what their agenda is, you cannot let it impact the story. >> over the past year, this investigative reporter has written a series on lawmakers overseas trips, funded by taxpayers. >> new prime minister, david cameron, a field questions from parliament tonight at 9:00 on c- span. . . . can you give our national

audience a sense of where you are leading this effort and why? >> this summit was an >> this summit was an opportunity for us to first and foremost educate america about the role rural america plays. it is about affordable food, the supply of water we drink and rely on. it helps to make us energy it helps to make us energy independent and it is a substantial percentage of our military that comes from these small towns. it is important that there be a vibrant economy to support families. sadly, for the past several decades, we have seen a decline

in rural america with an aging population, significant poverty, and so the obama administration has decided to put a new framework in place to revitalize the rural economy based on a couple of fundamental principles. one is agricultural production is important, so have to continue to expand markets domestically and foreign. that is why our know your former, know your food effort is trying to link producers and consumers. we recognize there is a 21st century infrastructure that needs to be s -- needs to be expanded -- like broadband technology and we need to expand the renewable fuel industry. we need to do a better job working with conservation to make sure those recreational opportunities are enhanced. finally, the whole notion of carbon markets is a new opportunity to put capital into america and designed to revitalize the economy and get a sense of opportunity where we

have been struggling for several years. >> let me introduce our reporters. alice ferguson is the agricultural reporter for " congressional quarterly -- congressional quarterly. >> are their proposals you are going to take away from the going to take away from the summit that we would see in the 2012 farm bill? what is at stake for taxpayers in a farm bill? >> what we found from the world summit was confirmation we're headed in the right direction. there was keen interest in all aspects of this framework. what we will continue to work on is making sure we have a plan and strategy to build up the biofuel and renewable fuel and energy industry in rural america. america. we have an industry that is regional in nature in the midwest. we need to make sure all parts

of the country are able to helps contribute to produce more biofuel and renewable energy. we do not have to wait for the 2012 farm bill discussion to do that. we are continuing to invest in broadband expansion. we do not have to wait for the farm bill to do that, but once we have these grants, we have to go back to the communities and make sure the technology is fully utilized and people understand the power it has to create new entrepreneurial enterprises in small communities across the area. the great american outdoors initiative, which secretary salazar and administrator jackson and i with the president announced several weeks ago, is designed to do a better job at utilizing conservation dollars in a way that increases recreational opportunities. that does not require a formal discussion. but what we hope to do over the next couple of years is make sure that as the farm bill is being crafted, that there is an

understanding and appreciation for the linkage between rural development and production agriculture, between the necessity of inadequate -- adequate safety net and recognizing part of the safety net is a good paying job for farm families. >> for those who have not had the pleasure of falling a farm bill and may not realize it is not typically a partisan issue, could you spell out the type of regional conflicts and industry and commodity complex you will have to resolve to have a successful conclusion to this? >> chairman petersen is doing an interesting thing, going around the country with the house agricultural committee and conducting a series of hearings. the basis of the hearings is to determine whether there's a way in which the safety net procedures within the farm bill can be crafted in such a way that we get away from pitting commodities against livestock or livestock against commodities or

specific commodities against each other. we need to get away from that. the reality is we're seeing a shrinking number of people who call themselves farmers. 2.2 million farmers, less than 1% of the population. just a few years ago, 15% of the population was farming. we are only one or two generations removed from someone on the farm. many people in cities are many generations from farm families, so it is important for agriculture to speak with a single voice and reconnect with consumers said they understand where their food comes from. my hope is when we discussed the farm bill that we get away from the regional differences and we get away from the commodity conflicts that have marked the past and look at it way in which the safety net can be crafted to help all farmers. at the same time, recognize the important role that real development, particularly the emphasis on regional world development will play in helping to build a far more prosperous

world america and take pressure off of our rural and suburban areas. >> i understand the interests of having a unified family, but for those who did not follow farm bill issues closely, what's an example of pitting a region against region, like new england dairy farms against those in california, that he would like to resolve? >> you speak specifically of dairy and there is no question that has been influenced by regional politics and policies. -pthere have been significant differences between the way the gary anderson -- the dairy industry sees itself in the northeast and in the southwest. but we have to address that issue far sooner than the 2012 farm bill. dairy farmers today are faced with significant price spikes. their prices go up for a short time to historic highs and then fall deeply and sharply and stay low for a considerable

time, putting a great deal of stress on the farmers. the one consistent message i got in 20 states i attended in the world summit and for was that dairy farmers are hurting. we put together a council representing all parts of the country and all aspects of gary to say to the industry that we have to come up with a consistent -- all aspects of the dairy to say to the industry we have to come up with a consistent voice to maintain the dairy industry for the united states and make it competitive against european competitors and new zealand. that's not going to happen with the 2012 farm bill. that will happen before. >> to make sure i understand what you're saying, you believe there should and will be a separate dairy bill prior to the farm bill that will address dairy price issues you are concerned about? >> we put this dairy council together and charged them with coming up with a proposal that is a consensus proposal by the

end of the year. my hope is it will meet the deadline. if they do, congress needs to discuss it in 2011, before the formal discussions get started. >> mr. secretary, you talked about the administration creating a different framework for relating to rural america and revitalizing the economy. one of the things some lawmakers have criticized for is too much emphasis on rural economic development and not enough on productive agriculture. how do you respond? >> i would like to sit down with those lawmakers and explain some of the things we're doing a usda to make sure they understand we have not forgotten about production agriculture. i would talk about our renewed and -- our renewed emphasis on trade. we just announced an upgrade for this fiscal year and anticipated to be at about $108 billion, the second-highest number in history. we saw record in the first six

months of this fiscal year and expect a $28 billion surplus in agriculture. every billion dollars of trade generates somewhere between 8009 thousand jobs. in not only improves the bottom line for farmers but job opportunities as well. we are focused on expanding trade opportunities. i have had a number of international trips. we are also about increasing domestic markets. the capacity and ability to link local producers of all sizes, not just small farmers but production agriculture as well with schools and hospitals and institutional purchasers. they do not need to buy food 1,000 miles away when they can buy it close to home. setting up processing facilities and warehousing through our rural development programs will help to establish a value and supply chain and create jobs and help the bottom line. our focus is on all aspects of farming and rural development. there is a direct connection

between health of many midsized operations and the capacity to have off-farm income. 900,000 of our 2.2 million farmers have to work at least 200 days off the farm to keep the farm. many of their spouses have to work as well. we have to be focused on rural development of want to keep those operators in business. >> you mentioned the importance of trade and the current trade surplus. going forward, with the concern over the shakiness of the euro and the importance of european markets, are you concerned about projections about the health of that relationship in the next year or so? >> you are obviously concerned about european economy because has repercussions throughout the global economy. we are very aggressive in other parts of the world. two of our best trading partners are mexico and canada. we have had a robust set of

commitments from china recently in the grain area. we are seeking to reopen markets for some of our beef and pork products and having renewed discussion with russia on poultry. there are opportunities outside of the european union which are significant and important. we will continue to work and expand as opportunities and make new partnerships and arrangements. one of the reasons the president is focused on these discussions is multilaterally engaging in new discussions. hopefully congress can work on these and ratify them in the near future in panama, colombia and south america. there is a lot of trade opportunities outside of europe and we will continue to monitor and do business with them, but it is not dispositive of how we do if the european trade is off a bit. >> i would like to follow up with a trade questioned.

the american taxpayers will be paying $147 million a year to brazil because the agriculture department was ruled illegal by the trade organization. what are you going to do about that? >> we have to educate people about what has been done about the credit export program that may be responsive to the concerns raised by brazil and the world trade auk -- world trade organization. it has been substantially less than the penalties that were assessed a would have compromised agribusiness in a very significant way. not only would we had terraces sensed -- tariffs assessed against them, but we would have intellectual property compromised as a result of that decision. >> would not be cheaper to revise the underlying cotton program that cost taxpayers between $2,000,000,000.- 1294967773 dollars a year? >> the reality is that changes

have been made -- between $2 billion and $3 billion a year. >> there is an opportunity for brazil and others to determine whether or not that satisfies the concerns that have been raised. in order to avoid some very serious imposition infringement on intellectual property that would compromise agriculture in generaa, we made the decision to proceed trying to get interim steps to get -- to protect agriculture. >> if i could fall on a domestic issue -- the administration has twice attempted to curtail subsidy payments to the wealthiest farmers. capitol hill does not seem too interested. what are you going to different in the 2012 farm bill to address concerns about farmers getting subsidies? >> chairman petersen is engaged in a set of listening sessions and has indicated the need to

look at the ways in which those payments are structured to determine whether we can use risk-management principles and technology to provide a broader safety net and at the same time make sure it is fair and reasonable and one that does not break the bank. i am anxious to work with the chairman and i'm sure the president is to see what concept has. risk-management has become a very important tool in terms of being able to reduce the risk and spread the risk. there is some keen interest on the part of commodity groups to see what the chairman came up with. i do not want to prejudge that process until have an opportunity to see what he put on the table. on the table. >> how active a partner is the administration going to be in crafting a farm bill? the house started hearings and the senate has announced it will have its first hearing on june 30th. many responses we have asked about the farm bill, you say

it's going to be taken care of before the farm bill. what are the priorities and how active the president will the administration be? >> it is important to understand the role of the u.s. day -- of the usda relative to the farm bill -- is to provide technical assistance and information. it is premature to talk about what the priorities are other than to say i think there needs to be a robust commitment, not just to the safety net but world element. the to have to go hand in hand. the remark we put together and discussed earlier in the show is one that can help create an appropriate frame for conversation and we will certainly add to that, the discussion of how we can impact the regional economic development as opposed to a community by community economic development which has been the focus of the past. if you look at the successful rural revitalization that taken

place in this country, you will find they are pursuant to a regional strategy where communities come together, 11 inch resources and power and have a plan that takes advantage of all their assets. that is the kind of thing we want to encourage, to use this next year or two to establish a proof of concept so as the 2012 farm bill is being shaped, there will be real data and real-life examples we can point to as successes as we try to direct role of development and the safety net of the future. >> i would like to ask about the unhappy and expensive legacy about racism that has been alleged in the department. in the 1990's, the department paid more than $1 billion on claims filed to african-american farmers. currently under discussion is a and additional $1 billion. as i understand it, the department is proposing to pay on the order of $1.2 billion to on the order of $1.2 billion to settle claims filed by female and hispanic farmers. what is the status of the claims

settlement with regard to the hispanic and female farmers? >> this is a complicated subject. it involves, unfortunately, a number of years of abuses that are a stain on the usda's history and we want to close the chapter and do it in right and fair way. the litigation, the african- american former litigation, was certified as a class action. it becomes a a little easier to deal with because it is a single case in which you can propose a settlement which can resolve all of the claims within the class. the two cases that you mentioned are different in that they have not been certified as class-action. they are individual claims, potentially tens of thousands of individual claims. we have proposed an alternative to going to court in individual lawsuits that could take years

and years to adjudicate. putting a settlement fund together and claims procedure together that is similar to what was done in pickford and giving people the option to take a settlement as opposed to proceeding with an individual case. if they choose to pursue the individual case, they are certainly welcome to do that but our hope is this provides quicker form of justice than the litigate its path. but the option is available and open to all of the claimants. it's an effort to say we'll understand, there claims that need to be resolved, we want to do it as quickly and as fairly as possible and we propose this as a way to approach it. >> the attorneys for the plaintiffs called the offer woefully inadequate. do you see yourself getting closer to resolution on this complicated case? >> that is why it is important for you to understand the difference between pickford, garcia, and love.

this was not an offer in the sense we are asking them to accept the offer. this is an individual offer to the thousands of people who have claims. they have an option. they can go down the route we have set forth and settle a claim on an individual basis or they can continue to proceed to litigate. because they were never certified as a class action, they cannot get into the same process as the pick for a claim. one case, one settlement satisfies all claims. we cannot do that because the courts have decided we cannot. we want to try to offer them in lieu of a class-action, we're offering them the capacity to settle their individual claims on pretty much the same sets of principles and standards as the pickford litigation. they could get to $50,000. they could get debt relief. they could get resources for the

payment of taxes. or they could proceed to go forward with litigation. the lawyers understand that and what they would like to have this irresolution of all these cases that went -- at one time. that is difficult when -- what they would like is to have a resolution of all these cases at one time. we are dealing not just with one case, but literally thousands of cases. we want to give each of the plaintiffs the individual options to take the money now or pursue litigation against the department and what ever the judgment is, if there is one, we will have to pay it. >> i take that to mean we cannot expect an announcement any time soon of a settlement in the outstanding cases. >> i don't think it's fair to suggest that. there is also a native american case with discussions in process. that has been partially

certified as a class action, this -- so there's an option for a single segment to take place. in the love and garcia case, we have to set a process by which individuals have the option to decide to settle their case or not. we are not going to get to a single resolution because there's not a situation that will allow that to happen. but what we can do is we have done -- put $1.3 billion on the table and say this money is available for any plaintiff interested in settling their claims on the following conditions. very similar to what we propose with pickford. so that there is some equity with how we are treating folks. if folks choose not to, that's their option trade in pickford, they do not have that option, they essentially have to settle. it's a slightly different circumstance and i know it's hard to understand, but that is what we're faced with because the courts have made the decisions they have made.

>> if we could switch back to the farm bill, the last farm bill included for the first time a special the title that concentrated resources and benefits for friedan vegetables. do you anticipate -- benefits for fruits and vegetables. do you anticipate making a larger than in the past? would you like to enhance the specialty crop provisions on the next farm bill? >> is going to be important to determine what the frame for the farm bill is relative to how the resources are available. there is a growing interest in specialty crops and it's one of the region -- one of the reasons we're asking congress is of waiting for the farm bill, we are asking for congress to look past at the child nutrition reauthorization act, increase the funding at billion dollars a year, and enable schools across the country to purchase more breeds and vegetables and inc.

into the diets of our youngsters in order to combat not just under but obesity that the first lady has put the focus on. to us, our focus is on getting that reauthorization done in a robust way so we provide the resources and are able to purchase substantially greater amounts of fruits and vegetables. there is a growing consensus and we hope congress will act this year on the act. once that is done, we can start taking a look at what the financial constraints and restrains maybe for a 2012 farm bill and determine how to best allocate resources, but there's no question it's a significant part of agriculture in the united states and we want to be supportive. >> i want to ask about food safety. there is legislation primarily dealing with the fda. what has the u.s. the been doing

on the food safety front -- what has the usda been doing on the food safety front? >> the food safety department of the department of agriculture is in slightly different regulatory place than the fda. we have the capacity to shut down processing facilities and a fairly restrictive menu of things we are responsible for -- meat, poultry and process stakes. we're focused primarily on beefing up our regulatory regimes and making sure we are focused on higher standards for e coli, salmonella, and other pathogens that we know to be causing serious food borne illnesses. we have been increasing training and inspections, we have been working to develop bbtter communication between the fda and the usda, so if there is an incident that implicates our school lunch and school

breakfast programs, we can immediately notify the schools to make sure they take the necessary precautions. it has been a holistic and comprehensive effort, consistent with the food safety working group the president established with myself and kathleen to bilious at health and human services. we have 50 recommendations and are working our way through those. some of them have been historic. we will continue to work at identifying pathogens and increased testing and figure out ways we can do a better job than we have done. >> why shouldn't food safety be concentrated in one agency like the food and drug administration? >> there's nothing right or wrong, the key is to have a system that works. the key is a major the system is consistent. what we had was a process where

the agencies did not necessarily communicate effectively with each other and it did not have uniform incident command structure where recalls and information could get out in a timely way. we are trying to use a new social marketing strategy and techniques to get messages to consumers as quickly as possible. that doesn't require a single agency, but it requires better coordination. it has been 70 years since has been a significant improvement to the regulatory structure, so it's something that obviously does not happen often. we want to make sure it happens and while we're working in parallel with them to make sure the systems work well. >> since you are back home, how is the economy in the rural counties in iowa compared to this time last year? >> it is improving. unemployment is down, the total

number is up. we have had seven consecutive quarters of economic growth, so things are improving and it is mayor -- is nearing what is happening is -- is nearing what is happening in the nation as a whole. i think the recovery act is i think the recovery act is having an impact, the congressional budget office says about 31,000 of those jobs are here in iowa. that would have added another 2% to the unemployment rate. things are getting better. >> tom vilsack, joining us on "newsmakers" this week. thank you very much. we're going to spend a couple of minutes where we help understand what the secretary had to say and i want to start with mike. he talked about regional differences and commodity differences. what do you know that the secretary was unwilling to say

about this? >> i put the bait out there but he would not buy. every farm bill is a regional flight. to say it's a fight is not to say it's wrong, but it is the nature of the business. western dairies in california, where many of my papers are, the areas are large. that compares to wisconsin, is a very different man than the for inputing costs. it is very complicated to get them aligned and difficult to unnecessarily aligned southern cotton growers with western cotton growers. crop growers in california often have nothing to do with wheat growers in the midwest. the differences between the processors and producers can be great. what the secretary was dancing around is the fact that there are inherent fights and they are never resolved to everyone's satisfaction. the notion that athe