there is no appeal process to usda. our suggested amendment is written in the testimony. second, with regard to nutrition integrity, we have a few suggestions. partnership with a first lady michelle obama let's move campaign has admitted to further improving healthy school meals and advancing nutrition, education for american children. i encourage you to go to our website to learn more about that partnership on the first ladies let's move campaign. we urge the committee to increase the reimbursement in all meal categories. we urge you to also amend the statute and require the secretary to establish a consistent national application of the most recent dietary guidelines for all meals we have burst by the department of agriculture. the current statute is effective into current respect. first, it requires knows to be consistent with the goals of the dietary guidelines. that is not specific enough. the meals must be consistent with the guidelines, not just the goals of the guidelines. second, someone must be in charge of deciding if the meals are, in fact, consistent with the

usda is estimating texas doing 8 more acres than last year. we will see 10 and a half acres in the cotton belt. an upswing is enticing to growers who switched to corn last year. >> the end of the corn prices were higher andicaten was lower. now it is vice versa. cotton prices are higher than normal. we are going to go back with all cotton. >> right now we are projecting more slow growth. it is a pretty steady increase. acres, we sort of project acres to level out between 10 and 11 million acres nationwide. we are going to get a good bump this year and then a slow upper trend. >>> winter weather also played a role in planting decisions. hudson says a return to cotton will boost employment levels in texas. that is it for headlines. now back to john for crop watch. >>> and in crop watch i am happy to report many folks in the midwest are able to get some serious planting done this week. farm journal reports from central illinois that plenty farmers will rolling. after two years of wet weather farmers are almost giddy with current conditions. he sa

it appears the usda may not be done counting the 2009 corn crop. the ag report may do it in the may 11 crop update. when producers were surveyed

specifically on food prices usda expects 3% rise.he ag department they say grocery stores will return to normal pricing. >> as costs have begun to stablealize in terms of food products buying and as consumers improve we see less of that aggressive price cutting. there is potentful resurgence of inflation later this year. >> usda says beef and pork prices will be up about 2% and higher for poultry. a wind energy group continues to push for electricity standard and a recent poll supports the idea. american wind energy association commissioned a pole. it says 89% believe increasing the amount of energy from wind is a good idea. 84% are republican votererize 93% of democrat. 600 voters were surveyed. when it comes to the best ag engineering schools in the nation you don't have to look outside the corn belt. 2010 ranking the nest jinearing schools in the u.s. this year the best ranked program was a tie. it was awarded to the university of illinois and purdue university. texas a and m, cornell and university of davis round out the top 5 sp

>> well, usda currently allows some costs to producing or indirect costs that go to producing the meal as an allowable cost. but currently there are no specific guidelines to be able to determine what those indirect costs are. and so we urge you to have the secretary of agriculture define those guidelines more clearly so that nationally we're able to have more consistent guidance in what districts are able to charge school districts. so to prevent some of the school districts for charging like the example you used for the multipurpose room that's only used minimally. >> should it be done by the secretary or should it be done state-by-state? i'm wondering what's the best ways about going about this? >> the best way is to set some general guidelines. this is a national program. it's funded nationally. the guidelines for the menu planning all come from the secretary of agriculture. and they, i think, would be the best body to be able to determine what those guidelines -- because they know what those expectations are for producing that meal. they established the guidelines for producing th

recently usda contracted with the institute of medicine to further look into the dietary guidelines in order to look at the overall problem of reducing childhood obesity. and so currently what we want to be able to do is increase our reimbursement and so that we can go ahead and meet those guidelines. but we need the secretary of agriculture to be given the authority to be able to define those guidelines so we can consistently apply some specific guidelines -- >> how they apply to the school nutrition programs? >> pardon? >> you need the secretary on the authority -- >> how we apply -- >> how it will be compliant? >> how the guidelines for the institute of medicine new recommendations are going to be applied consistently throughout the country. >> okay. and you've landed that on the secretary of -- and you think that's the case? >> we currently -- we currently have meal patterns. but we have new recommendations from the institute of medicine that have been offered through the institute of medicine. and we're needing some additional guidance to be able to implement those guidelines nati

there is no appeal process to the usda. our suggested amendment is written in the testimony. second, with regard to nutrition integrity we have a few suggestions. partnership with first lady michelle obama's let's move campaign committed to further improving health the school meals and advancing nutrition education for americans children. i encourage you to go to our website to learn more about that partnership on the first lady's lips move campaign. we urge the committee to increase the reimbursement in all meal categories. we urge you to also amend the statute and require the secretary to establish a consistent national application of the most recent dietary guidelines for all meals reimbursed by the department of the agriculture. the current statute is depicted in two important respects. first it requires meals to be consistent with the goal of the dietary guidelines. that is not specific enough. the meals must be consistent with the guidelines not just the goal of the guidelines. second someone must be in charge of deciding if the meals are in fact consistent with the gui

she has served on numerous usda task forces to improve this program. she has served on the advisory board of the food service marketing institute, the california child and adult roundtable, an california pool -- california food policy. i believe congresswoman chu will introduce the next witness. >> i have the pleasure of introducing one of my constituents, the deputy director of wic in at california. this organization is a nonprofit agency that has been providing services in los angeles and orange county for over 34 years. she oversees wic centers throughout the counties, serving 325,000 clients each month. in my district, she oversees seven locations that serve over 46,000 people. she first joined the public health foundation in 1984. she is a registered dietitian and a member of the national association and the american dietetic association. she is a strong and vocal advocate for breast feeding and help the babies and families. thank you for joining us. i look forward to your testimony. >> our next witness will be lucy gettman. she began her career a

department of agriculture or the usda also coordinates many other programs. most the prominent is school lunch, school breakfast, and summer feeding program. which focused on providing free or discounted lunches for school children during the school year and during the summer. however, other programs provide services such as providing new mothers or expecting mothers with snacks and meals. making sure seniors get the food they need, and making sure kids can eat healthy. all of them focus on eating and eating right. other people have disagreements with these federal programs and think they should be abolished. one disagreement some people have the use of taxpayer money for something most people don't use. they should choose to delay it to a charity or organization. not be forced to do it. another complaint by the think-tank cato institute that the government laws contradict each other. one law makes sure food prices stay high to make sure farmers can make a profit. then we need another program so poor people with afford the high-price food. the solution, accor

this legislation extends the usda 502 loan guarantee program. this program is very important to home ownership tool for many rural americans, many of which live in my state of west virginia, providing a loan guarantee on privately issued loans. the 502 program has a very low default rate. over the last few years, demand for the program has increased and consequently loan commitment authority for the 502 program will be exhausted. without swift action, borrowers who rely on this program will run out of options for the affordable home loans. last week i offered an amendment during the markup of h.r. 5017 in the financial services committee that provides the 502 program with additional loan commitment authority and makes an important improvement to the program. in order to make the program self-sufficient we are raising the guarantee fee up to 4%, granting the secretary the authority to choose the appropriate level. this ensures that the program will no longer be reliant on taxpayer funds to build capital reserves, a welcome part of the 502 program

think it is a reasonable goal, and we, the school nutrition association has been working closely with usda, and, you know, they are looking at some of the paperwork criteria to make it easier for school districts to be able to apply. because when we used is the big application that we had to fill out, it made it more complicated. but the benefits of the healthier u.s. school is bad, not only does it have requirements in the menu planning, which is very key to the healthier schools requirements, but it also has a component for physical activity. and in the first lady's let's move campaign, one of the pillars is school meals, but one of the other pillars is physical activity. and so the healthier u.s. schools is a wonderful, you know, recognition that school districts can achieve that promotes both nutrition and nutrition education and physical activity. and so a wonderful program, and it is going to be, you know, really encouraging more of our members to participate, and are going to be promoting it at our meetings and conferences and publications and everywhere we can. to help school distr

department of agriculture preview the 17th administrator of the usda's rural utilities service. he previously served as commissioner of the federal communication. we thank you as well. suzanne huval from the fda serves as chief counsel for advocacy. of course that is still vacant. we're working hard to get it filled and we hope to get that done soon. in the absence of the administrator, she's here to testify on behalf of the small business administration. and lastly we have shone greene also with the sba was special adviser spirit cardinals could not be here with us today so we are very grateful to have mr. greene. let's begin with their opening statements of mr. chairman if we can begin with you, i'm pleased that this administration has made a broadband policy for this nation a priority. there've been billions of dollars invested so far in a tremendous amount of interest and thank you for being with us this morning. [inaudible] [inaudible] >> and if i may although over a shorter opening statement that focuses on broadband and small businesses. sorry, i apologize if i wasn't hea

those opportunities for never they're so maybe we can get people in the usda whose responsibility it is to initiate programs where we can a link young people and farmers and landowners in those conservation programs, the soil and water conservation districts are having the mechanism and the people in each county and they can be the go-between between the landowners in the land linking together. if you say why would farmers want to do that, we could have a scoring system and our crp and wrp and floodplain easement are scored in and only certain ones are funded. the better funded could be the ones for you gain extra points by signing up to allow or encourage and people to experience these lands that are on private land that are being paid a three usda programs. >> jaime, one would assume you're representing really won the first citizens of this country and people that were very well connected to the land and still well-connected but is that true? >> i say it is and let me preface my perspective comes from being raised in the nez per say and the lessons learned and i hope people don't t

dingell asked you does that usda have the authority to look at animal antibiotics and i believe you said you didn't know or what was your answer to that? >> we said yesterday can't imagine they don't have the authority to do that. there would be no reason why it would prohibit them. >> do you have the authority to look at animal antibiotics? >> i have the authority but not the mandate. that is not the mandate of my institution is to look at animal antibiotics and agricultural issues. >> not the mandate but you seem to have the authority but not a mandate? >> it depends if i authority someone comes in with a grant and wants to do that it likely would get referred to a different agency. >> but you believe the usda does have the authority? >> i do believe that but don't know for sure. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> dr. fauci, mr. shimkus and beinart of the opinion that he wanted to answer a question that you couldn't so what you just answer the question? [laughter] >> is this an extension of my time? >> i was almost going to get to the point as dr. speed and i have said several times there

this is from government auditors at the usda who basically said -- the group that's supposed to monitor not accomplishing its mission. auditors find beef being sold with high levels of dangerous pesticides, antibiotics, and heavy metals. this is -- i got the audit right here and was looking at some of the sections. why is this happening? they say in some cases no legal limit has ever been set on some of these substances. recently there was a shipment of u.s. beef that mexico said we're not selling that, it's too dangerous. it has high levels of copper in it. get out of here. we're not even accepting it. that beef was sold in the united states. it was fine. and the u.s. government cooperate stop it because they dient -- couldn't stop it because they didn't have the power by law. hln has reached out to the beef industry. no comment so far, but the report also talks about how, you know, it's one of those alphabet soups. they've got all kinds of different agencies and they're not all necessarily working together. all right. >>> if you love news, if you're a news junkie -- i am -- there's a

both the fda and the usda. >> they do? >> okay.ow the orphan drug act was written in 1983 to encourage pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs for diseases that have a small market. this was done through a series of incentives. fdaaa, the reauthorization of the fda user programs included provisions to strengthen the antibiotic pipeline through the orphan drug program. how effective has the orphan drug program been in your research? and development work related to drug-resistant bacteria? and what cooperation has it induced on the part of manufacturers, feed manufacturers or antibiotic producers or farm organizations? >> certainly the orphan drug act has incentivized the development of drugs of various types. >> now, you have said that this has incentivized. what particular incentive has it produced to do research and development work related to drug-resistant bacteria? >> the basic research that we do feeds into a company wanting to develop a drug for a, quote, orphan disease. a disease that's a relatively rare disease. >> so you

in my state, there is a lot of usda personnel. there is very few department of housing people in the state of montana. in the opinion of montana citizens, their opinion of the usda is quite high. we do have a lot of issues in those departments. i am just throwing an idea out, given the marvels of technology, i think it makes more sense to put people out in these states so that they can conduct face-to-face interviews, but also taken to appeals by correspondence. at least there are people there in the state. it is that appeals officer and his or her people the sense of that state, too, and it gives them access to people in the state, in montana, or example. i think it is good that people out of washington, d.c. i feel that very strongly. get them out in the country so they can better understand what is going on. >> we do have appeals officers that are outside of washington, dc . >> i am sure, that you do. >> i will come back to you with a more detailed answer. i am not sure what the thought process is, but again, we have a limited

we've been inspected by the usda so far five times this year.w, a senior captive exotic animal specialist with peta. we should mention ringling brothers circus was invited. they did not want to join us or give us a formal statement but we read your their statement so far. how would you characterize for people looking at it and seeing elephants there, how would you characterize it specifically. >> the video was shot last year during a peta undercover investigation at ringling brothers circus. what you're seeing are elephants who are just about to enter into the performance arena during the show. >> now i can see he's got the whip there and he's hitting the animal. >> the bull hooks. the elephants are routinely hit, poked, prodded with the bull hooks before they enter the arena so they understand they need to behave while they are in the arena or they will suffer the consequences afterwards. >> lisa, i apologize but we're following breaking news in florida. we have to get back to that right now. this is in winter springs. we are expecting to see o

. $103 million from usda rural development programs and $44 million from the transportation department's consumer assistance recycle and save program. to offset the costs of a different spending bill. the senate should likewise find a way to offset this one-month extension bill and create a sustainable precedent. the senate could start with federal unobligated balances. according to the white house, in fiscal year 2011, 33% of all federal funds were unused and obligated. the total dollar amount of these unobligated balances was estimated at $703 billion. rescinding only discretionary funding that has been available for more than two years would result in $100 billion in offsetable costs. the senate could also tap into $228 billion in unobligated stimulus funds, as chairman obey has suggested. at the very least, congress should reconsider transferring the almost $100 billion -- correction, $100 million budget increase it approved for itself in the 2010 to offset the cost of additional spending. congress should not be increasing its budget when our economy shrunk by 2.4% and inflation was

am especially grateful for the department is focus on agriculture issues and partnership with the usda and i was pleased to hear the department will be holding a workshop in wisconsin. it means a great deal to the producers and others in the state of wisconsin senator kohl asked to about the cops program. as you know, strongly support that pergamon and other federal law enforcement assistance grant programs. i hear repeatedly from the law enforcement of wisconsin just how important a grant programs are particularly during tough economic times. the copps hiring agreed and recovery act allowed my stick to how your and rehire 58 police officers and these are certainly needed in the jurisdictions where they were provided but i do think it's important that these dollars are distributed fairly different cities and counties and in meetings and had recently with wisconsin law enforcement it was brought to my attention the wisconsin sheriffs received zero grants to the recovery act. will enforce that everywhere are forced to do more with less these days but this struck me as an unfair for those

section 241, enacting the usda nutrition rescissions amendments offered and passed by the house leadership. this would rescind almost almost $362 million of unobligated, reserved stimulus funds for the w.i.c. program. this offset was selected because it was identified by the house appropriators, and they unanimously voted to use these funds to offset another program. so it's obviously a low priority. it's a reserve fund. it hadn't been utilized. it's setting there, and we need to eliminate it rather than borrow the money. again, there is three or four other sections. there is a final section -- or a next to final section on federal real property disposal. we have 21,000 buildings that we own that we don't use, but yet we don't have a clear way to allow government agencies to dispose of property, so last year on these 21,000 buildings that we can't get rid of because we have created a block to do so, we spent $8 billion maintaining them even though we're not using them. now, we could sell those, we could give them to the states, we could do a lot of things that would immediately save us us

in my state, montana, there are a lot of usda personnel. there are very few housing people in the state of montana. and there are -- and the opinion that montanans have the state is very high. certainly higher than the department of housing or development. because there's nobody in montana. but we do have a lot of issues with that department. and i'm just throwing ideas out to give, you know, the marvels of modern technology. as you mention, not all appeals will face to face. i can put people out in the states. and they can construct not only face to face appeals but also they can do some of the appeals by correspondence. it might be in some other state. at least you have people there in the state. it gives the appeals officer and his or her people a sense of that state too. and it gives access to people in the state in montana, for example. to appeals officer if the taxpayers want to appeal a decision. i think it's good to have people in washington, d.c., i believe that very strongly outside of the major cities. get them out in the country

and i'm especially grateful for the department focus on agriculture issues and partnership with the usdand was very pleased to the debugger will be holding a gary workshop in wisconsin in june. it means a great deal to our producers and others in the state of wisconsin. i turned to a couple of other things. senator kohl asked you about the c.o.p.s. program that as you know i strongly support that program and other federal law enforcement assistance grant program said i should be live from law in wisconsin just how important these grant programs are, particularly during tough economic times. the cops hiring grant in the recovery act allowed my state to hire, rehire 58 police officers, and these were certainly needed in the jurisdiction where they were provided, but i do think it's important that these dollars are distributed fairly between cities and counties that enemies i've had recently with wisconsin law enforcement, it was brought to my attention that wisconsin sheriffs received zero c.o.p.s. this struck me as a bit of an unfair outcome for counties in my state. might understand the

please see the documentary, "food inc.," and then demand that the head of usda be fired. thank you. have a lovely day. host: next up is john javel, virginia. boyd, on a republican line. -- lloyd, on the republican line. caller: i think our nation needs to turn back to god. we have turned away, and i hope everybody has a pencil because i will give them a number for a free dvd. if you learn -- if you turn to matthew chapter 24, you will hear about the earthquakes, in a lot of which are going on now. it will tell you when the end will come. one-800-643-4645, and you can get a free dvd. i appreciate your time. host: that is lloyd, from jones ville, virginia. john byrne, a veteran reporter from london, ithe prime minister vassalage when he was asked in a television interview that he would agree to tell a lie- televise the debates c-span will carry all three of them here and the u.s. here in the u.s.. the format is one we have become accustomed to over a few generations. next to the orange, connecticut. john, democrats line, go ahead, please. caller: i just want to make a short point. whe

the usda is worked among the four worst agencies in paying its travel credit bills on time as a matterof fact, they get charged interest because they can't even pay their bills on time. 10% of their travel cards are in delinquent status. they have embezzlement cases on their credit cards. but have we done the work to clean that up? no. have we gone after the $4.5 billion in overpayments? no. $4.5 billion a year for 10 years is $45 billion. just cleaning one aspect of improper payments at only the department of agriculture will pay for this bill for four months. but we won't do the hard work. we do the easy work. and the easy work is to put the credit card into the machine and not think about how that's going to steal opportunity and potential from those that follow us. wandepartment of defense. everybody says, well, you can't go after the department of defense. and my question is: why not? they're the only federal government agency that can't even come close to an audit anywhere. we can't even audit their books, they're in such a mess. but what we do know is that we can save at least $

in my state, montana, there are a lot of usda personnel. there are very few housing people in the state of montana. and there are -- and the opinion that montanans have the state is very high. certainly higher than the department of housing or development. because there's nobody in montana. but we do have a lot of issues with that department. and i'm just throwing ideas out to give, you know, the marvels of modern technology. as you mention, not all appeals will face to face. i can put people out in the states. and they can construct not only face to face appeals but also they can do some of the appeals by correspondence. it might be in some other state. at least you have people there in the state. it gives the appeals officer and his or her people a sense of that state too. and it gives access to people in the state in montana, for example. to appeals officer if the taxpayers want to appeal a decision. i think it's good to have people in washington, d.c., i believe that very strongly outside of the major cities. get them out in the country

am especially grateful for the department is focus on agriculture issues and partnership with the usda and i was pleased to hear the department will be holding a workshop in wisconsin. it means a great deal to the producers and others in the state of wisconsin senator kohl asked to about the cops program. as you know, strongly support that pergamon and other federal law enforcement assistance grant programs. i hear repeatedly from the law enforcement of wisconsin just how important a grant programs are particularly during tough economic times. the copps hiring agreed and recovery act allowed my stick to how your and rehire 58 police officers and these are certainly needed in the jurisdictions where they were provided but i do think it's important that these dollars are distributed fairly different cities and counties and in meetings and had recently with wisconsin law enforcement it was brought to my attention the wisconsin sheriffs received zero grants to the recovery act. will enforce that everywhere are forced to do more with less these days but this struck me as an unfair for those

the director as the center for disease control i would have to defer to my colleagues at the fda and usda >> who has authority to do this kind of research or to fix this level of tolerance for content or the time in which these antibiotics are fed or inserted into animal feed? >> misters dingell i would imagine the most appropriate venue would be for the u.s. department of agriculture. that is an obvious question of great importance. >> do they have the authority? >> i don't know if i can answer that definitively. i cannot imagine that they don't have the authority to do a study if they would want to do at. >> i would imagine that they do have authority and the mac, that they don't use it if they do. let me go into some other questions. the cdc's overall budget would see a 5% cut in the antimicrobial resistance program would see a cut of more than 50% gentlemen, do you think these cuts would negatively impact the work you are doing related to antibiotic resistance, especially support for state and local surveillance prevention and control efforts and to get smart campaign and? >> mr. ding

am especially grateful for the department is focus on agriculture issues and partnership with the usda and i was pleased to hear the department will be holding a workshop in wisconsin. it means a great deal to the producers and others in the state of wisconsin senator kohl asked to about the cops program. as you know, strongly support that pergamon and other federal law enforcement assistance grant programs. i hear repeatedly from the law enforcement of wisconsin just how important a grant programs are particularly during tough economic times. the copps hiring agreed and recovery act allowed my stick to how your and rehire 58 police officers and these are certainly needed in the jurisdictions where they were provided but i do think it's important that these dollars are distributed fairly different cities and counties and in meetings and had recently with wisconsin law enforcement it was brought to my attention the wisconsin sheriffs received zero grants to the recovery act. will enforce that everywhere are forced to do more with less these days but this struck me as an unfair for those

. $103 million from usda rural development programs and $44 million from the transportation department's assistance recycle and save program. to offset the costs of a different spending bill. the senate should likewise find a way to offset this one-month extension bill and create a sustainable precedent. the senate could start with federal unobligated balances. according to the white house, in fiscal year 2011, 33% of all federal funds were unused and obligated. the total dollar amount of these unobligated balances was estimated at $703 billion. rescinding only discretionary funding that has been available for more than two years would result in $100 billion in offsetable costs. the senate could also tap into $228 billion in unobligated stimulus funds, as chairman obey has suggested. at the very least, congress should reconsider transferring the almost $100 billion -- correction, $100 million budget increase it approved for itself in the 2010 to offset the cost of additional spending. congress should not be increasing its budget when our economy shrunk by 2.4% and inflation was less than