[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
ASSESSING THE GOVERNMENT'S ROLE IN SERVING RURAL AMERICAN SMALL
BUSINESSES (PART ONE)
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON RURAL DEVELOPMENT, AGRICULTURE, TRADE, AND
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD
NOVEMBER 14, 2019
__________
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Small Business Committee Document Number 116-061
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
38-315 WASHINGTON : 2020
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
ABBY FINKENAUER, Iowa
JARED GOLDEN, Maine
ANDY KIM, New Jersey
JASON CROW, Colorado
SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
JUDY CHU, California
MARC VEASEY, Texas
DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois
ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio, Ranking Member
AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, American Samoa, Vice Ranking Member
TROY BALDERSON, Ohio
KEVIN HERN, Oklahoma
JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee
ROSS SPANO, Florida
JOHN JOYCE, Pennsylvania
DAN BISHOP, North Carolina
Adam Minehardt, Majority Staff Director
Melissa Jung, Majority Deputy Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Kevin Fitzpatrick, Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Abby Finkenauer............................................. 1
Hon. John Joyce.................................................. 3
WITNESSES
Ms. Bette Brand, Administrator, Rural Business-Cooperative
Service, USDA-Rural Development, Washington, DC................ 5
Ms. Michelle Christian, National Director, Office of Rural
Affairs, United States Small Business Administration,
Washington, DC................................................. 6
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Ms. Bette Brand, Administrator, Rural Business-Cooperative
Service, USDA-Rural Development, Washington, DC............ 22
Ms. Michelle Christian, National Director, Office of Rural
Affairs, United States Small Business Administration,
Washington, DC............................................. 25
Questions and Answers for the Record:
Questions from the Small Business Committee to Ms. Michelle
Christian and Answers from Ms. Michelle Christian.......... 28
Additional Material for the Record:
Letter to Hon. Chris Pilkerton, Acting SBA Administrator,
Small Business Administration.............................. 50
SBIA - Small Business Investor Alliance...................... 52
ASSESSING THE GOVERNMENT'S ROLE IN SERVING RURAL AMERICAN SMALL
BUSINESSES (PART ONE)
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019
House of Representatives,
Committee on Small Business,
Subcommittee on Rural Development, Agriculture,
Trade and Entrepreneurship,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:08 a.m., in
Room 2360, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Abby Finkenauer
[chairwoman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Finkenauer, Golden, Craig,
Radewagen, Joyce, and Bishop.
Also Present: Representative Cox.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Good morning. The Committee will
come to order.
Thank you all so much for joining us here today, and
special thanks to our witnesses for being here today to
testify.
The Department of Agriculture and Small Business
Administration are two of the federal agencies with the
significant resources and potential to drive economic growth in
our small towns and in our rural areas. These agencies are
tasked with administering hundreds of millions of dollars in
funding for businesses and community development. Today's
hearing is about making sure that our taxpayer dollars are
being used effectively and are reaching the rural communities
that need them the most.
As the Congresswoman from Iowa's First Congressional
District, I know firsthand that our friends and neighbors in
rural communities are dealing with a lot of challenges,
especially right now. Growing up in Sherrill, Iowa--as I like
to say, a town with more cows than people, in rural Dubuque
County--my mom and dad taught my brother, my sisters, and me
the value of hard work, how to respect and care for others, and
the strength of our rural communities.
Sadly, some of our rural communities are still struggling
to recover from the recession.
From 2010 to 2016, population in rural counties went down
as people left our small towns for what they hoped would be
better jobs or went away for college or graduate schools and
never came back home.
This trend is starting to reverse, though, in some places.
Nationally, the number of people living in rural areas went
up between 2016 and 2017, the first rural population increase
in nearly a decade, though this growth isn't being seen in
every rural county.
According to the Department of Agriculture, much of that
growth is concentrated in communities closer to big cities or
in areas with more infrastructure or development. Rural
unemployment is also going down but still hasn't caught up to
the lower rates in urban and metropolitan areas. We still have
more work to do to improve economic opportunities in our small
towns and rural communities, and make sure that places like
northeast Iowa are not left behind as our way of life in doing
business changes.
That is the reason we are here today; to learn more about
what the Small Business Administration and the Department of
Agriculture can do to give small businesses in rural America
the tools they need to grow and succeed.
When we look at ways to drive economic and business
development in rural communities, one strategy that has
demonstrated real promise is small scale entrepreneurship.
Small businesses create more than half of all new jobs in rural
areas. Entrepreneurs in rural America start businesses at
higher rates than urban Americans, and their businesses are
often more resilient than storefronts and startups in urban
areas. Rural America has also become more economically diverse
than in past decades as sectors like healthcare and tourism
continue to grow.
In northeast Iowa, our small business owners are not just
farmers and manufacturers, but also biofuel producers,
breweries, and bike shop owners. I think that many of my
colleagues here today, including Dr. Joyce, can speak to how
the economic opportunities and challenges in rural communities
that they represent have changed over the last decade. I bring
this up to underscore the need for policy solutions that are
flexible and dynamic to support small businesses and rural
economies.
I already know some of the ways the Department of
Agriculture and Small Business Administration are making a
difference when it comes to economic development in northeast
Iowa. We have seen it firsthand. For example, a Value-Added
Producer Grant from the Department of Agriculture helped Dan
and Debbie's Creamery--a first-generation dairy farm in Ely,
Iowa--offer new products, expand into new markets, and become
part of a growing regional foods movement in Iowa. Community
Memorial Hospital in Sumner, Iowa, was able to leverage
financing from the Department of Agriculture to build new
health care facilities and expand access to specialty care in
Bremer County.
These are two success stories showing how the Department of
Agriculture Rural Development is partnering with our
businesses, public and private community-based organizations,
and financial institutions to create jobs and new economic
opportunities in rural areas.
The Small Business Administration, like the Department of
Agriculture, has many programs designed to boost access to
capital and support small businesses. On almost every Main
Street that I visit in Iowa, I hear how financing backed by the
Small Business Administration has helped small business owners
turn their dreams into reality.
Unlike Department of Agriculture Rural Development
programs, the Small Business Administration helps urban and
rural businesses alike, but the bulk of their services are
concentrated in metropolitan areas. Part of the reason why we
are here today is to ensure that resources and services offered
by the Small Business Administration are well suited to assist
our small businesses in rural areas and complement existing
rural development programs.
A few months ago, I joined my colleagues Mr. Cox, Mr.
Golden, and Ms. Craig, in sending a letter to the Small
Business Administration requesting more information about its
Office of Rural Affairs, an entity that was established by
Congress over 20 years ago but was seemingly never set up by
the Small Business Administration. While I am pleased the
Administration has recently appointed a national director of
the Office of Rural Affairs, it isn't clear how this office is
serving small businesses or why the agency has only now
appointed a director.
In 2013 and again in 2018, the Department of Agriculture
and the Small Business Administration signed a memorandum of
understanding to support rural small businesses and economic
development. I am particularly interested in learning more
about how the most recent agreement has changed, how these
agencies are working together, and improving the effectiveness
of their services. Given the state of agricultural economy at
this time, and in my state in particular, I am especially
interested in learning how the Office of Rural Affairs will be
working with the Department of Agriculture to provide
additional assistance to our farmers and agribusinesses during
this very troubling time.
With the President's ongoing trade war with China and
attacks on renewable fuel standard--on top of the flooding and
extreme weather we have seen in the Midwest--our farmers are
hurting, and I hope that today's discussion will help us find
ways to improve coordination and collaboration between these
programs that serve small businesses across all sectors of the
rural economy.
Again, thank you so much to our witnesses for being here
today for what I hope will be a very productive discussion.
I am excited to have Dr. Joyce joining us here as well, our
Ranking Member.
With that, I would like to yield to Dr. Joyce, Ranking
Member of this Committee.
Mr. JOYCE. Thank you, Chairwoman Finkenauer, and thank you
for holding this hearing and for holding the hearing last month
in Gettysburg in my district. It was a pleasure to introduce
you to the Keystone State, and I hope you can come back and
spend more time in Gettysburg and tour the battlefields.
At that field hearing, my constituents explained the
significant negative effects of poor internet service and the
access that the internet has on our communities. There is no
doubt that small businesses of all industries require access to
reliable and affordable broadband to compete in local,
national, and international markets. Rural small businesses
like those in my district and in our Chairwoman's district as
well are constrained by limited access to resources. In
addition, inadequate access to the internet, rural firms have
less financing options, less qualified and available workers,
and less business assistant services than urban firms do. Our
rural communities depend on the success of local small
businesses.
Today, we will review the USDA and SBA rural economic
development initiatives and those impacts on small businesses.
In a 2008 report, a U.S. Government Accountability Office
report titled, Rural Economic Development: Collaboration
Between SBA and USDA Could Be Improved, determined that the SBA
and the USDA have complementary missions and services in our
rural areas. GAO recommended that these agencies initiate more
formal collaborations which would allow leverage the unique
strengths of each program, increase the number of financing
options available to rural borrowers and ultimately improve
economic development in rural areas. My question that we will
pose to you with your presentations is, has there been any
progress over the past 11 years?
Thank you for both of our witnesses for providing us an
update on the collaborative efforts between SBA and USDA. As
the Small Business Committee, we know that your team work has
the greatest impact.
I yield back.
Chairwoman FINKENAUER. Thank you, Dr. Joyce. The gentleman
yields back.
If Subcommittee members have an opening statement prepared,
we ask that they be submitted for the record.
I would now just like to take a minute to explain the
timing rules. Each witness gets 5 minutes to testify and
members get 5 minutes for questioning. There is a lighting
system in front of you to assist you. The green light will be
on when you begin and then the yellow light will come on when
you have 1 minute remaining. The red light comes on when you
are out of time, and we ask that you stay within the timeframe
to the best of your ability.
I would now like to introduce our witnesses. Our first
witness is Ms. Bette Brand, the administrator of the Rural
Business-Cooperative Service at the Department of Agriculture.
She came to the agency after 35 years with Farm Credit of the
Virginias, where she mostly recently served as chief advocate
for the agriculture industry and rural business, supporting
producers at the state and national level and educating
policymakers and consumers about agriculture. She has wide-
ranging experiences, having served on the Virginia Agribusiness
Council, the Virginia Horse Council, the Virginia Cooperative
Council, and the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the
Classroom.
Welcome, and thank you for being here today, Ms. Brand.
Our second witness is Ms. Michelle Christian, who was first
appointed by the White House on February 20, 2018, to serve as
the U.S. Small Business Administration Mid-Atlantic regional
administrator. As the regional administrator, she was
responsible for overseeing the delivery of the agency's small
business programs and the business development initiatives
throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Recently, she was elevated
to the position of national director of the Office of Rural
Affairs, where she is responsible for overseeing business and
economic development throughout rural America.
Thank you both so much for being here today. I will now
recognize each witness for 5 minutes to provide their
testimony.
Ms. Brand, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENTS OF BETTE BRAND, ADMINISTRATOR, RURAL BUSINESS-
COOPERATIVE SERVICE, USDA-RURAL DEVELOPMENT, WASHINGTON, DC;
AND MICHELLE CHRISTIAN, NATIONAL DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF RURAL
AFFAIRS, UNITED STATES SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION,
WASHINGTON, DC
STATEMENT OF BETTE BRAND
Ms. BRAND. Thank you very much, and good morning.
Chairwoman Finkenauer, Ranking Member Joyce, and distinguished
members of the Committee, my name is Bette Brand, and I am the
administrator for USDA Rural Development, Rural Business-
Cooperative Service. The Rural Business-Cooperative Service, or
RBCS, provides capital to rural businesses and communities to
improve economic opportunity and quality of life for rural
Americans.
As administrator, I oversee the programs delivered by the
Rural Business-Cooperative Service, which includes business
programs, cooperative programs, community/economic development
programs, and energy programs. The investments RBCS makes to
help support America's long-term prosperity by ensuring that
our rural communities continue to contribute to the economy
grow and prosper.
Our business programs provide financial backing to
stimulate business creation and growth through partnerships
with public and private community-based organizations and
financial institutions. Through our programs, we partner with
rural businesses to deliver financial assistance and business
development to help provide capital for facilities,
improvements for energy efficiency, renewable energy
production, job training, equipment and entrepreneurial skills
that support, create, and preserve quality jobs in rural
communities.
Along with America's rural businesses, cooperatives also
make up an essential part of the U.S. economy. Helping farmers
and ranchers not only market their products, but also providing
services that keep our rural communities going, such as
electricity, telecommunications, financial services, and home
healthcare. Communities also have benefited from other
cooperatives such as grocery stores, pharmacies, and hardware
stores. RBCS delivers programs designed to help rural
communities begin, improve, and expand cooperatives.
The Rural Business-Cooperative Service also recognizes the
value of energy efficiency through rural businesses,
cooperatives, and communities. As a result, we have a suite of
programs that are designed to help finance the cost of
renewable energy systems and improve energy efficiency for our
customers. We are also committed to partnering with other
Federal agencies to improve program effectiveness and delivery
to businesses, organizations, cooperatives, and consumers
across rural America.
In April of 2018, USDA signed a memorandum of understanding
with the Small Business Administration to strengthen
collaboration on a shared set of goals, including improved
access to capital and rural communities, streamlining program
delivery, innovation for rural technical assistance providers,
and partnerships with rural businesses to provide the tools
they need to succeed. The MOU established four interagency
working groups to address some of the challenges in rural
America, but specifically focused on business growth and access
to capital.
Field collaboration for both USDA and SBA has been a
valuable outcome of the MOU in order to strategically meet the
needs of rural businesses across the country. USDA and SBA have
set forth strategic goals and objectives for fiscal year 2020
to provide access to capital and to increase awareness of
programs that support the mission of both agencies.
Thank you for having me here today to discuss the important
work that Rural Business-Cooperative Service does to support
rural businesses, cooperatives, and communities. USDA will
continue to work with SBA to promote economic prosperity in
rural communities because together America prospers. At this
time, I would be happy to answer your questions.
Mr. GOLDEN. [Presiding.] Thank you, Ms. Brand. And you may
have noticed while you were opening up there that we have
changed faces on you. Looking forward to having a good back and
forth, and thanks again for being here today.
And Mrs. Radewagen and I have worked together actually
recently on a bill to reauthorize the small business
development centers, which you are likely familiar with, Ms.
Christian. And I would go ahead and recognize you for 5 minutes
for opening statement. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF MICHELLE CHRISTIAN
Ms. CHRISTIAN. Thank you.
Good morning, members, and thank you for inviting me here
to today's hearing. I am honored to have the opportunity to
discuss SBA's focus on rural entrepreneurism, entrepreneurship,
and the positive impacts those efforts are having on America's
small businesses. My name is Michelle Christian. I am the Small
Business Administration's director of rural affairs, a position
that I am pleased to have accepted 2 months ago after serving
as the mid-Atlantic regional administrator. I coordinate now
with SBA's nationwide regional administrators, all of our 68
district offices, and all of our partners to engage directly
with rural entrepreneurs.
By working closely with these district offices and other
Federal agencies, SBA's Office of Rural Affairs can directly
assist in connecting rural communities and entrepreneurs, no
matter where they are in their process of starting their
business, with vital small business resources to help them
start and grow. At the SBA, we use strategic relationships and
partnerships to reach all of our small business constituents,
including those in rural areas where my office will
specifically focus on.
In 2018, former Administrator Linda McMahon made SBA's
rural initiative a priority for the agency. Bolstered by the
memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, we are furthering the Administration's goal to
bring prosperity back to rural America. The goal of the MOU is
to strengthen rural businesses and agricultural economies
through more effective program delivery and increased access to
capital. Because of the MOU, the USDA and SBA have better
coordination in administering their respective programs, and we
are designing it to aid rural small businesses and
entrepreneurs. Working individually, SBA and USDA do have
different customers. Working together, each agency can now
reach a new constituency, and that is a positive impact that
the MOU has now had.
Our outreach and connection building with rural businesses
and communities is and has been a mission of the SBA. My
position as director is to now coordinate the activities and
the outreach with our SBA district offices and to be sure to
include the Federal, State, and local partners in all of the
rural communities to educate everyone on all of our resources.
These outreach events focus on bringing Federal resources
directly to the rural entrepreneurs and directly to the rural
small business owners. SBA is well positioned to lead these
rural outreach sessions since we have many connections in these
small local communities. We hold regular roundtables and forums
where we, in conjunction with our resource partners, local
chambers, and community leaders, support the small business
ecosystem as a whole. In rural opportunity zones, we educate
rural communities on the potential for investment, as well as
the incentives created by this program. Outreach events and
activities are happening across the country in our regional
offices, district offices, and resource partners.
One of the key aspects of my job is to listen to
businesses. Simply having events that we show up and showcasing
what we have and do and leave is just simply not enough. We
must listen and we must understand how the current process or
program in the Federal Government is or is not working for
them, and we must ensure proper followup, and that is the key.
It is through this outreach that I have learned that rural
entrepreneurs often face challenges that nonrural owners don't,
such as lack of broadband.
I would like to thank by closing the Committee for the
chance to discuss how SBA is able to help rural small
businesses. While I might not be an obvious choice for this
rural affairs position, I am from New Jersey, I went to school
in New York, and I live outside of Philadelphia, but I have a
real passion to help and adjust the needs of the people in
rural America. Everyone might not want to take advantage of
what we are telling them and they may never want to talk to us
again, but it is our job to ensure that every American,
regardless of where they reside and live, is informed of the
programs and services that are available through the Federal
Government.
Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
Mr. GOLDEN. Thank you very much.
I will go ahead and kick things off. You know, one of the
first things I wanted to ask you about and, Ms. Christian, it
is just out of curiosity; actually, you had pointed out in your
written testimony and I think maybe a little bit in your
opening statement, you talked about 40 percent of opportunity
zones being designated in rural areas, which I think has
potential to be very helpful in some communities. I am getting
some feedback, though, on the ground in my district, which is,
I believe, the second most rural in the entire House of
Representatives, it is big and large, Maine's Second
Congressional District, but there is not really a lot of
activity going on around these, and some concerns that by the
time some of the guidelines were put out, the program, you
know, was well advanced, and people asking for an extension of
sorts in order to be able to apply.
But I was just curious what strategies you might have in
mind to try and get people to more actively pursue these
opportunities. Because I do think, to date, that many of the
investments have been focused on more metropolitan and urban
areas where there is a longer history of investment, perhaps
viewed as less risky for investors, and I think that that is
unfortunate, because I think that the spirit of the law was
certainly meant to direct some of these opportunities into
rural areas. So any ideas and planning that you have on that?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. So I have two ideas actually. The first week
of December, there will be some opportunities on events
actually in Maine too. I hope you are made aware of those, and
if not, we will make sure that you are. We are trying to focus
more on the rural areas when it comes to opportunity zones
because the cities are low-hanging fruit. Baltimore was able to
hire an opportunity zone czar. Rural communities are not able
to do that. Local mayors and economic development folks are
very focused on just running the town, quite frankly, and it is
difficult to learn all the nuances with these rules and
regulations that keep coming out.
So, there is a focus to educate the local communities, the
small rural communities on what they can achieve through this
program. It is a push and it will be a push through my office
to educate the communities. I was recently speaking with a very
small town economic development team in trying to showcase to
them how small businesses in their community can grow and how
we can also attract new businesses, because even when a bigger
business comes, small businesses thrive because it is the
ancillary businesses; it is the supply chain. So, there is so
much more than when people just think small business and, quite
frankly, we go up to 500 people.
So, in rural America, a facility with 500 people, I
sometimes get a glare, it is like we don't need a 500-person
facility, a manufacturing plant with 150 will do just fine. So,
I think it is apples and oranges with cities to these rural
areas, but we are out there, we are trying to inform, and that
goes back to what we do at SBA. It is really letting
individuals and communities know what the resources are.
And in regard to opportunity zones, the way this is framed,
it really is a bottom-up approach. This is not a Federal
program coming down, because the investment is coming from
private entities, and what you said, sometimes the investment
might not pencil out in a rural community, and that is the
issue where--go to Brooklyn, you may have a better chance of
getting a very quick return, but in a lot of these other
communities, there may be some work there to be done.
That being said, there are--the White House Opportunity
Revitalization Council has the 17 Federal agencies and
commissions that are working with their grants and programs to
give priority and preference points and a special treatment,
for lack of a better term, to these communities so that they
can better themselves. So hopefully, through those two
programs, the investment and the programs through the Federal
Government, we can help revitalize these communities.
Mr. GOLDEN. Well, I look forward to learning more about how
things go in my district, and would certainly love to join or
have my staff there and be a part of that. We have had a great
relationship with the SBA office in the State of Maine, and we
would love to continue that, but I think you are spot on. You
know, town managers, you know, usually don't even have an
economic development director or someone to assist them. So the
follow-up piece of what you were talking about in regards to
your office's mission, I think, is actually most critical
because people don't have a lot of bandwidth and really do need
an aggressive office that will not only show up and listen,
like you said, and that is just step one, but then secondly,
follow up and actually bring some manpower and resources to the
table to actually help people access some of these great
programs that are potentially out there for them. So thank you.
Ms. CHRISTIAN. That is the key, I believe, to what I am
going to do with this office, is to ensure that follow-up,
because it was not enough to just give the information; it is
helping them utilize that information correctly.
Mr. GOLDEN. Thank you. We will certainly have some follow-
up questions, but I will go ahead and recognize Congresswoman
Radewagen for 5 minutes of questioning. Thank you.
Mrs. RADEWAGEN. Congressman, good morning. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman. I also want to welcome Ms. Brand and Ms. Christian,
and thank you for testifying today.
My first question is for the both of you. What is the best
way for rural business owners to learn about each of your
programs? Ms. Brand?
Ms. BRAND. Thank you for that question. We are very
fortunate to have people--a team from Rural Development in each
of the States serving specific States and 47 that cover across
the United States. Within those State, the State directors, we
also have a team that are specifically trained in the different
program areas. And so that is the key. The primary source of
being able to provide information is having direct access to an
individual that cannot only explain their programs, but help
walk through how they may best use all the programs to better
serve.
In addition, we, of course, have the website and many
avenues for media and information. We also--many of our
programs are guaranteed programs, so we work really hard to
inform our lenders, and they too are a very good advocate
because they go out and seek businesses and we are then able to
guarantee the loans for them.
Mrs. RADEWAGEN. Ms. Christian?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. Thank you. We have our 68 field offices
throughout the country and our 10 regional administrators, and
we are focused on getting into these rural areas. Terrain is
somewhat of a problem for them to get to locations where we
might be at, so we have made it a point to go to them. And
especially with access to capital, we are trying to hold events
at a library, at a local chamber, at a community building so
that we bring the lenders to them. A lot of these rural
communities are having community banks leave their area, so the
banker that they have always known and that their parents used,
they are no longer there. And trust sometimes is an issue in
these types of communities, and we want to make sure we can
connect people one-on-one.
So, we are going into the communities and bringing the
resources to them, not only our resources at the SBA, but also
of our resource partners, so that they can connect with mentors
and individuals that can help them start that business no
matter where they are on that food chain. So if they are
looking for a business plan, and I would like to say, even if
you woke up in the morning and you just have an idea and you
just want someone to talk about that idea with, we are going to
bring that person to you.
So, we are making it a point to bring our resources to your
community, because to tell everyone to go on a website when
broadband is such an issue is, quite frankly, not helpful. So,
we are coming out to those communities individually, in-person
to help them.
Mrs. RADEWAGEN. As a followup, do USDA staff know SBA
programs and vice versa? Ms. Brand?
Ms. BRAND. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for that question. The MOU
certainly formalized our strategy to make that a more
structured endeavor, and we actually do have--have conducted,
throughout the last 2 years, joint training sessions, webinars
with the teams both here at the national office and in the
local State offices and their offices within the State, so they
do understand.
And also part of the MOU, one of the results of that is we
developed a matrix, and I believe there is a copy out on the
table that will, I think, just outlines the different programs
and some of the differences that will help people explain, not
only for our employees, but for customers and lenders that are
involved in the program.
Mrs. RADEWAGEN. Ms. Christian?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. So not only have we interagency trained--so
SBA has trained USDA, USDA has trained SBA. When we are out--
and as the regional administrator, when I was out in the field,
I would go out with the State directors of Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and we would conduct trainings
for local leaders, legislators. We would have congressional
roundtables and inform them of our products and services
separately, and then also talk about ways that we can help each
other. So if you are a small business owner but you may need
more access to capital than we are able to give you, but you
need our resources to help you write that business plan, well,
then, perhaps USDA is the way to go for your capital. But you
come to us and we will set you up with a mentor and a business
plan and a business coach and we will get you on your way on
the technical side. So. it has been a great partnership to get
our resources out to the community.
Mrs. RADEWAGEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I yield back.
Mr. GOLDEN. Thank you.
We will go ahead and recognize Congresswoman Angie Craig at
this time from Minnesota's Second.
Ms. CRAIG. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
I want to start with a question for Ms. Brand. Thank you
both for testifying and for being here today.
Of the numerous USDA rural business programs, there are
some outstanding ones that provide funds directly to small
businesses, such as the Value-Added Producer Grant program, the
Rural Micro-Entrepreneurial Assistance program, and the Rural
Energy for America programs. These programs can make a big
difference to small businesses in rural communities. The Value-
Added Producer Grant has been especially impactful in my
district where, just this past fiscal year, businesses in Red
Wing, Northfield, West St. Paul, Farmington, and Dundas have
received funding for necessary production equipment.
What data are you collecting about the efficacy of these
programs, and how are you ensuring that those who are eligible
for these programs are adequately being served?
Ms. BRAND. Thank you very much for that question. We have
metrics that we measure on each of those we study, and it is
important that we look at the jobs created, the geographic
disbursement of our program funding. For example, the Value-
Added Producer Grant program is a very popular program. In
fact, it is oversubscribed about three to one, so it is a
competitive program. And we have a very methodical way of
evaluating applications that is run through several review
panels in order to make sure that they not only meet the
requirements of the program, but that are being--the biggest
impact is being made.
And our other programs as well have the underwriting
requirements and the regulations that we follow, but also
looking at the impact that it makes for those communities with
regard to underserved communities, jobs created, and other
measures like that.
Ms. CRAIG. That is fantastic. I just want to follow up
with, our Committee has held two hearings on the clean energy
economy, and we have heard about the number of small businesses
engaged in energy efficiency, construction, and manufacturing.
We have also seen the increased employment opportunities in
renewable energy. I was proud to secure increased funding for
the Rural Energy for America program during the appropriations
process, which issues grants and loans to farms in rural small
businesses.
How do USDA rural business programs or the small business
efforts that you also undertake, Ms. Christian, how do those
support the growth and development of small businesses in the
clean energy economy?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. Well, most recently, we actually held an
event with the Department of Energy, USDA, and SBA, and it was
focused on energy in Appalachia, and our position was all types
of energy in the supply chain and the ancillary businesses that
come along with larger energy facilities being located in a
rural community. So, we are well aware that small businesses
around energy will succeed.
There are so many jobs that are there, and many times
people just think about the big energy company, but it really
is those ancillary businesses. And we work, at SBA, our western
Pennsylvania office, is constantly working with small business
owners that are directly related to the energy industry,
whether it is making a widget for whatever it is they are
doing; I am not going to pretend I know. But our small business
owners are making that widget and we are helping them. Whether
they are a business of 10 or a business of 500, we are helping
them to help the energy business and to succeed, and it really
is helping those communities.
So, when those smaller businesses are able to succeed
around these energy facilities, then the whole community really
thrives, and that is something that is needed in these rural
areas. So, we are seeing such a difference, and USDA is working
with energy. We are working with USDA. It absolutely makes
sense for us all to be working in this universe together.
Ms. CRAIG. Thank you.
Ms. Brand, anything to add in the 30 seconds I have left?
Ms. BRAND. I will say that through the reprogram, the Rural
Energy for America, we could help many of the small businesses
that SBA funds as well through energy efficiency, whether it be
lighting for those refrigerators or refrigeration systems,
things to help them improve their bottom line and reduce their
energy cost.
Ms. CRAIG. Thank you so much.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. GOLDEN. Thank you.
We will now go ahead and recognize Congressman Dan Bishop
from North Carolina's Ninth.
Mr. BISHOP. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And, Ms. Christian, I am proud to represent more than 1,500
poultry farmers in my district and, in fact, in the Ninth
District of North Carolina, poultry farms produced in excess of
a billion-five annual output. And the SBA has proposed a new
rule that would restrict the ability of poultry farmers to
access SBA section 7A loans, and I believe this rule would
unnecessarily hurt the thousands of poultry farmers across the
country, including the 1,500 in my district.
I understand that the agency is still reviewing the rule,
and I would like to know, if I could, what the status of that
review is.
Ms. CHRISTIAN. So that particular rule is outside of my
purview at this time. I am sure, now that I am in this role as
a national rural affairs director, that that will come up. I
have only been in this position for 2 months, but that is
something that affects rural America outside of your district
and throughout.
Prior, I was the regional administrator, and Delaware was
included, and that is a big issue in Delaware also. So, if I
could, I will get back to you on that, and we will make sure we
have accurate information for you on where we are in that
thinking at SBA.
Mr. BISHOP. I would appreciate that. I began my service in
Congress after having just won a special election, and so I am
learning about that and intend to learn more about it. And I
appreciate what you said earlier about, you know, the key
aspects of your position being to listen to businesses and the
experiences they have and then to follow up. So that would be
terrific. I would appreciate that very much.
Ms. Brand, if I could ask you, of the programs that the
Rural Business-Cooperative Service oversees, which one has been
the most successful at attracting private capital investment?
Ms. BRAND. Thank you for that question. I would say that
our largest program, the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan
program, requires that we have private equity into the project,
whether it be from the owner or other investments that they
have received. Oftentimes, these projects are quite big and
require more than just the USDA guarantee, but partnership with
SBA, other Federal agencies, or State and local tax credit
dollars and those sort of things.
We do also have a program within rural Business-Cooperative
Service called the Rural Business Investment Program, where we
certify private investment funds to serve rural America and
people that helps them to attract investors. And most of those
are geared toward specific geographic areas or industries, but
between the two of them, I think, they have had a significant
impact on bringing dollars, private dollars to balance out the
Federal monies that are used for rural communities.
Mr. BISHOP. Thank you, ma'am.
I have got one more. In 2017, USDA and SBA resource partner
SCORE signed an MOU to support new and beginning farmers, and I
was unfamiliar with the program, reading about it here that it
provides sort of free or low-cost mentoring and training to
entrepreneurs throughout the country. So I assume this MOU is
focusing on farmers.
I wonder if either of you are aware of activities generated
by this MOU? It seems like a particularly difficult thing to
do, given the nature of what I understand about most farming
businesses, tend to be passed on family to family--or
generation to generation within families, at least I see a lot
of that in my district, and I am curious whether or not this
effort produces results and if you see activity resulting from
it.
Ms. CHRISTIAN. So, the Small Business Development Centers,
along with all of our resource partners, provide technical
assistance to small business owners. So it could be a Women's
Business Center, Small Business Development Center, SCORE. We
have partners focused on veterans business outreach centers,
and they are helping all industries, including in rural
locations and farmers, if they so need our resources to--and I
apologize--with their business plans, with technical
assistance, with getting that access to capital. We can also
help them prepare for their loans for their loan application.
So, these partners are out there.
In regard to the MOU in particular, I do know that SBDCs
are working with SBA's resource partners with them to get out
to these communities to make sure they have that technical
resource, because to simply give access to capital with no
guidance at times is not very helpful at all. So, we want to
make sure we do have that technical part, and that is what the
SBDCs are there to do.
Mr. BISHOP. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. GOLDEN. Thank you.
And we also have a special guest joining us today from the
Agriculture Committee, Congressman TJ Cox from California 21,
and he has joined us to ask a couple of questions as well. So
thank you very much for joining us.
Mr. COX. Well, thank you so much for having me. I want to
thank Chairwoman Finkenauer and Ranking Member Joyce for
allowing me to waive around to this Committee today.
I represent California's 21st Congressional District, which
is the central valley of California, with the majority of the
district being rural as well. And we like to say the 21st
Congressional District is the top agricultural district in the
top agricultural State. So thank you so much, Ms. Brand, Ms.
Christian, for being here and being able to answer our
questions.
In May, I and 18 other Members introduced H.R. 2633, a bill
to study reviving the Office of Rural Affairs within the SBA.
The bill would require the SBA to submit a very detailed report
to the Congress and this Committee on the history of the Office
of Rural Affairs. Then in January, myself, Chairwoman
Finkenauer, Mr. Golden, and other members of the Committee, 14
other members, submitted a letter to the SBA asking for this
particular information on the Office of Rural Affairs, back in
January. And I would like to submit this letter for the record.
Unfortunately, little disappointed to tell you, and you may
know this, we never received a response from the SBA. The
authorizing committee for the SBA never got a response from
this letter. Little disappointed in that.
At any rate, we have been advocating for the
reestablishment of this office since the beginning of the year,
and I am very glad to see that you have been appointed, Ms.
Christian.
So we are here today, we would like to know a bit more
about the office, how you intend to use it and to support rural
small businesses. And so the first question, what date were you
appointed, Ms. Christian, to be the national director of the
Office of Rural Affairs?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. I believe the official date was August 30 of
this year.
Mr. COX. Okay. Yeah. And how many people are going to be
employed in that office? What is the current budget going to
be?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. So, we are working on the logistics of the
office right now. I have been there 2 months. I was the
regional administrator in Region III. I am transitioning from
that position into this position, so we are still working on
that at a headquarter level with our current acting
administrator and our staff.
Mr. COX. Well, when do you expect to be able to have those
plans in place and be able to get back to the Committee here
with the size, scope, budget and so on?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. I will work with the SBA team at our
headquarters here in Washington, D.C., and we will see, as soon
as possible, that we can get that information to you.
Mr. COX. Is that going to be a year or 6 months or 2 weeks,
or what does that mean, as soon as possible?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. Congressman, it means as soon as I can speak
to the staff at SBA and our acting administrator--I will make
it a priority today, and I will commit to you that I will speak
with folks in the agency today to see a timeline and I will get
back to you.
Mr. COX. Okay, thanks. Were you aware of the letter that we
had sent, that the Committee had sent, asking about the
reestablishment of this office?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. I just saw the letter recently.
Mr. COX. Okay.
Ms. CHRISTIAN. So, no, I was not aware of it in the past. I
have only been in this position, as I stated, since
approximately August 30, and I just recently saw that letter.
Mr. COX. Okay. Was anybody at the SBA aware of the letter?
It is a little concerning if the letter got lost. As the
authorizing committee, we want--I don't want to--we want to
help, right. We are the legislating committee, we are the
authorizing committee, and we go to our appropriators to be
able to provide the funds to be able to work for the American
people, particularly the people in our rural areas.
Ms. CHRISTIAN. Absolutely. Here is what I can tell you,
Congressman. I will pledge to you, to this Committee, and to
rural small business owners, I take this job very seriously. I
am very honored and privileged to be working in this position
now. When I was the regional administrator for Region III, I
did make it a focus to go into rural locations because I saw
such a need, and I do believe because I went into those rural
locations, I can now help on a national level. I will be
working on a roadmap and a business plan as how I am going to
structure this office so that we reach places and that we have
the structure that you are looking for, and I will share that
with you and discuss that with you and our staff.
I do understand there is concern about the letter, but
going forward, I am going to be and have the staff at SBA be
everywhere we need to be to reach these rural communities.
Mr. COX. Well, right, and thanks. And we would certainly
appreciate the commitment for that plan, as you are speaking,
but a timeline as well. And so it goes back to the as soon as
possible. And so if you could commit to getting back to us with
the plan in relatively short order, it would certainly be
appreciated.
I have got a little bit of time left, but I will yield the
balance of my time for the next round. Thanks so much.
Mr. GOLDEN. Thank you.
And we are going to do a second round, you know, just some
followup and closing the loop a little bit on some of what Mr.
Bishop and Ms. Craig were talking about. I can tell you, up in
Maine, the partnerships with farmers has actually been quite
helpful. We have a lot of smaller farmers within the aging
population and less of that. It used to be passed down from,
you know, family to family, and we still have some of that, but
often we will find some farmers who don't have anyone to hand
that farm off to. So, you know, programs that help people,
young families who want to get into farming, you know, learn a
little bit, get some mentorship, and some technical assistance
has been a big help in the State of Maine. So I want to thank
you, both of your agencies for that.
You know, you were talking with Congresswoman Craig a
little bit about some of the clean energy program, and the
program that USDA has is one that is, I think, quite popular. A
lot of farms actually utilizing that in Maine in trying to
establish some energy efficiency or even independence.
Obviously, they always need some kind of backup just in case,
but trying to get their overhead cost down is what it is all
about.
And I do want to encourage you to look into ways that you
can push forward, access to capital for those types of
investments, because the kind of feedback I get from a lot of
small business owners in Maine about things like solar or other
energy improvements is that the differences in interest rates
can make the difference in whether or not it pencils out for
them in the short term or short-enough term so that they can go
ahead and prioritize that as an investment. And we really
wanted to see in Maine that SBA would work, you know, a little
bit more, you know, in conjunction with the USDA and with small
businesses to try and make that happen. So just something I
would share with you.
You talked about followup and, obviously, Congressman Cox
cares passionately about seeing the success of this new office
and new position, and I do think that that followup is very
important, obviously. This is also on Congress. It has been
since the 1990s when this program was put forward and, you
know, oversight is our role. Clearly, this was not prioritized
under multiple administrations, and it needs to be, because
rural America really needs that help, as you have rightfully
pointed out.
And I do hope that we will see in the budget some resources
for your office and some additional resources, because you have
got a lot of passion, but you can't do it all by yourself. You
certainly have, you know, the regional offices at SBA, but I
think we are going to need some more boots on the ground and
people out there helping you with this focus on rural
communities. So we are very interested in the timeline and what
the plans are.
And I did want to ask you, we talked a little bit about
opportunity zones, but in your experiences in Region III, which
SBA programs do you think are most helpful, most successful,
most known in rural communities? And if you could just randomly
choose one, which one needs the most improvement in order to be
helpful to rural America?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. I believe everyone thinks all the SBA does
is lend money, and we don't even lend money. We just simply
guarantee the loans. So, it is just education on all the
programs. I think we are missing out on the technical part. We
have staff that are able to walk folks through business plans,
but then we also have our partners, and those are resources
that are 99.9 percent free, and don't quote me on that number.
The majority of them are free. It is taxpayer dollars. It is
something that we want these rural communities to understand.
Something else that is really important, when I am
traveling, business owners are having a workforce issue. They
cannot keep employees. A lot of these rural communities have a
terrible drug epidemic with the opioid crisis, and all that has
come with that has led to some workforce problems. We are
hoping to bridge that gap. We are working with community
colleges to have them partner with small businesses and do some
apprenticeships and really train both high school kids,
community college kids, and then those reentering the workforce
if they had left a position and now they come back.
We have the MOU with USDA, which we are working hard with,
but I also believe that we are breaking down the silos and
bringing information from other agencies over to rural America.
For example, the workforce programs through the Department of
Labor, which I regularly speak about and refer over to the
Department of Labor, because I am--again, we are the boots on
the ground. So we have the access to that rural community, and
the Department of Labor may not have that access, but if I can
take that local community and connect them to someone who can
help them in the Federal Government that is not myself, I have
done my job. So, I want to inform everyone of our programs and
services, but I also want them to know as a bigger picture what
is out there and what is available.
Mr. GOLDEN. Thank you. You know, I think we have a lot that
we agree about. Early on in my, you know, new term here in
Congress, I went out being a new member of this Committee, I
toured all these businesses in my district, and often took SBA
up on offers to do roundtables. We still do that. And the sad
thing is, as I often hear as I talk to small business owners,
well, did you ever think about reaching out to SBA about this?
I wasn't really aware that they do that. Did you know you could
get some mentorship through the SCORE program or assistance
through this program? I don't know it exists.
And you have pointed out there is also a rural broadband
internet access divide. So boots on the ground, again, and the
face-to-face. You mentioned, I thought it was interesting in
your opening statement, that some people may never want to talk
to you again. That is that trust factor with the government,
and that comes from face-to-face and personal relationships. I
just want to--I think you have an opportunity in your position
to push SBA out into these rural areas with those types of
meetings are really important and could make sure that the
programs that SBA has to offer are better utilized, and I think
that would be a benefit to rural communities.
Mrs. Radewagen, would you like to ask any more questions?
Mrs. RADEWAGEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Let's see here. So, Ms. Christian, how does SBA define
rural and how does USDA define rural?
Ms. Brand, how can business owners find out if they qualify
as rural according to program requirements?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. I will not speak for USDA. They have many
programs. So, as part of this joint MOU, we are using the Rural
Development's definition of rural, so I will defer to Ms. Brand
on her programs. But they can find out by contacting our
office. We will let them know if they qualify as rural.
But to be honest, we help everyone, so we are helping
rural, suburban, Tribal. If you are in a city--we are helping
everyone. We have everyone out there and we are spreading our
resources. We are having more of a focus on rural, so if you
are just outside a 50,000-person parameter that defines you as
rural, we are still going to make sure that we help that
community. So, we are helping all communities, but the MOU does
have the focus, and I will defer to Bette.
Mrs. RADEWAGEN. Ms. Brand?
Ms. BRAND. Thank you. In our programs in Rural Business-
Cooperative Service, the definition of rural are those towns or
municipalities less than 50,000, and they can find out through
not only our State office, but we also have many area offices
within the State and have people out ready to explain to them
and help them understand. But certainly, if it is less than
50,000, it is pretty cut and dry.
Mrs. RADEWAGEN. Thank you.
Next question. The SBA Rural Strong initiative is delivered
in partnership with USDA through the 2018 MOU. According to an
SBA press release, Rural Strong is a comprehensive initiative
compromised with specific programming to rural economic
development needs. What services are provided through this
initiative and where have events taken place? Who determines
where and when joint events are held?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. I was a part of putting that together. I am
very proud of the work that we did as part of the MOU. We
pretty much--I use the term ``roadmap.'' That is what that is.
It is a playbook on how we can better service the communities
together. And we determine where we are going. We reach out to
our congressionals. We reach out to chambers of commerce. We
really try to get as many people in one room at one time to
give our services. A lot of these small business owners are
working the business. They don't have time during the day to
come out, so we want to make sure that if they do come to us
for an hour or 2, we have many, many resources from all of our
resource partners, USDA.
When I would do an event, I would sit there with my USDA
State director, we would have our resource partners, our
district directors, local mayors, State reps, congressionals,
everyone at the table, because it is a holistic approach. It is
not just one person helping one person. We want to help
communities as a whole. We want to get as much information out
as we possibly can, and we get to connect these business owners
with their legislators, with their elected officials, that they
may not always be able to connect with. And we have seen things
happen in those communities that they may have needed to get
done, but they didn't have the door to--or they didn't know how
to access you, so it is a two-way street. We hope that you come
to us and you let us know what you need, and we bring business
owners to you also.
Mrs. RADEWAGEN. I would like to just get your perspective
as well, Ms. Brand.
Ms. BRAND. Yes. Thank you very much. Ms. Christian's
description of those events and opportunities for all of the
partners, Federal, State, and local, to get together and help
our small business owners and people in communities in rural
areas understand how these programs--not just what our programs
do and what SBA's programs do, but how they can work together
and really describe--with those people that are sitting there
through those meetings are able to describe certain projects,
how they were accomplished, the different partners that came
in, and that helped people visualize.
Also, the lenders in those areas are there as well, and
they are also understanding and sharing best practices to help
people become more familiar and comfortable with--because every
situation could be different and it is unique, and we help them
figure out and visualize what it would look like for them.
Mrs. RADEWAGEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I yield back.
Mr. GOLDEN. We are going to go ahead and recognize--did you
have further questions, Mr. Cox?
Thank you.
Mr. COX. And thanks, Mrs. Radewagen. I was going to ask the
same exact question about rural definition, because it all
seems to be a conflict between the USDA, the Census Bureau, the
Treasury Department, and Congress department and so on. Because
what I can tell you is that a lot of the counties I have, they
have towns with larger than 50,000 people, but then 20 miles
out it is as rural as you can be. And, unfortunately, a lot of
those areas don't qualify for a lot of the USDA financing, and
I want to make sure that they do under the SBA.
But a lot of the issues that you find in rural areas is
simply market values and appraised values. If I want to build a
building that is going to cost me a million dollars because it
is being built in this rural area, it might only appraise at
$800,000 and then you can only lend 70 percent on that, and so
I have got a large financing gap there. And I would like to
know, what are the tools that are available out there to be
able to meet that financing gap? And are you working with, you
know, the Treasury Department, like the CDFI Fund, which
oftentimes brings that type of capital, that gap financing
available to these worthy projects in rural areas?
Ms. BRAND. Yes, thank you. You are exactly right, it takes
CDFIs, it takes tax credits, new market tax credits, it takes a
lot of Federal and State and local partners. There is
historical tax credits that can be utilized as well. And to put
all those together, many of these small businesses may be
overwhelmed by the options, and so we work together to make
sure that all of the resources are available and are understood
so that they can truly figure out.
And the value of the real estate does have an impact on
being in rural. Oftentimes, the specialty of the collateral may
be limiting as well, but all of those are things that we have
worked with for the many years that we have had the program and
understand and have had many success stories of businesses that
were able to fulfill their dreams and provide jobs in the
community through our programs.
Mr. COX. Great. Thanks.
Ms. Christian, did you want to weigh in on that?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. I think I just want to emphasize that we are
out in the community, outside of where USDA can reach, so it is
a part of this partnership that we have for us to possibly come
in in that circumstance that you just described. So, we may not
have a business that qualifies for USDA's services, but they
can obtain access to capital through one of our lenders.
So rural, although there are definitions with numbers,
there is still commonsense rural, right, outside of the
government's definition of rural, and we still want to make
sure we reach those people that are in those areas.
Mr. COX. Yeah. And that is certainly the case that the
commonsense definition of rural sometimes doesn't meet the
statutorily defined sense and limits a lot of that lending.
And the other thing is, is that it is interesting what you
are talking about opportunity zones, is that opportunity zones
may be a source of capital, but that capital is always there
for one reason, and it is employed and its invested to meet
demand. And that is the issue in rural areas is that there is a
demand. I can build a fantastic hotel with my opportunity zones
in upstate Maine, but if no one is up there, right, they are
not going to get a return on that.
And I know one of the core functions and the mandated
functions of this Office of Rural Affairs is to promote tourism
and travel. And I guess, are there plans to work with the
United States Tourism and Travel Administration to assist small
businesses in rural areas with tourism promotion and
development?
Ms. CHRISTIAN. So, what I found in these rural locations is
tourism is really having a boom. So, in these coal towns and
steel mill towns, tourism is the new hot boom and it is the new
hot economy. Actually, in West Virginia, we partnered with USDA
to do joint lending for a hotel outside of a ski resort in
southern West Virginia--West Virginia and Pennsylvania are my
rural, and Virginia, so I apologize. I know I am national now,
but I was very focused on this area.
There are Hatfield and McCoy trails in West Virginia. That
is a big boom for the economy. There is so much going on in
these rural areas so, yes, I focus with the State. I will be
focusing nationally now, so that is something that I think we
forget about in these rural communities that could advertise to
come into the rural communities. And speaking of rural
opportunity zones, to build a hotel, perhaps focusing on the
tourism and the small businesses and the great restaurants and
the great breweries, we do so much at SBA related to tourism,
and I would like to package that to help these rural areas
advertise for themselves so that they can, you know, fill the
boom that is going on in the rest of the country.
Mr. COX. Thanks so much. That is absolutely one of the
mandated goals of this office, and so I would like to reiterate
our support for that goal there. So thanks very much.
Ms. CHRISTIAN. Thank you.
Mr. COX. I will yield.
Mr. GOLDEN. Well, I think that we are going to go ahead and
wrap it up at this point. I do want to thank you both.
Ms. Brand, I apologize, I didn't really have a whole lot of
questions for you about USDA, but we are very familiar with the
programs offered in Maine and appreciate the work that is being
done--as we do SBA--although, I think, you know, more work to
be done, and that is why you are in this position, and we look
forward to working with you to help you be as successful as you
can.
And with that in mind, I am sure that the Committee staff
will be following up with you with some questions about program
metrics, data and plans, budget, what we might expect out of
our President's budget request in support of your mission and
things along those lines, because we want to make sure that we
are moving forward. Certainly incumbent upon us not to drop the
ball.
You did mention you have--by the way, you know, Maine being
at the northern stretch of the mountain range, tomato/tomato
type thing, Appalachia/Appalachia, you know, we say it a little
bit different, but you pointed out you have a real, I think,
pride point in that area and a strong focus on it. Don't forget
the other rural areas, because there is a lot of them and they
do need help. So we are going to look to you to really have a
national focus, because every community, every rural community
deserves the help. So thank you.
All right. I suppose I will go ahead and read Congresswoman
Finkenauer's closing statement, unless there is anything in
here I object to, but I suppose it is probably not the case.
So thank you again for being here today, both of you. We
appreciate it, and we appreciate the work that you do for rural
communities.
Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy,
and for rural communities that continue to struggle with things
such as declining population, innovators and small business
owners can help unlock new potential and opportunity. As we
have discussed today, the Department of Agriculture and the
Small Business Administration are already working to engage
rural businesses in communities, but certainly more can be
done.
This hearing was the first in a series of oversight efforts
to make sure that our Federal resources are reaching small
businesses and promoting economic development in rural
communities. As part of that oversight, this Subcommittee will
monitor the progress being made by the Office of Rural Affairs
as it scales up services and outreach efforts in rural areas.
This office will also continue its outreach to leaders in
northeast Iowa, I suppose, but we will certainly focus on Maine
as well, and we want to hear about their experiences working
with the Department of Agriculture and the Small Business
Administration to make sure that the programs and services that
we discussed today are translating into real results for rural
communities. As we continue to work on ways to better support
entrepreneurs and small businesses in America, I encourage my
colleagues here today to do the same in the congressional
districts that they represent.
And I would ask unanimous consent that members of the
Committee have 5 legislative days to submit statements and
supporting materials for the record. Without objection, so
ordered.
And if there is no further business to come before the
Committee, we are adjourned. Thank you very much.
[Whereupon, at 11:14 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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