If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it.

The Obama administration will continue to fight for a comprehensive immigration solution that includes AgJobs and a stable workforce for our farms.

It's how you make decisions that matters, and that ought to be the question that people ask of any candidate for any executive office, whether it's mayor, governor or president. How do you make decisions? Who do you want in the room helping you make those decisions?

Let us tackle the big issues with bold ideas that transform Iowa to accomplish our shared mission to grow Iowa, and realize our shared vision of Iowa as the best place to live, work and raise a family.

Very few people know that my department is responsible for 1.2 million home loans since I have been secretary. That's 1.2 million families that are living in homes in rural America that would never have homeownership, but for the United States Department of Agriculture's programs. We have to do more of educating people about the partnership that does exist between rural America and their government.

Somewhere between 50 to 60 percent of the food you eat has been touched by immigrant hands, and it is fair to say some of them are not here as they should be here. But if you didn't have these folks, you would be spending a lot more - three, four or five times more - for food, or we would have to import food and have all the food security risks.

And sometimes people don't realize that 90 percent of the persistent poverty counties are located in rural America.