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Federal financial assistance can contribute to the success
of a local rural development strategy. However, the total
amount of Federal funding received by an area may be less
important than the mix of Federal assistance and its fit
with the local rural development strategy.
ERS analysis of Federal funding shows that most of
Federal funding comes in the form of payments to individuals
for social security, retirement, Medicare and Medicaid,
farm payments, federal procurement and salaries, and
expenditures on national defense and other national functions.
Moreover, these programs are not distributed equally
across the country. For example, Social Security provides
more funding, per capita, in the farming-intensive central
portions of the country, due to the concentration of
older people in these rural areas. Maps with the geographic
distribution (rural
housing loans, community
facilities loans, and business
assistance) are also available.
Federal programs specifically aimed at economic and community
development are particularly important for rural development.
ERS research finds that rural areas have historically
received somewhat less of such community resources funding
than urban areas. In addition, the amount of such Federal
assistance varies by region (table
1) and type of rural county (table
2). The geographic distribution of Federal funding
also varies by type of assistance, such as loans, grants,
direct payments to individuals, etc. (table
3). For more information about data on the geographic
distribution of Federal funding see Federal
Funds Data.
ERS has classified the Federal programs important for
rural development into 4 categories: general assistance,
infrastructure assistance, business assistance, and housing
assistance. While many of these programs are USDA programs,
some of the largest are administered by other agencies,
such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) single family mortgage program and community development
block grants (CDBG), the Small Business Administration
(SBA) small business loan program, the Department of
Transportation (DOT) highway construction program, the
Environmental Protection Agency's clean water and drinking
water infrastructure programs, and the Federal Emergency
Management Agency's disaster relief.
Some of these programs, such as HUD's State/Small
City CDBG, have particularly benefited rural areas, but
the programs that have been most focused on rural development
are administered by USDA. These include infrastructure
programs of the Rural Utilities Service, business programs
of the Rural Business-Cooperative Service, and housing
and community development programs of the Rural Housing
Service. USDA's rural
development theme paper,
prepared for discussion of the 2007 farm bill, provides
a detailed listing of USDA's rural development
programs, as well as a discussion of several alternative
approaches to rural development. For more information
on these programs, see USDA-Rural
Development.
ERS has also looked into other aspects of Federal
programs as they relate to rural development, including
Federal credit programs and
their role in rural areas. Other topics include the rural
impacts of Federal development programs (see Economic
Impact of Water/Sewer Facilities in Rural and Urban Communities and Meeting
the Housing Needs of Rural Residents: Results of the
1998 Survey of USDA's Single Family Direct Loan Housing
Program), trends in
regulatory policy and the recent trend toward new Federal
regional development programs (see Transition
Year Brings Changes for Rural Development),
a description of the rural development title of the 2002
Farm
Bill, and policy issues of continuing relevance,
such as the pros and cons of using block grants for rural
development (see How
Would Rural Areas Fare Under Block Grants).
In addition, ERS researchers have written a history
of Federal rural development policy, available from
the Rural
Information Center's web site, providing
background information about how and why Federal rural
development programs were created.
See related
links and recommended
readings covering issues on federal funds and
development policy.
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