NEWS FROM THE HILL - SPECIAL ALERT
DATE: January 21, 1997
EDITION: volume 6, no. 4
REPLY TO: aesop@access.digex.net
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Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman announced details
regarding the Fund for Rural America on Friday, January
17th. The following is a USDA press release outlining the
annoucement
GLICKMAN LAUNCHES $300 MILLION FUND FOR RURAL AMERICA
INITIATIVE
WASHINGTON, Jan. 17, 1997--Agriculture Secretary Dan
Glickman today announced his priorities for the Clinton
Administration's Fund For Rural America, an innovative,
three-year initiative funded at $100 million annually to aid
critical rural development programs, to boost agricultural,
rural telecommunications, and other high priority research,
and assist beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers.
"The Fund For Rural America delivers on the President's
commitment to expand economic opportunities for rural
Americans," Glickman said. "USDA is the only federal agency
with a primary focus on rural America--advocating for and
protecting the interests of rural residents and communities.
The fund is an innovative approach in providing additional
resources for agricultural research and rural development
programs while finding creative solutions for the challenges
facing rural America."
The Fund For Rural America will help meet the critical
needs of rural communities with the following assistance:
* provide an estimated 36,000 families with
drinkable water as part of thePresident's Water
2000 Initiative;
* provide new loans to 140 beginning farmers as well
as outreach and technical assistance to socially
disadvantaged farmers;
* construct or rehabilitate close to 3,000 single
family homes for low-income rural residents;
* use information technology to advance education
opportunities to more than 175,000 students and
provide health care access to 400,000 rural
residents;
* expand gleaning, food recovery, food safety, and
nutrition activities;
* take additional actions to counter concentration
in livestock and poultry industries;
* provide additional monies to the President's
Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community Initiative
for technical assistance to Enterprise
Communities; and
* assist farm laborers by building new housing
units.
One third of the fund is dedicated to rural development
programs and another third to research through competitive
research grants. Glickman is authorized to use the
remaining one third of the fund at his discretion in either
rural programs, research, or both. Glickman said that his
priorities for the Secretary's one third target
approximately $20.5 million in 1997 to rural development,
and $10 million to research on key Secretarial priorities
like concentration, food safety, nutrition and gleaning, as
well as $2.8 million for a new research initiative that will
investigate the special needs, applicability, and use of
cutting-edge technologies for rural and agricultural based
information users.
"Only by ensuring that rural Americans have access to
information relating to the development of rural America,
the development of agricultural science and education can
the country ensure that it is providing the best opportunity
to all Americans," Glickman said.
The telecommunications research combined with the boost
in funding for the distance learning telemedicine program
will build upon Vice President Gore's information
superhighway efforts by ensuring access to rural Americans.
The fund will provide additional monies for communications
technology that will allow children in remote locations to
attend classes without leaving their communities and to give
sick people in rural areas the benefit of diagnosis and
treatment by a specialist in an urban health care center
without traveling to that location.
The Secretary's portion of the fund also includes $4.5
million for outreach and technical assistance to socially
disadvantaged farmers. These funds will help serve over
8,000 farmers and ranchers in 23 states across the
country.
In addition, there is $2 million for new loans to
140 beginning farmers.. The Secretary's portion of the fund
has $6.5 million to assist business entrepreneurs in rural
communities. It will help create hundreds of jobs via 15 new
business development efforts.
The research part of the fund will be awarded on a
competitive grant basis. A request for proposals (RFP) will
be published in the Federal Register this month. The RFP
will focus on three objectives:
* international competitiveness, profitability, and
efficiency--meeting the challenges of
globalization of food, feed, and fiber markets in
the wake of changes in farm and trade legislation;
* environmental preservation and
improvement--centering on stewardship of natural
resources in agriculture and forestry; and
* rural community enhancement--centering on
employment in rural areas, farm profitability, new
crops, and community advancement.
Priority will be given to projects that address all 3
objectives simultaneously.
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