GORE ANNOUNCES NEW EFFORTS TO BOOST DELTA ECONOMY
NEW ORLEANS, La., April 16 -- In what he called "an historic effort to increase the pace of economic development in the Mississippi Delta region," Vice President Al Gore today announced that the Administration will call on Congress to fund $26 million annually to support Delta-related rural development projects.
"With this additional funding, I believe we will better the quality of life for the people of the Delta in such areas as health care, education, housing, agriculture and natural resources, business development and the environment," Vice President Gore said.
Vice President Gore also announced a major new initiative by two of the region's leading community development organizations. The Delta Regional Initiative is a combined effort of the Southern Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community Forum and the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission to combat the Delta's chronically high poverty rate.
"Working together in the Delta Regional Initiative, these two organizations will have more resources to break the cycle of persistent poverty and high unemployment rates that have plagued this area for generations," Vice President Gore said.
In 1990, a commission headed by then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton made 200 recommendations on how the Delta region's economy could be improved. This reinvigorated effort, Gore said, will "forge a more effective engine of change" by combining the expertise and resources of an organization that specializes in local, community-specific action plans (the Southern Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community Forum) with one that works on a broad scale using a regional approach (the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission).
Vice President Gore presided at a ceremony during which the two development organizations signed articles of incorporation creating the Delta Regional Initiative. The new organization will now be able to better channel federal funds and technical help made available to Rural and Urban Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities in seven states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.
Decisions on how funds would be utilized have not been made, but should Congress approve the funds, they will be used to provide targeted economic development assistance to the counties and communities in the lower Mississippi Delta region.
The effort has been modeled after the Southwest Border Regional Initiative effort the Clinton Administration launched last year to better focus resources on efforts to improve the quality of life in the impoverished rural communities along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Contacts:
Debbie Bengtson, (202) 690-3029
Dan Campbell, (202) 720-6483