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Lockport, NY – In a major address on the challenges facing rural communities, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today called for new investments and strategies to restore the promise and prosperity of Main Streets and rural communities. Underscoring that the misplaced priorities of the White House and Republican leadership in Congress have left rural areas and small towns to fend for themselves, Senator Clinton called for a targeted and coordinated approach to rural development to help farmers and businesses in these regions build more economic opportunity. To help link rural communities to the resources they need to create jobs, provide opportunities for young people in their communities, and spur investment in their hometowns, Senator Clinton announced a new rural broadband initiative and outlined initiatives to increase access to capital, spur regional public-private partnerships, invest in renewable energy, improve health care and education for rural communities, and strengthen the safety net for family farmers.

“We can make the American Dream real again in rural communities and small towns. We can create a rural renaissance and restore the promise of Main Street and make our whole country stronger in the process,” Senator Clinton said. “By investing in renewable energy we can re-imagine and reinvigorate agriculture in America; by investing in broadband technology and opening up access to capital, we can foster innovation and growth; and by strengthening our agricultural sector, improving our health care system, and expanding opportunities in education we can preserve quality of life and keep good jobs in rural and small-town communities.”

Bringing the Promise of Broadband to Rural Communities

Senator Clinton underscored that we need a national broadband strategy that focuses on delivering broadband access to our rural areas. She announced a new Rural Broadband Initiative to renew the focus on the 25 percent of our nation’s population who live outside of urban areas who are being increasingly left out of the new “Information Age” economy. Senator Clinton will introduce legislation to coordinate and maximize federal resources by establishing a single office run by an administrator that will assume the duties and responsibilities of the disparate federal programs; promote accountability for the performance of these programs; create a “one stop shopping” clearinghouse for innovators and businesses that want to expand broadband in rural areas; connect stakeholders in the public and private sector; and promote new technologies. In addition, Senator Clinton’s bill will create a Rural Broadband Advisory Panel comprising private and public sector leaders committed to seeking meaningful solutions to rural broadband needs. The bill will also create a National Rural Broadband Innovation Fund to invest in cutting edge and experimental rural broadband projects and applications. Finally, the bill will add $25 million to the National Science Foundation budget and provide a clear mandate to research new broadband delivery technologies for rural and other remote areas.

Expanding Investment in Rural Communities

Senator Clinton also called for a Rural Regional Investment Program, which would provide equity investments to fund innovative opportunities and partnerships in rural areas. This expands on the rural strategic investment program authorized in the 2002 Farm Bill but never funded. The Rural Regional Investment Program would establish a National Board on Rural America to award planning grants and innovation grants to certified Regional Investment Boards. The primary goal of this program would be to provide rural communities with flexible resources to develop comprehensive, collaborative, locally-controlled planning and to foster innovative community and economic development strategies. Examples of successful federally funded regional models have focused on specific geographic targets including the Appalachian Region, the Lower Mississippi Delta Region, and the Northern Great Plains Region.

Expanding Availability of Capital

Emphasizing that rural communities are at a disadvantage when it comes to access to capital, Senator Clinton called for simplifying federal programs that provide smaller grants and loans to rural and small town small businesses. She called for pooling private capital and administering that capital through trusted intermediaries who can also provide technical and business advice like Rural Opportunities, Inc. and credit unions, as well as expanding access to microloans. Senator Clinton also emphasized that we need a new capital strategy at the federal level to rework existing rural grant and loan programs to target new opportunities and make these programs simpler to use. She urged considering expanding the New Markets Tax Credit – which has proven successful in urban areas – and making it simpler to use in rural areas. She also underscored the need to provide financial incentives that will attract our young people to return and live, work and raise their families in our rural communities, including school loan forgiveness, rural tax credits for home purchases and business start-ups and government backed rural savings and investment accounts.

Harnessing the Potential of Renewable Energy

Senator Clinton also emphasized the incredible opportunity for rural America in renewable energy. With gas prices continuing to skyrocket, Senator Clinton has outlined an energy strategy to create a Strategic Energy Fund and cut our dependence on foreign oil in half by 2025. A big piece of this agenda is support for rapid development of renewable energy, including biofuels. Senator Clinton called for expanding geographically the production of ethanol and expanding the kinds of crops we use to make ethanol, and has proposed supporting the development of cellulosic ethanol by providing $1 billion in research funding, as well as loan guarantees for the first billion gallons of production capacity. Senator Clinton noted that biofuel development is underway in New York, where a deal was recently announced to convert an old brewery in Fulton into the largest ethanol refinery east of the Ohio River.

Standing With Family Farmers

Senator Clinton underscored that we need a more reliable safety net to help manage risk, including the Milk Income Loss Program and other counter-cyclical programs that ensure farmers get a fair price for their product and can earn a decent living; crop insurance programs that provide better coverage and more flexibility and take into account the needs of specialty crop and organic producers; access to disaster assistance; and funding for initiatives like the Emergency Conservation Program and the Emergency Watershed Program, which will help farmers and communities rebuild infrastructure after a disaster, such as the flooding from Hurricane Katrina and the floods that struck New York last month. Senator Clinton emphasized the need to fully fund and strengthen current conservation programs on working lands and to explore new ways to encourage conservation, such as a “green payment” program that would be voluntary, available to all agricultural producers and would provide payments based on environmental performance.

Senator Clinton also emphasized that farmers need new markets and innovative ways to market their products – a better distribution infrastructure to reach the marketplace and greater connections to that marketplace – including strengthening “Regional Food Systems” and building on the success of the Farm to Fork initiative that Senator Clinton launched to link New York farmers, restaurants, schools, colleges and others in New York State. In addition, Senator Clinton underscored the need to support and expand programs that provide producers with more value-added opportunities, especially as the demand for healthy foods continues to rise, and to work together so that farmers can take advantage of these opportunities.

Senator Clinton additionally stressed the need to pass the provisions of the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act (AgJOBS). AgJOBS would bring much needed stability to the farm workforce by encouraging undocumented workers to come forward and work in agriculture in return for the opportunity to earn temporary and then permanent immigration status. By reforming the H-2A guestworker program, AgJOBS would provide a long-term solution to a longstanding problem.

In addition, Senator Clinton emphasized that she will be introducing legislation to require the International Trade Commission to report to Congress on the actual effects of every trade agreement we sign, after two years, five years and then every five years after it goes into effect, to allow us to make choices based on fact, not ideology or economic theory.

Addressing Challenges to Rural Health Care and Education

Rural communities often face the added strain of lack of access to health care, doctors and nurses. Senator Clinton emphasized the power of technology to make sure every rural American has access to quality, affordable health care and help level the playing field through telemedicine and partnerships that connect doctors across the state and nation. Senator Clinton has authored bipartisan health IT legislation that has passed the Senate and will be working to get a final version out of a House-Senate Conference Committee.

Senator Clinton also announced that she will introduce a rural workforce bill to recruit and keep more health care professionals in rural and small town communities, including steps such as loan forgiveness and tuition assistance so that health care professionals wishing to serve in rural communities do not have to leave for better paying jobs elsewhere. She also underscored the need to expand pipeline programs that expose students living in rural areas to the health professions.

Senator Clinton also emphasized the challenge facing rural schools and the benefits of broadband Internet access to connect teachers, administrators and schools to each other through distance learning and collaboration. She also noted the promise of distance learning for health professionals to further their education and training. She also emphasized the need to do more to help students in rural communities afford college, especially non-traditional students, who are often older or working or raising a family while attending classes, and to help connect students with employers.

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