WASHINGTON -- The White House Rural Council released a new report entitled Jobs and Economic Security for Rural America, which lays out the economic landscape rural Americans face today and highlights the Administration's key accomplishments in rural communities. The Jobs and Economic Security for Rural America report focuses on five critical areas:
- Creating jobs and promoting economic growth
- Improving access to quality health care and education
- Fostering innovation
- Expanding outdoor opportunities
- Supporting veterans and military families
"This report on 'Jobs and Economic Security in Rural America' underscores the commitment my Administration is making to rural communities," said President Barack Obama. "It highlights some of the many programs and policies my Administration has implemented in rural America to support economic growth. It also offers a look at the economic agenda we will continue to pursue during my Presidency."
"This report highlights the importance of understanding some of the specific needs as well as unique opportunities found within rural America," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. "It also presents vital strategies that can and will be used to seize those opportunities and tackle some of the toughest challenges facing our rural communities."
On June 9, President Obama signed an Executive Order establishing the first White House Rural Council to accelerate the ongoing work of promoting economic growth in rural America. The Council is focused on increasing rural access to capital, spurring agricultural innovation, expanding digital and physical infrastructure in rural areas, and creating economic opportunities through conservation and outdoor recreation.
On Aug. 16, the president and members of the White House Rural Council will host the White House Rural Economic Forum at Northeast Iowa Community College in Peosta, Iowa, as part of the president's three-day economic bus tour in the Midwest. The forum will bring together farmers, small business owners, private-sector leaders, rural organizations and government officials to discuss ideas and initiatives to promote economic growth, accelerate hiring and spur innovation in rural communities and small towns across the nation.
The president will engage directly with a variety of rural leaders from across the nation to discuss the importance of growing small businesses and strengthening the middle class in rural America.
Highlights from the report include:
- The Administration has made significant investments in supporting job creation in rural America, including providing more than $6.2 billion in financing to help nearly 10,000 rural businesses expand, grow and innovate, creating or saving more than 250,000 jobs; providing more than $5 billion in farm operating and ownership loans to help more than 35,000 small and medium-sized operations; and expanding U.S. agricultural exports, supporting over 800,000 American jobs and generating a 35-to-1 return on investment.
- The Administration has made significant investments in improving access to quality health care and education in rural America, including providing assistance to more than 400,000 rural homeowners to purchase, build or repair their homes; financing nearly 6,000 community facilities, including over 2,500 public safety facilities, 1,500 public buildings, 1,000 educational facilities and 750 health-care facilities; and providing nearly 9 million rural residents access to a safe water supply and sanitary sewer system and over 3.7 million rural residents access to new or improved systems that will deliver safe, clean drinking water.
- The Administration has made significant investments in promoting innovation and investment in rural America, including expanding broadband access to more than 7 million rural Americans, including more than 350,000 rural businesses; committing nearly $21 billion in loan guarantees to 32 clean energy projects that will create or save nearly 21,000 jobs; creating the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grant Program that has invested more than $220 million in infrastructure vital to rural areas; and installing energy efficiency solutions for more than 5,000 rural small businesses, farmers, and ranchers to help save energy and improve their bottom line through the Department of Agriculture.
- The Administration has made significant investments in expanding outdoor opportunities to create sustained economic growth in rural America, including enrolling 7.1 million acres in the Conservation Reserve Program, which retires environmentally sensitive farm lands and has set aside 300,000 acres in the program specifically to benefit game species; partnering military with state and local governments, land trusts, and landowners to secure conservation easements through the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program, which protects more than 170,000 acres; removing 86,927 tons of biomass from our national forests to produce energy; and working with farmers to restore wetlands habitat on 470,000 acres in the Gulf coastal plain following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in order to conserve migratory waterfowl.
- The Administration has made significant investments toward supporting our veterans and military families in rural America, including providing education benefits to over 215,000 veteran students in rural areas and 3,600 veteran students in highly rural areas under the Post-9/11 GI Bill; investing in more than 500 projects across the VA health-care system in support of rural health care, including 404 community-based outpatient clinics and 48 outreach clinics in rural areas, to provide primary health care access to nearly 3.3 million veterans; helping over 300,000 rural veterans and service members purchase a home or refinance an existing mortgage through the veterans' home loan guaranty program; and challenging private companies to hire or train 100,000 veterans by 2013, and announcing commitments from numerous companies and organizations who have already stepped up to meet that goal.
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