Opinion: Helping rural communities means 'intentional targeting and sensitivity' to rural challenges and needs

The Biden administration aims to send billions of dollars to help rural America, but before that money can be meaningful for smaller towns, a particular backdrop of preparation and execution needs to be established, writes Tony Pipa in his opinion for The New York Times. "Above all, implementation matters. These investment opportunities will be meaningless unless they reach rural America. For that to happen, federal and local officials and many people in between will need to focus on intentional targeting and sensitivity to the challenges that rural places face."

Part of that focus means understanding how smaller towns function and providing a path to increase their investment access and management capacity. Pipa adds, "Many rural governments are led by unpaid elected officials, and few rural city halls have staffs to work on planning, project development and grant writing. . . .A critical first step will be to make sure that local communities have the staff and access to the expertise and administrative capacity necessary. . . .As the Biden administration makes major investments in creating technical assistance centers in communities across the country, rural places must get to participate and benefit."

Congress can also help by adding flexibility measures to legislation. "The Rural Partnership and Prosperity Act is bipartisan legislation that has been proposed in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and it is now included in the negotiations for the 2024 Farm Bill," Pipa writes. "Such a measure could be a game changer in getting flexible support directly to rural partnerships so they can unlock these opportunities."

There is already evidence of positive change. "The administration has put so-called navigators in selected communities to help them identify funding opportunities," Pipa notes. "And some agencies like the Forest Service have modified their processes to help communities apply for grants. These advances ought to be more widely adopted across the federal government."

The parts of rural America that are struggling the most didn't get there overnight, and solutions will take time. "The Biden administration has put the initial pieces in place to help many rural places transition to a brighter economic future," Pipa explains. "The president's campaign pitch to rural voters ought to be the opportunity to stay the course. The political rewards may be far in the future, but it's the right thing for rural communities and the country."