U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Rural Utilities Service Conference
Excerpts from speech given by Administrator Hilda Legg during the
Rural Utilities Service/Community Development National Conference
Tuesday, July 30, 2002
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ADMINISTRATOR LEGG:
Good morning. Welcome to my
first RUS annual conference. I have been
looking so forward to this event, and I am very, very pleased that each and
every one of you has taken the time and chosen to be a part of our gathering
and to be a part of the RUS team, and together we will create magic.
To all of our state directors and our RUS program directors out in
the state, I want you to know that I'm especially pleased that you've chosen to
travel here on your budget money and to come and be a part of our conference. Again, it is all about working together in
partnership. That's why today the theme
of this conference is the magic of teamwork.
You see, I very much believe that none of us can operate as an isolated
individual, but collectively we really can make one heck of a team on behalf of
folks in rural America, which is what I want to talk about today.
Some of you I have not had a chance to meet yet, and so the staff
always advises me that it's important to kind of tell a little bit about
myself, although many of you have heard it, so I do apologize in advance.
For those of you that I haven't had a chance to be with yet, I
will simply tell you, I came to this job from the Center for Rural Development
in Somerset, Kentucky. Most all of my
adult career has been involved in economic development. I did start as a public school teacher, got a
little taste of Washington at the Department of Education in the early
'80s. And so I've come to Washington, I
served in the Administration, I go back home and work, and I come back up. Home being Kentucky.
But I always went back and forth during those tenures, and I
always said it kept me grounded. I
always went home to the farm. I lived
about 20 miles out of the county seat of Adair County. I was born and raised in Knifley, Kentucky,
and if you blink your eyes, you would miss it.
I suppose some of you know those kinds of places.
It has always been through opportunities that have been presented
that I've simply been able to take advantage of and experience and learn, as I
have in the past few months in RUS, more about how we can serve the folks who
live in rural America. So whether it's
been in public education, or whether it was working for a U.S. senator, where I
worked very closely in putting all those projects together with local elected
officials, running the Center for Rural Development, or at the Appalachian
Regional Commission, where we did economic development for 13 states, I wasn't
smart enough to have ever planned a career that would have built on itself like
this, it has only again by the grace of God that I've had this opportunity and
privilege. And so I love what I do at
RUS, because it is about where I've spent the years of my life in rural
America.
I'm very proud of being a person from rural America. I always tell young people when I have a
chance to talk to them to be proud of your roots and who you are, and the
foundations that are laid as a part of growing up in small rural
communities. And so I take that heritage
very seriously and I'm very grateful for that.
But I'm also grateful then to have the opportunity such as President
Bush and Secretary Veneman have given me.
You see, I really believe in the mission of the Rural Utility
Service. But you know, I'm human
too. Some of you may have heard me tell
the story. Growing up in a rural
community and actually, you've heard me tell about how I actually carried
water. We didn't have running water in
my home until I was probably in my early teens, 12, something like that.
So I do identify with many of the issues of our constituents. But you know, a wonderful thing about this
country of ours is the opportunity to do things such as serving in the
administration. And sometimes you get to
thinking that you're just a little bit important, you know. You come from this little community in Adair
County, Kentucky, and all of a sudden you're sitting in front of the United States
Senate for your confirmation hearing, and you're appointed by the
President. So I kind of got to thinking,
you know, I got a little bit of a big head.
And during the farm bill I had to deliver some papers up on
Capitol Hill to one of the congressional offices. And those of you that have been in Washington
know that when you circle around, you can't find a parking space. So there was this one parking space that
said, "Permit only." And I
thought there are good people in Washington, D.C. just like there are back home
in Adair County, Kentucky. And so I
pulled in there and I put this little piece of paper, a little note, under my
windshield wiper, and I said "government official." You know, got to thinking I was
important. "Government official
inside taking care of business."
Well, I went in, I delivered my papers. And those of you who know me know I like to
talk. So I was really conscious. I got back out in about 15 minutes, and there
was a little pink piece of paper under the windshield wiper, and it said
"Policeman outside taking care of business." So I got my come-uppance real quick when I
went to Washington, D.C., and so again, I'm always reminded of where I'm from
and the job that I have been given to do.
But the job, again, is to carry out the mission along with you as
team members. And I do want you to pay
attention; that mission is printed in your program. And a mission of the Rural Utilities Service
is to improve the quality of life and promote economic development throughout
rural America by administering its electric, telecommunications and water and
environment programs in a service-oriented, forward-looking, and financially
responsible manner. Ladies and
gentlemen, that is what we are about every day.
And I love my job because it's about serving the people of rural America.
But I've had to learn an awful lot, even though I've done economic
development for a number of years. And I
must tell you that many of you have been an important part of my learning the
past ten months that I've been on the job.
I especially need to thank the administrators of our programs,
Blaine Stockton, Roberta Purcell, and Gary Morgan as the assistant
administrators, for their patience, explaining things to me, more than once
sometimes, and their guidance and their advice and their leadership. And I do appreciate them very, very
much.
It's been a wonderful past ten months, and as I said, I love the
program, I love learning about what it is that you do. And there's so much to do every day when I go
into the office that I'm never bored, and the main thing is just trying to get
out of there at a certain time.
…But it (mission of RUS) is about Dane (son). Truly rural development is about the fact
that I want Dane to be able to choose to either live in a rural community, or
to live anywhere in the world.
But in order to make a difference, in order to have a business, in
order to be a productive citizen, if he chooses to live on the family farm in
Adair County, Kentucky, he must be able to communicate, he must be able to
conduct his life and have a quality of life for him to live and for him to
raise his family in the future. And so
it is about Dane. It is about the future
generations, being able to choose where they want to live and to have the
quality of life that we know that we have in rural America, and that people
deserve.
So it's about having that ability to choose. And so the challenges that we face as an
organization are about how to create those opportunities for rural America to
make a difference in this world and to contribute to society as full and
productive members.
Now I will tell you as I got on the plane six days after September
the 11th, and I looked at Dane, and I thought "Why am I doing this? Why am I leaving a secure, small rural town
of Somerset, Kentucky, taking my son, the most precious thing in life to me,
into a town that has obviously been the point of an attack, and will continue
to be? And as I reflected on that plane,
I thought, you know, there's truly an age of innocence that has passed us by. Dane will never know the life that we knew
prior to September 11th. He will never understand
that innocence, because the world has changed.
But, if I didn't go to Washington, if I quit and I stayed home, then the
bad guys win. And I'm not for the bad
guys winning. I'm for the good folks of
rural America winning, and so I had to come and be a part of your team, and to
hopefully contribute in some way.
It's been a challenging year.
My gosh, I arrived at RUS, and what happens to the energy market with
Enron, the telecom market, with WorldCom?
Need I go on? It has been a very
challenging time at the Rural Utilities Service. But again, our goal, our mission, is the same
that it was. We, as a utilities service
organization, we are finding that the cooperatives are strong. That's where
your services are not being volatile.
That is where you're having service to rural people that is
consistent. We're finding borrowers who
want to come back into our program now, because they understand what we are
about.
To me, rural simply means customer service, it means strength, it
means success, it means teamwork. So I
don't want us to be scared about the pessimism that is surrounding today's
nation in our capital market. RUS,
ladies and gentlemen, will do its part to share the risk, to balance the
investment, and to credit decisions with the need of the community and the
residents that live in those rural communities.
Congress and the administration have shown faith in RUS, in you as
a team, with new and increasing responsibilities. And I'd like to just touch on a couple of
those.
Last year the Electric Program was given $4.5 billion to clean up
the backlog. Well, guess what? It looks like we may get another $4 billion
or so this year in the Electric Program.
In the Water Program, the Farm Bill gave us $700 million to clean up the
backlog. And by August 20th we will have
obligated around 90 percent, about $700 million. Ladies and gentlemen, that's phenomenal. That's in four months." And it is Gary Morgan (Assistant
Administrator – Water Program) and many of you in the states that have been
taking this money and putting it where it needs to be to meet the needs of the
people in rural communities.
The telecommunications program as well got a huge influx of money
with the broadband program. And Bobby
Purcell (Assistant Administrator – Telecom Program) has been working to get
those regulations out with your help.
$400 million in '02, another $400 million in '03. We've got a lot of work to do, not to mention
the next five years, $1.2 billion in the local to local television. They, being the Congress and the
administration, believe that we can make a difference. And again, it will take us as a team to
deliver those resources to the most communities with the most need and the
people with the most need. These
initiatives will ensure that rural America participates fully in this economic
recovery.
And I'd like to quote from our President's State of the Union,
because he said, "American workers want more than unemployment
checks. They want a steady
paycheck. When America works, America
prospers." So my economic security
plan can be summed up in one word, and that is 'jobs.' Well, I'm here to tell you, you cannot create
jobs in rural America without infrastructure.
And we are the team in rural development, with our partners in community
facilities, that bring that infrastructure.
And so it is not just about pipes and lines, but it is about meeting the
needs of the people to help create jobs.
And when Mr. Moses was talking about the growth, the phenomenal
growth of this area, I couldn't help but just equate it. It's about creating opportunity. A chance for a person to have a job and a
sense of self-worth that is so important to this country.
So when we talk about the constituents that we serve, I also want
you to realize that this is not a small number of people. It is important to the total economy of
America--2,300 counties, 80 percent of the land mass. And we are responsible to nearly 55 million
people. Our job and our mission is to
serve them.
And the mission is really no different than what it was 67 years
ago in the beginning of the REA. When
you think about how that started--and I tell you this is one of the things I've
dwelled a lot on in the last ten months--think about the vision, think about
the dream. How did anyone ever dream a
dream that you could actually set wooden poles and string electric line from
one coast of this country, across those majestic Rocky Mountains, through those
desert planes, into the hollers of Appalachia to the other coast?
How could they dream such a big dream? And yet today well into the 90+ percent of
Americans have access to electricity. It
was an idea that together a lot of people made into a reality. And so is the idea that we have to dream the
dreams. Now they probably had a few
little problems along the way. It kind
of reminds me of the farmer that went into the local cooperative office, and he
walked in there and he kind of had his hat cocked back on his head, like
farmers will do. And he said, "Is
this the headquarters of the company that spread the powerful fingers of
electricity across this land?" And
the lady at the counter, she said, "Yes sir." He said, "Is this the organization that
rescued farmers from benighted darkness?"
She grew a little prouder, she said, "Yes sir." He said, "And is this the organization
that relieved my wife of that back-breaking drudgery of housework?" She said, "Yes it is." And he said, "And is this the rural
utility that set a pole smack-dab in the middle of my driveway?"
[Laughter.]
There were probably a few problems here and there. I'm sure it wasn't easy when we think about
stringing those electric lines across this country. But the point is this: They had a dream. And as Mr. Moses talked about, as we come to
Disney World today, let me give you a little information about Walt Disney and
this dream. He didn't give up on that
idea. Because, you see, it is important
that you have a dream and that we have a dream, or we will never make the
impact possible.
The story of creating Disney World--and it all began I guess with
Mickey Mouse --but when you're out this week, when you're at EPCOT or MGM, or
Disney World, think about the fact that Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas
City Star newspaper because he 'lacked' imagination. Think about the fact that his cartoon
business in Kansas went bankrupt and he moved to California, announced he was
starting a new cartoon strip in a studio and that studio was his uncle's
garage. He had this new and novel series
that he never finished because he went into bankruptcy. And then he drew a picture of a mouse, and
incidentally hardly anyone liked that picture of the mouse. But he kept it, because he had that dream,
because he believed in it. And as you
all know, the rest is history.
And by the way, Disney at one point purchased ABC, who owned then
the Kansas City Star newspaper.
The RUS dream is the challenge that is before us today. It may not be getting just electricity, but
it is about getting affordable electricity into rural communities where they
can make a living, where they can pay that utility bill. It is about getting clean and safe
water. It is about having high-speed
access, so those rural communities can connect to the world to sell their
products or deliver their services. And
you cannot lose sight of the fact that it is about the teamwork that it takes
to put that out there.
We can't lose sight of the fact that the families at the end of
the line, they are our customers. They
have needs. What are those needs? How can we dream the dream, create the
vision, and then the teamwork to meet those needs, and the challenges that it
presents?
And we have a great group of programs, ladies and gentlemen,
across the rural development spectrum.
But those programs must work to benefit the lives of individuals. And this theme today of the magic of teamwork
is how we as a group can come together.
Henry Ford once said, "Coming together is a beginning. Staying together is progress. But working together is success."
In the vein of success, it means we all have to give a little, we
all have to contribute a little. We all
have to do things a little differently.
We must think about things a little differently, if we are going to
truly be an effective team.
As you go through the next two or three days, as you meet the
people, get to know your colleagues. Get
to know where they're from, what they do, what their background is. You should
get to know about what their job and what their communities are like, and how
you all can share and work together because that is the team that we want to
create at RUS.
You need to learn to communicate with them, stay in touch. Communication is such an important part. I want you to stay in touch with me. I want to hear your ideas, how we can make
this team a better and stronger team. As
we do this, you'll hear a lot in the future about what I call "The three
E's." Efficiency, effectiveness,
and education. We will achieve those
three Es as we begin to work together, to talk together, keeping in mind the
people at the end of the line. They are
our mission.
We have to think about how our organization functions. It's like Walt Disney. One day he was at Disneyland, and he was
eating a hot dog. And he looked around
and he didn't see a trash can. And so
then he went out and he studied it, and he bought a hot dog and he walked so
many paces until he had that hot dog completely eaten, and then that's where a trash
can (was put). And from then on, the
standard was: The trash cans had to be
close enough, or no further apart, than how long it took you to eat a hot
dog. Okay? That is thinking about the needs of the
people that were coming to his Disneyland.
And so we have to be thinking about that. How can we be more efficient? How can we establish better lines of
contact? How can we be more customer-friendly? When you folks call up to the headquarters, I
want you to get to the right person the first time. I don't want you to have to be sent to three
or four people, or your constituents. We
have to be customer-friendly. We have to
be more efficient, if we are going to be effective.
We are going to embrace some really exciting initiatives you're
going to hear about in the next few days.
We have Norm Lorenz from OMB, who's the Chief of Technology, talking
about the President E-Gov initiative.
We're going to hear again about things, internet-based business
practices, improved productivity, things that will save us time and money and
make us more efficient as an organization.
You've already heard some of things such as Fast Track, Lean
Machine, Rapid Fire. These are some of
the processes that we're putting in place in our Electric Program. You will hear me talk in the next two months
about the Human Capital Initiative, another one of President Bush's
initiatives. Because let me tell you
this, this is something I understand: I
don't care how much money Congress gives us.
None of that money will be effective and will make a difference in
people's lives unless you have human beings, real people, making that money
work; you as members of the RUS and the Rural Housing and Community Programs,
and the Rural Development Team, you are our most valuable resource. Without you out there every day doing what
you do best, without you making wise decisions, we will not be able to spend
that money wisely and to achieve our mission of improving the life for the
people at the end of the line.
So I need you to know that all of us appreciate the skills, the
talents, the ability that you bring to your job every day, because without you
no money would make a difference in improving the lives of people.
[Applause.]
ADMINISTRATOR LEGG: You
have already made some very good success stories. And I guess one of the things that I want to
do in the next few months at RUS is I want to tell the story. Many of you have been working for many years
to make a difference in people's lives.
And I don't think we say enough.
And it's not about bragging on ourselves. It's about the more we tell the story, the
more we communicate, the better we are at helping many people understand that
this government has programs that can help their lives, that can make their
life a higher quality of life. And so it
is important for them that we tell the story of what we're about and who we're
about.
But let me share with you in case you don't know some of the
success stories, and remind you of the work that you do. In isolated Torreon, New Mexico, Martha and
Harry Charlie, they drove 100 miles to get a 55-gallon barrel of water. Through a RUS program, that community now has
a community water spigot, two miles from Martha and Harry's house. Now, that's improvement. And hopefully we'll get it to their house
before too long.
Sally, a woman in Minnesota, has a job that was created when the
Freedom Mower Cooperative provided start-up capital with a Rural Development
Program. She said she'd be on welfare if
it wasn't for that job. In Bylas,
Arizona, there were only 12 phone lines:
ten for emergencies, two private, and one pay. Cheryl Williams' husband, Paul, was trapped
under a mobile home when it fell from a jack.
Someone ran to the pay phone, it was out of order. After half an hour of frantic searching, they
got a cell phone. They finally located
and got an emergency helicopter. By that
time, Cheryl had with her hands dug her husband out from under the trailer. Not long after that, 400 new telephone lines
were installed. The first night, Cheryl
slept with her phone in her hand.
In Bryan, Ohio, it was the nearby electric cooperative that swung
into action when half of the lights at the high school field blew just before
the first game of the season. The
investor-owned utility serving the school couldn't replace those lights in time
for the next home game. So the
Northwestern Electric Cooperative put their line workers and their trucks into
action. When the new lights arrived the
next day, they found they had to be retrofitted. So the crew went down to the machine shop,
and had to take the old bases and weld the new fixtures on. But you know what? They got those lights working two hours
before kickoff.
On the Gila River Indian Reservation, 12-year-old Kenneth Jackson
doesn't have a computer in his home, just like nine of the ten residents that
live there. But he does have a T1 line
in his school, and through that T1 line he does his homework assignments. And he says, "It's an easy way to do
your homework."
In my own hometown of Columbia, Kentucky, a real estate broker by
the name of Chris Wilson lived within sight of three water towers, but he was
packing water in coolers to his home from an outside source, because the spring
behind his house had tested high for a fecal coli bacteria. We announced a $1.6 million water project, so
that he and his neighbors can have clean and safe water. That's what you all do, as part of the RUS
team.
(In his State of the Union address) The President said that “none
of us would ever wish the evil that was done on September 11th; yet after
America was attacked, it was as if our entire country looked into a mirror and
saw our better selves. We were reminded
that we are citizens with an obligation to one another, to our country, and to
history. We began to think less about
the goods were could accumulate and more about the good that we could do. We have glimpsed what a new culture of
responsibility could look like. We want
to be a nation that serves goals larger than ourselves. We have been offered a unique opportunity and
we must not let this moment pass.”
When you see that loan report, when you see a project application
that has to be completed, when you see a stack of paperwork on your desk, be
reminded that this is the opportunity that you have to make a difference in
someone else's life. Think about the
person who didn't have a telephone line.
Think about the person who's carrying water. Think about some young student that can learn
Spanish over a video conference, or about a grandmother who can now afford to
keep on her electricity. These are real
people with real lives in this country.
There's a proverb that says, "When he took time to help the
man up the mountain, lo, he scaled it himself." What we do for rural America, ladies and
gentlemen, we do for ourselves. Those of
you in the field, you work with the folks that are your neighbors. And you state directors, you get a better
sense sometimes of the work that you do.
But you couldn't do your work without the headquarters staff. And sometimes the headquarters staff gets a
little removed from the real people and the real lives.
So it's our job as a team to understand we need each other. We depend on each other, and that together,
the needs of those real people in their real lives can be met. Teamwork is the ability to work together
toward a common vision, the ability to achieve what one person cannot achieve
alone. You, each and every one of you,
again when you perform your job with skill, with focus, with your knowledge,
and with your commitment, do it together.
You really do create the magic of teamwork.
[End of speech.]
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