President Bush’s 2007 Budget Request for EDA: Good News for Rural America

Sandy K. Baruah, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development

Rural America is home to nearly a quarter of the nation’s people and more than half of its commercial banks. Yet, with its wide-ranging geography, the ebb and flow of its industries, and its ever-changing technological and global challenges, America’s rural economy often performs differently than the rest of the U.S. economy.

President Bush is confident that distressed rural communities can achieve competitiveness and participate fully in the nation’s growing economy, and the Economic Development Administration (EDA) will help these communities do so. Historically, EDA has invested over 50 percent of its resources in rural communities, and is committed to retaining this focus. I am pleased that President Bush’s budget request for EDA in 2007 will bolster EDA support for rural communities by helping them tap into resources that will strengthen their capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship.

What is needed is a collaborative approach that leverages the private sector, agriculture, education, nonprofits and political institutions of the broader region in which a rural community resides. EDA’s 2007 program will better ensure that small jurisdictions and rural areas have a “seat at the table” within the larger regional economic development framework. In 2007, EDA’s investment approach:

• Maintains and strengthens EDA’s long-standing commitment to rural America;
  
  
• Reduces the administrative burden on rural communities by allowing multiple activities in a single EDA grant; and
  
  
• Increases the focus on regional approaches, allowing rural areas to better build on shared strengths and link up with regional economic hubs. This investment will ensure that rural and distressed areas integrate into the larger economic region and participate in the growing national economy.

EDA’s new Regional Development Account (RDA) will support the development of economic regions and help move communities from the current fragmented approach to economic development toward a regional, collaborative approach by providing:

• Capacity-building efforts targeted at state and local officials and economic development professionals to advance the capabilities of practitioners of economic development policy and advance the knowledge of the “hows”, “whats” and “whys” of regional development strategies;
  
  
• Planning, strategy development and technical assistance services for communities and regions that have already recognized the need to work in a collaborative and integrated fashion, but have not yet developed the formalized links to each other and key regional institutions. Program services will help regions move from conceptual acceptance of the advantages of regional development strategies to the development of functioning economic regions, as well as strategies to foster innovation and encourage entrepreneurship;
  
  
• Support of established economic regions in America through an array of services spanning strategic planning to infrastructure development, focused on enhancing regional partnerships and addressing lagging areas within economic regions.

As you will see in this issue of Economic Development America, rural communities win when they successfully engage in regional competitiveness strategies focused on entrepreneurship and innovation. President Bush is committed to helping to create an environment that fosters this transition. I am excited about the President’s budget request for EDA in 2007, which I see as a nexus of EDA’s strengths and focus, and I look forward to working with you to strengthen rural economies as the new program is implemented.

Sincerely,

Sandy K. Baruah
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development