Number: RL32372
Title: Economic Development Options and Constraints in Remote Rural Counties: A Case Study of the Great Plains Region
Authors: Tadlock Cowan, Resources, Science, and Industry Division 
Abstract: Current challenges to and reform of existing federal rural policies are evolving in an environment of increasing concern about national competitiveness, new federal political strategies that devolve more power to state and local areas, deregulation of financial markets, budget constraints, and the increasing degree of separation between farm policies and rural economic development policies. Global socioeconomic changes are being felt especially in rural areas that have historically depended on natural resource based economies, including agriculture. A changing rural American is also producing pressures for different policies and raising new questions about the role Congress might play in shaping effective rural development policies for the future.
Pages: 64
Date: April 29, 2004