Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Chair, I want to thank Chairman Conaway for his leadership on H.R. 2. This farm bill is critical to this country's food supply and to rural America. I want to thank him for a great first step of getting it out of the committee.

We have strengthened the safety net to provide stability to the ag economy here in the United States. We have made an important investment in rural America and rural infrastructure, especially around the technology backbone, and we have also fully funded R&D for agriculture, which allows us to be globally competitive and gives our producers an advantage.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I am very proud of the reforms to the Food Stamp program that encourage work. We have got 6 million surplus jobs, and we don't need policies that trap people in a cycle of dependency on government and poverty. It is not the right thing to do to them. It is not right for the taxpayers. It is not good for America.

Mr. Chairman, the amendment I am offering today would provide a critical lifeline to rural hospitals by expanding the eligibility requirements in two of USDA's loan programs, the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program and the Community Facilities Direct Loan and Guaranteed Loan Program, to allow these community hospitals to refinance their existing debt under these programs.

This will lower their cost of capital and free up precious resources needed to keep these facilities operating. If we are going to maintain the ability to feed our own people and fuel the American economy, we need a strong and sustainable rural America. The heart of rural communities is access to quality healthcare. What would this country be without the hardworking energy and agriculture producers in small towns across this great land?

There are over 5,000 hospitals in the United States, and roughly half of them are in rural areas, serving one out of every five Americans. Without access to basic medical services, communities in America's breadbasket and energy basin would not survive.

Since 2010, over 80 rural hospitals across the country have closed, including 11 in my home State of Texas. With almost half of existing hospitals operating at a loss, the number of these hospitals that are closing are guaranteed to go up. In less than 10 years, a whopping 25 percent of our Nation's rural hospitals could close. For many of the nearly 700 rural hospitals struggling to keep their doors open, this will give them the tools and the resources necessary to maintain their viability and to continue to serving their communities.

If we fail to act and some of these hospitals close down, it could result in tens of thousands of lost jobs in rural communities across the country. That would cripple rural communities across this great Nation and potentially devastate our agriculture and energy economy, affecting all Americans, including our friends in urban and suburban areas.

I would like to conclude my remarks by thanking again, the chairman, my friend and fellow west Texan, for his leadership on this farm bill. I am proud to support it. I urge my colleagues to support my amendment, so we can protect rural America by giving our community hospitals the certainty and the resources they need to keep our people and our communities healthy.

I include in the Record a letter of support from the National Rural Health Association. National Rural Health Association, May 16, 2018. Hon. Jodey Arrington, Washington, DC.

Dear Representative Arrington: The National Rural Health Association (NRHA), a nonprofit membership organization with more than 21,000 members in rural America, applauds your proposed amendment to H.R. 2.

Rural America encompasses more than 90% of the nation's land area, houses 46 million residents, and 20% of our nation's population. Still, rural communities make up only 3% of job growth since the Great Recession, and many rural areas continue to see increasing unemployment. From 2010 to 2014, rural areas saw more businesses close than open. Rural hospitals and providers are a critical part of the rural community, and often are the backbone of the rural economy. Eighty-three rural hospitals have closed since 2010, and 673 are vulnerable to closure. If the 673 vulnerable hospitals closed, rural patients would need to seek alternatives for 11.7 million hospitals visits, 99,000 health care workers would need to find new jobs, and $277 billion in GPD would be lost.

When a rural community is faced with a hospital struggling to remain open, the community often looks for resources to keep this essential point of care. The USDA has the experience and expertise to help struggling rural hospitals negotiate, reorganize, and revitalize. Rural hospitals are an essential pillar of their communities and are necessary to create the economic growth that is direly needed in rural communities. No business wants to relocate to a community that does not have an emergency room to care for an employee injured at work or a place for a young worker to deliver a baby or take a sick child. Allowing refinancing of debt obligations through the Business and Industry and Community Facilities Loan Programs supports communities in improving the financial position of the hospital to maintain necessary local access to care in rural communities.

We applaud you for your efforts to ensure that these important loan programs can be used by rural hospitals in need and appreciate your leadership in introducing this important and timely amendment. Please contact Jessica Seigel in my Government Affairs office if NRHA can offer more support on this or future health issues. Sincerely, Alan Morgan, Chief Executive Officer.

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Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Chair, I respect the ranking member's comments, and I appreciate his commitment to rural America, but I would submit that my hometown, which is over the 20,000 threshold but under the 50,000, has every bit of the challenges that small towns at 20,000 and below face. They deserve access to quality care. This amendment, by the way, does not change that threshold. However, that threshold is changed in the farm bill. It reserves the direct lending portion of the program at $2.8 billion for those communities at 20,000 and below, and it actually expands the Guaranteed Loan Program that has delivered capital to levels close to $150 million. That program would be the one we would expand for communities above 20,000 but below 50,000.

Again, Plainview, Texas, is a rural small town. It is an ag community, and if the people of Plainview and towns like that don't have access to healthcare, then they cannot sustain the ag economy in west Texas.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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