The House Natural Resources Committee will postpone the November 20, 2013 hearing with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell regarding the Obama Administration’s decision to apply sequestration cuts to funds already paid to states under the Secure Rural School (SRS) program. This hearing was originally scheduled after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) failed to fully comply with subpoenas for documents issued on September 4, 2013.

“Both USDA and OMB have committed to providing additional documents this week, and we expect them to comply with the outstanding subpoenas by the first of December. The hearing scheduled for Wednesday with Secretary Vilsack and OMB Director Burwell will be postponed to give the agencies additional time to comply with the subpoenas. The Committee will look to reschedule the hearing in December,” said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (WA-04). “It is unfortunate that it took the issuing of subpoenas and inviting the agency heads to a hearing in order to get information that the Committee has been seeking for months, but we are committed to getting answers to questions about why the Obama Administration made the economically painful and legally questionable decision to sequester the SRS payments, which provide essential funding for teachers and police officers in rural communities. Congress should not have to go to such lengths to get information and answers from an Administration that claims to be the most open and transparent in history.”

WHAT:	Full Committee oversight hearing entitled “Oversight of the Obama Administration’s Questionable Application of Sequestration to the Secure Rural Schools Program and the Costs to States, Local Economies, and Rural School Children.”
WHEN:	POSTPONED until December
WHERE:	1324 Hearing Room in the Longworth House Office Building

Visit /oversight/srscuts to learn more about the Committee’s oversight into the Secure Rural Schools sequestration cuts.

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