(Archived Content)
As Prepared for Delivery
WASHINGTON - Thank you, Tom, for that introduction. And let me thank you and your team for putting this important conference together. I also want to thank everybody who is here. I understand that this is the first time we have brought rural interests and investors together to identify the opportunities for investment in rural America. Thank you for coming.
The reason we are here today is because the President has made strengthening rural America a centerpiece of his economic policies. We know that when farmers are having a good year, when ranchers are increasing their productivity, when rural manufacturers are reaching new markets, it benefits our entire economy. And rural America—which is responsible for one out of every 12 jobs in our country—is helping animate our economic recovery.
The fact is, after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, our economy is making progress. Our private sector has created close to 10 million new jobs over the past 52 months. The unemployment rate has dropped to 6.1 percent, the lowest level since September 2008. We are producing new jobs in manufacturing for the first time since the 1990s, and we are exporting more American-made goods than ever before. The housing sector is fighting its way back, with fewer homes underwater. The auto industry is thriving. The stock market is hitting all-time highs. And our budget deficit has been cut by more than half.
So our economy is continuing to make strides, and that has a lot to do with what is going on in rural America. The truth is, while rural America was hit hard by the economic crisis and has had to face a distinct set of difficult challenges, our rural economy is seeing important gains.
One of the main drivers of these gains is energy production. Thanks to the President’s policies and the hard work and determination of men and women in states like Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and Idaho, America is experiencing an energy revolution. Here is what that means. We are generating more energy from natural gas than at any time in history. We are producing more oil at home than we are importing from abroad for the first time in nearly two decades. We are ramping up renewable energy production from solar power plants and wind farms. And we are reducing carbon pollution.
All that energy production is propelling construction, innovation, and investment. It is creating local jobs and boosting local businesses.
Rural America is also home to much of America’s manufacturing sector. Whether it’s light manufacturing, advanced manufacturing or traditional manufacturing, production of goods is taking place throughout rural America. Next week, I am going to visit an Alcoa facility in Davenport, Iowa. At this plant, Alcoa is using new, innovative technology to produce modern, high-grade aluminum. This aluminum is being used in the Ford F-150, and with it, Ford’s best-selling pick-up truck is becoming more fuel efficient and higher performing.
Still, the rural economic story goes beyond the surge in American manufacturing and domestic energy production. In recent years, we have seen striking growth in our farm economy. Farmers are putting food on America’s dinner table, and they are providing raw materials for key industries, like clothing and biofuels. But with more than 95 percent of the world’s consumers living beyond our borders, America’s farmers are succeeding because they are selling goods overseas. In fact, over the past five years, we have seen some of the strongest demand for agricultural product exports in our history. Last year alone, food and agricultural exports represented 9 percent of our total goods exported and reached more than 140 billion, setting a record. And these exports supported close to 1 million jobs here at home in 2013.
Nevertheless, we can and must do more to strengthen rural America. That is why President Obama put forward the “Made in Rural America” initiative. As you will hear today, there are a number of additional things we can do to support rural America. This includes expanding exports, encouraging investment, and modernizing our infrastructure.
While agricultural exports are on a solid trajectory, the President’s plan will help unlock even more export markets for the farmers, ranchers, companies, and manufacturers that make up rural America. We know that when we sell more American made products around the world, it is good for our businesses, our workers, and our economy.
To increase exports, the Administration is moving on a variety of fronts. That includes holding regional “Made in Rural America” forums throughout the country, giving Department of Agriculture staff in all 50 states specific training in how to promote rural exports, and connecting farmers and ranchers with resources that will give them the tools they need to reach customers beyond our borders.
One of these resources is the Export-Import Bank, and this agency is providing essential credit for many of our exporters, including scores of small businesses or businesses with small business suppliers. We are talking about rural companies like Air Tractor in Olney, Texas, the Hudson Pecan Company in Ocilla, Georgia, and Cottonwood Trading in Pleasant Hill, Missouri.
In addition to the Export-Import bank, access to financing and capital is available through a series of programs at Treasury. We are serving rural communities through things like the Small Business Lending Fund, which is providing incentives so community banks will provide loans to farmers and ranchers; the State Small Business Credit Initiative, which is channeling resources directly to states so they can meet the needs of local businesses and entrepreneurs; and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which is working with banks and credit unions in underserved communities to provide loans to small businesses. In fact, over the past 10 years, about a quarter of these loans have gone to rural communities.
Later this morning, Under Secretary Mary Miller will explain how Treasury’s programs are helping small businesses access the capital they need to expand operations and create new jobs, and she will conduct a panel to talk about how we can increase investment in rural America.
Now, if we want to strengthen rural communities, build our manufacturing base in the rural economy, and drive rural exports, we are going to have to do more on infrastructure. That means making sure we have sound roads, bridges, and rail roads, and modern airports, power grids and Internet connections. As the President has said, “first-class infrastructure attracts investment and it creates first-class jobs.”
Right now, energy producers, manufacturers, farmers and freight operators all depend on the roads, bridges and highways that crisscross rural America. As a matter of fact, rural America has some of our nation’s most important infrastructure—including more than 400,000 bridges, nearly 3 million miles of roadway, and more than 30,000 miles of interstate highway.
Our rural transportation network must be safe, efficient, and ready to meet the demands of the future. Unfortunately, our infrastructure is badly in need of repair. This is a drag on growth and productivity. Just think, a quarter of all our bridges need upgrading because they require significant repairs or cannot accommodate current traffic loads.
So fixing our infrastructure has to be a national priority. The President has focused on this since he took office, and he has put in place programs that have been making a real difference, from providing innovative grants that have made funding more effective to cutting red tape so we can get large projects underway faster. For example, the President shaved as much as 12 months off the timeframe of a project in rural Maine to replace an 80 year-old bridge across the Kennebec River. As a result, the new Kennebec Bridge will open next year, giving thousands of families and businesses reliable access to a major interstate highway.
And earlier this year, President Obama put forward a legislative package to rebuild our infrastructure in a sustainable, predictable way. Still, Congress has not done much to move this kind of broad-based plan forward. It has, though, recently put together a stop-gap measure to temporarily keep the Highway Trust Fund going. And while this move is important, we need to fund infrastructure in a much more comprehensive way.
Infrastructure investment should not be a partisan issue. CEOs tell me all the time how important infrastructure is to their businesses. And it is clear that infrastructure investments are good for our economy today and for our competitiveness in the long run.
We need an approach to infrastructure that provides long-term stability and certainty for states, local governments, and businesses. That is because, from the blueprint phase to the building phase, transportation projects are not a multi-month undertaking, they are a multi-year proposition.
To get more infrastructure investment going, the President began a Build America Investment Initiative last week. This program is aimed at expanding and increasing private investment in infrastructure. As part of this effort, Treasury is going to hold a summit on infrastructure investment in September to help spark more public-private partnerships. On top of that, the Administration is going to use federal loans to help states and municipalities leverage private financing for long-term projects.
The bottom line is this: rural America is deeply important to our nation, and it is deeply important to this Administration. And we will continue to press forward to make a real difference for our farmers, ranchers, rural manufacturers and small town businesses.
Let me close by thanking the Department of Agriculture for hosting this conference as well as everyone for coming today. America is a land of urban cities, coastal neighborhoods, mountain communities, and Main Street towns. The spirit that every area of our country matters binds us as a nation. It is written in our national anthem. And by all of us continually pulling together and continually doing our part, we will unlock opportunity for every corner of America. That is our goal. And that is exactly what today is about.
Thank you.
###
Use featured image
Off