{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-joins-center-for-american-progress-to-discuss-challenges-facing-rural-america-building-policy-around-needs-of-rural-vermonters/", "Welch Joins Center for American Progress to Discuss Challenges Facing Rural America, Building Policy Around Needs of Rural Vermonters", "2026-09-23", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "VT", "Peter Welch", "W000800", "www.welch.senate.gov", "welch", "https://www.welch.senate.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "Welch: \u201cWe really have to stand up for rural America.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development, Energy, and Credit, today joined Center for American Progress (CAP) President and CEO Neera Tanden for a conversation on the challenges facing rural America and what it will take to build an agenda that delivers for rural Vermonters and rural communities across the country. In his discussion with Ms. Tanden, the Senator underscored the importance of preserving rural values in policies that address challenges facing Vermont\u2019s farmers, community hospitals and health care industry, and streamline natural disaster recovery efforts.\n\n\u201cThere are certain things that every American needs, but where the stress is even more intense in rural America. We should have a health care system in this country, rural or urban, where everybody has access to health care. We pay two times as much for health care as any other major industrial country and get less. So that would be a shared goal that would be beneficial to urban and rural America,\u201d said Senator Welch.\n\nFollowing the conversation between Senator Welch and Ms. Tanden, a panel of rural experts spoke about the importance of supporting rural communities\u2014digging into where the gaps are\u2014and where the possibilities lie\u2014for reducing the cost of living, creating jobs and opportunity, and cutting red tape for rural America. Ben Doyle, President of the Preservation Trust of Vermont, was featured on the panel and spoke about his work to expand opportunity and strengthen rural communities.\n\n\u201cOne of the challenges with bureaucracy is that investment isn\u2019t always equitable\u202671% of the communities in Vermont are 2,500 or fewer\u2014that\u2019s what rural looks like, right? But those communities only get 30% of the investment from those Rural Development programs. So, there\u2019s a disconnect,\u201d said Mr. Doyle. \u201cThe idea that you\u2019re going to be able to deliver those programs and those services in an equitable way to truly rural communities; it\u2019s just not structurally possible at this point. I think the greatest asset that rural America has, truly, are its people. So, we need to invest in wastewater, we need to invest in loan programs, we need to invest in housing, but we need to invest in people, too\u2014the people who can deliver those programs and be those partners in those small towns to make stuff happen.\u201d\n\nWatch the full event below:\n\nRead key excerpts from Senator Welch\u2019s remarks below:\n\n\u201cIf I ask my rural colleagues: \u2018what\u2019s going on with community hospitals in your area\u2014Iowa, or Nebraska?\u2019 their answer is the same as the answer I would give them if they asked me. And that is: it\u2019s not great; they\u2019re under enormous pressure; the distances they have to drive are too long; birthing centers are having to be closed down. So, the challenge that we face in rural America with hospitals is not a red-state blue-state deal. It\u2019s not a Republican or Democratic deal. It\u2019s about the needs of people who live there.\u201d\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022\n\n\u201cThere are certain things that every American needs, but where the stress is even more intense in rural America. We should have a health care system in this country, rural or urban, where everybody has access to health care. We pay two times as much for health care as any other major industrial country and get less. So that would be a shared goal that would be beneficial to urban and rural America.\u201d\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s an agricultural issue here that I think is absolutely vital, and we associate with rural America. The farm communities across this country are under incredible stress. The U.S. Department of Agriculture put out a graph that showed that of eleven major commodities, farmers who were producing those crops were spending more money to produce them than they were getting paid to sell them. That is absolutely not sustainable. It\u2019s also an agriculture policy that has looked the other way at some of the input cost pressures that our farmers are facing\u2014consolidation and meatpacking as an example\u2014puts enormous pressure on the farm community.\u201d\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022\n\n\u201cWe have to have an agriculture policy that, in many ways, puts the farmer first. You can\u2019t have a productive and sustainable agricultural program if it costs more to produce than a farmer gets paid to produce it. I also think that there has to be a lot more localism in our agriculture, because people who live in rural communities\u2026they really value what the farmers do. They keep the land open; they care about the land\u2026One of the things that amazes me: you see farmers, they work hard, and they like it. It\u2019s amazing. And their big goal is that their next generation will have a shot at being able to decide if they want to stay on the farm. What\u2019s wrong with that? That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to preserve.\u201d\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022\n\n\u201c[Rural Americans are] incredibly attentive to their neighbors when they need their help\u2014even as they mind their own business when their neighbor has a different point of view than them. So, there\u2019s an ethic that I actually find very appealing, where community is first and foremost what the people there care about\u2026it\u2019s just part of who they are; want to use some of their ability to help the local small bank, or the local fire department, or coaching little league. Those are values that tie us together and are under an immense amount of stress in our country. And I think those values are really, really important.\u201d\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022\n\nLearn more about Senator Welch\u2019s work fighting for Vermont\u2019s rural communities by visiting his website or by following him on social media.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-24T10:30:22Z", "2026-09-24T10:31:42Z"]], "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": ["https://www.welch.senate.gov/welch-joins-center-for-american-progress-to-discuss-challenges-facing-rural-america-building-policy-around-needs-of-rural-vermonters/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.953997977077961, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}