Rural Investment

My family is from rural Texas – from the small towns and agricultural communities that built this great state.

Every Texas community contributes to this state’s success. But not every community is being given the opportunity to share in it. Our leaders have turned their backs on rural  Texas — failing to keep rural hospitals from shuttering, stand up to the private school voucher scams that are siphoning off funding from rural public schools, or make the basic investments needed to ensure that rural businesses can thrive and young people can find a job close to home.

And we have to do better by our Texas farmers and ranchers, who produce the food and fiber that power economies in every corner of our state and country. The agriculture sector employs one out of every seven Texans — and they shouldn’t have to give up farms that their parents and grandparents tended because of our government’s failures.

I’m going to keep showing up and listening to rural Texans. Because I’m going to be a Senator for every Texan.

This is not a comprehensive list! If you have policy ideas you want to see from your next U.S. Senator, please reach out HERE. We want to hear from you!

• Repeal policies that are hurting Texas farmers and ranchers: Oppose the Argentina beef buyout and remove the Trump Administration’s tariffs on farm inputs like equipment and fertilizer that are making Texas agricultural production more expensive — as well as those on produce that have sparked retaliatory tariffs on key agricultural exports.
• Save rural hospitals: Prioritize recruiting and retaining rural healthcare workers,  improve Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates to more swiftly deliver payments to hospitals, and make sure rural hospitals have the funding they need to continue to serve as vital employers and health care providers.
• Reject private school voucher scams: Oppose the federal voucher scam being pushed by billionaires like Betsy DeVos — which would defund public schools to subsidize private education for the wealthy, disproportionately harming rural areas where public schools are the community’s largest employer.
• Help young people stay and contribute to their hometowns: Dedicate technical support toward economic and community development activities that address gaps in job opportunities, child care, internet connectivity, and housing that are pushing many young families out of rural communities.
• Expand access to high-speed internet: Increase funding dedicated to expanding high-speed internet access across Texas to meet the federal government’s original $3.3 billion commitment to our state. 
• Support a strong agricultural workforce: Expand workforce development to train new workers in the industry, support farmer-to-farmer programs, and help farmers and ranchers lower food costs for Americans by responsibly hiring migrant workers when they can’t find Americans to fill their jobs — including by simplifying the H-2A visa program application and ensuring strong labor standards on those visas so that employers do not game the system to displace American workers and suppress their wages.
• Expand water access: Make it easier for rural communities to access low-interest loans and grants for constructing or upgrading water systems.

• Protected rural hospitals by approving the establishment of the State Office of Rural Hospital Finance and the Texas Rural Hospital Officers Academy.
• Led the fight against private school vouchers that are defunding rural public schools to subsidize private education for the wealthy.
• Supported farmers and ranchers by growing the agriculture grant program and establishing a financial assistance program dedicated to pest and disease control.
• Expanded rural broadband access by establishing the Texas Broadband Infrastructure Fund.
• Improved rural water access by appropriating up to $1 billion to provide stable, annual funding to support water infrastructure development and upkeep.
• Increased economic prosperity in rural communities by voting to expand and modernize the Rural Economic Development and Investment Program.