Columns

Friday, May 31, 2002

farm bill boosts rural economy

In Iowa's Interest - A Column by Tom Harkin

Q: Senator Harkin, I live in a small Iowa town and I’m worried about it’s economic future. What can be done to help bring jobs and businesses to our rural communities so people aren’t forced to move out of state or to the cities to survive?

A: Iowans know that as the farm economy goes, so goes our state. That is more true for rural communities than anywhere else. Iowa’s small towns and businesses depend on a good farm economy, and when it struggles, so do they.

The past decade has been especially tough on rural communities who did not share in the rest of the nation’s prosperity. From top to bottom, Congress needed to pass an economic plan to create jobs and invest in rural America. That’s what I set out to do when I wrote the farm bill, and now that President Bush has signed the new farm bill into law, America once again has an agriculture policy that works for Iowans.

The new farm bill restores the farm bill safety net and makes significant investments that benefit Iowans both on and off the farm. By providing the largest increase in conservation funding of any farm bill, the new farm bill will boost farm income and protect our land, air and water for all Iowans. Additionally, this historic investment allows us to boost existing conservation programs, and create an innovative program for conservation on land in agricultural production which I authored, the Conservation Security Program.

The farm bill’s rural economic development initiative also breaks with the past by providing a real economic boost to businesses and jobs across Iowa. It provides new resources for many critical needs of rural communities such as rural broadband Internet access, rural small business grant and loan programs and the necessary resources to fill a long backlog of community water and wastewater programs.

We have also included a brand new equity capital initiative to help grow and expand rural businesses. The farm bill’s Rural Business Investment Program will create $280 million in equity capital investments which will help bring jobs to rural communities by giving businesses the economic tools they need to succeed. This is a vital piece of the economic development puzzle and will help bring prosperity back to rural communities.

I am proud that a bipartisan majority in the Congress and President Bush embraced this new beginning for the rural economy. As the first Iowan to chair the Senate Agriculture Committee in nearly a century, I made sure that the new farm bill reflects the hard work of Iowa’s farmers and the needs of our small towns and rural communities. This farm bill is the economic stimulus plan that rural Iowa needs.