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When Iowa farmers asked me, Who is this Mike Espy that has 

 been appointed to this slot and what is he like? I tell them that 

 there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that he is not an 

 Iowa corn grower. But the good news is that he shares our con- 

 cerns about rural economic development, and that was demonstrat- 

 ed early on in your administration with the help you provided with 

 regard to the ethanol issue. 



Based on your statements here today, including the statement 

 you have prepared where your first item and goal is economic de- 

 velopment in rural areas — that demonstrates to me and demon- 

 strates to the people I represent that this is going to be your big- 

 gest concern. 



You are our advocate in the Cabinet meetings and in the admin- 

 istration on behalf of those of us who represent rural areas to 

 make sure that rural economic concerns are brought forth to the 

 new administration. I encourage you to continue that advocacy be- 

 cause it is already showing itself in the kinds of policies and the 

 words that have been used in addressing some of the new goals 

 from the administration. I hope that continues. 



Secretary Espy. Thank you, sir. I really do appreciate it. 



Let me assure you that any brightness I have, any light I can 

 give, is intensified by the shower of light coming on me by Presi- 

 dent Clinton. And I say that honestly. He chose me for certain pur- 

 poses. One objective, of course, is to include rural America in the 

 economic life of this entire Nation, to bring into the formula cer- 

 tain areas which have historically been left out. 



Yes, I am a deep and strong advocate for rural development 

 simply because I come from rural America. But so does this Presi- 

 dent. He was the Governor of Arkansas. So he is most familiar 

 with rural economic strategies. 



So you don't have to shout as loud. You don't have to scream and 

 plead as much because he is already disposed to understand the 

 problems of the region. He is more adept at understanding how we 

 can resolve it. 



All you have to do is pick up a book called "The Lower Mississip- 

 pi Delta Development Commission." This was a Commission cre- 

 ated in 1988 or 1989. I was an author of it along with Senator Dale 

 Bumpers on the Senate side. It simply said that America is a great 

 chain and in order to make the chain stronger we have to focus on 

 the weaker links. A weak link in this national chain is the 9 or 10 

 States bordering the Mississippi River which have similar econo- 

 mies that are the weakest and most impoverished in the Nation. 



So we created this law, Ronald Reagan signed it into law, and we 

 created this Commission. Governor Clinton was the chairman of 

 the first ever Delta Development Commission. They produced a 

 book, "400 Reasonable Ways to Improve the Quality of Life in 

 Rural America." They cut across the whole scope of transportation, 

 agriculture, water, rural development, and energy. Now all we 

 have to do is to flip through the book and see which ones we can 

 enact quickly, which ones will take a little bit more time, which 

 are inexpensive, and which will take a little bit more money. 



That is why I am so eager to get on with this job. 



Second, let me say to you that I am not a corn farmer, but I am 

 the Secretary of Agriculture for all commodities across the Nation. 



