Biden-Harris Administration Announces More Than $800 Million to Strengthen Rural Infrastructure and Create Jobs
Funding to benefit nearly 480,000 people and advance President Biden’s Investing in America agenda has been announced recently. The USDA is investing $808 million to help rural cooperatives and utilities build and improve electric infrastructure and increase electric grid reliability and security, connecting hundreds of thousands of people in rural areas.
According to the U.S. Department of Infrastructure, the funding announced advances President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, a key pillar of Bidenomics, to grow the American economy from the middle-out and bottom up – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to driving over $500 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments in the United States, to creating good-paying jobs and building a clean-energy economy that will combat climate change and make our communities more resilient.
“USDA invests in rural America because we know strong communities are rooted in their people,” Secretary Vilsack said. “Powering people with modern infrastructure creates good-paying jobs and supports opportunities for people to build brighter futures. The investments we’re announcing today demonstrate the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to ensuring that people who live and work in rural areas have every opportunity to succeed – and that they can find those opportunities right at home.”
The 139 investments announced today will help people living in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Puerto Rico and the Marshall Islands.
For example:
- In the West, 10,000 people in Safford, Arizona will get access to safe and reliable drinking water.
- In the South, more than 800 people in the town of Star, North Carolina will benefit from water improvements that will remove all lead-based paint from the elevated storage tank, reducing health hazards for the community.
- In the Midwest, more than 300 people in Irwin, Iowa will get access to safe and dependable drinking water while replacing steel, cast iron and lead service lines with copper lines in their water distribution system. Additionally, households and businesses in northern Indiana will connect to 132 miles of reliable electric infrastructure.
- In the Northeast, people in Waterloo, New York will get access to safe and reliable drinking water. People in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania will receive upgrades to their sewer televising system allowing the municipality to provide better service to the community.
