Issue Position: Rural Issues

Issue Position

Supporting Rural Communities: Protecting the Family Farmer and Spurring Economic Development

What's Wrong

Rural America forms the character of our heartland and is the backbone of our food and energy supply. Yet the recession has taken its toll on family farms and rural communities.

The tightening of the lending sector has made it difficult for farmers to acquire affordable financing. Rural Americans often lack access to quality health care, and the traditional pool of new farmers is shrinking due to the decreasing numbers of family farms and today's smaller households. In many households, children need to leave home to get good jobs and raise their own children, breaking up families and putting the rural way of life in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, rural areas have long been underserved by high-speed Internet. There isn't just a technology gap that's hurting rural America, there's an infrastructure gap as well. Farmers know that clean energy is good for environmental health and their bottom line, but many rural areas are unable to tap the potential of these energy sources because they lack the infrastructure to transmit it to urban centers where electricity demand is the greatest.
Alexi's Plan to Make it Right

Alexi believes that government must serve as a strong and active partner in the lives of residents in rural America so they receive their share of the nation's resources. Alexi's plan gives families the stability needed to navigate the highs and lows of a seasonal business, while ensuring that safeguards are in place to keep corporations from squeezing family farms.
Protecting the family farmer

* Alexi will fight for programs that provide family farmers with predictable and stable support in the face of natural disasters, market fluctuations and corporate consolidation.
* He favors stronger payment limitations and the closing of loopholes that allow large corporate farms to evade current limits.
* Alexi will support efforts to enforce anti-monopoly laws and work with his Senate colleagues to strengthen those laws.
* He will fight for producer protections to ensure independent farmers have fair access to markets and can set fair prices for their goods.
* As demand for local and organic crops continues to increase, Alexi will push Congress to ensure there are strict guidelines and oversight, and to help organic farmers afford to certify their crops and obtain crop insurance.
* Alexi will also prioritize programs that encourage conservation and sustainable land management.

Spurring rural economic development

* Alexi will work to implement President Obama's plan to provide capital for farmers and build a small business and micro-enterprise initiative for rural America.
* Alexi also strongly supports the appropriation of $7.2 billion for Internet grants as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Just as rural electrification created jobs and spurred economic growth, broadband internet will bring much-needed economic opportunity to rural America.

Creating the clean energy economy on America's farms

* Alexi wants to extend the transmission grid to America's rural areas so that these communities can efficiently export wind, solar, geothermal, and bio-fuel resources to where energy is in greater demand. The result would create clean energy resources nationwide and sustain new jobs for America's farmers, ranchers and rural small businesses.

Expanding access to quality health care

* Alexi believes we need to attract providers to rural America by creating a loan forgiveness program for doctors and nurses who work in underserved rural areas.
* He will also work to end the disparity that leads rural health care providers to receive less money from Medicare and Medicaid for the very same procedure performed in urban areas.

Investing in the next generation of farmers

* Alexi will support congressional efforts to pass legislation that invests in the education of tomorrow's farmers and promotes farm ownership.
* Alexi supports the Rural Revitalization Program to attract and retain jobs for young people in rural America.

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