CURRENT AGRICULTURAL SITUATION IN 



RUSSIA 



WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1993 



House of Representatives, 

 Subcommittee on Foreign Agriculture and Hunger, 



Committee on Agriculture, 



Washington, DC. 



The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 9:30 a.m., in room 

 1302, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Timothy J. Penny 

 (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 



Present: Representatives Barlow, McKinney, Stenholm, and Al- 

 lard. 



Also present: Representative Roberts, ranking minority member 

 of the committee, and Representatives Nussle and Dickey, mem- 

 bers of the committee. 



Staff present: Gary R. Mitchell, minority staff director; Glenda L. 

 Temple, clerk; Jane Shey, Anita R. Brown, and Lynn Gallagher. 



OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. TIMOTHY J. PENNY, A REP- 

 RESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MIN- 

 NESOTA 



Mr. Penny. The meeting will come to order. The Republican cau- 

 cus of this subcommittee are meeting in an adjacent room. They 

 should be joining us shortly. I intend to get things moving right on 

 schedule, and over time I think as members understand that that 

 is the mode of operation, we will do a better job of getting them 

 here and holding them. I also try to adjourn on some type of sched- 

 ule and we would hope within 2 hours, but certainly no later than 

 noon we would wrap up today's hearing. 



I try to do that as a convenience to all involved, both members 

 and to witnesses so that we don't waste your time or our time with 

 hearings that drag on throughout the day and result in too many 

 people speaking to an empty audience or an empty rostrum. 



This is the second of 3 days of hearings on the Russian agricul- 

 tural situation. Yesterday we heard from Government officials as 

 to the effectiveness of existing aid programs. Today we want to fol- 

 low on with a continued discussion with experts in this regard. 



Our first panel will include the Honorable Cooper Evans, a 

 former Member of Congress and a former member of the Agri- 

 culture Committee, a good friend of mine, a neighbor to the south 

 in Iowa. Cooper has been a board member and quite active in the 

 development of the Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance 

 program in Russia and the other Republics, as well as Eastern Eu- 

 rope. 



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