at usda creed the geospatial map of the country. you click on to every state and find the precisely what usda has been doing and what has been doing and other departments will be joining as well so over time you will have a single u.s. map that will allow you to have a sense of all of the projects and where they are located. >> thank you. >> i was just going to, if you don't mind mr. chairman may i just respond because i just want you to know that in those areas where people don't have the ability to have grant riders or if, even if they don't have

access to-- some of these areas have access to metropolitan planning groups who do have grant riders who can help the communities but in the event, there is a community that doesn't have anybody may be what we could do is try and be helpful to them and reach up to them through our offices and put them in touch with people that can be helpful. i would think that some of these metropolitan planning organizations would have people that could reach out to them, but we have relationships with them also, so maybe what we should do is get the names of some of these folks and see if we can be helpful in identifying people that can help them jump through the bureaucratic hoops to access some of these dollars. >> we have been a resource to them and they have worked with planning agencies but i was just on the floor of the house today talking to a member from arizona who was saying in communities

that are very isolated, they really suffer in many ways but one is that they just don't have the capacity to stay on top of it and it is obviously our role as members of congress to do everything we can for our communities. i think it is important you hear it and be aware of it from your point of you. >> good point, thank you. >> thank you mr. chairman. you. tary vilsack, thank you >> this year on several occasions, it was great to have your testimony there. that said, i do have a bone to pick with you about forest service stimulus funds. as you know, the forest service has sdrib uted over $930 million. of the korgs that has gone to the rocky mountain region.

the modia has asserted that wyoming is getting punished. i'm willing to assume that your department is more above brz than that. >> can you explain to me the service dollars in wyoming compared police officer my neighborhooding state. >> as you probably know, we are in the process of continuing to make decisions about forest searchs projects. while this is not public, i can tell you i'm fairly confidence based on what we planned.

circumstances and conditions of the state and so we rank programs and projects based on the capacity to try to help folks get through difficult times. your state, because of the good leadership that it has with governor freudenthal and others, obviously did not have the unemployment rate quite as high as other states so we went through the process of making sure we got the money to the states that were most in need. so, but money is coming as has been the case with all of the other programs that i talked about earlier. as i look at this, you see close to $50 million in money. >> mr. chairman? i would like to point out that right now, utah which is receive $12 million in forest monies has a high are, or rather excuse me, a lower unemployment rate than wyoming. we have more forests and we have

an enormous problem with barken eagles. they are projected to destroy between 90 and 100% of the pine in southern wyoming and northern colorado by 2012 so we are in a desperate situation with regard to bark beetles and our unemployment rate now exceeds that. of utah which is receipts $12 million. i am however encouraged to hear that we will be receiving 6.5 million. can you tell me when that will occur? >> it is in the process. i think it is in the process of being reviewed by either my staff or omb so it should be relatively shortly. i should also indicate to you that there were other criteria in addition to the unemployment. the risk of forest fire, the capacity to create sustainable

jobs, the capacity to use biomass. the opportunity to create jobs for recreation sites, roads, trails. there were 2700 projects submitted to us. we did our best to try to rank them based on a variety of criteria. i can reassure you that there was absolutely no determination relative to votes. until you told me you voted against the stimulus i had no idea that that was your vote and frankly in terms of my job, i don't care. my job is to make sure that these resources are used to create jobs and to help people transition from that time to better times and create that 21st century economy and we are very focused on danette job. >> thank you mr. vilsack. i appreciate that because it was adjusted their votes may have something to do with the fact that wyoming has not receive the funds and i'm pleased to hear they are coming. briefly, secretary lahood i would like to make a comment.

because wyoming has 29 people per lane bile and the national averages 128, while migs per capita contribution is $314, where the national average contribution is only $109. i wanto tell you i am grateful for the stimulus funds we have received for highways in wyoming. that has been an area where we are pleased. but come in terms of the long term trust fund issues, i just wanted to suggest to you that, because of our small population and huge amounts of highways, a tremendously important economic and transportation corridors and the fact that our small population puts a higher burden for lane mile than other states, that as you are coming up with a long-term resolution to the highway trust fund issues we hope he will take that into consideration. i want to thank you for being here and i want to thank you

mr. chairman for holding this hearing. >> mr. chairman let me say in response to the congresswoman, i know this highway trust fund for me let is an issue for many, many members. it was during that time that i served and continues to be. i have talked to both of your centers from wyoming about this and i think you will be in a good position along with your senators to really work on this as we work through how to really make the formula fair. there are issues and i know how important these wrote are to states like wyoming. i really do. i mean they are the lifeline for economic development and opportunities and, so we will work with you on that. >> i look forward to it. mr. chairman think as a lot for holding this hearing. >> mr. secretary include me in south carolina among those who want to see. >> thank you mr. chairman. secretaries, thank you very much for being here and thank you for

all you have done. i guess you read the fine the term hit the ground running and what you are both experts in your respective fields, i know that you can count on having to jump in to this level activity in this level of response. i know the public officials of my state of kentucky, both parties are gone very grateful for the assistance corporation we have gotten from you. i particularly am impressed by the evidence that you have provided today about the job creation and the economic stimulus that has taken place because there's a lot of cognitive dissidence out there right now and the other day we sat and listened as 135 republican colleagues were on the floor repeating the mantra that where the jobs come aware of the jobs, where the jobs? you have vividly demonstrated to us where the jobs are. i would like to add one example0 because of directly as a result

of energy stimulus funds, general electric's appliance barken lillyville, which is the head of their consumer products division has announce that they are bringing back 400 jobs from china to manufacture it revolutionary energy saving water heater in our district, would not have happened without the recovery funds that we provided. and, one other point i would like to make about this and we talk about legislation to rescind part of the stimulus. mr. ryan also reference the tax, all these mythical tax increases that are going to occur. we never hear much about from the other side, about the tax cuts that were in the recovery act package, $288 billion. every american family, a 95% of american families receiving about $80 a month, which

basically pays for their gasoline for most people, and i wonder if the colleagues from the other side want to risk the that part of the package? so i will ask a question eventually. one of those is, and i think secretary salazar referred to this, and that is that these jobs are not only jobs for this period but they provide sustaining economic benefits, and my question to both of you is, is there any way we could have spent the nontax cut portion of the stimulus money in a way that would not only create jobs or any of the way that would more effectively created jobs and provide sustained economic benefit for the country? >> i don't know of another way. i think when you look at what the president was talking about during the campaign, i mean he continue to talk about the idea the quickest way to get people to work is to rebuild the infrastructure in america.

it is no secret around here or anywhere in america that a lot of our infrastructure had been ignored for a long time. there just weren't enough resources. every stay was either going broker didn't have the money and i think we have proven that d.o.t-- if you just look at the airport money, $8 billion is out the door. is bent. as i said, i have been through 24 states in 24 cities. every city that i fly into there is the runaway either being resurfaced, rebuilding lincoln. that could not have happened and there are people out there working. you go out on the highways and these are real people. these are people that were on unemployment that did not know whether they were going to have a paycheck by june or july and now they do. this is real results and it could not have been done any quicker or any better and you know congress put some tough deadlines on us and we all met them, thanks to the professional people at d.o.t. and our

relationships with airport officials with highway d.o.t. secretaries, with transit officials. we have over $3 billion out the door now so people can buy buses. there is a company up in st. cloud, minnesota. they put on a third shift because of all the bus orders they have received from transit districts that are now ordering buses as a result of the stimulus money. there are people building buses, so we see it working all over the country. we really do. >> secretary vilsack i know you talked about the 33 million families having increased assistance through this map program and so forth and the economic spin-off of that, one paint it-- 1.4. it may not create new jobs but have is that preserve jobs as well? >> if you think about what happens with these snap payments, they get placed on electronic benefit carts.

it gives families of four on the average about $80 a month more a month. 97% of that is spent in 30 days so if you want to talk about putting money to work quickly, there is no better, no quicker, no better way to do it than the food assistance program. that family does into the grocery stores and purchase additional items which means that grocery stores has to stop additional items to replace the ones that have been sold. that means that they are able to maintain their workforce and it puts a little more money into the grocery stores's bottom line so perhaps in distressed areas and areas where we are concerned about food deserts', grocery stores can make it. i was a shop in philadelphia that just got started during the toughest economic times and they are making money in large part because of that $80 a month for a family of four and i will tell you they employee, this is a company that employs 2700 people. because there has to be more stalked it means there has to be

more trust and that puts trucks on the road and gives people the opportunity to continue transporting goods. if more has to be attractive means more has to be processed and if more has to be processed and that means people have to continue to work to process that food coming to canada, to freeze it would never. that means more has to be purchased and that ultimately helps people, our french-- farmers and ranchers who are just extraordinary individuals because they have the capacity to create not just enough food for us but enough food for many millions of people around the world. it is a process that basically cascades through the economy and does it quickly. it is sort of like and i'd be-- i have bolles of lidocaine if your heart is standing still. that food assistance is getting your heart pumping again. >> thank you for your service to the country. >> thank you mr. chair. i appreciate both of you being

here. you do wonderful work in this country needs it in the most impressive way. i wanted, someone at the hearing here talked about meager benefits of the recovery program and when i look at the department of transportation's results as of today, with looking at the aviation administration, secretary you have talked about the billion dollars that is out there, 30047 projects with tons of jobs for americans. the highway administration already 5,700 some odd jobs in all 50 states, 64% of the funds e already held the door. i looked at the rail division end another $1 billion worth of amtrak grants, very big in my part of the country quite frankly, and then i looked-- colleges think this seems to me to be a little bit more than meager results and i am impressed with how the department transportation has

put that out there and i appreciate you coming to oregon in particular. i can speak personally that the jobs created in my county, the innovation with the american streetcar that is being born if you will in my state puts us on a competitive basis that we have never had before. it is an innovation that would have never occurred without this recovery package. if you can comment briefly on how you are able to meet these deadlines. bad on >> the deadline you shoeld be meeting, i think you are doing a heck of a job. could you comment on that. >> i appreciate the chance to come to your beautiful state. i was riding in a vehicle to the street car event where we inaugurated the street car. i would say we saw 50-100 people

riding bikes to work. you are the model of what people want to reply kate. we've had great fup and great opportunities. the way we have not only meet the deadlines but beat em >> they love their work and helping people build roads and kree kau all of this is done by the professional people at d. o. the professional people at d. o.

this. no earmarks, no boondoggles, no sweetheart deals. if you look on recovery.gov what you will see is where the money is being spent, how many jobs, state-by-state, and we have come of this was really estabshed y the white house. expect get it right chemist then the money correctly. this is a lot of money, and their people left done it and we are grateful to them for carrying out what the president's vision is for transportation, and we are going to be doing it with high-speed rail, we are going to be doing it with our discretionary grants. people are working very hard to make sure that is done right t. >> secretary vilsack i appreciate you coming before the ag committee and all the hard work you are doing a specialist in ture having trouble getting appointed to actually do the

work. you guys are doing yeomans laborer think in the department. kiki comment again, i am impressed with the fact that a lot of the projects are coming in at 20 and 30% of their budget. that sounds like excellent work. which privates industry could get that. >> thank you for the opportunity to talk about the hard-working folks at usda. one of the things we attempted to do is try to partner with local governments and state governments to try to streamline the process. we have linkers our folks to take a look at ways in which applications could be simplified and reduced. without sacrificing quality evaluation. we have had people work long hours. oftentimes it is not appreciated. this is not a 95 jaw abed usda. we say every day, usda. because we have 3,000 offices between our rural development offices and our farm service

agency offices we have got people working overtime and all of those offices are at the ground level try to help people understand these programs to be able to apply for them. through partnerships, to process improvement we have been able to get the work done. we are very pleased with the progress and we are going to continue to push forward. the fact that we have 43,000 people, 43,000 families who have the opportunity to have homeownership and rural communities means a lot to me. arra committees have suffered from depopulation in having our byrne people be able to purchase homes. we have got a lot of forgets to do. >> it is working well in oregon, farm loans in the adjustment-- adjustment assistance is working well. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank you for holding this hearing. i join the others in thanking you. i have run the agency before you got there and it is not easy

because everybody else thinks they can do a better job than you can and they don't have to do it on a day-to-day basis so thank you and the mean that sincerely. let me just share a couple of things and then ask you a question because north carolina is one of those unique states that when unemployment comes they seldom get hit. unfortunately this time we are the fourth highest state in the nation in terms of job loss than the last 12 months. the unemployment rate is over 11% statewide in knife that counted in my district approaching 15%. that being said let me also turned to one other point. the administration just 32 offices in education has announced $2.3 billion, made available 1.5. the department agriculture is announced 26 million made

available. 98 come i think that may be off a bit since the 98 million is more than an ounce, but be that as it may, fdot 844 million announced, four anderton 16 already made available. the only thing i would say to you secretary lahood, all we can do is give you more resources so we can get it done in cal me and on that group because i really think where some of these projects we have put a lot of people to work. the reason for that is our state and the states are suffering from a bad situation a shortage of funds so if it had not been for these funds they would be in deep mud. we are one of the few states yet to adopt a budget. they sent one to the governor yesterday at almost a billion dollars and that was not enough. secretary vilsack you understand that. now they have to go back and do it again and they have a lot more money to make things me. let me thank you for your help

and what you are doing. mr. secretary let me ask you a question because i visited a number of our emergency food assistance programs and shelters and food banks. and, there are a lot of vulnerable americans out there. we made money available in this fund as well as the other funds. i would like to comment on the resources those are distributed and what impact it is said and are there more in the pipeline simply because of the increasing unemployment, more people now turning to food banks and other help just to be able to sustain where they are. the second question for you, i am sorry but this is all agriculture. we are in a situation where north carolina we have probably the most diverse agriculture in one of the most diverse in the country as you well know. in our pork and poultry operations they are suffering big time. exports are a major part of it,

but i want to as a change of operation to the economic times, i would like for you to commandante direct loans in the recovery act. how many of those loans have been made so far and are there more loans in the pipeline? specifically, we have a number of farmers in my district but in our state but there really spread across ten states. as a result of the economic downturn, a lot of these corporate contractors have pulled those contracts. in many cases these farmers and you have been trying to help us, i will go ahead and say that of front because we need to do something to get it resolved because they pulled the contract because these guys are sitting there and we are protecting the homestead. the home has obligated all of the land of livestock and i think it will come back but over the next 18 months for those who cannot get it refinance they could lose everything they have got and be out of business and that is devastating to some of these communities.

i would hope that we continue to work with their office to find a way to give them a bridge over the next 18 months because nothing more than the interests of they can get back to where the cover comes and save them and i would appreciate your comment on the food banks and the overall aspects. >> representative, as you indicated, you have seen directly the benefit of the recove act on the capacity of food banks to meet ever-increasing needs. i am sure you have seen the stacks andtacks of food products and many of them wholesome foods. i have seen chicken and pork. i have been to food banks where people have said thank you for the stimulus money, otherwise we would that be able to provide hundreds of thousands of additional mills for families who are struggling. we have essentially announce most of not all of the emergency food assistance money that the stimulus provided for.

there may be just little left but for the most part it has been distributed. we try to get this out as quickly as we possibly could on a state-by-state basis and putting it to work as quickly as possible for two reasons. one because there was a need in two because more product being purchase helps those poultry farmers and for farmers and all the farmers in the country. we are certainly aware of the stress that poultry farmers have undergone and pork farmers in your state. we are kealy aware. one of the reasons we have done that is that we have been able to, we have been able to use some of the powers that you have given us to purchase more product and we have been able to encourage our institutional purchasers to think about purchasing more poultry. we have constructed the farm service agencies and offices. in effect we recently sent an letter out to all of the, all of the direct loan borrowers,

asking them if they are having difficulty to consider going into the farm service office and instructing the farm service folks to look for ways in which those loans can be restructured, refinanced, redone so interest rates are reduced so that payments are deferred so principle is reduced that that is appropriate and an effort to try to keep folks on the farm. now we have also sent a similar letter to the commercial banks that have been working with us there are guaranteed loan program encouraging them to do the same because it is then their long-term interest to keep their customer on the farm. so we have also suggested a capacity of loans where collateral has been provided, which is, has to be sold. the calabro when it is sold instead of the money going to us or the bank is allowed to be used for essentials for farm families or to be able to put a crop and/or to be able to

survive in transition. as it relates to the operating loans, we put into place to thousand 636 direct operating loans, 1,081 of them to beginning farmers, 600 of them to socially disadvantaged farmers. that use of all of the resource and the stimulus proposal. we obviously have barboni appropriation and it was recently supplemented and we are in the process of getting those loans out the door as quickly as we possibly can to as many farmers as we can help as we possibly can. so with the relates to direct operating loans, there is still supplemental money available. >> thank you chairman bill sought. >> ms. kaptur. >> thank you mr. chairman, welcome mr. secretary. thank you for your service to our country. it must be very difficult to inherit major departments of our

government at a time of exceptional economic need and try to keep your staffs motivated and all pulling in the same direction. i really admire you both for the work that you are doing. thank you very much. i represent one of the ten most economic the challenge committees of over tuner and 50,000 people in the country. i also have an unusual district in both industrial and agricultural. the unemployment rates in the agricultural regions are now over 18% and in the major city i represent a minimum of 15.4%. i want duest secretary vilsack, i don't know if you have traveled through cleveland, toledo or detroit but all along lake erie we have the series of communities that are in deep economic distress related to the wash of the automotive steel and machine tool industry's.

i vote for all the programs for food stamps and no renamed snap and so forth, and we appreciate the emergency assistance but i would strongly encourage you and we just met with secretary this morning, to look at the tanf program as well as your own authorities to think about the following. in communities like ours devron the great lakes we can grow our own food and we can harvest what is likely to be plowed under this fall. we need that food. we have food banks with the increase has gone up anywhere from 50 to 100%. we have volunteers serving food were worn out. we have to find a way to supplement the emergency food efforts going on in our region and we can put some of the unemployed to work helping us. it would literally flip spirits' in regions like ours where--

because of the continuing washout in jobs. i understand you have hired someone they are obreck your department, who came from the rc in the. you could not have a better person because she comes from the midwest, and enormous experience. we need somebody over there to think out of the box on how to meet the rising problems. call last year from one of our companies saying how my going to get it picked? okay so i call supper queen in call the form pure. they helped us get trucks up there and when we can. what we can process, we can pick and grow a new vertical systems that we have put up but we need usda pull in with us, not fragmented and one of the programs i want to mention to you is under the 2008 farm bill, section 6 of 15 which is the rural cooperative loan program we authorized over $3 billion

for arby eft's shanta date not a single penny has been spent and that program can be directed to help the hander sir. we would very much like to see that programs muscle used as will's the other federal agencies in helping us glean what we can, not waste when piece of fruit, one vegetable this year to process that and i think if we work across the government we can get it then. would you be willing to work with us in ohio and in michigan looking at your broad authorities in order to do that? >> represented absolutely and i would tell you that we have been working on a program within usda which is indeed thinking outside the box, which will be entitled, know your farmer, know your food and the purpose is to try to directly link local production of local consumption and not just farmers markets but institutional consumers. when you do that, in fact i was

in philadelphia yesterday visiting with folks about this program that they have been philadelphia. what you do if you have to take a look at the entire supply chain and you have to figure out how you can create sufficient quantities and be able to store due process event truck it and distribute it. we are and will be using our resources to create that supply chain to better link production with consumption. it is one of the wealth creation strategies we will be adopting as part of a new rural development initiative within the department. we wanted to make sure we have the structure right before we begin. >> mr. secretary come up please look inside the urban areas where we have so many hungry people. we have got them out in the rural areas as well. we were talking from members about that. and i would urge you to invite the members to usda who represent communities with over 15% unemployment now in both urban and rural america. there is a discrete number of those. we have thoughts about what we

need in our areas and how to link them to the employment programs and the tenet programs across the government. it is unjust your jurisdiction but this who do this release of their and their helpers are wearing out. i also, i know my time has expired mr. chairman but let me say on the mediation program we are going to lose 10% of our tree cover. we have been trying to work with usda, department of interior, the department of labor to hire people from the ranks of the unemployed. it has been almost impossible to get these big nasa departments to work together to create jobs for the tree replanting programs and we would like to draw that to your attention and hopefully get a better response out of the agency. >> i would be happy to take a look at that. i will tell you we have not been a team for very long but i think secretary lahood would probably agree with this. we are working across lines. we are not trying to work in our individual silos. their benkovsi meetings with

other cabinet secretaries to try to coordinate. that is one of the reasons why on the recovery act we are working with other departments to provide the transparency that the president and congress wanted. we are continuing to try to break down those barriers. we recognize we can leverage resources more effectively when we do. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> ms. dillar roe. >> thank you very much mr. chairman and i want to say thank you to the secretaries for being here. itis wanted zaidis secretary hud-- lahood we miss you. i am going to try to talk fast mr. chairman and gideon a couple of questions to each of the secretaries for the secretary lahood, this is about the recovery program and maintenance of the efforts that the governors have to certify to. about not cutting their own transportation investments efforts. in our state of connecticut the governor has made such as

certified. the first question is have all the governors made that commitment, what is the department do to make sure states are maintaining that investment, their own investment plans and second to that come again with connecticut, $440 million made available, 262 million has been obligated, 71,000 to date has been thalade come end is that accurate from a perspective of looking at this as to whether or not outlays as a measure of economic activities, or should we look at that as a measure of economic activity or should we few outlays as a lagging indicator? >> well, i think the maintenance effort has been a problem and we are working with the states but every state is required by law to meet it. we are holding people's feet to the fire but we are working with them because we know it is somewhat of a problem but it is required by law. we talk about this every week

when we talk about recovery activities and we are working with folks. we can check of the boxes. we can improve projects and then the states have to hire contractors and then the money begins to flow and a lot of money is beginning to flow now because we have checked a lot of boxes, a lot of projects have been approved, the states have to award the contracts and then people began working. bile look, we know the unemployment figures are the lagging indicator and, the reflection of unemployment a couple of months ago is what will be reflected in the figures and, we think unemployment has come down in the building trades. people that build roads, bridges and roadways and buses and all of that but it probably won't be reflected for a couple more months. >> thank you very much. i tried to explain for this institution-- the effort that we

did in nano you have gut newspapers an editorial saying where is the federal government? so we just need to move there and i will submit questions for the record on how to deal with the federal highway, the requirements. >> yes, we will answer them. >> secretary vilsack ipers cheated your comments to congresswoman yarmuth and walking terrell that 1 dollar triggers dollar 83 if you will and economic activity. and, quite frankly real excitement about the opportunity and what kind of a stimulative effect food stamps and food assistance can be whether it is food stamps or emergency food aid. let me ask a couple of questions related here. we also provided some administrative funds, additional of administrative funds to address the rising demand for

food stamps, and can you give us a sense of some of the ways in which states are spending those funds, and secondly with regard to the emergency food assistance program, how, you talked about the states, how was that being distributed? is it competitive, is a formula? what is the story on how those and how are those funds being spent? >> i mustin met imo little confused here because i usually referred to u.s. madam chair but i guess i can't right now. representative, as it relates to your first question, the administrative expense money is going to states, and is in the states are very, significantly strep requested former governor, what you generally do when you were faced with that is you take a look first and foremost petrostate employment base.

you try to determine whether not there's any way you can ride out the storm retirements, not filling vacancies. the problem with that is that the work that was otherwise to be done by those individuals is not being done and you have to push it aside. and times of crisis the last thing you want to do is reduce the workforce in your department human services or whatever it is called in various states to the extent that we provided additional administrative money, states are using those resources to do two things. one is to maintain step into is to make sure that they have adequate technology to properly fund can properly can-- keep track of these resources. ebsen those monies which he would probably see are delays in the distribution of those resources, the glitz is in the technology, families who are applying not getting permission as quickly as possible, the emergency food assistance not being given out as quickly as possible and families suffering

and we would have lost the stimulus effect of 97% of those monies being spent in the first 30 days. i must admit that i have lost you, your second question. >> at the gentlewomen woodfield for just a moment? i does want to say i have to run for a conference call but i would be happy to yield my five extra minutes. i would be happy to do that congresswoman delauro who has been very kind to me over the years. i went to thank both of the secretaries very much. they both been in philadelphia and secretary as recently as yesterday. i can say the pennsylvania 13th congressional district for philadelphia and southeastern pennsylvania, the resources and support you provided secretary lahood at the airport was the very significant dollars, significant projects that are really helping us. we would love to see more. we would love to see more people get back to work but we look forward to working with you and

i would be happy to yield the remaining minutes i have. >> i will not take the full five minutes. i nowak nothing here for a long time and i want to be cognizant of the german. >> the tfap monies were based on a formula each state receiving an amount. connecticut for example receive 221,000 but 884,000 in additional resources. the use of those monies has been predominantly to allow for transportation and storage of resources and the purchase of additional commodities. i can tell you i have been, as i said earlier i have been in a number of these food banks and it is amazing they have segregated the stimulus purchases from the regular purchases and is remarkable how much food has been purchased from stimulus dollars. and then they will turn to you

and they will say, this is feeding and providing hundreds of thousands of meals, hundreds of thousands of meals. and then you see folks who have never have to have the assistance before, never have had to have assistance before the war going to food banks. thankfully there are volunteers, thankfully there are people who are concerned about this o are manning those food banks and volunteering. i know i come as part is the president's united we serve i did some voluntary work sorting some of the cans that were donated in it is a remarkable reaction by a very gracious and compassionate nation. >> you say it beautifully. i read a quote from a man who had a job, lost his job, a professional job and his quote was, i never felt so humiliated.

ifill like calo live come up but i had to go to the food bank because it was the only way i was going to be able to feed my kids. first of all we should never make anyone feel that way about struggling with real challenges in their life, and having to reach their handout for need. but, it is remarkable, the role that these food banks are playing in today's difficult economy and making sure that people have food on their plate for themselves and for their kids so let me just say a big thank you to the two of you for your commitment and your own personal vision and compassion for what is happening in our country today, regretfully because. >> thank you ms. delauro and secretary vilsack, secretary lahood, i know the demands and your time are enormous this time of year. >> may i interrupt?

ms. sematic question for the record for the secretaries? >> all members including the ranking member will have seven days without objection to submit questions for the director. once again, i know that the demands upon your time are enormous but it speaks volumes for a commitment in this administration's commitment to turning this economy around to, gillis these forthright, clear credible answers. i think we leave here believing the recovery act is working and will continue to work by design and will help pull us out of this worst slump since the 1930's for the thank you very much indeed for your contribution.

jo you are watching xan created for you. next, washington journal. talking about hemming care legislation. after that, testimony from federal chairman ben bernanke about the u.s. economy and monetary policy. jo starting next on c-span, washington journal. our guests include kevin madden and steve