USDA marks 70th anniversary
of landmark rural legislation
eventy years ago, much of rural America
existed in a world of candle and lantern
light after the sun went down. Long after
most urban citizens had electric lights
and power, the nation’s rural quality of
life and productivity were severely hampered by the
lack of widely available electricity. Only about 10 percent
of America’s farms had electricity in the early
1930s and progress at expanding service was very slow.
The country was also in the midst of a terrible economic
depression that caused millions to lose their
jobs. Large swathes of the nation were also suffering
from a severe drought and wind storms that combined
to create the “dust bowl” conditions that drove tens of
thousands of farmers from their land.
In 1935, Congress responded with two crucial
pieces of legislation that forever changed the face of
rural America, creating the Rural Electrification
Administration (REA) and Resettlement
Administration. Both were among the predecessor
agencies of today’s USDA Rural Development.
The REA, working in partnership with thousands of
local utility cooperatives, brought electric power to
almost every corner of the nation. Rural electrification
happened much quicker than many dreamed possible
at the time. Indeed, many historians say that the effort
was one of the federal government’s greatest success
stories of the 20th century. In 1949, REA added a rural
telephone program that had a similar impact on bringing
telephone service to rural areas.
Like the REA, the Resettlement Administration had
a dramatic impact on the quality of rural life. Focused
initially on emergency relief during the crisis of the
Great Depression, the Resettlement Administration
made small loans to help farmers get through tough
times, built and managed migrant worker camps, constructed
rural water projects, purchased land for conservation
purposes, resettled displaced farmers on new
land and even built entire model communities from
the ground up. Out of this eclectic mix of programs
grew the Farm Security Administration and then the
Farmers Home Administration (FmHA).
REA and FmHA merged with several
other USDA programs — including the
Agricultural Cooperative Service — to
create USDA Rural Development in 1994.
Sec. Johanns notes huge
impact on quality of life
The 70th anniversary of the creation
of REA and the Resettlement
Administration — which launched
America’s quest for rural electrification,
homeownership and economic security
— was marked during a special ceremony
at USDA headquarters in Washington,
D.C., in May.
“The rural electrification effort of the
20th century serves as a benchmark of
excellence,” Agriculture Secretary Mike
Johanns said. “In 70 years, the quality of
life in rural America has dramatically
improved, due in large part to the massive
effort by USDA to bring economic
opportunity, affordable housing and electric,
telephone, water and wastewater
infrastructure to rural communities
across the nation. President Bush has
now challenged us to bring telecommunications
technologies, such as broadband,
with the same dedication to rural
communities by 2007.”
Having grown up on a dairy farm in
Iowa, Johanns said he feels a personal
connection to the mission of Rural
Development.
“When I was growing up, I asked
my mother, ‘can you remember a time
when you did not have electricity?’”
Johanns recalled. “She said, ‘Yes, of
course. When your dad and I started
farming and milking cows, it was by
hand.’ My mother was a very plainspoken
woman, and added, ‘As a matter of
fact, half the heck I caught in my life
was from not holding the lantern right
while your dad was milking the cows.’”
As the former governor of
Nebraska, Johanns said he takes pride
in knowing that the “father of the
Rural Electrification Program” was
Senator George Norris of Nebraska.
Johanns said he keeps a bust of Norris
on his desk. Johanns quoted Norris
from a letter he wrote in 1935 to
Morris Cook, the first REA administrator,
saying, “If you can launch this
great work in the right direction and
demonstrate that it will bring comforts,
enjoyment and prosperity to our
farmers and that it can be done without
financial loss, you will have made
one of the greatest contributions
towards the improvement of farm life
that could possibly be imagined.
“George Norris was right about
that,” Johanns added. “His vision has
been a foundation of economic development
in rural America for the 70
years since then.”
Johanns said the Resettlement
Administration helped ease the economic
crisis faced by millions of
Americans in the1930s, and noted that
the Water Facilities Act of 1937 provided
loans for farm water systems in
17 western states where drought and
water shortage were familiar hardships.
Enduring commitment
to rural America
“The Rural Development programs
today fit like the strands of a thick
rope. Together, they are stronger and
more able to do the job than just going
it alone. The Rural Development mission
also fits well into the wider universe
of so many USDA programs,”
Johanns said, noting that President
Bush has proposed $12.8 billion for
USDA Rural Development programs
in 2006.
Competition in agriculture is
stronger than it’s ever been, Johanns
said, but he stressed that American
farmers and ranchers can, and do,
compete successfully in a worldwide
marketplace. “With the tools that
USDA Rural Development provides to
rural residents and communities, they
also can compete.” USDA is helping
rural communities and producers
invest in new technologies, helping
them develop value-added products
and open additional markets.
“The rural communities I know are
holding on to their values, but they’re
also embracing the future,” Johanns
said. “They are creating what I call the
new rural America, a rural America
that combines all of the benefits of traditional
rural life…with all of the
advantages of the 21st century. It’s a
very remarkable thing to see.”
Johanns thanked Rural Development
employees for “making a difference
in the lives of millions of real
Americans: shop owners, teachers, factory
workers, mothers, fathers and the
next generation. You may never meet
them, but you are very, very much a
part of their lives. And they and our
entire country are better off for your
service.”
Gilbert Gonzalez, then USDA acting
under secretary for rural development,
said rural America must respond
to new global markets and competition,
and that economic diversification
offers new and emerging opportunities
for the rural economy. He too offered
his thanks “to the many thousands of
dedicated employees over the past
seven decades” who have made USDA’s
rural development programs work.
“There is no doubt in my mind that
— as I travel across the United States
and see the millions of people you’ve
assisted — that you have made a difference,”
Gonzalez said. Rural Development
today has a loan portfolio of
more than $87 billion invested in rural
America, including $40 billion in utility
loans, $40 billion in housing loans
and more than $6 billion in business
and farmer cooperative loans.
Electric co-ops key to
rural advancement
Business Week magazine in 1937 said
the REA program — still in its infancy
at that point — was doomed to failure,
noted Glenn English, CEO of the
National Rural Electric Cooperative
Association. “The magazine said it’s
crazy to think that you can have a
bunch of farmers out there that the
federal government is going to loan
money to, and they’re going to be able
to take care of their own needs. But
here we are, 70 years later, and we sure
proved Business Week wrong,” English
continued.
About 37 million people in 47 states
today get their electricity through
cooperatives, English continued. “No
one else wanted to provide power to
those farmers and people living in
those rural areas. This (REA) executive
order made it possible for private citizens
to partner with their government
— made it possible for people to come
together to take care of their own
needs,” English continued, calling the
effort “the ultimate in self-reliance.”
The electric co-ops that formed all
across rural America in the 1930s
often had only 200 or 300 members,
English noted. These co-ops allowed
rural people to “actually own the
business and determine their own fate
and their own future through their
own elected officials.” Today, he
noted, about 43 percent of the national
electrical distribution system is
owned and maintained by about 10
percent of the population, through
their co-ops. Electric co-ops generate
about $1 billion annually for state and
local government coffers through the
taxes they pay.
John Rose, CEO of the National
Telephone Co-op Association, which
represents more than 500 telephone
co-ops and companies, said the REA
program had a bigger impact than
even the co-op numbers indicate,
because it motivated private utilities to
also extend service to rural customers
they otherwise would likely have
ignored. Rose, a former employee of
USDA’s rural electric program, said
Rural Development’s efforts to expand
broadband Internet service to rural
America may have a similar impact.
Rob Johnson, CEO of the National
Rural Water Association, which represents
almost 25,000 water and wastewater
service providers, said that
thanks to cooperatives that serve the
rural community where he farms —
Loco, Okla. — he gets better water,
phone and Internet service than when
he lived in a much larger city. He
thanked all the USDA staff at the
meeting for “the wonderful past that
you’ve created for rural residents,” and
for their “commitment to a better
future for making rural development
work. You see our goal — our jobs —
are not done,” Johnson said, noting
that many rural people still don‘t have
the kind of water service, telecommunications
and electrical service that
they need.
