Obama Administration Announces Steps To Boost Rural Economy, Create Jobs

Federal agencies will increase purchases of US-made "BioPreferred" products; national contest unveiled to promote rural business; a boost for rural healthcare training...
As part of President Obama's series of Executive Actions with the "We Can't Wait" campaign, the Obama Administration on Tuesday announced three "significant actions" to expand the work of the White House Rural Council, established last June and chaired by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The government will be promoting regional rural job creation efforts through a $15 million national contest; increasing efforts to develop a rural health care workforce; and focusing its considerable buying power on increasing federal purchases of "BioPreferred Products," items created from "farmgrown plants" by companies located in rural America. (Above: The President and Vilsack during the first-ever Rural Economic Forum, held last August)

“My Administration is committed to using every tool available to promote economic growth and create good jobs in rural America,” President Obama said in a statement. “Today’s announcements reflect our continued focus on expanding opportunity for rural Americans and all Americans."

The President today signed a Presidential Memorandum designed to "dramatically increase" the federal purchase of BioPreferred products over the next two years, which the White House says will result in a 50% increase in the number of new products that are designated as "biobased." These include inks, sealants, paints, detergents, lubricants, grease, fluids, and items of personal care, Vilsack said during a conference call with reporters.

"USDA last year purchased almost $25 million in these products and we expect this to increase over time," Vilsack said.

There are currently 64 categories of biobased products available for federal agencies to purchase, and the President's Memorandum will add 25 more categories over the next year, Vilsack said, and add 20 more categories "over the next several years."

"This will allow us to double the almost 9,000 products available in the catalog to more than 18,000 products," Vilsack said.

"We need to do a better job of getting federal agencies to purchase these products," Vilsack added. "We need to do everything we can right now to promote this."

The Memo will provide for "more contracts," and lead to more sales for farmers and rural manufacturers, Vilsack said. He noted that there are more than 3,000 companies, primarily located in rural America, employing more than 100,000 people while producing more than 20,000 biobased products. The Memo includes a mandate to better track BioPreferred purchases by federal agencies, and to train employees in acquisition.

The requirement for federal agencies to purchase BioPreferred products has been in existence since the 2002 Farm Bill, and Vilsack said today's action won't need additional Congressional approval. Last year, USDA unveiled a voluntary labeling program for BioPreferred products made in America, and Vilsack said he hopes to increase the number of products carrying the label. There are currently more than 500 companies carrying the label, Vilsack said.  CLICK HERE for more USDA info about BioPreferred products.

The Rural Jobs Accelerator
The White House today also announced a national competition, "The Rural Jobs Accelerator," which will provide about $15 million for projects that promote "innovation-fueled regional job creation." The competition will combine funding from USDA, the Economic Development Administration, the Delta Regional Authority, and the Appalachian Regional Commission to identify projects in rural areas that can be expanded, according to Commerce Secretary John Bryson. The government is seeking applicants from the non-profit and private sector, from universities and other innovators; "when you bring everyone to the table, you create more synergy...and more jobs," Bryson said.

Details of the competition will be announced in the weeks ahead, and it is designed to "find out where there is an opportunity to maximize support" with federal funding, Bryson said.

"We expect to see how local economies can envision themselves as more competitive on a global scale...when rural america is growing, America as a whole is getting stronger," he said.

Boosting rural healthcare...
The third action announced today is designed to boost telemedicine initiatives in rural areas. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor signed a memorandum of understanding to "connect community colleges and technical colleges that support rural communities with the materials and resources they need to support the training of Health Information Technology (HIT) professionals that work in rural hospitals and clinics."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the needed HIT workforce will increase by 20 percent by 2016.

"The three announcements were recommended by federal agencies participating in the White House Rural Council, and leverage existing programs and funding, but the new actions will expedite job creation in rural parts of the country," the White House said in a news release.

In August, the White House Rural Council released Jobs and Economic Security for Rural America: Download the Report here; PDF.

The White House description of the new initiatives:

*Promoting A Bioeconomy: President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum today directing the Federal Government to take decisive steps to dramatically increase the purchase of biobased products over the next two years, which will create jobs and drive innovation where biobased products are grown and manufactured. The Memorandum will also result in a 50 percent increase in the number of new products that are designated as biobased. Biobased products include items like paints, soaps and detergents and are developed from farm grown plants, rather than chemicals or petroleum bases. The biobased products sector marries the two most important economic engines for rural America: agriculture and manufacturing.

*Rural Jobs Accelerator: The Rural Jobs Accelerator is a national competition that will provide about $15 million for projects that promote innovation-fueled regional job creation. The competition will combine funding from the USDA, the Economic Development Administration (EDA), Delta Regional Authority and the Appalachian Regional Commission. Additionally, this approach will require multiple agencies to coordinate technical assistance and grant / loan programs so that potential rural customers have a single access point within the Federal government to mobilize the resources of the government to help a region of the country. USDA will utilize the Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI) program to support this effort and provide technical assistance and training funds to qualified intermediary organizations to develop their capacity to undertake housing, community facilities, and community and economic development projects in rural areas. The Federal Funding Opportunity will be released in the next few weeks.

*Rural Health IT Workforce: The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor signed a memorandum of understanding to connect community colleges and technical colleges that support rural communities with the materials and resources they need to support the training of Health Information Technology (HIT) professionals that work in rural hospitals and clinics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the needed HIT workforce will increase by 20 percent by 2016.

More background from the White House on recent rural initiatives:
Over the last month, the Obama Administration has made several additional announcements resulting from the White House Rural Council’s efforts, including an initiative to help rural homeowners refinance their mortgages at lower interest rates and a new forest restoration framework to drive economic growth and job creation through timber restoration and harvest. The new plan would place federal agencies on a path toward increasing federal timber harvests to 3 billion board feet.

Since August 2011, the White House Rural Council has supported a broad spectrum of rural initiatives including a $350 million commitment in SBA funding to rural small businesses over the next 5 years, launching a series of conferences to connect investors with rural start-ups, creating capital marketing teams to pitch federal funding opportunities to private investors interested in making rural investments, making job search information available at 2,800 local USDA offices nationwide, making HHS loans available to help more than 1,300 Critical Access Hospitals recruit additional staff, and helping rural hospitals purchase software and hardware to implement health IT. USDA and Navy also announced a partnership to advance the use of next generation biofuels in Navy operations.

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*Photo by Pete Souza/White House, taken on Aug. 16, 2011 at Northeast Community College in Peosta, Iowa, during President Obama's three-day rural bus tour through the Midwest.