rural

Langston, Oklahoma is a lot like many rural towns across the country; it has an aging population and a growing need for health care facilities.  Now, thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), Langston will be able to renovate and expand its local health clinic.

Late last month Bill Wehry, State Executive Director for USDA’s Farm Service Agency and I warmly welcomed a crowd of over 35 to the Pennsylvania State Farm Show Building for a roundtable discussion on jobs and economic growth in Pennsylvania. This event was held on a Monday following an intense snowstorm. 

On December 18, USDA Rural Development hosted a Jobs and Economy Roundtable discussion in Livingston, Montana in Park County.  About 7,000 people live in Livingston, which has an unemployment rate of 7.9 percent.  The local economy was once dominated by the railroad and agriculture, but in recent years, because Yellowstone National Park is less than an hour away, tourism has become a growing business segment.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development State Director for Michigan James J. Turner and Farm Service Agency Director Christine White held a roundtable on job creation and economic growth on Thursday, December 17 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Lansing Community College’s West Campus.

USDA Rural Development-New Mexico, along with the Farm Service Agency held a Jobs Forum yesterday in Silver City -- a community nestled in the Gila Wilderness of Southwestern New Mexico.  Silver City is working hard to address its local economic situation.  The recent drop in copper prices caused local mines to lay off more than 600 employees in a community of 10,000.  Those layoffs and other economic factors caused the County’s unemployment rate to rise by 10 percent in three years.

Those of us fortunate enough to have quality broadband service in our homes and workplaces know that it opens educational, business and entertainment opportunities that can only be imagined by those still living in a “dial up” world.  President Obama believes that all Americans should have access to Broadband, and today, through funding provided by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we made a substantial down payment on the drive to provide Broadband to communities that have little or no access to the technology.

This week, at my request, USDA Rural Development and Farm Service Agency staff kicked off a series of meetings intended to gather ideas about ways to spark job creation and economic growth in rural America. This request is a direct result of the Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth that President Obama hosted at the White House earlier this month.

Last week, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and I had the pleasure of meeting Kelly Hench, a single Mom of five whom, thanks to the recovery act, was able to move her kids to a home in a nice development just outside of Carlisle, PA.

With a lot of support from her family and financing through USDA Rural Development and the Recovery Act, Elissa Jahn is now a home owner. Check that, she is now a very proud home owner.

USDA Rural Development Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager was among those attending the New England Housing Network Annual Conference last Friday in Needham, Mass., The Under Secretary joined a panel of Obama Administration officials who spoke about opportunities for working with the administration and Congress.