National Contact: LaJaycee Brown (202) 720-9741
ljbrown@rdmail.rural.usda.gov
WHO:
President Bill Clinton
Vice President Al Gore
Sec. Dan Glickman, Department of Agriculture
Sec. Andrew Cuomo, Department of Housing and Urban Development
WHAT:
The President, Vice President and Cabinet Officers will meet with over 600 delegates to the White House Community Empowerment Conference, "Tapping America's Potential: The New Markets for the 21st Century."
WHERE:
The Rio Grande Empowerment Zone
University of Texas Pan American
Edinburg, Texas
WHEN:
May 23 - May 27, 1999
WHY:
The federal government's community empowerment initiative is improving the lives of people in impoverished rural and urban areas. Since 1994, when the Empowerment Zones were first established, the communities have responded with innovative partnerships and programs that have created jobs and ignited economic development.
Delegates from the eight rural Empowerment Zones -- the Kentucky Highlands, the Mississippi Delta, the Texas Rio Grande Valley, Southwest Georgia, Southernmost Illinois, California's Desert Communities, North Dakotas's Lake Aggasiz, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota -- will meet with the 21 urban Empowerment Zone delegates to share strategies for encouraging economic development.
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