29 



gratulate you and pledge to you my desire to continue to cooperate 

 with you and work with you as we have had the opportunity to do 

 so many times in the past. 



Thank you. 



Secretary Espy. Mr. Emerson, thank you for the kind comments. 

 We have worked together and all the kind sentiments you ex- 

 pressed are certainly mutual. We have worked together and you 

 have been an acknowledged leader when it comes to food aid and 

 food trade programs and streamlining USDA services. You are 

 famous for one-stop shopping techniques. When it comes to human- 

 izing the dissemination of food stamps through certain technologi- 

 cal programs, you have been right on the forefront of that. 



I want to continue this with you, particularly as it comes to wel- 

 fare reform, streamlining, and one-stop shopping, and the WIC Pro- 

 gram, TEFAP Program, and all of the programs administered by 

 the USDA. I respect you and I want to continue to work with you. I 

 do appreciate the kind words. 



The Chairman. I thank the gentleman. 



Mr. English. 



Mr. English. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Secretary, I too would like to welcome you home and to ask 

 you a question with regard to rural development. 



We have three different studies that have been recently pub- 

 lished. One from the Department of Commerce, a second which 

 came from the Office of Technology Assessment, and the third 

 from the Aspen Institute. All of these pointed to the fact that if we 

 are going to have a successful Rural Development Program that 

 the REA was going to have to play a very major role. 



In fact, the Aspen Institute was rather critical of the 1990 farm 

 bill. I believe the way they described the efforts we put forth was 

 that we were rather timid in this area, which I have a tendency to 

 agree with. 



But as you know, the last administration and the administration 

 before that were very critical of the REA, did not really use the 

 REA, and in fact submitted budgets to eliminate the REA. So we 

 have a difference on one hand of independent studies and another 

 seems to be philosophy. 



Do you anticipate that the REA under this administration and 

 your leadership will be much more aggressive and return more to 

 its traditional role of being a leader in rural development? 



Secretary Espy. Let me say that some of those in OMB are still 

 there. They frown on the existence of the REA. 



You are aware of how they prefer that it be abolished. We have 

 had to fight those inside the Budget Committee and inside this 

 committee as well. They see this as an agency whose time has long 

 since gone. Roosevelt provided electricity to rural America and 

 beyond that they did not see REA having a mission, so therefore it 

 is an agency with a lot of money in search of a mission. 



I disagree with that. I think the REA is a legitimate entity. It 

 has a mission. Perhaps we can expand upon that mission. 



In my opening remarks I mentioned that hopefully we can use 

 them to provide water services to those in parts of America with- 

 out water services. We should examine that. Right now, that pro- 



