Obama administration says it now has a contact for rural issues at every cabinet-level agency

Carolyn Orr of the Council of State Governments reports on her weekly AgClips about her attendance at a meeting of rural representatives at the White House this week to discuss the White House Rural Council, headed by Agriculture Secrtetary Tom Vilscak and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

"It was an honor to be around the table with a dozen leaders who have been campaigning for rural issues for a long time," Orr writes. "The Rural Council is not some left wing conspiracy, regardless of what you might read on the Internet. It is the Obama administration’s iteration of what every administration has made some attempt at – recognizing the uniqueness of rural America."

Orr says she learned at the meeting that each cabinet-level agency now has a “go to” person for rural issues, and says any collaboration between such agencies as the Department for Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Agriculture "in addressing rural housing, transportation and utilities has to be of benefit – both socially and fiscally. With the leadership available to rural America, if we can all work together it can only be good." (Read more)