{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/thune-republicans-rural-health-transformation-program-delivers-historic-investments-in-all-50-states/", "Thune: Republicans\u2019 Rural Health Transformation Program Delivers Historic Investments in All 50 States", "2026-09-29", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as delivered):\n\n\u201cMr. President, we\u2019re coming to the end of the first year of the Rural Health Transformation Program.\n\n\u201cThis multi-year initiative, created in Republicans\u2019 Working Families Tax Cuts legislation, will invest $50 billion in all 50 states to put rural health care providers on a more sustainable footing for the future.\n\n\u201cAnd beyond helping to ensure that Americans in rural areas can access health care, it will also ensure that providers are able to leverage technology and innovation to address the challenges unique to rural states.\n\n\u201cMr. President, one year in, this program is off to a promising start.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s certainly the case in my home state of South Dakota.\n\n\u201cJust last week, CMS announced a $13 million investment in behavioral and mental health care in South Dakota.\n\n\u201cThis funding will help expand crisis services and build out our state\u2019s workforce in behavioral health care.\n\n\u201cAnd it comes after another announcement in August of funding to modernize technology and strengthen cybersecurity at rural health care providers in South Dakota \u2013 an initiative that will not only modernize care in my state but also support future innovation to address the unique needs of rural South Dakota.\n\n\u201cMr. President, when Republicans created the Rural Health Transformation Program last summer, we didn\u2019t take a top-down, Washington-centered approach.\n\n\u201cInstead, we designed it to give states the resources and freedom to find solutions to their particular challenges.\n\n\u201cAnd I\u2019m proud to see South Dakota taking the same approach when it comes to distributing the funding that it will receive.\n\n\u201cIn the words of South Dakota Secretary of Health Melissa Magstadt, and I quote, \u2018The initiatives that we\u2019ve developed came strictly from the assessments we had, the expert input we garnered, and what citizens themselves said they needed in the community.\u2019\n\n\u201cMr. President, that\u2019s exactly how the Rural Health Transformation Program is supposed to work.\n\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s not just working in South Dakota.\n\n\u201cAs I mentioned, all 50 states are taking advantage of this transformative program.\n\n\u201cOhio is putting $3 million toward expanding offerings at pharmacies in rural communities.\n\n\u201cA nearly $5 million award will help a hospital in central Maine upgrade its electronic medical record system to integrate it with the wider health system it\u2019s part of.\n\n\u201cProviders in Kansas will benefit from nearly $17 million this year to support new technologies and improve transportation options for specialty health care.\n\n\u201cAnd Missouri will use $35 million to support 20 rural hospital projects, and another $4 million to train its rural EMS workforce.\n\n\u201cA hospital in South Carolina will use funding to add an additional operating room and upgrade its technology.\n\n\u201cAnd a nonprofit in Alaska received $16 million to improve primary care offerings and bring in more providers and staff.\n\n\u201cAnd this is just some of the funding states are receiving for the first year of this program.\n\n\u201cMr. President, as this list suggests, the Rural Health Transformation Program will make an impact in every corner of this country.\n\n\u201cAll 50 states are receiving funding from this program \u2013 red states and blue states alike.\n\n\u201cWhich makes Senate Democrats\u2019 opposition to this program particularly baffling.\n\n\u201cOur Democrat colleagues \u2026 have made their opposition to the Rural Health Transformation Program very clear \u2013 with the Democrat leader going so far as to say this last year, and I quote: \u2018This little fund to help reimburse rural hospitals is just a fraud.\u2019\n\n\u201cLet me repeat that, Mr. President.\n\n\u201c\u2018This little fund to help reimburse rural hospitals is just a fraud.\u2019\n\n\u201cThat, from the Democrat leader.\n\n\u201cPerhaps the Democrat leader should check-in with his state\u2019s governor, who said of a recent $76 million investment from this program, and I quote, \u2018These investments will bring rural hospitals, health centers and community providers together to strengthen regional health care networks and make it easier for New Yorkers to get the care they need closer to home.\u2019\n\n\u201cThat, from New York\u2019s governor.\n\n\u201cLet me repeat that, Mr. President.\n\n\u201c\u2018 \u2026 and make it easier for New Yorkers to get the care they need closer to home.\u2019\n\n\u201cWell, that doesn\u2019t sound like a fraud to me.\n\n\u201cBut Mr. President, whether this would help the people in rural parts of their states didn\u2019t seem to matter to Washington Democrats.\n\n\u201cIn fact, Senate Democrats voted more than half a dozen times last year to repeal \u2013 repeal \u2013 the Rural Health Transformation Program.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cAround this time last year \u2013 during Democrats\u2019 record-long government shutdown \u2013 Senate Democrats were working to end this program.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m curious if the Democrat leader would like to claw back \u2026 the $212 million that rural health care providers in New York will receive from the program this year?\n\n\u201cShould already-strapped rural hospitals not spend this money because Democrats are going to take it back next time they have the power to do so?\n\n\u201cMr. President, let\u2019s hope it never comes to that.\n\n\u201cThe Rural Health Transformation Program is helping Americans in rural areas across this country.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s helping South Dakota.\n\n\u201cOhio.\n\n\u201cIdaho.\n\n\u201cKansas.\n\n\u201cRhode Island.\n\n\u201cAlaska.\n\n\u201cAnd everywhere in between.\n\n\u201cAnd I\u2019m proud that Republicans are delivering for rural Americans.\u201d", 1, "2026-09-30T10:57:52Z", "2026-09-30T10:59:04Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": 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