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The Chairman. With that, I am happy — and this is her first ven- 

 ture as chair of the rural caucus — to welcome our distinguished 

 member, our colleague, Jill Long, from Indiana. We will be happy 

 to hear from you at this time. 



Your full statement will appear in the record and you may pro- 

 ceed as you see fit. 



STATEMENT OF HON. JILL L. LONG, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 

 CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF INDIANA 



Ms. Long. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe I will just sum- 

 marize my remarks. 



We are obviously, as a government and as a Congress, going to 

 be moving forward on economic development and growth. I think it 

 is very important that in the Agriculture Committee we do every- 

 thing we can to ensure that rural communities are served well in 

 any policies we move forward. 



I would like to just make several points before the committee, 

 one of which is that the poverty rate is higher in rural areas than 

 in urban regions. In fact, at the end of the 1980's, rural poverty 

 was still higher than in 1972. A higher percentage of kids and el- 

 derly in rural areas are poorer than in urban areas. Since 1980, 

 rural residents have been faced with higher unemployment rates 

 than their urban counterparts. And during the 1980's more than 

 half of all nonmetropolitan counties lost population. 



It is very important that in developing an economic growth strat- 

 egy for the future that rural America must be a full partner in re- 

 building our country's greatness. 



We must begin by examining current policies that either inten- 

 tionally or unintentionally disadvantage rural areas. Let me give a 

 few examples of what I'm talking about. 



Currently, many of the Federal programs are uncoordinated and 

 very complex. With 90 percent of the towns outside of metropolitan 

 areas having populations of less than 5,000, these smaller areas, by 

 and large, don't have the staffs or the people with the experience 

 and expertise needed to advance and sustain innovative types of 

 economic development. 



We must also recognize and respond appropriately in our policy 

 to the fact that rural areas are unable to fund a local share for 

 many projects due to their low population density. It is also tough, 

 if not impossible, for many rural communities to comply with cer- 

 tain mandates. When we reauthorize the Elementary and Second- 

 ary Education Act I think we need to make sure that we change 

 the provisions which currently give a funding advantage to more 

 urban school districts. 



As we are moving forward on economic growth strategy and 

 policy, because of fiscal constraints I think we're going to have to 

 look to be more innovative and to look for additional sources of 

 funding. I think innovation is going to be a key. 



We have to recognize that a strong rural economy is going to be 

 dependent upon more than just a strong farm sector. I think we 

 need to rebuild our economy and make sure that we don't forget 

 our rural areas. We need to make sure that we are working to 

 expand local industries with an understanding that the informa- 



