Improve Rural Development

The Rural Development Title (Title VI) of the Farm Bill reauthorizes, amends, and creates programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development agency. These programs provide financial resources and support for rural communities, residents, and businesses in Rural America.

Broadband

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided critical savings for Americans across the country. But we need to build on our efforts to bridge the digital divide in Rural America. The Farm Bill will provide us with an opportunity to facilitate the expansion of broadband in households that lack sufficient access to reliable, high-speed internet.

The ReConnect Loan and Grant program fuels long-term rural economic development and opportunities in rural communities. This program is administered by USDA and authorized under the Rural Development Title (Title VI). Between 2019 and 2022, the program has invested over $3.1 billion in broadband projects nationwide. I co-sponsored the ReConnecting Rural America Actto strengthen the ReConnect Program, which offers loans, grants, and loan-grant combinations facilitating broadband deployment in parts of rural America

Rural Water and Waste Disposal

More than half of the U.S. crop sales come from irrigated farm operations, although only 15% of the nation’s total farmland is irrigated. Besides boosting agricultural productivity, it’s critical that we improve our water resource management and rural water systems to better serve our communities.

While the Farm Bill does not directly deal with water issues and the drought; there are opportunities to help these communities obtain the technical assistance and funding they need to improve drinking and waste water infrastructure. I’m advocating to increase funding for the Water and Waste Disposal Grant, which provides federal funding for drinking water systems, sanitary sewage disposal, sanitary solid waste disposal, and stormwater drainage in eligible rural areas.

According to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), 80% of the nation is served by 153,000 public drinking water systems and 16,000 publicly owned wastewater systems. In 2021, water treatment systems in California were compromised when hackers attempted to poison water systems that had insufficient cybersecurity measures. That is why, I cosponsored the Cybersecurity for Rural Water Systems Actto help rural communities fortify against cyber attacks that could shut off their water supply.