18 



taining thereto. It reads very well. But I don't want to impose on 

 this committee by reading it. 



The Chairman. Without objection, your prepared statement will 

 appear in the record. 



Secretary Espy. I would relate what Alice Rivlin said the other 

 day. She said that oftentimes she would sit here and wonder, as 

 you would wonder, why those of us on this side of the table would 

 give these long, boring speeches. She said, "Now I know." 



And so do I. 



[Laughter.] 



President Clinton, I am sure, perhaps more than any predeces- 

 sor, believes in free speech. Although we love, revere, and respect 

 Leon Panetta, a former member of this committee and now Direc- 

 tor of OMB, let me tell you that after 13 days in office, I have come 

 to the conclusion that OMB is OMB is OMB is OMB. [Laughter.] 



So they have approved this statement. It reads very well. I will 

 just let you have it. [Laughter.] 



I would like to repeat a couple of promises that I made to the 

 confirmation committee. 



The Chairman. If I might interrupt you at this point, I look for 

 prepared statements that say, "Not cleared by OMB." Then I feel 

 more comfortable. 



Secretary Espy. You won't find that. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I would like to take it in three parts and try to be quick about it. 

 One is to make some promises and to repeat some promises that I 

 made to the Senate Agriculture Committee during my confirma- 

 tion proceedings. They apply just as well to this committee as to 

 that committee. 



The second is that there are some pretty important areas out- 

 lined in the prepared statement. I would like to pick through it and 

 highlight some of the areas. 



Then I would like to make two requests from you and from the 

 relevant subcommittee chairmen. There have been breaking events 

 in agriculture over the last 13 days. I just returned this morning at 

 2 a.m. from a trip I made to Washington State, Olympia, to meet 

 with the senate committee there to address this problem of food- 

 borne illness and the outbreak of the E-coli pathogen. 



I have directed members of the FSIS staff at USD A to present to 

 me this Thursday, tomorrow, certain options that we have with 

 regard to that. I would like to right away come to you, Mr. Chair- 

 man, and come to the subcommittee chairmen to talk about these 

 options. I would like to do so next week, if possible. I would like to 

 respectfully request that you make a hearing available to us for 

 that purpose. 



Also, we have done some work on the reorganization of the 

 Washington bureaucracy. As Pat mentioned, we have been doing a 

 lot of work early on that. I have some ideas, some of which Dan 

 has worked on. I would like to share some of those with you, in a 

 very informal session, Friday morning and to try to set up a very 

 quick hearing on that so that we can get moving further. 



I come before this distinguished committee, Mr. Chairman, to 

 ask for your support, your help, and counsel as I undertake this 

 tremendous task. In order to successfully execute the duties of the 



