our second witness today is the mayor of indianapolis, the honorable gregory a. ballard. greg ballard was elected the 48th mayor of indianapolis on november 6, 2007, and the city reelected mayor ballard to a second term on november 8, 2011. in 2010 mayor ballard launched an initiative to rebuild residential streets, sidewalks and this is on a successful pathway. mayor ballard also helped lead a team that very successfully hosted this year's super bowl, congratulations to the city of indianapolis. and based on that success, will be competing and winning -- we hope -- the super bowl in 2018. welcome, mayor ballard. >> thank you. thank the gentleman from indiana. i now recognize representative harris to introduce our final witness, final for this hearing. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. it's my pleasure to introduce mrs. patrick langenfelder to the committee, the president of the maryland farm bureau. in addition, she's commissioner of the kent county planning commission and a member of the agricultural fair board. she and her husband and family operate a large grain f

. >> our second witness is the honorable gregory ballard, mayor of indianapolis. the city of indianapolis reelected him to a second term on november 8, 2011. in 2010, he announced an initiative to rebuild a deteriorating residential streets, sidewalks, and bridges, as well as to address flooding issues for the city. this is on a successful pathway. mayor ballard has also helped lead a team that helps that this year's super bowl -- congratulations to the city of an apple -- indianapolis. based on that success, it will be winning, we hope, the super bowl in 2018. welcome, mayor ballard. >> thank you. i think the gentleman from indiana. i recognize representative harris to introduce our final witness. >> thank you very much. it is my pleasure to introduce mrs. patricia langenfelder, president of the maryland farm bureau. she is a member of the maryland agricultural board. she and her husband and family operate a large grain farm in the first congressional district and raise livestock. she has hands-on experience that she will bring to our testimony. among her recogni

information system and executor of the oklahoma water resources board, and indianapolis mayor gregory ballard. congressman ralph hall of texas chairs this committee hearing. it's about an hour and 50 minutes. >> okay, the committee on science space technology will come to order. and i say good morning to you and welcome. everyone today's hearing on drought forecasting, monitoring and decision-making. a review of the national integrated draft information system, unquote. this hearing is particularly timely as given the current drought conditions that are, in fact, a lot of the country, including much of my home state of texas. i going to take a little of my time out to do a story about pass a bill some five years ago, and i was over in paris, texas, making a speech about it. and when my good good friends over there just put it on me, said congressman, will your bill make it rain? it was dry and hadn't rained in days and days. i thought a minute or so and i said yeah, it will, that section four of the third page. he said really? i said hell no. i just give you a silly answer to a silly question

. >> our second witness is the honorable gregory ballard, mayor of indianapolis. the city of indianapolis reelected him to a second term on november 8, 2011. in 2010, he announced an initiative to rebuild deteriorating residential streets, sidewalks, and bridges, as well as to address flooding issues for the city. this is on a successful pathway. mayor ballard has also helped lead a team that helps that this year's super bowl -- congratulations to indianapolis. based on that success, it will be winning, we hope, the super bowl in 2018. welcome, mayor ballard. >> thank you. i thank the gentleman from indiana. i recognize representative harris to introduce our final witness. >> thank you very much. it is my pleasure to introduce mrs. patricia langenfelder, president of the maryland farm bureau. she is a member of the maryland agricultural board. she and her husband and family operate a large grain farm in the first congressional district and raise livestock. she has hands-on experience that she will bring to our testimony. among her recognitions, she and her husband