Economic Growth

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Small Business Connections is designed to provide small businesses and small farmer-owned cooperatives with the exposure and insight to help increase contracting participation with the federal government. USDA’s continued commitment to broadening this...

Rural communities are the life blood of our great nation. Here at USDA we work every day to make sure that rural Americans have access to programs that help them create opportunity across America's small towns and communities. Tomorrow, I will sit down with the members of the White House Rural...

USDA Rural Utilities Service Administrator John Padalino recently visited the 500th water and wastewater project completed under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. "The Recovery Act has brought improved water and wastewater services to nearly 1.7 million rural residents,” said the...

Each year on Labor Day, we take time to reflect on the productivity of America’s workers and our responsibility as a nation to support their efforts. This year, as we gather to celebrate, Congress has a timely opportunity to create an even stronger American workforce for generations to come. They...

Cross posted from the White House Blog: Today, the White House released a new report detailing the important benefits provided by the bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill for the domestic agriculture sector, its workforce, and rural American communities. As the report states, in recent years...

Every day, USDA provides assistance to help grow American agriculture and increase opportunities for rural communities. Unfortunately, 90 percent of America’s persistent poverty counties are in rural America. Earlier this year, we launched the StrikeForce Initiative for Rural Growth and Opportunity...

This week, the U.S. Senate acted in bipartisan spirit to approve the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act – a balanced, comprehensive bill that will drive continued growth in rural America. The House of Representatives now has another important opportunity to stand with rural America and pass their...

Later this month, Secretary Vilsack will lead the U.S. Delegation to the G-8 International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture held in Washington, DC. The conference will bring together innovators from all over the world to discuss the importance of open agricultural data to increased food...

Cross-posted from the White House blog. Today, the President announced several important new initiatives to continue strengthening the rural economy and to create jobs in rural areas. As part of the White House Rural Council’s efforts to improve federal government coordination on rural economic...

This morning I had the opportunity to start my day in Big Sky Country where I was invited by Senator Jon Tester to participate in the Small Business Opportunity Workshop hosted at Montana State University. We have a full house here having reached capacity at 150 attendees with another 80 RSVPs still...