Last week, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, a Democrat from New Mexico and ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, conducted a teleconference to discuss the challenges facing rural America and what policies can help promote economic growth and new opportunities in these communities.
Heinrich highlighted specific examples of challenges faced across rural New Mexico, and provided a framework on how Congress can address these challenges, including improving access to broadband, diversifying the economy, and investing in infrastructure, workforce development and community colleges.
“In New Mexico and across the nation, working to address these challenges is not only vital to the success of our future economy, but to the livelihoods of millions of Americans who deserve a fair shot at getting ahead,” Heinrich said on the call.
Joint Economic Committee Democrats released a new report today, “Understanding the Economic Challenges in Rural America,” that found that declining population, limited employment opportunities, an education gap, and lack of public investment pose serious challenges to the economic vitality of rural communities.
The report is the first in a series designed to give Congress a sense of the economic pressures bearing down on rural communities.
Some of Heinrich’s remarks during the teleconference were that data shows the population in rural America is sliding, that overall employment in rural communities still is behind urbanized areas, and that even when a person has a job in rural America, wages aren’t growing as fast as those in other places.
“On top of that, we have a persistent education gap in rural America that shows no sign of recovery without intervention,” he said.
That’s why Congress needs to take bold action that invests in people and communities, Heinrich said. But Wall Street and private equity firms are going to put money, time and resources where they can make a big profit, in urban areas, Heinrich said.
“Those of us who care about rural America already know that toll roads don’t fly and there is no Wall Street return on investment for a new water treatment facility in a rural community,” he said.
President Trump’s proposed budget gutted water infrastructure projects for communities of 10,000 or less, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s programs supporting small businesses in rural America, Community Development Block Grants and the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, he contended.
Not long ago, he held a multi-day rural health care listening tour in New Mexico to meet with medical professionals and discuss tele-health for veterans, recruiting and retaining staff, and other issues facing New Mexico's growing health care industry, stopping in Santa Rosa, Mosquero, Clayton and Raton.
“Separately, I traveled to Moriarty to celebrate the construction of the new El Cabo Wind Farm, a 298-megawatt project anticipated to be one of the largest wind projects in New Mexico,” he said. “This is an industry that is starting to reverse these trends and deliver jobs, tax receipts, and investments to rural America.
“And most recently, I was in the border region at the port of entries in southern New Mexico in Santa Teresa and Columbus, and in Hatch to talk with Medicaid recipients.”
This report is the first in a series designed to highlight the economic pressures bearing down on rural communities, he said. Some of the key findings include rural America’s population has been declining; the recession hit rural workers particularly hard; wage growth in rural communities has been sluggish; and an educational gap is putting a generational hold on economic opportunity.
In the 21st Century economy, a college education is increasingly necessary for achieving economic prosperity, Heinrich said. But rural America consistently lags behind urban communities in educational attainment, and the gap between the two has increased by 25 percent from 2000 to 2016, he said.
For Congress to adequately address the issues that rural America faces, it must understand how many of rural America’s problems differ from those of urban America. Whether it’s improving access to broadband, diversifying the economy, or investing in infrastructure, workforce development and our community colleges, Congress has the opportunity to play the defining role in how rural communities develop and thrive.
“But we have to first acknowledge when we see drastic funding cuts for critical rural programs in the President’s budget, those are the primary investments going into our rural areas that investors are simply not able or willing to deliver on,” the senator said.
Find the article here.
