carbajal -- director carbajal, and we thank you for your participation i'll begin by swearing in our witness. i ask our witness to turn on your audio and make sure that i can see your face, and raise your right hand while i administer the oath. do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you are about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief. so help you god? >> yes, i do. >> thank you. let the record show the witness answered in the affirmative. thank you. please note that your written statement will be entered into the record in its entirety. accordingly, i and that you summarize your testimony in five minutes. to help you stay within the time frame there is a timing light on your screen. when the light switches from green to you have one minute to conclude your testimony. when the light turns red it signals that your five minutes have expired. i now recognize director carbajal for five minutes. thank you. you are recognized. >> thank you. and good morning chairwoman jackson lee and ranking member biggs and other dist

carbajal. i thank you for being here today, and i thank you for your service as the director as you'll soon be leaving the bureau, and we just want to thank you for your service. during this subcommittee's last hearing, we had an opportunity to review implementation of the first step act at the bop and the impact that covid-19 has had on the bop operations. i used that opportunity to inquire at that time into the bop's policies addressing the treatment and care of pregnant women, specifically the bop's alignment with national guidance for the health and safety of pregnant women. since that time, i was pleased to hear that the bop has taken actions to better align its policies on about five of the eight care topics that the g.a. found to not fully be aligned with the national guidance recommendations. i hope that the bureau will continue to work to ensure that all eight of those care topics are met so that the health and well-being of pregnant women at the bop facilities, they're fully protected

carbajal. and i was at the helsinki committee and the bureau of prisons unfortunately failed to protect those in custody for chronic understaffing. bop lacked transparency and such as the first step act, mr. carbajal. what lessons have you learned through your tenure and what advice do you have for your successor that we've seen with other bureau of prisons? >> mr. carbajal? >> congressman, yeah, sorry, trying to unmute here. if you're asking lessons learned from the pandemic, first off, we followed c.d.c. guidance from day one. we learned that we need to protect the most vulnerable, the elderly. isolate the sick, quarantine the exposed, the same lessons that the rest of the country and the world has known. restrict movement, communicate better and those are some of the lessons learned and i think that we've gotten processes in place and we've worked with the c.d.c. and we've invited them into our institutions and the pandemic plan has worked in collaboration with the c.d.c. >> let me ask you a

dean: i thank you for hosting this important hearing, and i think you director carbajal -- carvajal for your work. dop was working to expand mental health treatment and life skills. i hope dop is expending substance use disorder treatment , recovery, therapy, and the rest. one thing i have in mind in particular our original -- educational opportunities. we know they make all the difference in breaking the cycle of recidivism, which is why i introduced an act, legislation that would ensure incarcerated individuals receive educational opportunities, successfully built into their communities, their lives after completing your sentences. can you give us information on the number of people today it will in your system in educational opportunities? mr. carvajal: yes, congresswoman. the current information, we have over 75,000 inmates enrolled, and whatever 80 evidence-based facilities for productive activities. although we were hindered by the pandemic at we had to slow things down, over 151,000 inmates completed the programming. we offer many traits, you have over 200 career technical educat

. >> i director carbajal. it is good to have him here.knowledge that this time the service of our chairman and service art ranking member mr. jordan. thank you for their leadership of this committee. it is now my pleasure to introduce today's witness or witness. that is michael, who is the director of the federal bureau of prisons began his career with the bureau prisons in 1992 as a correctional officer as a federal correctional institute three rivers. he is in essence a committed, dedicated servant to the federal bureau of prisons. he served in position of leadership and texas, kansas, louisiana before becoming a regional director of northeast region in 2016. he became the assistant director for the correctional program division in 2018 and held that position until he was appointed director in 2020 in the last administration. : : : program division in 20 and held that position until he was appointed a director in 2020. let me again take note of his service and as well the many corrections officers that i have had the privilege of meetin

carbajal, is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate the opportunity and thank you to all the witnesses here today. climate change certainly poses an immense threat and we must invest in renewable infrastructure to obvious a protector plan for electric vehicles are an important part in modernizing our transportation sector. evs not only does this transformation benefit the environment but also significant benefits the economy. mr. wood, the bipartisan infrastructure law will find 500,000 ev charging stations across the country. can you discuss how ev, infrastructural translate into jobs and workforce development at different parts of the country? >> thank you for the question. so as we think about supply chain around ev infrastructure and even the vehicles themselves of the compose it takes to make each of the pieces of infrastructure or the vehicle, if you think about manufacturing plants there's a supply chain the rolls into each of those and there is distributed supply chain beyond the product that you see. so as we gain

carbajal, is now recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. welcome, secretary vilsack. as you know, santa barbara and san luis obispo counties are home to a wide away of crop production. shipping delays and continuing labor shortages caused supply chain disruptions which were amplified by the perishable nature of the fresh fruits and vegetables grown in my district. the pandemic has increased demand of getting produce to hungry americans. is the usda taking any steps to ensure its agriculture market service ams commodity purchases for domestic food programs include an increased amount of fresh fruit and vegetables to better meet usda guidelines. >> the answer to that question is yes. a recently announced flexible federal emergency assistance program we allocate $400 million worth of purchases from local and regional food distributors with the understanding they were to provide an opportunity for fresh fruit and produce to be part of those purchases. we also provided school districts with additional resources with the same directive, and the s