Where’s Xochitl, Now? [Part 25] Celebrating Rural Innovation at the White House

On Wednesday, the Biden-Harris Administration honored 14 rural innovators that are making a positive difference in their rural communities. As part of the event, Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small hosted a panel featuring three of the honorees: Nancy X. Valentine, Executive Director of Kaddatz Galleries in Minnesota; Ted Matthews, Administrator & CEO of Anson General Hospital in Texas; and Erin Martin, Farmer & Owner of Footprints in the Garden in North Carolina.

As part of the event, the White House released a fast sheet highlighting the Administration’s significant investments that create economic prosperity in rural communities nationwide.

FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Honors Rural Innovators

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration will honor 14 Rural Innovators from across America who making a positive impact in their rural communities.

Earlier this year, the Biden-Harris Administration invited the public to nominate individuals who are taking action and ensuring their communities thrive for generations to come. White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden, White House Office of Public Engagement Director Stephen Benjamin, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack headlined an event at the White House today to celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of Rural Innovators and highlight the Biden-Harris Administration’s investments in rural communities. To learn more about the Rural Innovators, please visit Rural.gov.

The individuals being recognized as Rural Innovators include:

• Sylandi Brown, Board Member, Pulaski County Board of Education (Georgia)
• Kristina Cannon, President & CEO, Main Street Skowhegan (Maine)
• Jeremiah Clever, President, CWA Broadband Apprenticeship Lead-Idaho (FITECH) (Idaho)
• Jill Dunham, Broadband Project Manager, Allegan County Government (Michigan)
• Rick Erickson, Retired Teacher, Bayfield High School (Wisconsin)
• Luis Omar Garcia, Community Leader, Unidos por Arenas (Puerto Rico)
• Jennifer Gauthier, Director, College of Menominee Nation Sustainable Development Institute (Menominee Nation)
• Nick Hernandez, CEO & Founder, Makoce Agriculture Development (Pine Ridge Indian Reservation)
• Michael Jefferson, President & Founder, Cut One School One Youth Crime Intervention, Inc. (Mississippi)
• Erin Martin, Farmer & Owner, Footprints in the Garden (North Carolina)
• Ted Matthews, Administrator & CEO, Anson General Hospital (Texas)
• Sarah Meitner, Executive Director, Heartland Community Foundation (Kansas)
• Alexis Racelis, Houston Endowed Chair for Science and Technology and Professor in the School for Earth, Environmental and Marine Sciences, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Texas)
• Nancy X. Valentine, Artist and Executive Director of Kaddatz Galleries (Minnesota)

FACT SHEET: President Biden and Vice President Harris Are Delivering for Rural Communities

Over the past four years, President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken action to ensure rural Americans do not have to leave their hometowns to find opportunity. One year ago, President Biden visited a family farm in Northfield, Minnesota to kick off the “Investing in Rural America” event series, spurring over 30 visits by Cabinet members and White House Senior Officials to rural communities across the country. The Biden-Harris Administration is investing in rural America to create opportunity for farmers, small business owners, families, and communities.

Investing in Rural American Infrastructure

The President’s Investing in America agenda is investing billions of dollars to revitalize and rebuild rural communities across the country – a generational investment in rural America. This funding also represents the single largest investment in Tribal infrastructure ever.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $65 billion to ensure every American has access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet through a historic investment in infrastructure deployment. That includes a $2 billion program at the Department of Commerce to invest in high-speed internet on Tribal lands. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) has invested more than $4 billion in projects that will expand access to high-speed broadband and bring new economic opportunities and a better quality of life for more than 650,000 people across 46 states through its ReConnect Program.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also provides a historic $8.25 billion investment to reduce wildfire risks for communities, better detect wildfires, and institute workforce reforms and landmark pay increases for federal wildland firefighters. Through the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program, USDA has awarded $467 million to 259 project proposals across 36 states and 18 tribes, which will assist with planning for and mitigating wildfire risks, and has recently made another $200 million available. USDA is also investing $150 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to help underserved and small acreage forest landowners connect to emerging voluntary climate markets, which can provide economic opportunities for landowners and incentivize improved forest health and management. And through the Inflation Reduction Act and other appropriations, the Forest Service invested nearly $544 million in 63 projects in 2024 to conserve more than half a million acres of private forestlands across the U.S., ensuring that these places will remain working forests while protecting water sources and reducing wildfire risk.

Additionally, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests billions of dollars to make sure rural families can get where they need to go, including through a $4.1 billion investment in Rural Area Formula Grants at the Department of Transportation (DOT). This program will support 1,300 rural transit systems by enabling them to purchase transit vehicles and infrastructure, plan transit more effectively, and fund operations. DOT is also providing $2 billion over 5 years in dedicated funding to projects in rural areas that improve and expand the surface transportation infrastructure.

Delivering Clean, Reliable Water to Rural America

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s transformative investment of over $50 billion in our water and wastewater infrastructure is fundamentally changing the quality of life for millions of people in rural America by replacing lead pipes, providing critical access to sanitation, ensuring access to affordable clean drinking water, and tackling drought. That includes a $3.5 billion investment through the Indian Health Service which has launched over 700 projects to build out a safe supply of drinking water, reliable sewage systems, and waste disposal facilities across Indian Country. And the Inflation Reduction Act’s Tribal Clean Drinking Water program made $320 million available to bring safe, clean drinking water to Tribal communities in the West, with an initial $82 million announced to fund 23 projects.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and USDA, in collaboration with states and Tribal Nations, are working together on the Closing America’s Wastewater Access Gap initiative. This partnership leverages technical assistance resources to help historically underserved communities identify and pursue federal funding opportunities to address their rural wastewater needs. To date, EPA has announced that 38 more communities across 22 states have joined the initiative.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is also cleaning up pollution in rural areas by investing $4.7 billion to plug, remediate, and restore dangerous orphaned oil and gas wells across the country; nearly $11.3 billion to create good-paying jobs, including union jobs, and catalyze economic opportunity by reclaiming abandoned mine lands; and $3.5 billion to 95 previously unfunded Superfund site projects, including the longstanding backlog of projects, to clean up contaminated sites and advance environmental justice.

In addition, the Biden-Harris Administration is leading a whole-of-government effort to make Western communities more resilient to climate change and the ongoing megadrought by harnessing the full resources of the President’s Investing in America agenda. The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law together include $15.4 billion to enhance the West’s resilience to drought through water-saving projects and other conservation efforts. In March 2024, the Administration took historic action to protect the stability of the Colorado River Basin including through investments from the Inflation Reduction Act’s $4 billion Colorado River drought mitigation funds, conserving at least 3 million-acre-feet of water by 2026.

Lowering Energy Costs and Strengthening the Grid

Supported by Inflation Reduction Act, the Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program is the largest investment in rural America’s electric system since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936. It invests $9.7 billion to help member-owned rural electric cooperatives provide their communities with clean, reliable, and affordable energy. USDA has announced over $8.3 billion in New ERA funding across 24 states so far, with the rural electric cooperatives building or purchasing nearly 12 gigawatts of clean energy. The Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program will fund new clean energy and energy storage projects to make it more affordable for rural Americans to use clean, reliable energy. In 2024, USDA awarded the 34 projects totaling $917 million. Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA has invested more than $2.7 billion through the Rural Energy for America (REAP) program in 9,901 renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements helping farms and small businesses lower their energy costs, generate new income, and strengthen the resilience of their operations. Almost 7,000 of these projects were funded by over $1 billion provided by the Inflation Reduction Act

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests billions of dollars to improve resilience, reliability, safety, and availability of energy in rural America. So far, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced over $457 million for 93 projects to accelerate clean energy deployment in rural and remote areas across the country through the Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas (ERA) Program. DOE announced up to $475 million in March 2024 for 5 projects to accelerate clean energy deployment on current and former mine land. The selected projects cover a range of clean energy technologies, from solar, microgrids, and pumped storage hydropower to geothermal and battery energy storage systems.

DOE announced nearly $7.6 billion through the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program to strengthen grid reliability and resilience across all 50 states, including several major rural grid resilience projects. This funding is spurring private investment, bringing public-private investment to over $22 billion to deliver affordable, clean electricity to all Americans and ensure that communities across the nation have a reliable grid that is prepared for extreme weather worsened by the climate crisis. In addition, EPA awarded $27 billion through the Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) to create a national financing network for clean energy and climate solutions across the country, including rural communities. Together, the GGRF’s $14 billion National Clean Investment Fund, $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator, and $7 billion Solar for All program dedicate approximately two-thirds of the funding to low-income and disadvantaged communities, advancing the President’s Justice40 Initiative.

This year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Tribal Electrification Program funded by the Inflation Reduction Act provided $143 million in financial and technical assistance to 34 Tribes to connect homes to transmission and distribution that is powered by clean energy, provide electricity to unelectrified Tribal homes through zero-emissions energy systems, transition electrified Tribal homes to zero-emissions energy systems, and support associated home repairs and retrofitting. The program will also support clean energy workforce development opportunities in Indian Country.

And, by expanding the availability of homegrown biofuels, the Biden-Harris Administration is strengthening our energy independence while bringing good-paying jobs and other economic benefits to rural communities. For example, up to $500 million from the Inflation Reduction Act is being made available through the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program to increase the availability of domestic biofuels and give Americans additional, cleaner fuel options at the pump. Through this program, USDA has provided $251 million in grants so far.

Many of the programs aimed at delivering clean, reliable water to rural America, lowering energy costs, and strengthening the grid are covered under the President’s Justice40 Initiative, which sets the goal that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, affordable and sustainable housing, and other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution as part of the most ambitious climate, conservation, and environmental justice agenda in history.

Improving Access to Health Care and Lowering Health Care Costs for Rural Communities

The Biden-Harris Administration is lowering health care costs for rural Americans and supporting access to high quality care in rural America.  Rural seniors are seeing lower drug costs thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. About 281,000 rural Part D Medicare enrollees would have benefitted from the $35 insulin cap if it had been in effect in 2020, and about 481,000 rural enrollees would have benefitted from $0 recommended adult vaccines if it had been in effect in 2021. About 289,000 rural enrollees are projected to save $1,000 or more when the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap goes into effect in 2025. Nearly 3 million rural Americans signed up for 2024 coverage at the Affordable Care Act’s HealthCare.gov Marketplace. Eighty percent of consumers could find health plans for $10 or less a month, with many qualifying for plans with $0 premiums. And thanks to the President’s ARP and IRA, rural HealthCare.gov enrollees are saving an $890 per year on their health insurance premiums, about 28% more than their urban counterparts. In addition, four states have expanded Medicaid since President Biden took office, providing coverage to over one million Americans while reducing the risk of rural hospital closure by half. 

The Biden-Harris Administration has launched the new Rural Emergency Hospital designation to provide a new option to some struggling hospitals, and it is investing in training the next generation of health care providers to serve rural communities. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has also extended several grant opportunities to support rural communities, including $28 million to provide direct health services and expand infrastructure and $16 million to provide technical assistance to rural hospitals facing financial distress. Recognizing the critical role nurses play in providing primary care, mental health and maternal health care services, particularly in rural areas, HHS announced more than $100 million in awards to address the increasing demand for registered nurses, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and nurse faculty. Through the Rural Residency Planning and Development Program, HHS has invested over $28 million in awards across 25 states to create new rural residency programs to train more physicians in rural communities, which increases the likelihood of practicing in a rural community. And through a $47 million investment, HHS funded 32 Rural Public Health Workforce Training Networks across 22 states, bolstering health care capacity in rural areas and training more than 2,000 health professionals, including community health workers, EMTs, health IT specialists, certified nurse assistants, and dental assistants, among others.

In addition, CMS has updated policies to support access to important services for Medicare beneficiaries at rural health clinics, including for integration behavioral health care, providing opioid use disorder treatment and chronic pain management services, allowing greater flexibility with telehealth services for mental health, supporting rural providers participating in value-based care models, and enabling enhanced care management services. Further, CMS is announcing this December a new request for applications for the ongoing Rural Community Hospital Demonstration. The goal of the program is to test the feasibility and advisability of cost-based reimbursement for small rural hospitals that are too large to be Critical Access Hospitals. This program was first created by Congress in 2004 but has not opened applications up since 2017.

HHS’ Rural Communities Opioid Response Program is a multi-year initiative that has invested $298 million in 386 awards to reduce the morbidity and mortality of substance use disorder (SUD), including opioid use disorder, in rural communities at the highest risk for SUD. Through the Rural Emergency Medical Services Training Program, HHS has invested $20.5 million since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration to support the recruitment and training of EMS personnel in rural areas with a focus on addressing SUD and co-occurring substance use and mental disorders. 
Supporting Veterans in Rural Communities

One quarter of all veterans in the U.S. (4.4 million) reside in rural communities. Around 48 percent of all rural veterans (2.7 million) are enrolled in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system, which is higher than the 41 percent enrollment rate of urban veterans. The Biden-Harris Administration has implemented several initiatives to support veterans living in rural communities, ensuring they have access to affordable, low-cost, high-quality healthcare. The landmark Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act enacted the most significant expansion of benefits and services for toxic exposed veterans in more than 30 years. Since the enactment of the PACT Act in August 2022, VA has completed over 1.8 million PACT Act-related claims with an approval rate of 74.5% and enrolled nearly 740,000 veterans in VA healthcare. VA has been able to expand the types of conditions that are considered service connected making it easier for toxic exposed veterans to get the disability benefits they deserve —a critical step to ensuring all veterans get access to the care they need. PACT Act also expanded who is eligible to enroll in VA health care and required new toxic exposure screenings for all veterans enrolled; to date, VA has completed more than 5.9 million free toxic exposure screenings. VA is delivering these benefits to veterans at the fastest rate in the nation’s history. The Act includes the largest VA outreach campaign in history, ensuring that the rural veterans and their survivors are aware of and can access the benefits can healthcare they are entitled to.

Provider shortage continues to challenge accessibility and affordability of health care, especially in rural communities across the United States. VA Office of Rural Health has continued to support and further developed different initiatives and programs to help reserve this trend. For example, VA continues to fund the Rural Interprofessional Faculty Development Initiative (RIFDI) which adds physician residents in rural VA facilities through the 18-month faculty development program and has demonstrated benefits to both the clinician partaking in the program and the receiving rural VA hospital. VA also expanded its Connected Care program, enabling more telehealth delivery for rural veterans than ever before. In 2023, VA launched the Pilot Program on Graduate Medical Education and Residency (PPGMER) to support more graduate medical education positions to serve in rural and other underserved areas.

Creating New and Better Agricultural Markets to Increase Competition

As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain, USDA has invested over $1.4 billion to support new or expanded small-sized and medium sized processing facilities and to create a more resilient, diverse and secure U.S. food supply chain. These investments are giving farmers more market options and fairer prices by spurring competition. These investments are also providing consumers with more choices and affordable prices at the grocery store.

Through the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program, USDA has invested $320 million in 67 fertilizer production facilities to expand access to domestic fertilizer options for American farmers in 32 states and Puerto Rico. These investments will increase U.S. fertilizer production by 9.1 million tons annually and create more than 800 jobs in rural communities.  

The USDA spearheaded several new rules to improve fairness and competition. This included final rules to promote transparency in poultry farming contracts, to prohibit discrimination and ban retaliation against farmers and ranchers in meat markets, and strengthen the product of USA standards. It also proposed a new rule to protect poultry growers from unfair deductions and variations in pay.

The Administration committed to better enforce the laws on the books. USDA stood up an enforcement partnership with 32 state attorneys general. USDA and Department of Justice (DOJ) strengthened their collaboration, and created an anonymous reporting tool for unfair and anticompetitive practices at farmerfairness.gov in early 2022. Since then, DOJ brought suit against Agristats for using algorithms to fix prices and outputs in meat markets; secured a consent decree with major poultry processors Cargill, Sanderson, and Wayne Farms to limit unfair variations in pay for poultry farmers; and blocked a merger of Dole and Fresh Express which would have consolidated vegetable markets. Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) successfully challenged the largest grocery merger in US history and brought a case to prevent price discrimination by big brands against independent retailers. The DOJ and FTC also worked to preserve and promote the right of farmers to repair their own tractors, including parts and batteries.

Investing in Climate-Smart Agriculture

Through the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative, USDA is investing $3.03 billion in 135 projects that seek to build and expand market opportunities for American commodities produced using climate-smart practices. The Inflation Reduction Act provided a record $19.5 billion for USDA conservation programs to support hundreds of thousands of farmers and ranchers apply practices such as cover cropping, conservation tillage, wetland restoration, prescribed grazing, nutrient management, tree planting, and more to millions of acres of land. This has direct climate mitigation benefits and advances a host of other environmental co-benefits, in addition to offering farmers, ranchers and foresters new revenue streams. The climate-smart agriculture investments that USDA has made and continues to make are estimated to support over 180,000 farms and over 225 million acres in the next 5 years.

Strengthening Local and Regional Food Systems

The Biden-Harris Administration is investing in local and regional food systems, which adds value for both agricultural producers and consumers, and spurs economic activity locally — helping communities that have been left behind by the current agricultural models and supporting good-paying jobs throughout the supply chain. USDA created twelve Regional Food Business Centers across the country that are providing coordination, technical assistance and capacity building to help farmers, ranchers and food businesses reach local customers and navigate federal state and local resources. USDA is also investing $300 million through the Organic Transition Initiative to support farmers in transitioning to organic and build and strengthen organic markets so more farmers can participate.

To support Tribal Nations’ food and agriculture supply chain resiliency, USDA invested $48.1 million in meat and poultry processing infrastructure for indigenous animals such as bison, reindeer or salmon. In October 2023, USDA also launched a new, interagency pilot to purchase bison meat from Tribal and local bison operations for Tribal communities through the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR).

In June, USDA made more than 140 awards to agricultural employers, totaling $50 million, through its new Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Program. The program, which is supported by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, aims to stabilize the nation’s food supply and improve working conditions for farmworkers.

Improving Nutrition and Food Access for Rural Communities

President Biden set a bold goal of ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases in the U.S. by 2030—all while reducing disparities. Through the Healthy Meals Incentives Initiative, USDA has awarded nearly $30 million in grants to small and rural communities to improve the nutritional quality of school meals and help modernize their operations. Each small and/or rural school district will receive up to $150,000 to support them in improving the nutritional quality of their meals and modernizing their operations through innovative staff training programs, kitchen updates and renovations, redesigning food preparation and service spaces, or other school-district led efforts to support school meals and school nutrition professionals.

This year, USDA’s summer nutrition programs reached more kids than ever before. In addition to in-person summer meal sites, summer meal operators in rural communities had the option to provide children with meals via grab-and-go or delivery through the Non-Congregate Summer Meal Service. And, through SUN Bucks (also referred to as Summer EBT), children in low-income families in participating states, territories, and Tribes received $120 per eligible child for the summer in the form of pre-loaded cards that families can use to purchase groceries.

USDA has also expanded online purchasing with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to be available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This expansion provides greater convenience and access to healthy food options for tens of millions of Americans, including in remote and rural areas.

Cutting Housing Costs, Boosting Supply, and Expanding Access to Affordable Housing in Rural America

The Biden-Harris Administration has taken aggressive action to boost housing supply and lower housing costs. Housing units under construction hit a 50-year high during this Administration, and housing starts are up 16% compared to the previous Administration. When aligned with other policies to reduce housing costs and expand affordability, such as rental assistance and down payment assistance, closing the supply gap will mean more affordable rents and more attainable homeownership for Americans in every community, including rural communities.

The Biden-Harris Administration oversaw large housing investments in rural America. State and local governments allocated nearly $20 billion in American Rescue Plan State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, making it the largest one-time housing block grant in U.S. history. These dollars were often combined with programs like USDA’s Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program and Off-Farm Labor Housing program to make these dollars go further and help more households. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA helped 33,436 families by building or renovating 1,065 multifamily housing apartment complexes in rural areas through nearly $1.4 billion in direct loans, guaranteed loans, and grants. Additionally, USDA provided $5.996 billion in rental assistance to help 388,588 very-low- and low-income rural families pay their rent. Since 2021, USDA has invested $7.6 billion to offer rental housing opportunities to rural families, senior citizens, people with disabilities, and farm workers and their families. In single-family housing programs, USDA invested over $48 billion to help more than 278,000 families with modest incomes buy, refinance, or repair their homes through our direct and guaranteed single-family housing loan programs, including 98,000 low- and very low-income borrowers.

In addition, HUD issued a first-of-its-kind Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) competition called Pathways to Removing Obstacles (PRO) Housing to enable communities to identify and remove barriers to housing production and preservation. In its first round, PRO awarded $85 million, including to rural areas that used funding to address matters such as zoning, predevelopment costs, and permitting.

The Biden-Harris Administration also took actions to encourage the construction and preservation of manufactured housing, a critical source of affordable housing, especially for low-income, rural, and Native American households and offers a potentially lower-cost pathway to homeownership. Earlier this year, HUD made available Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE) grants, competitive funding that can be used for the replacement of dilapidated homes, assistance for homeowners such as repairs and accessibility modifications, mitigation and resilience upgrades, improvement of infrastructure such as stormwater systems or utilities, housing services including eviction prevention, and planning activities. It marked the first time the federal government has made grant funding available specifically for investments in manufactured housing communities, including resident-owned communities. In addition, USDA made more than $18 million in grants and loans under the Off-Farm Labor Housing program to support home improvements for farmworkers and their families.

While boosting supply is critical to bring prices down over the long-term, the lack of affordable housing is one of the main drivers of homelessness in most jurisdictions. In 2023, HUD announced the award of $486 million in grants and $43 million for stability vouchers to address unsheltered and rural homelessness. These awards allow grantees to fund rural homelessness assistance programs in local communities such as rent or utility assistance, emergency lodging, housing repairs, food and clothing assistance, and costs associated with converting federal properties to house homeless individuals and families. 

Strengthening Access to Higher Education, Career Pathways, and Rural Workforce Development

The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to expanding rural students’ access to career pathways and higher education opportunities that lead to good-paying jobs right in their own communities. In December 2023, the Department of Education announced $44.5 million in grants to 22 institutions of higher education to improve rates of postsecondary education enrollment, persistence, and completion among students in rural communities through the Rural Postsecondary & Economic Development Grant Program.

The Department of Education also awarded $31 million through the Career Connected High Schools grant program to help secondary education, postsecondary education, and workforce development systems expand access to career-connected high school programs for more students while unlocking career success. Of the 19 awards, 11 went to rural-focused programs.

In September 2024, the Institute for Education Sciences announced the National Education Research and Development Center for Improving Rural Postsecondary Education. This Center, hosted by MDRC, will receive $10 million over five years to focus on improving access to postsecondary education and completion of postsecondary degrees and credentials for students from rural K12 districts and locales.

In September 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) awarded $49 million to support 35 projects through the Workforce Opportunities for Rural Communities (WORC) Initiative. WORC, which is a partnership between DOL, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Delta Regional Authority, and the Northern Border Regional Commission, provides grant funds to enable rural communities to develop local and regional workforce development solutions aligned with existing economic development strategies and community partnerships to promote new, sustainable job opportunities and long-term economic vitality. New for this round, the funding opportunity specifically encouraged applicants who are part of the Rural Partners Network.
 

Supporting Schools in Rural Communities

The Biden-Harris Administration has continued to demonstrate its commitment to rural K12 districts by increasing investments in the Rural Education Achievement Program, the Department of Education’s only formula grant program specifically designated for rural K12 districts. Since Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, the program has seen an increase of nearly $35 million, culminating in $220 million allocated to rural small and/or low-income schools in FY 24.

During the Biden-Harris Administration, the Department of Education has expanded Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) five-fold, from $25 million in 2020 to $150 million in 2023. In FY 2022 and 2023, 20 awards totaling $67,668,574 per award year went to projects specifically serving rural areas. Community schools collaborate with local non-profits, health providers, private partners, and other agencies to coordinate and deliver services like health care, mental health and nutrition services, afterschool and summer programming, and high-quality early learning programs.

In November of 2023, the Department of Education awarded $182 million in new grant awards under the Education, Innovation, and Research Program (EIR), with $46 million supporting grants in rural areas. These grants support local efforts to develop, implement, and take to scale entrepreneurial and evidence-based projects that have the potential to improve academic achievement for underserved students. EIR has seen an increase of $94 million in new awards between FY 2021 and FY 2023, demonstrating the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to promoting equity in student access to high-quality educational opportunities for rural learners.

Lowering Child Care Costs and Supporting Child Care Providers in Rural America
 
President Biden secured the largest one-time investment this country has ever made in child care through his American Rescue Plan. Those funds helped 225,000 child care providers stay open so that the parents of more than 10 million children could go to work with peace of mind. A third of providers reported they would have closed permanently without these relief funds. More than 8-in-10 licensed child care centers nationwide received ARP assistance and it benefited 30,000 rural child care programs – in most states, 97% of rural counties or more received aid.
 
President Biden has also worked to build the supply of child care in underserved areas, including rural areas. HHS issued a landmark final rule to improve the Child Care & Development Block Grant program, which helps the families of more than 1.3 million children afford child care. As a result of this rule, HHS has required for the first time that all states provide resources to build the supply of care in underserved geographic areas. This fall, the Biden-Harris Administration hosted a first-of-its-kind rural childcare convening, bringing together childcare providers and advocates to discuss opportunities to expand access to early care in rural and Tribal communities.

Partnering with Rural Communities to Create Jobs and Support Rural-led Economic Development

Launched in April 2022, the Rural Partners Network (RPN) is an all-of-government program that partners with rural people to access resources and funding to create local jobs, build infrastructure, and support long-term economic stability on their own terms. RPN staff on the ground are now supporting 36 community networks in 10 states and Puerto Rico. Since its inception, the federal government has invested nearly $8.5 billion in RPN communities to support critical infrastructure, economic development, housing, and other priorities.

In February 2021, President Biden established the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization (Energy Communities IWG) to identify and deliver resources to the coal, oil and gas, and power plant communities that have powered our country for generations. Since then, member agencies have helped drive over $20 billion in federal investment to these communities. The Energy Communities IWG has launched Rapid Response Teams across the country to establish a network of assistance that is focused and sustainable in a community or region.

In addition, the Department of Transportation’s Thriving Communities Program is providing planning, technical assistance, and capacity building support to underserved and under-resourced communities, including rural communities.

With funding from the American Rescue Plan, the Department of Commerce launched several place-based programs to connect people to good paying jobs and help underserved communities leverage regional assets, including rural communities. The Build Back Better Regional Challenge awarded 21 regional coalitions a total of $1 billion to transform their regional economies through growing a local industry sector. These awardees span 236 rural counties. The Good Jobs Challenge awarded $500 million to 32 regional workforce training systems across the country. At least 19 of these 32 awardees serve rural areas. The Department of Commerce also awarded $100 million from the Indigenous Communities Program, all of which primarily serve rural communities, and $500 million from the Economic Adjustment Assistance Program, two-thirds of which primarily serve rural communities, to support economic development needs such as enabling infrastructure and workforce development.  

Additionally, authorized by President Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, the Department of Commerce’s Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs program has designated 31 communities across the country as “Tech Hubs” that will bring together private industry, state and local government, higher education, labor unions, nonprofit institutions, and other critical stakeholders to develop and grow innovative industries that stimulate economic growth, create jobs, and strengthen national security. Nearly three-quarters of Tech Hubs designees encompass small and rural areas.

Also authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act, the Department of Commerce’s $200 million Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program (“Recompete”) aims to address persistent economic distress in communities across the country through a series of highly targeted, transformational investments. Seven of the 22 program finalists focus exclusively on rural communities, and their proposed investments include workforce skill training, addressing childcare deserts in rural America, supporting small businesses, and building local capacity.