OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR LARRY E. CRAIG

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FORESTRY, CONSERVATION, AND RURAL REVITALIZATION

HEARING ON THE NATIONAL RURAL DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP

MARCH 8, 2000

Good morning and welcome.

Thank you for coming here today to discuss the National Rural Development Partnership. Many of you are in Washington, DC this week for the NRDP's annual "National Rural Policy Conference," I am glad that we were able to coordinate this hearing with your annual meeting.

As many of you know, the National Rural Development Partnership (Partnership) was established under the Bush Administration in 1990, by Executive Order 12720. The Partnership is a nonpartisan interagency working group whose mission is to "contribute to the vitality of the Nation by strengthening the ability of all rural Americans to participate in determining their futures."

We are here today to learn more about the National Rural Development Partnership. We will hear from individuals representing federal, state, county, local, and tribal governments as well as the private sector about what has happened in the last decade since the Partnership's formation and where the Partnership is heading into the future. Through this hearing, the committee will learn how the Partnership works and what, if anything, needs to be done to improve it.

The rural and urban areas of our country face many of the same problems, but they suffer different impacts. I represent a rural state. Idaho's rural areas cover 88 percent of the state but are home to only 36 percent of the population. I regularly hear from individuals concerned with the condition of rural America and the impacts of federal decisions on rural America. For example, management decisions by the federal government on public lands directly impact livelihoods and daily activities of many rural Idahoans. However, the impacts of federal decisions on rural areas go far beyond those of the land managing agencies.

I support programs that bring communities together to develop solutions to their problems. I believe the Partnership can and does do this. However, I have heard concerns that not all Departments and Agencies participate in the Partnership and that financial support may be lacking.

With that in mind, I welcome the panels here today and look forward to hearing their testimony. I would like to remind the panels that their entire testimony will be submitted for the record and ask that they summarize their statements to no more than five minutes so we have time hear from everyone.