Nomination Hearing

Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

April 11, 2000

Statement by

Christopher A. McLean

Acting Administrator

The Rural Utilities Service

The United States Department of Agriculture

Mr. Chairman, I thank you and the Committee for today's hearing. I also thank Senators Kerrey and Hagel for their kind words, support, and friendship. I thank my friends and colleagues who are here today and my parents who are in Omaha. Most importantly, I thank my wife Helen who has been a most understanding and supportive wife, partner and my best friend.

As a former Senate staffer, it is a profound honor to appear before this Committee as the President's nominee to be the Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service (RUS). My work, my values, and my optimism about America are shaped by my years of experiences in this institution. I am deeply grateful to have had the honor and privilege of serving as counsel to two great Senators, Jim Exon and Bob Kerrey. From them, I learned what it is to be a public servant.

As a Nebraskan it is a special honor to be nominated to lead the Rural Utilities Service. Many of you know that Nebraska Senator George Norris introduced the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. So to this day, I continue to work for a Nebraska Senator!

I am also humbled to be asked to follow in the footsteps of former Administrator Wally Beyer. As the last Administrator of the Rural Electrification Administration and the first Administrator of the Rural Utilities Service, Wally is the alpha and the omega of the cooperative movement. Wally led the agency into the 21^st Century and I am honored to carry forward the torch he relit.

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to report that the Rural Utilities Service and its authorizing legislation is sound. With the oversight of this Committee, the agency is working to improve the quality of life for millions of our fellow citizens and setting an example of successful economic development.

The agency is blessed with a dedicated corps of professionals. The RUS roster is filled with some of the nation's finest engineers, utility experts, accountants and policy analysts. Everyday they make me proud to serve in their ranks. A significant challenge for the agency is to be able to replace retiring workers in this very tight labor market.

The Water, Electric, Telecommunications, Distance Learning and Telemedicine programs of RUS are pistons in a great engine of economic growth. As the nation enters a new century, the need for rural infrastructure support is very clear. Over 75 percent of the nation's landmass is rural and 25 percent of the nation's population lives in rural areas. America can not be strong without sound infrastructure in the vast rural areas of this great nation.

Rural America faces new challenges. Low commodity prices, consolidation and vast areas of out-migration all highlight the need to further extend the benefits of the new economy. The programs of RUS and the Rural Development mission area provide a pathway to greater prosperity.

This is a time of great change for every sector of the utilities industry. Market and regulatory shifts in the telecommunications and energy sectors alter decades long principles of utilities economics. As utilities markets open to competition, capital will seek its highest return. Without the Telecommunications and Electric programs of RUS, rural America could be left behind. In water, the health and safety of rural families and the purity of the rural environment is critical to the quality of life. Rural families also need access to education and health care. The Distance Learning and Telemedicine program is bringing new solutions to every corner of the nation.

This is also a time of unprecedented opportunity for those living beyond the nation's great cities.

Information age technologies offer the opportunity to suspend the disadvantages of distance, density and geography. Renewable sources of energy provide new ways to generate income and wealth in rural communities. The talents, imagination and aspirations of rural youth provide the greatest reason for optimism.

I believe that we are on the verge of a rural renaissance.

This unique moment in history could be lost if the proven fundamentals of rural economic development are abandoned or modified. Reliable, affordable power, modern telecommunications, safe and clean water, the use of telecommunications technologies to enhance education and health care are the building blocks of success in the new century.

The work of RUS is not done. It is a job, which is in fact, never done. The cost of rural service is simply more expensive than service to densely populated urban markets.

RUS does more than provide a source of affordable capital, it ensures a level of quality and an ethic of engineering which maximizes the value of every tax dollar invested. RUS programs also leverage and attract private capital to utilities projects and rural areas.

RUS helps capital go where communities can grow.

While RUS is proud of its record of accomplishment, it also has a vision of the future. RUS is prepared to manage new initiatives to strengthen rural America, to close and prevent the digital divide, to put the electricity in electronic commerce and to enhance the safety and quality of rural water. Should the Congress enact new loan guarantee legislation on " local into local" television service, RUS will be ready to meet the challenge.

I would like to share with the Committee the priorities I have pursued as acting administrator and would continue to pursue as Administrator.

First, RUS must maintain its spirit of continuous reform, reinvention, and responsiveness. The agency has reduced red tape, shortened processing times, enhanced loan security and improved customer service. Our customers must respond to a fast paced market. We must keep up with the level of change.

Second, we should embrace new technologies in all of our programs such as renewable and distributed generation in electric, broadband services in telecommunications, and modern water filtration and treatment.

Third, we are focusing new attention on those living just beyond the reach of our programs. Places like the Mississippi Delta, Native American communities, Colonias along the border of the United States and Mexico and the family that lives at the far corner of the county need RUS.

Fourth, RUS must work in partnership with the private sector and other government agencies to maximize the benefit of every tax dollar. RUS relationship with its supplemental lenders must remain strong. Perhaps there is no better example of the spirit of partnership and cooperation than the joint effort between RUS and the National Weather Service to extend the reach and reception of NOAA weather radio. The RUS "Tower and Power" program is recruiting borrowers to donate tower space and power supply to NOAA weather radio transmitters and to promote the use of weather radio. I am very pleased that President Clinton has included funding for new transmitters in both his supplemental appropriations request and the 2001 budget. The RUS/National Weather Service partnership has and will save lives.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman I thank you and the Committee for its unwavering support for the Rural Utilities Service and for keeping alive the spirit and vision of George Norris.