vilsack: i think we do. that is what i have been told and i certainly appreciate the work of yourself and numbers of this committee to resolve that aspect of the reynolds assistance programs. we have the other issue of maturing mortgages and loan payoffs which will result potentially, unless we deal with this, and a lot of these units coming out of the program. in which case you have a lot of families that will be looking for housing and not be able to afford it. sen. merkley: you turned to my second topic. we have recently been able to get some data from the department on maturing mortgages in oregon. it's important that across the nation we know in mortgages are maturing so nonprofits can attempt to buy them in places where they would go through much higher market rate. i know your team has been working on this issue. i wanted to emphasize how hard it is to recover this housing if we lose it out of the affordable portfolio. years ago, worked on a program called low-income housing preservation. it was very

vilsack: well, that's the key. a good decision. we don't necessarily want to create a circumstance where everybody is unhappy ultimately with what they get. then you create a confusing circumstance with an individual program when by statute you are directed to have a county program. there is a balance here, and i'm more than happy to try to be flexible, but i think we have to have some system. sen. hoeven: no, i hear you. and of course we want the forms to come in so you have adequate data and good data. but where that hasn't occurred just so that state committee or the director, harvey, wanted to see you do it, they are empowered to say that this is a nonsensical result and we will make an adjustment. my question is -- i don't think we've gotten that response back. they are still doing this interagency review and this has been going on since november and i'm asking for your help to get an answer. sec. vilsack: well, you deserve an answer, and we will try to get human quickly. -- get you one quickly. sen. hoeven: that's great. i'm

it's good to have you here, secretary vilsack. i'm going to start out right now with a station in sydney. i don't know all the information about it. it was just pointed tout eed o today by a producer from eastern montana that it's being repurposed or potentially maybe taken a step towards closure. i want to get some input from you on what's going on. if you don't know, you can certainly get back to me. these guys do incredible research and a incredible facility. on soft lie, other pests and the issues with barley scab showing up. these research facilities are important. can you give me an idea what the plans are for that? go ahead. >> the budget that we propose requested an increase. part of that would be targeted towards the facility that you mentioned. currently supports 41 scientists. i don't know of any plan to reduce that number or reduce the support for the 41 folks. obviously, research projects come in. some get concluded and new ones begin. i'm not sure that that's necessarily repurposing. perhaps there's a different focus

you're here, commerce secretary vilsack was in the receiving line.esota. you're going to be talking about farm deals. >> we are, because not only is this visit about empowering the private sector in cuba. it's also about talking to our own people at home. and pushing representatives to change this because of the fact american jobs are at stake. my state alone already does $20 million in agriculture under the humanitarian exemption to cuba every year. we could double, triple that. cuba has to set up its own agriculture distribution, of course. that will be going on simultaneously, but there's a lot of interest from america. there's curiosity, people who want to travel, but there are also people who see an economic opportunity, not just in cuba, but in all of latin america. because many countries say, hey, why have you been closing the doors to cuba? we would rather do business with other countries. so a lot of american businesses, big and small, farmers and others, see this as an economic opportunity. and if we just let in 5 million tourists a year ou

and with duncan out, this leads agriculture tom vilsack as the only original obama cabinet member still what, it's the 2016 ncaa bracket. it is out and here's the political angle. the last two champions in open seat presidential election years, like this country, michigan state, back in 2000, that was before george w. bush won in november, and kansas in 2008, before barack obama's victory. and actually, you could add another one. 1988, the open seat before that. that was kansas, too. danny manning, larry brown, probation a year later. anyway, fill in your brackets accordingly. now, the where. it is broadway on pennsylvania avenue. right now, the cast of the hit musical "hamilton" is at the white house, about to perform in front of a group of students. the when, it is town hall night on msnbc. what is the harm in another promo for that. 6:00 p.m. eastern, right after this show. chuck todd's town hall with bernie sanders. and right on the heels of that, a hillary clinton town hall at 7:00 with chris matthews. all of it right here on msnbc. so do not touch that remote. and now to today's w

and mechanisms for compliance as outlined -- stated publicly by our secretary of agriculture, tom vilsack simply put, the legislation before us provides us an immediate and comprehensive solution to the unworkable state-by-state patchwork of labeling laws. now, as chairman of a committee, the sometimes powerful senate agriculture committee, i believe this is a true compromise. and, like any bill, it is not perfect. i know that. but to those who criticize this legislation in one breath and yet say they want a compromise with the next, i ask, where is your plan? where is your solution? we've heard the distinguished senator from oregon many times on this floor -- not a stranger to this floor -- criticizing this compromise, and i appreciate -- i'm sure we all appreciate his passion. i disagree with his views, but i appreciate that he did put his plan into a bill and put it out for public debate. what i don't understand is why he doesn't want to vote on it. why do you put a bill out there and then decide that you're not going to vote on it? why would you not vote to cloture so you could get a

[laughter] secretary vilsack thank you for your service and being your.t a couple of things to ask your support you were sent a letter of the navajo promise own application submitted by the technical university and the navajo nation in extremely high priority for me in that the navajo nation faces is a significant challenge i poverty and among other things the unemployment is near 50 percent in the equally large percentage of the population is below the poverty level. and to make steady progress in economic development in this would make the difference and as part of the president's efforts it will help the navajo nation in tackle the issues outlined in their application. and i simply urge you to give consideration to their request for:in with those extremely difficult conditions that we see. >> it is one of the reasons i already included data area in the strike force initiative you are right it would extend that approach to all federal agencies. >> could you tell us about the strike force effort? >> fact in the reality is 85% and well we found early in t

and over on c-span starting at the top of the hour agricultural secretary tom vilsack goes before a senate appropriations subcommittee to talk about his agency's budget. that's live on c-span at 2:00 p.m. eastern. >>> join us this thursday for live coverage of the white house state dinner for canadian prime minister justin trudeau beginning at 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >>> this year's student cam documentary competition was our largest yet, nearly 6,000 middle and high school students took part alone or on teams of up to three. in all we received nearly 2,900 entries from 439 schools from across the country and even from schools as far away as taiwan and the united arab emirates. now it's time to award $100,000 in prize money to our winners. for this year's contests students were asked to produce documentaries using our road to the white house theme, specifically to document what issue they most wanted the candidates to discuss during the 2016 presidential campaign. through their entries students told us that the economy, equality, education and immigration were all top issues. our judg

and on c-span this afternoon, agriculture secretary tom vilsack goes before a senate appropriations subcommittee to talk about his agency's budget. again, that's live on c-span at 2:00 p.m. >>> join us this thursday for life coverage of the white house state dinner for canadian prime minister justin trudeau. beginning at 6:15 p.m. eastern on c-span. >>> housing and urban development secretary julian castro testifies on capitol hill about the president's 2017 budget request for his agency. he highlights affordable housing, homelessness, long term and short-term hud grant programs and internet access for >>> the subcommittee will come to order. by the way, before we get started i want to take the time to recognize our minority clerk kate hallion. today's kate's last hearing. [ applause ] kate, i'm not sure if you're applauding because you're leaving but after 29 years of federal service i will tell you personally i have thoroughly enjoyed working with kate as she is incredibly knowledgeable on transportation issues, her dedication to this committee and to the members of in kblit tee has been unwai

then tom vilsack talks about the president's request for the usda. that's at 2:00 p.m. eastern. >>> the most important thing in this election is education. i'm looking at the candidates closely for their programs in education. i'm not happy in the last 15 years or so with all the core standards that's been happening. i'd like to see that change around so i'm going to vote for bernie sanders or hillary clinton. i'm happy with both of those choices. i'm interested to see what their education plans would turn out to be if elected. >> i've decided i'm voting for ted cruz for the candidacy because he is a constitutional scholar. he's eloquent and he's principled. >> secretary of state for management and resources was on capitol hill today to talk about u.s. diplomatic efforts. members of the senate foreign relations committee questioned her on sexual exploitation during peace keeping missions and concerns over the department's allocation of $500 million to the u.n. green climate fund. this is an hour and a half.

in addition to secretary vilsack, we welcome dr. j johanssen. thank you for joining us in a discussion about agricultural economics. mr. young, thank you for your presence today. agriculture supports 16 million jobs nationwide. it's the backbone of my state, my community and states and communities across the country. we also know unfortunately as indicated last week, farmers are phasing a dramatic reduction in commodity prices and falling revenues. and we know the facts that indicate 2013 to 2015 net farm income fell 54%. in these times, it's critical that our nation's safety net for farmers and ranchers perform well. and allow them to continue to grow and raise the most abundant food supply in the world. as i indicated in our conversation, in the absence of doing that, they will not be around in good types. therefore, i would express my disappointment that the president's budget proposes significant cuts to crop insurance. even though we had a grass-roots effort that successfully reversed a reduction, that reduction pales in comparison to what