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Legislative Update
Secretary Vilsack Discusses Regional Rural Innovation with Senate Appropriators
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack appeared before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration on March 2 to discuss the Administrations' budget and policy priorities for the USDA.
In his testimony before the committee and accompanying written testimony, Secretary Vilsack spoke of four strategic goals for the Department:
- America's children have access to safe, nutritious, and balanced meals
- Creating new opportunities for increasing prosperity
- Strengthen agricultural production and profitability through the promotion of exports
- Ensuring the Nation's national forests and private working lands are conserved, restored and made more resilient to climate change, while enhancing our water resources
To achieve new opportunities for increasing prosperity, the Secretary announced the Administration and USDA's new focus and attached funding for the Rural Innovation Initiative. As the Secretary indicated, the framework of the future rural economy will be a regional economy, built on the "successful strategies of today and compelling opportunities of tomorrow." Quoting the Secretary directly,
In order to utilize the Federal government's assets more effectively, USDA's Rural Innovation Initiative will promote economic opportunity and job creation in rural communities through increased regional planning among Federal, State, local and private entities. By creating a regional focus and increasing collaboration with other Federal agencies, USDA resources will have a larger impact, enabling greater wealth creation, quality of life improvements, and sustainability.
To support this initiative, USDA requests authority to set aside up to 5 percent of the funding within approximately 20 existing programs, approximately $280 million in loans and grants, and allocate these funds competitively among regional pilot projects tailored to local needs and opportunities. This will encourage regional planning and coordination of projects that are of common interest throughout self-defined regions. This approach will also support projects that are more viable over a broader region than scattered projects that serve only a limited area. It will also help build the identity of regions, which could make the region more attractive for new business development, and provide greater incentives for residents to remain within their home area.
The discretionary appropriation request for USDA operations is $21.5 billion, which is comparable to the $21.7 billion enacted for 2010.
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