- ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA

[Senate Hearing 106-825]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

S. Hrg. 106-825

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA

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HEARING

before a

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE

ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

__________

SPECIAL HEARING

__________

Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/
senate

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63-943 WASHINGTON : 2001

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For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office
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COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

TED STEVENS, Alaska, Chairman
THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia
ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii
PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina
CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont
SLADE GORTON, Washington FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey
MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky TOM HARKIN, Iowa
CONRAD BURNS, Montana BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland
RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama HARRY REID, Nevada
JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire HERB KOHL, Wisconsin
ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah PATTY MURRAY, Washington
BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota
LARRY CRAIG, Idaho DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois
JON KYL, Arizona
Steven J. Cortese, Staff Director
Lisa Sutherland, Deputy Staff Director
James H. English, Minority Staff Director
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Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies

THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi, Chairman
ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania HERB KOHL, Wisconsin
CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri TOM HARKIN, Iowa
SLADE GORTON, Washington BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota
MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
CONRAD BURNS, Montana RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois
TED STEVENS, Alaska ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia
(ex officio) (ex officio)
Professional Staff

Rebecca M. Davies
Martha Scott Poindexter
Hunt Shipman
Les Spivey
Galen Fountain (Minority)

Administrative Support

Carole Geagley (Minority)

C O N T E N T S

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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Office of the Secretary

Page

Statement of Jill Long Thompson, Under Secretary for Rural
Development.................................................... 1
Opening remarks.................................................. 1
Prepared statement of Jill Long Thompson......................... 5
Budget request................................................... 7
Administrative expenses.......................................... 7
Program budget request........................................... 8
Rural Housing Service............................................ 8
Rural business-cooperative services.............................. 10
Rural Utilities Service.......................................... 11

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Statement of Judith Johnson, Deputy Assistant Secretary,
Elementary and Secondary Education............................. 12
Prepared statement........................................... 16
Administration fiscal year 2001 budget requests.................. 17
High standards for all students.................................. 17
Modern school learning environments.............................. 19
Targeted support for disadvantaged students...................... 20
Improved mathematics achievement................................. 22
Improved literacy levels......................................... 22
Department of Education technical assistance..................... 23

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Statement of Albert C. Eisenberg, Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Transportation Policy.......................................... 24
The Mississippi Delta: Beyond 2000............................... 26
Prepared statement of Albert C. Eisenberg........................ 66
U.S. Department of Transportation Assistance to the Delta........ 67
Recent Transportation activities in the Delta.................... 68
The Mississippi Delta Region initiative.......................... 71

NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES

Statement of Dr. Lester Newman, President, Mississippi Valley
State University............................................... 87
Statement of Dr. David Potter, President, Delta State University. 91
Statement of Dr. Tony Honeycutt, Dean of Career and Workforce
Development, Mississippi Delta Community College............... 94
Prepared statement of Dr. Tony L. Honeycutt...................... 95
Statement of Arthur Peyton, Interim Director, Mid-Delta
Empowerment Zone Alliance...................................... 98
Statement of Griffin Norquist, Chairman, Economic Development
Department, The Delta Council.................................. 100

(iii)

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA

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TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 2000

U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural
Development, and Related Agencies,
Committee on Appropriations,
Itta Bena, Mississippi.
The subcommittee met at 9:30 a.m., on the fourth floor of
the Mississippi Valley State University Administration
Building, Hon. Thad Cochran (chairman) presiding.
Present: Senator Cochran.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Office of the Secretary

STATEMENT OF JILL LONG THOMPSON, UNDER SECRETARY FOR
RURAL DEVELOPMENT

OPENING REMARKS

Senator Cochran. Let me call the subcommittee hearing to
order, first of all, to thank the officials here at Mississippi
Valley State University for permitting us to convene the
hearing on the campus.
We're very grateful to all of you who have helped us
organize the hearing and make the arrangements for the conduct
of the hearing. We extend to you our sincerest appreciation.
We are very happy to acknowledge the leadership of Dr.
Lester Newman, who is President of Mississippi Valley State
University. We've had an opportunity to meet in my office and
talk about the plans for the university and how our office can
be helpful in the appropriations process in Washington.
We know that we have provided annually a curriculum
enhancement appropriation for Mississippi Valley State
University over the last several years which helps to enrich
the curriculum and support the budget of this university.
We hope to be able to build on that investment here at this
university, because we know the important role that it plays,
not only in the State of Mississippi, but regionally, and we
acknowledge that and congratulate you for it.
This morning we are convening the hearing here in the
Mississippi Delta to review federally supported programs that
are designed to promote economic development in this region of
the country. Our hearing has been authorized by the Chairman of
the Committee on Appropriations of the United States Senate,
Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska.
We are very happy to have representatives of three
departments of our Federal Government here this morning to
discuss the Delta Regional Authority, which has been proposed
by President Clinton.
We have reviewed some of the information that's been made
available, but we thought it would be appropriate to have
representatives of the departments that would be coordinating
the activities of the Delta Regional Authority here today to
discuss the plans and let us know more about the details of
what we can expect from this program.
We know that this has been an area of the country that has
been beset with a lot of economic problems because of changing
economic conditions. Agriculture, which had been the backbone,
economically, of the Mississippi Delta for so long, has
undergone a tremendous change in terms of the kind of work
opportunities that are available, the support industries that
are needed.
The modernization of agriculture has meant the loss of a
lot of traditional jobs here in the Mississippi Delta and the
outmigration of a lot of the people who used to live here in
the Delta. So to deal with these realities, we've had to
reexamine what will work in terms of economic development and
new job opportunities for this area.
And I think that is going to be in this area of
accommodating to the realities of change that we find our
biggest challenges. I'm convinced that we have some resources
here in this region that we haven't utilized to the fullest
potential.
And I'm particularly interested in trying to examine how we
can better utilize our educational institutions. This
university where we are today, others in the region, Alcorn
State University, Delta State University, our community
colleges, and of course, the elementary and secondary system,
which is the bedrock, the center, the core, of our educational
responsibility.
But we have resources in this State that are significant in
their potential to contribute to economic revitalization of
this region, and the people who live here ought to be able to
obtain the benefits, the full range of benefits, that could
flow from the utilization of our educational institutions.
So I welcome all of you who are here today. We will have
another panel of witnesses following this initial panel of
Government department representatives who come from the
educational institutions and the other organizations who work
for the economic betterment of the people of the Delta region.
So I'm going to welcome our first panel and encourage you
to make whatever remarks you would like to make at the hearing.
We have your testimony that you have prepared which we
appreciate, and those statements will be incorporated into the
record in full.
The Honorable Jill Long Thompson is Under Secretary for
Rural Development from the United States Department of
Agriculture.
Dr. Judith Johnson is Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Elementary and Secondary Education from the Department of
Education, and Dr. Albert C. Eisenberg is Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Transportation Policy at the United States
Department of Transportation.
They make up our first panel of witnesses. We welcome you
and thank you for being here. Ms. Thompson is not a stranger to
the Delta. I know she's been here on several occasions in her
capacity at the Department of Agriculture, and we appreciate
her long interest in our State and her presence here today. I'm
going to ask Secretary Thompson to begin our hearing.
Ms. Thompson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And it really is a
pleasure to be here; and as you know, I've had an opportunity
to be in the Delta and this part of Mississippi on a number of
occasions. And it's a very, very pretty part of our country,
and I'm very happy to be on the Mississippi Valley State Campus
this morning. I thank you for having me here.
I would like to talk about some of the successes that we've
had this morning as well as why we feel it is so important that
there be authorization and funding for the Delta Regional
Authority. The DRA is a top priority of this administration and
the President.
He believes it is vital to improving the long-term economic
security of this region. Legislation that would accomplish this
goal S. 1622 and H.R. 2911 have been introduced in both the
House and Senate.
The goal of the Delta Regional Authority is to increase the
amount of resources and also to improve the effectiveness by
which those resources are used to address the present
development needs in the Delta.
The authority would provide for the long-term continuing
coordination of resources in the local community. Creation of a
new Federal agency will allow us to meet this goal by
strengthening the Federal-State partnership and will provide an
on-going targeted Federal presence in the region.
As members of the authority, the Governors of the seven
Delta States, and the Federal members will identify the
projects that the authority will fund. Half of the authority's
resources will be targeted to the most distressed counties in
the region, and we expect the authority will actively work with
existing economic development organizations to help identify
and prioritize needs.
Community-based organizations as well as State and local
governments will be eligible to receive authority funding.
We believe that it is very important that the families in
the counties of the Delta have the same kinds of opportunities
that families elsewhere enjoy, the opportunity to work, provide
for their families, and to build financial security.
To address such problems, the President's budget proposes
this authority to bring the resources together. I am a firm
believer and we do believe in the administration that the
private sector is best suited to provide opportunities while
the role of the Federal Government is to provide the economic
environment, so the private sector can do what it does best,
which is create opportunities.
Over the past decade, USDA investments have created
millions of jobs; however, the positive effects of the robust
economy have not reached all rural areas. We see that in my
home State of Indiana. We see that across the country.
There are some particular challenges in the Mississippi
Delta. I've been fortunate to travel throughout the country and
to see successes, but also to see what the need is that exists
currently.
For example, in the 219 Delta Counties during the 1993-1998
period, the average unemployment rate declined from 7\1/2\ to
5\1/2\ percent.
However, and you know this as well as anyone, there are
still pockets of unemployment rates as high as 14 percent, and
the poverty rates are still too high. Poverty in the Delta
Counties remains at 175 percent of the national average; and in
over half of the counties, the rates are still over 20 percent.
This is evidence that full-time employment does not always
ensure an income that's sufficient to provide for basic needs.
In fact, over 60 percent of the rural families live below the
poverty line still have at least one member of the family fully
employed.
These are also the areas that tend not to have the capacity
to compete successfully for economic development of Federal
financial assistance. I think you appreciate this as much as
anyone. In our small rural communities, we have a lot of the
people who work two jobs. They have their regular job that
oftentimes doesn't pay very well and virtually volunteer their
services to hold a local, public office.
It's unlike in the urban communities across our country
where in the urban communities you have folks who are employed
full-time, who have master's degrees in public administration
and their sole responsibility is to write grant applications
for Federal and State and private funds.
That's not the case in rural communities, and many of the
communities that experience high unemployment rates, it's a
particularly high challenge.
Since 1993 the rural development mission area, over which I
have responsibility, has invested approximately $3.5 billion in
the 290 counties of the Mississippi Delta through the programs
of the Rural Housing Service, the Rural Utilities Service, and
the Rural Business Cooperative Service.
While these investments, Mr. Chairman, are impressive, they
should not be viewed in isolation. We estimate that the
economic value of these investments to local economy in
Mississippi is at least twice that amount.
Let's see. As I was just mentioning--you know what I'm
reminded of, my grandmother always told me if you wear shoes
that squeaked, it means they are not paid for. I'm wondering
since this is happening, I'm not telling the truth.
But I am telling the truth. We estimate that the economic
value of these investments to local economies in Mississippi is
$2 billion.
Additionally, we have made significant effort to attract
other funding to each project that we finance so that we
leverage the Federal dollars with State and local and, most
significantly, the private sector dollars.
The empowerment zones and the enterprise communities are
one of the best examples of the success of this policy. Since
December of 1994, there has been a total of $876 million
invested in the original 3 empowerment zones and 30 enterprise
communities. This includes $164 million by the private sector.
Clearly, this coordinated effort is having an impact, and
it's having an impact because of the leadership at the local
level, in the local communities that make up the empowerment
zones and the enterprise communities.
I'm very proud of the accomplishments that we have been
able to achieve through our various programs in rural
development; and of course, they would not have been realized
without the funding provided by Congress and the leadership you
have provided on the Appropriations Committee on Agriculture.
That has been very, very important to making things happen to
rural communities in your home State of Mississippi as well as
across the country.
We've created a large number of jobs. We've been able to
work with families to make it possible for them to own homes,
and they would not have been able to do so without our
programs.
We've been able to fund health clinics and child care
facilities and schools and libraries, police stations, and fire
stations serving over 8 million rural residents as a result of
our community facilities programs.
We've been able to provide water and sewer funding. We've
been able to accomplish a considerable amount. The biggest
challenge that we've seen as we look to the future and look to
trying to determine how we can make the dollars that we do
spend do the greatest amount of good in the Mississippi Delta
as well as across the country is to ensure a coordinated
effort.
I know from my experience in this position over the last 5
years that just in the Mississippi Delta I have many groups and
individuals come to me individually to talk about programs that
they are putting together and to seek possible funding from the
United States Department of Agriculture.
Oftentimes, while the projects that are being proposed and
often that come to fruition are very effective, they could be
even more effective if there were some kind of a regional way
that we could coordinate the efforts and the resources so that
whether you're in Mississippi or in Arkansas or Southern
Illinois, wherever you happen to be, that you might have access
to information and resources in other parts of the Delta that
are experiencing the same challenges.
And that's why we feel that the Delta Regional Authority
would be so valuable with most of the funding, as you know,
going for technical assistance and programs, a very small
amount of the funding going for the administration, for
salaries and expenses; but it would be an opportunity to put
into place and institutionalize the successes that have already
taken place and that we hope to continue into the future. Thank
you.

PREPARED STATEMENT

Senator Cochran. Thank you, Ms. Thompson, for your
statement and the helpful information that you provided to our
hearing.
[The statement follows:]

Prepared Statement of Jill Long Thompson

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, it is a pleasure to present
to you the President's fiscal year 2001 Budget Request for the Rural
Development Mission Area of USDA. With your permission I will summarize
my statement and request that the full text of the statement be
presented in the hearing record.
Before discussing the budget request for 2001, I am pleased to
share with you some of the results of the funding the Committee
provided Rural Development for fiscal year 1999. I am very proud of the
results, and I think the Committee will be as well. With the $1.7
billion appropriated for Rural Development programs in fiscal year
1999, investments totaling $9.9 billion were made in rural people,
communities and businesses. A conservative estimate of the economic
impact of that investment is $18 billion. The following is a sample of
the successes.
--The investment in rural businesses, housing and community
infrastructure created or saved about 200,000 jobs.
--Almost 66,000 rural families that could not otherwise qualify for
mortgage credit were able to buy or improve their homes; over
5,000 affordable rental units were added to the rural housing
stock; and 42,357 low-income households were able to obtain
decent housing at an affordable rent.
--Almost 500 community facilities projects, such as health clinics,
child care facilities, schools, libraries, police stations and
fire stations serving over 8 million residents were built.
--Almost 2 million rural residents were provided new or improved
public water supply or waste disposal systems; 2.8 million
rural residents received improved electrical service; 287 rural
schools and 131 rural health care providers benefitted from the
distance learning/telemedicine facilities.
--Over 200 marketing networks and cooperative partnerships were
established or increasing their business outlets.
While the aggregate statistics are impressive, they do not tell the
human side of the story which is substantial, but is difficult to
report statistically. Actual successes are described below.
--The local job market in a small, rural community in Kentucky was
improved with the reopening of a local textile plant which had
been closed by a large national company. With assistance from
Rural Development, the plant was refurbished with modern
equipment and now employs 125 residents.
--A single mother in rural Maine, suffering from memory impairment
due to an automobile accident, now has a home for herself and
her 6-year-old daughter. After the accident they had been
required to move several times and for a while lived in a
motel.
--The 1,200 residents of a small town in Georgia will, for the first
time, have local health care and child care facilities. The
clinic will provide health care 7 days a week and the child
care facility will be open 24 hours a day to accommodate
children whose parents work at night.
--A county-wide volunteer fire department in Texas replaced their 30-
year-old radio equipment with new communications technology
which will allow direct communications with the county police
and emergency medical services.
--Approximately 9,100 residents in the very isolated Bering Straits
region of Alaska will have improved health care. Diagnosis-
quality images will be transmitted to medical specialists in
Anchorage from 15 villages, a clinic in tribal headquarters and
two health care providers in Nome. The residents are scattered
over 25,000 square miles with some having no road access.
Mr. Chairman, as you and the Committee review the fiscal year 2001
Budget request for Rural Development, please keep in mind that the
reason each of these programs was authorized, in some cases decades
ago, was concern that rural America was being left behind economically.
Although there has been significant progress during the past three
decades in addressing these needs, the poverty rate in many rural
communities is still unacceptable. After showing some improvement in
the 1970's, many rural areas are once again significantly lagging
behind the improvement in the national economy. And more recently there
has been increased concern about the future economic opportunities of
rural communities due to the concentration of agricultural production
and processing.
We all know that, as farming operations increase in size and
processing operations vertically integrate, ties to the rural community
are weakened. Larger farms can purchase their inputs, including
capital, from larger and more distant sources. Larger farms also find
it easier to negotiate directly with processors rather than local
buyers. This often results in less income being retained in local
communities and less capital available for other business needs and for
diversifying the local economy to counter the effects of concentration.
This situation is exacerbated by consolidation in the banking,
retailing, and in health care. Consequently, there are fewer rural
economic hubs than once existed. And evidence shows that the greater
the distance from an economic hub, the lower the economic growth rate.
Mr. Chairman, although there have been significant successes in
rural areas generated by the programs we administer, the Federal
government is not, nor should it be, a substitute for the wealth
generating capacity of the private sector. That is why we, in Rural
Development, continue to stress that cooperatives are a good solution
to some of the development needs in rural areas. Agricultural producers
have the opportunity to maximize their position in negotiating prices
for their commodities through marketing cooperatives. They can also
increase their profits by utilizing cooperatives to process and add
value to their commodities. An example is a new cooperative soybean
processing plant whose farmer-owners will realize an additional forty
cents per bushel. Most of the additional earnings remain in the local
community. We would like to see more cooperative business operations
such as this one and others that we have financed in recent years.
Through market forces, member-owned cooperatives help grow local
economies and rural communities.
We believe it is our responsibility to assist the private sector
make these opportunities a reality. This has been the focus and the
message of the President's ``New Markets'' initiative to encourage the
private sector to view poverty stricken rural and urban areas as
potential market opportunities. Last fall I had the pleasure of
accompanying the President to Hermitage, Arkansas, to demonstrate the
success of a very small cooperative venture that includes 17 member
producers. Three years ago before the cooperative was formed, these
producers sold 3,400, 20 pounds cases of tomatoes worth $60,000, and
fifteen of the producers were on the verge of bankruptcy. Last year the
sales had increased to 570,000 cases worth $4 million. During peak
season, the cooperative employs 120 people in a town with a population
of less than 700.
Other examples include a very small cooperative in northern Florida
that is selling its fresh vegetables and fruits to local school
districts. Some of the producers have seen their incomes triple as they
provide very competitively priced, nutritious and fresh produce to
school children. Rural Development was a partner in this cooperative;
much of the work was done by the Natural Resources Conservation
Service, the Farm Service Agency, and, of course, the farmers. Another
success story is a wheat farmer's cooperative in Colorado who purchased
a bakery that was closing. They now process their own wheat into bakery
products that are sold to a national sandwich chain and local
supermarkets in the Denver area. They have already exceeded their
capacity and are looking at options for expanding their operations.
In addition to the economic successes enjoyed by these operations,
Mr. Chairman, is the satisfaction one sees on the faces of the
producers when they realize they can be just as entrepreneurial as some
of the ``dot com'' companies. Success breeds success. Seeing people
realize they can be in charge of determining their future is one of the
most rewarding parts of this job. A few years ago I told you of the joy
I saw in people's faces after they had completed building their own
homes through our mutual and self help housing programs--believe me,
that joy is equaled when I see agricultural producers realize they can
take greater control and generate greater profits in the food chain.
They no longer feel captive of the markets.
I urge each Member of the Committee to visit some of these
operations and enjoy that experience for themselves. You have
appropriated the funds that made it possible.

BUDGET REQUEST

Mr. Chairman, the President's commitment to improving the economies
of rural America continues and that is reflected in the budget request
for fiscal year 2001. The Rural Development budget request for programs
is $12.4 billion, $1.3 billion higher than the level enacted for fiscal
year 2000. This level requires only about $300 million in additional
budget authority, not counting what is requested in the Farm Safety Net
proposals, which I will discuss later. But, Mr. Chairman, if the Rural
Development Mission is to deliver programs of this amount and carry out
our fiduciary responsibilities of protecting the $80 billion loan
portfolio, we must have sufficient administrative expenses.

ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES

The request for administrative expenses for fiscal year 2001 is
$581 million, $48 million higher than appropriated for fiscal year 2000
and includes $20 million increase in administrative expenses to support
a new guaranteed loan accounting system and other system improvements.
I realize the burden this places on the Committee, but the potential
risk that may occur without the appropriate level of oversight far
overshadows this cost. For example, between housing loans of the Rural
Housing Service and the farm credit operations of the Farm Service
Administration, we are obligating about $8 billion in guaranteed loans
annually, and we do not have an automated accounting system that
provides the capacity to manage these funds. This is irresponsible and
is not a legacy that I want to leave.
Yet, because we cannot afford to reduce staffing any further than
we have, I have made the decision to reduce other administrative
expenses, including investments in accounting systems, to maintain the
staffing level needed to deliver the programs and do the best we can in
managing the assets with which we have been entrusted. These were not
good decisions, and are decisions I would prefer not to make. For
example, when I became Under Secretary, the training budget for Rural
Development was about $11 million. Over the past years we have reduced
that budget to about $2 million in training that we classify as
mandatory, i.e, training that is the minimum needed for our staff to
perform at acceptable levels. The loan programs we administer are much
more complex than anything found in the private sector, and we have a
significant number of new employees that are coming on board. We are
not providing them adequate training. We have also reduced travel from
over $21 million to just over $11 million at a time when we need to
travel more to adequately supervise and monitor our loan portfolio. We
have made these decisions because we had to, but I have concerns about
our ability to maintain our fiduciary responsibilities.
Mr. Chairman, the $48 million increase requested for salaries and
expenses is about 40 percent of the pay cost increases that we have had
to absorb during the time that I have served in this job. Absorbing
these costs is the same as a reduction as a reduction in funding.
An important part of the efforts to modernize field operations for
the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Farm Service Agency and
the Rural Development agencies is the effective consolidation of three
separate and largely redundant administrative systems into one under
the proposed Support Services Bureau. This is a glaring inefficiency
that needs to be eliminated. Consolidated support would be provided for
information technology, financial management, travel, procurement,
civil rights and human resource management. These services would be
provided under the direction of an Executive Director who would report
to a board of directors comprised of the heads of the agencies to be
serviced. Unfortunately, language in the fiscal year 2000
Appropriations Act prevented us from implementing our plans for the
Support Services Bureau. I would ask you to take a look at that
language and work with us to move our operations into the modern world.
By poling resources in the administrative arena, each agency will be in
a better position to provide greater program support.
Mr. Chairman, before I leave the area of administrative expenses, I
would also like to advise the Committee that the Office of General
Counsel is critical to our success in protecting the interest of the
taxpayers. We consider the Office of General Counsel to be an integral
part of our team, and they are particularly helpful to us in resolving
the problems we encounter in our more complex lending programs, such as
like the multi-family housing and the electric loan programs. They have
my support and I believe they deserve the support of the Committee.
Mr. Chairman, I would also like to take just a moment to discuss
consolidation of some of the administrative systems that serve the
Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Farm Service Agency, and
Rural Development. We should not get bogged down in terms such as
``Support Services Bureau'' that, in my opinion, may have confused the
objective. Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, the Natural
Resources Conservation Service, Farm Service Agency and Rural
Development are, for the most part, located in the same offices, and we
are going to share one information system. Does it not, therefore, make
good sense that we have one personnel system, one travel administration
system, and. one procurement system that serves all three?
I would ask you to take another look at the language included in
the fiscal year 2000 Appropriations Act that prevents us from
implementing the plans for administrative consolidation; work with us
to improve our administrative operations and place us in a better
position to enhance delivery of the programs and services that each of
us are entrusted, by Congress, to provide to the residents of rural
areas.

PROGRAM BUDGET REQUEST

Mr Chairman, I shall now discuss the requests for the various
programs administered by Rural Development.

RURAL HOUSING SERVICE

I was honored to attend the 50th anniversary of the single family
housing loan program in December of last year in Georgia at the home
built with the first loan issued under this program. The wife of the
family with the first loan and the widower of the Farmers Home
Administration employee making the first loan were also in attendance.
While the ownership has changed, the home is still in immaculate
condition. The story of how much this home, and hundreds of thousands
like it, have meant to rural families, and rural communities, is
something that should be told again and again. This country can be very
proud of this home ownership program.
The budget request for the programs administered by the Rural
Housing Service totals $6.7 billion, almost $900 million more than the
level appropriated for fiscal year 2000, requiring almost $200 million
more in budget authority. This increase reflects the Administration's
commitment to improving housing conditions in rural areas and, in
particular, improving homeownership opportunities, a key ingredient in
building stable communities and economies. The request for single
family housing, direct and guaranteed loans totals $5.0 billion and
will support about 64,000 housing units and, in the process, provide
nearly 44,000 jobs, primarily in the construction trades.
We are proposing a modest increase in the multi-family housing
program which provides housing for some of our most vulnerable
citizens. A significant portion of these units are occupied by female
heads of household, generally elderly females or single mothers, with
annual incomes of about $7,300. The budget request will provide for the
construction of 1,400 units and the rehabilitation of over 4,000
existing units. Mr. Chairman, while there is a significant need for new
multi-family housing throughout rural areas, we also have a significant
problem in meeting the need for rehabilitation of an aging portfolio,
and in maintaining the availability of these units for very low income
tenants. The request for the multi-family housing guaranteed loan
program will provide for the construction of about 6,400 units. The
request for rental assistance is $680 million, $40 million higher than
the level available for 2000. Most of the request is needed to renew
contracts for 42,800 units. Without rental assistance, it would be
impossible to provide affordable rental housing for very low income
families, most of whom have no other housing alternative.
As I have told the Committee on many occasions, one of the great
joys of this job is to see the satisfaction and absolute joy on the
faces of families and their children when they have completed building
their own homes with the help of new neighbors. The mutual and self
help program is community building at the most basic level, neighbor
helping neighbor in the construction of new homes. The Administration
is requesting a significant increase in this grant program, $12 million
which is used to provide the technical expertise and supervision during
construction. Families participating in the program receive loans
through the single family direct loan program.
We are also requesting modest increases in the farm labor housing
loans and grants and we are proposing $5 million be appropriated for
emergency assistance for migrant and seasonal farm workers. This
program, although authorized in the 1990 Farm Bill, was not funded
until last year's emergency supplemental appropriations act. The
contribution of migrant and seasonal farmworkers to feeding our nation
is often overlooked. The $20 million made available for the first time
last year is equally important and a very small cost to pay, compared
to the value these families contribute to this economy. The assistance
was used to pay back rent and utilities, school fees, and a number of
other obligations that could not be met, due to natural disasters
destroying the crops these individuals and families would have
harvested.
Mr. Chairman, I would also like to thank the Committee for having
the foresight to provide $6 million in fiscal year 2000 for the Rural
Community Development Initiative. These funds will be used by a wide
variety of organizations to assist us in developing the capacity of
rural communities to become more self-reliant. It is through these
efforts that we endeavor to teach community leaders that dependence on
the Federal government is not the answer to long-term economic
problems. The communities, themselves, must develop the capacity to
build local economies. It is also through efforts like this that we
engage other organizations with resources to work with us in building
homes for low income families. We are very proud of the number of
funding partnerships we have established in the past couple of years.
Through these efforts we are stretching the capacity of the tax dollars
with which we are entrusted.
Mr. Chairman, we are also requesting a significant increase in the
low income housing repair loan and grant program, This program provides
the very basic improvements in owner occupied single family homes to
make the house safe and livable. However, the most important
contribution of the program may be that it allows elderly men and women
to live the remainder of their lives in their own homes with a degree
of dignity. It is also one of the most utilized programs we have in
most disaster situations. It was used extensively in North Carolina
following Hurricane Floyd.
The request for community facilities totals $484 million, $24
million of which is for grants, including $6 million to continue the
Rural Community Development Initiative which is being implemented this
year, and $5 million for the hazardous weather early warning alert
system, the need for which has been recently demonstrated again in
rural Georgia. Increasing the community facilities grant program is one
of our highest needs. We can accomplish more with this program than
almost any program in our portfolio. As Members of the Committee
realize, this program finances rural health facilities, child care
facilities, fire and safety facilities, jails, education facilities,
and almost any other type of essential community needed in rural
America. However, it is very difficult to reach many of the more
impoverished communities that are unable to repay loans. Additional
grant funds are needed to offset the cost of these loans.

RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE SERVICES

Mr. Chairman, the key to creating economic opportunity in rural
areas is the development of new businesses and employment
opportunities. This is primarily the role of the private sector.
However, due to concentration and integration of the agriculture
industry, and more recently the consolidation of the banking industry,
local lending institutions frequently do not have the capacity or the
capital needed to sustain local businesses and generate new growth.
Further, something that should not be overlooked is that frequently,
the Rural Business Service is only a partner, and sometimes a minor
partner, in the loans made through these programs. We expend a lot of
effort in every program, including housing and utilities, to leverage
other monies into the projects we finance.
The programs, particularly the Business and Industry loan guarantee
program, were enacted to supplement the efforts of local lending
institutions in providing that capital. The program requested for the
Rural Business-Cooperative Service is $1.5 billion with the majority of
the request for the Business and Industry Loan Guarantee program, $1.2
billion, compared to $869 million in fiscal year 2000. We will also
again establish a policy objective of $200 million of the total for the
development or expansion of cooperative businesses. As you know, we
have established similar priorities in other years, and while we have
not yet achieved our objectives, the level used by cooperatives is
increasing each year. For example, through the first quarter of fiscal
year 2000, we almost matched the level used by cooperatives in fiscal
year 1999.
I am particularly pleased that this budget request includes funding
for a Cooperative Equity Capital Fund which will be used to assist
producer's of livestock and other cooperatives to counter the effects
of market concentration. This request is included in the Farm Safety
Net proposal as a mandatory expenditure of the Commodity Credit
Corporation. I have mentioned that the lack of capital is a major
problem that rural areas face in economic growth. While not everyone
agrees on the degree to which capital is lacking in rural areas, there
is agreement on the lack of equity capital, and this need is greatest
when crop and livestock prices are depressed. More and more producers
are beginning to realize that the only means of gaining a greater share
of the food dollar is to own the processing or manufacturing
facilities. We intend to use this program to meet some of that demand
and we will be submitting legislation for the consideration of Congress
outlining how we intend to use the program.
Complementing this request is an increase in cooperative
development grants which will be used to assist in the development of
new cooperatives. These grants are made to cooperative development
centers which augment our internal staff resources in providing
technical, financial, and management assistance in the creation and
maturation of new cooperative ventures. As provided in last year's
Appropriations Act, a portion of these funds will be devoted to
assistance to small and minority producers. It is these producers that
more frequently, and more quickly, feel the effects of reductions in
prices. The same producers can benefit more through the use of
cooperatives to market or process their commodities. The Administration
will also again be submitting legislation to authorize assistance to
non-agriculturally related cooperatives. I believe such authority is
important to the economic success of rural areas.
We are proposing that the Intermediary Relending Program be
increased by almost 70 percent. The demand for this program is
increasing significantly, and with part of the increase we wish to
improve our ability to assist tribal governments establish revolving
loan funds. We plan to do this in conjunction with the Small Business
Administration and the Department of Treasury's Office of Community
Development Financial Institutions. This would be a joint effort to aid
tribal governments establish lending capacity, but also to aid private
sector lenders in dealing with some of the obstacles they have
encountered in lending to tribal organizations. The importance of these
small revolving loan funds to rural communities is demonstrated not
only in the successes of this program, but also in the fact that a
significant portion of other grant programs are used to establish
similar loan funds.
We are also proposing an $8 million level for the Rural Business
Opportunity Grant program, a 100 percent increase over the level
provided for fiscal year 2000. This program was authorized in the 1996
Farm Bill and funded for the first time for the current fiscal year.
These funds can be used by a variety of organizations, such as the
Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities, Rural Conservation and
Development districts and others to develop economic development
strategies.
The budget request also includes $3.5 million in budget authority
for bio-mass demonstration projects. Specifically, $2 million will be
available for firms that will use the Business and Industry loan
guarantee program to develop, process, or market bio-based products; $1
million will be available for electric borrowers to demonstrate the
value of generating electricity using bio-based products as the fuel,
and $500,000 will be available for cooperative development grants for
cooperatives that process or market bio-based products.
The National Sheep Industry Improvement Center has recently entered
into an agreement with the Livestock Production Association to
establish a revolving loan fund which will be used to improve the
infrastructure of the sheep and goat industry. We are requesting $5
million of the remaining $30 million authorized for this program to
augment that effort.
We are also requesting $15 million for the third year of the
Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities designated in the 2nd round of
this program.

RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE

The Rural Utilities Service provides financing for electric,
telecommunications, and water and waste disposal services that are the
backbone of economic development. Last fall we celebrated the 50th
anniversary of the telecommunications program, and this year we will
celebrate the 60th and 65th year of the water and waste disposal and
electric programs, respectively. The successes of these programs and
the benefits they have provided to rural America are unparalleled. Over
$70 billion has been invested in rural America through these programs,
and the economic growth they have generated has repaid the cost 100
fold. And even more remarkable is that less than one percent of the
amount loaned has been lost through defaults. The capital investment
generated by the program levels requested in the budget will generate
about 100,000 jobs, but more important is the opportunities generated,
particularly through the telecommunications programs. It has long been
the policy of RUS that fiber optic cable be used for telecommunication
rather than the copper wire that is found in most urban areas. However,
much of the rural traffic still must be routed through other exchanges
with less capacity. The ``digital divide'' is composed of issues such
as this.
Mr. Chairman, when President Clinton announced the Digital
Initiative in early February, he was criticized for constructing a
political deal, and he responded that, ``this is not a political deal.
If I had waited for the market to solve universal telephone access,
there would still be places in Arkansas where people wouldn't have a
phone.'' Paraphrasing another comment in that regard, the bottom line
of the President's proposal is a better bottom line for firms in the
technology industry. The President knows how important these programs
have been to rural America over the decades and he sees the
opportunities they can bring in the future.
The level requested for the programs administered by the Rural
Utilities Service is $4.3 billion, the same as is available for fiscal
year 2000. For electric loans we are requesting $1.5 billion, requiring
$26 million in budget authority. Again this year, we respectfully
request that the budget authority be provided in a single amount,
rather than by individual program. This additional flexibility permits
us to more effectively manage demand for the four different programs.
Our request also includes $670 million for telecommunication loans,
including those made by the Rural Telephone Bank, and an additional
$325 million for the distance learning/telemedicine programs, which
includes a significant increase for grant funds. One of the concerns
that I have with the lack of opportunity in many rural areas is that
unless we are able to reach the children in poverty stricken families
and provide them the opportunity to expand their education, they will
soon be left behind by the technology-driven economy and the rapidity
with which knowledge is changing. Distance learning/telemedicine
program is one of the best tools we have for ensuring that they are not
left behind. We also request $102 million to finance a broadband
internet access loan and grant pilot program.
The request for water and waste disposal programs is $1.6 billion
which will require less budget authority than was available in fiscal
year 1999, but a significant increase over fiscal year 2000. With this
funding we estimate that we will build, improve, or expand 1,155 water
and waste disposal systems serving 2.4 million people and create 42,000
jobs in the construction related fields. In addition, we will improve
our leveraging of funds with State Revolving funds that are also used
to finance water and waste disposal systems to ensure that each dollar
provided by the taxpayers is used to its maximum. Our primary target is
still those residents without safe, dependable water in their homes,
especially those with the most serious quality or quantity problems--
the systems classified as Water 2000 systems.
When we were challenged early in this Administration to provide
every resident in rural America with safe, dependable water in their
homes, we knew that we could not meet the ultimate objective. However,
the challenge has led to the reduction in the number of rural residents
without this basic necessity from 1.1 million in 1990 to under 700,000
now, and this is something we all should be proud of. We will continue
to pursue that objective in fiscal year 2001, although we must be frank
and tell you that the ultimate objective may not be reachable due to
sparsity of population making affordable systems improbable or terrain
that increases cost to the point that systems are not affordable.
Mr. Chairman, before I close, I must return to the issue of
administrative expenses. These programs that all of us are so very
proud of and that contribute so much to the economies and the quality
of life in rural America cannot continue to be delivered without
adequate support of the dedicated employees and the automated systems
that are needed to ensure proper accounting of the taxpayers dollars.
To continue down the path that we have been on in the past few years
may be penny wise, but it is dollar foolish. I am very proud of our
accomplishments in reducing expenses. But, being economical and
reducing expenses where one can is different than not providing the
resources needed for our staff to operate successfully. Since I have
held this position, the Rural Development Mission Area has met every
streamlining target we have been given, but we have also been asked to
absorb $80 million in pay raises and other inflationary items that also
should be considered as reductions, but never are. Rural Development
and other USDA entities have reached the breaking point and without
some relief, all of us may face the embarrassment of a major failure. I
do not want this on my record, and I, as a former Member of Congress,
am sure that none of you want to be responsible for such a failure
either.
The Congress and the Administration, as well as the taxpayer, have
every right to be proud of the fact that we have eliminated the word
``deficit'' from policy discussions. Let us acknowledge the fact and
move on to ensuring that every individual in this country has the
opportunity to participate in a dynamic, growing economy, but do so
with the recognition that delivering these programs wisely costs money.
The economic growth we create with these investments in rural America
more than pay for the cost of the programs and the associated
administrative cost. It is time we started counting both sides of the
ledger.
Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, this concludes my formal
statement. The Administrators and I would be glad to answer any
questions you may have. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before
you to discuss the Rural Development budget request with you.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

STATEMENT OF JUDITH JOHNSON, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY, ELEMENTARY
AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
Senator Cochran. Now, I'm going to turn to Ms. Johnson. Ms.
Johnson is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Elementary and
Secondary Education at the United States Department of
Education. Welcome.
Ms. Johnson. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I'm really honored to
be before you today to discuss the Department of Education's
commitment to providing educational opportunity in the
Mississippi Delta region.
I have submitted my written testimony for the record and
will limit my oral comments to highlights of that testimony.
For the past year I've served as the Department's senior
representative to the administration's Mississippi Delta
Interagency Taskforce.
I'm pleased to be back at Mississippi Valley State. This is
my third visit to Mississippi in the past 6 months. As a New
Yorker, it is quite a contrast and I enjoy the State
tremendously.
In October 1999, I traveled to the delta regions of
Mississippi as part of the administration's Mississippi Delta
Initiative to participate in listening sessions, to meet with
community leaders, and most importantly, for me to visit
schools in the region.
And also at that time, I had the opportunity to be the
guest of honor with President Lester Newman at a Mississippi
Valley State-Alabama State football game. As you know, in 1998
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater began
assembling a Federal Mississippi Delta Interagency Taskforce to
assess the impact of various Federal initiatives on the Delta
region.
That taskforce released a report entitled, Mississippi
Delta: Beyond 2000. I led the efforts of the Department of
Education to prepare our submission to that report. Over the
past 7 years, the administration and Congress have collaborated
to make a sizable investment in the Mississippi Delta's K-12
education programs.
We understand the importance of supporting the education
system. As you say, we need to develop a skilled work force in
the 21st century, one where all of the adults, not some, but
all of the adults possess the employable skills needed to
participate in the economy.
My testimony will highlight some of the more promising
programs supported by Federal dollars in the Delta region. The
President's fiscal year 2001 budget also proposes a $150
million increase to support economic opportunities in the
Mississippi Delta region including the $30 million to create a
new Delta Regional Authority to support continued economic
growth and development.
The Delta Regional Authority as you heard is a top priority
of the administration and the President, and legislation has
been introduced both in the House and the Senate to accomplish
this goal.
The Delta Regional Authority will help facilitate the
efficient channeling of resources to the seven States, 219
county Mississippi Delta region, by strengthening the Federal-
State partnership and providing ongoing targeted Federal
statistics through a Federal clearinghouse in the region.
Let me turn now to the U.S. Department of Education. We
recognize that the Federal Government as a junior partner in
our Nation's educational system, and that the real progress in
improving education depends primarily on State and local
efforts. But as partners, we can do more to create the
conditions for improvement.
President Clinton is requesting a $40.1 billion budget in
discretionary spending for the Department of Education. An
increase of $4.5 billion or 12.6 percent.
My testimony will highlight some of the major initiatives
and where possible, provide the possible funding totals for the
Mississippi Delta region. As you may know, the Delta report in
1990 called for students of the Delta region to demonstrate
competency in core academic subjects, including reading and
mathematics.
Over the past 7 years, the administration has provided
States and school districts with additional support to ensure
that all students can achieve to high standards.
The cornerstone of this national effort to provide all
children with a high quality education is the Improving
America's School Act of 1994, which reauthorized the 1965
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). This ESEA
legislation is currently before the Senate for this
organization.
Let me focus us on just a few of the programs.
21st Century Community Learning Centers. Some students need
extended learning opportunities to learn the basics in core
subjects. The centers have provided students in all seven Delta
States with after-school programs that are academically
rigorous.
One example, the Mid-Delta 21st Century Community Learning
Centers Consortium in Mississippi is implementing an expanded
after-school program and a 4-week summer academy in four school
districts located in the Mid-Delta Empowerment Zone. The
consortium, which is based at the Humphreys Public Schools
operates these programs 4 days a week, 2 hours weekly. Academic
skill enhancement in math and language arts is offered 2 days a
week.
Let me talk now about the Class Size Reduction Initiative.
The administration has also provided school districts with
funding to create smaller classes for students in the Delta.
By the summer of 2000, Delta school districts will have
received more than a $100 million through the Class Size
Reduction Initiative to hire approximately 3,000 new teachers
to reduce class sizes in the early grades.
As an educator with 30 years of experience, I cannot
underscore enough the importance of smaller class sizes in the
early grades to ensure that our children leave the third grade
able to read for understanding and able to achieve success in
the remainder of their school careers.
The Jackson Public Schools in Jackson, Mississippi, used
these funds to hire 20 additional teachers and placed them in
20 low-performing elementary schools. These experienced
teachers are also serving as mentors for less experienced
teachers.
We also requested an additional $450 million for class size
reduction in our new budget to reduce class size in the early
grades for a total of $1.75 billion.
Let me turn now to Modern School Learning Environments and
School Modernization. Students and teachers cannot reach for
excellence in outdated, dilapidated, overcrowded classrooms. We
know this is a serious problem in the Delta region.
For this reason, the administration has proposed in fiscal
year 2001 to subsidize almost $25 billion in bonds to the
President's School Modernization Bond Initiative. The seven
Delta States would receive an estimated $3.3 billion to upgrade
school facilities.
Furthermore, this year the President has proposed $1.3
billion in discretionary funds for urgently needed school
renovations through grants and no interest loans.
Probably the most dramatic change in public schools to take
place in the last 5 years has been the introduction of
technology into all of our schools and into our classrooms. We
have in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE)
a program that provides support through the Technology Literacy
Challenge Fund. Between fiscal year 1997 and fiscal year 2000,
Mississippi received $25 million in funding for technology
software and training through the Technology Literacy Challenge
Fund, with approximately half of that funding targeted to the
Delta.
We also provided $450 million in our budget proposal for
the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, an increase of $25
million from last year. If appropriated, the seven Delta States
would be allocated more than $65 million in fiscal year 2001.
During my visit to Mississippi last October, I had a chance
to see first-hand the impact of Federal education dollars and
technology at Brown Elementary School in Leflore County,
Mississippi. During my visit to a computer resource center at
Brown Elementary School, Principal Jean Hall informed me that
the computers were paid for by Title I funds, a software
program used to teach reading was funded through the Technology
Literacy Challenge Fund, and the Internet hook-ups were made in
part affordable by the E-rate. This school and other schools in
the Delta region need to spend a lot of time focusing on
eliminating what we all know to be the dangers of the digital
divide.
As part of the administration's Delta Regional Authority
proposal, the Department of Education is also requesting $10
million for a targeted demonstration program to improve middle
school teachers' competence by providing training on how to use
technology in the classroom. It is of no value to have the
computers in the classrooms if our teachers aren't able to use
them effectively.
I turn now to Title I, our major school reform effort. The
Delta Commission report in 1990 called for increased targeted
services to low-income, rural students. In fiscal year 2000
alone the Department will provide over $350 million to school
districts in the Delta region through Title I designed and
focused on servicing disadvantaged students.
The goal of the Title I Program is to ensure that no child
leaves school unable to achieve success because of their ethnic
origins or their family's economic status.
School districts in the seven Delta regions will receive
approximately $370 million in fiscal year 2001 under Title I
formula funding.
You also receive Migrant Education funds. Funding is
provided for the Delta region for migrant students through
competitive grants.
Mississippi Valley State University received a $353,000
grant in fiscal year 1999 to support its longstanding Migrant
Education Program. This grant provided opportunities for
migrant students to complete their GED and to go on to or
enroll in post-secondary education or vocational training.
Thirty-five percent of those Migrant Education students are
also placed in career positions.
The Department is committed to providing Mississippi Delta
region with technical assistance targeted to the region's
unique circumstances. Last week on March 9 and 10 more than 100
educators from all seven Delta States attended the first ever
Delta Safe Schools Conference at Arkansas State University in
Jonesboro, Arkansas.
Today is the final day of the Department of Education
sponsored Delta Region Rural Workshop in Helena, Arkansas.
Thirty-eight community colleges in the seven State Delta region
have been invited to bring staff teams to this workshop. The
training sessions focus on strengthening their skills for
seeking competitive grants, and opportunities are there for
them to hear presentations on existing program models that can
be replicated in this region.
In conclusion, my experience in the Mississippi Delta last
fall, staring down the fields of cotton during the harvest
season provided me with a flashback of the heroics of the Civil
Rights Movement in the 1960's.
As a student growing up at that time, I can remember
vividly the photo essays, the poetry, and the music that
captured that historical period.
The first phase of the Civil Rights Movement was to give
young people access to integrated schools, other public
facilities, and the right to vote. We are now at that second
stage for all of our children. The next stage must provide all
of our students with a world-class, technology-rich education
in order to allow them to fully participate in the 21st
century.
We must end what Secretary Riley calls ``the tyranny of low
expectations.'' This change will not occur without dedication
and hard work. The challenge for us in the Department of
Education is to help provide educators at State and local
levels with the tools they need to do the job.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for providing me with the
opportunity to return to Mississippi and to testify before your
subcommittee. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may
have about the Department's efforts to expand educational
opportunity in the Mississippi Delta region.

PREPARED STATEMENT

Senator Cochran. Thank you, Ms. Johnson, for being here
today and for the statements that you have made.
[The statement follows:]

Prepared Statement of Judith Johnson

Mr. Chairman, I am honored to appear before you today to discuss
the Department of Education's commitment to promoting educational
opportunity in the seven-state, 219 county Mississippi Delta region.
Since 1997, I have served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Elementary and Secondary Education. Prior to joining the Department, I
spent 30 years in education at the local level as a teacher, guidance
counselor, principal, and district administrator. For the past year, I
have served as the Department's senior representative to the
Administration's Mississippi Delta Interagency Taskforce.
I am pleased to be back at Mississippi Valley State. This is my
third visit to the Magnolia State in the last six months. In October of
1999, I traveled to the Delta region of Mississippi as part of the
Administration's Mississippi Delta Initiative to participate in
listening sessions, meet with community leaders, and visit schools in
the region. At that time, I had the distinct honor of being the guest
of President Lester Newman at a Mississippi Valley State-Alabama State
football game. My testimony will provide some reflections on what I
experienced visiting schools in Mississippi's Delta region.
President Clinton's concern for the Mississippi Delta region
predates his Presidency. In 1988, Congress (through Public Law 100-460)
established the Lower Mississippi Delta Commission (Delta Commission)
to study living conditions for individuals residing in a 219 county
region running along the Mississippi River. Then-Arkansas Governor Bill
Clinton was named chairman of the Delta Commission. In 1990, the Delta
Commission released a report that outlined a ten-year action plan for
local governments, state governments, community and business
organizations, and the federal government to expand opportunity in the
Delta region.
In 1998, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater
began assembling a Federal Mississippi Delta Interagency Taskforce to
assess the impact of various Federal initiatives on the Delta region.
The Taskforce released a report in October of 1998--entitled
Mississippi Delta: Beyond 2000--that outlines recent investments made
by the Federal government in the Delta. I led efforts at the Department
of Education to prepare our agency's submission for the Mississippi
Delta--Beyond 2000 report. Over the past seven years, the
Administration and Congress have collaborated to make a sizable
investment in the Mississippi Delta K-12 education system. While the
achievement level in many Delta counties lags behind the national
average, there are many Delta schools and districts that have
demonstrated improvement over the past decade. My testimony will
highlight some of the more promising programs supported by Federal
dollars in the Delta region in the context of the Delta Commission 1990
report.

ADMINISTRATION FISCAL YEAR 2001 BUDGET REQUESTS

Delta Regional Authority

The President's fiscal year 2001 budget also proposes $159 million
to increase educational opportunities in the Mississippi Delta region,
including $30 million to create a new Delta Regional Authority to
support continued economic growth and development. The Delta Regional
Authority is a top priority of the Administration and the President.
Legislation has been introduced in both the House (H.R. 2911) and
Senate (S. 1622) that would accomplish this goal.
The Delta Regional Authority would help facilitate the efficient
channeling of resources to the seven state, 219 county Mississippi
Delta region. The Delta Authority would provide for the long-term
coordination of resources to the Delta. This new Federal agency would
allow us to meet this goal by strengthening the Federal-State
partnership, and will provide an on-going, targeted Federal
clearinghouse in the region. As members of the authority, the Governors
of the seven Delta States would work in partnership with leaders in the
Federal Delta Authority to identify projects to fund. Half of the Delta
Authority's resources would be targeted to the communities with the
highest poverty-rates.

U.S. Department of Education

We recognize that the Federal government is the junior partner in
our Nation's education system, and that real progress in improving
education depends primarily on State and local efforts. But the Federal
government can provide additional resources to support local
educational initiatives, especially to help ensure high standards for
all students and teachers, modernized school environments, and targeted
support for disadvantaged students.
President Clinton is requesting $40.1 billion in discretionary
spending for the Department of Education, an increase of $4.5 billion
or 12.6 percent. On February 29, 2000, U.S. Education Secretary Richard
Riley testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor,
Health and Human Services, and Education, on which you also serve
Senator Cochran. My testimony today will highlight some of the major
initiatives and, where possible, provide funding totals for the
Mississippi Delta States.

HIGH STANDARDS FOR ALL STUDENTS

The 1990 Delta Report called for students in the Delta region to
demonstrate ``competency'' at three key grade levels in core academic
subject areas, including reading and mathematics. Over the past seven
years, the Clinton Administration has provided states, and school
districts with additional support to ensure that all students can
achieve to high standards.
The Congressional legislative cornerstone of this national effort
to provide all children with a high-quality education is the Improving
Americas Schools Act (IASA), the 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Under IASA, States are required to
develop and implement challenging content standards, aligned
assessments at three key grade levels, and, based on these assessments,
procedures for identifying and assisting schools that fail to make
adequate progress toward helping students reach state standards.
Congress required States to phase in these requirements over time, and
to fully implement all of the requirements by the beginning of the
2000-2001 school year. All States and school districts receiving
funding through the Department's $8 billion Title I program are
required to meet these requirements.
The Delta states have made great strides in meeting these
Congressional requirements. Each of the seven Delta States has
developed rigorous content standards in at least reading and
mathematics. These States are currently in the process of field-testing
their assessments in the core academic subjects.

Title I Accountability Fund

As part of the fiscal year 2000 budget agreement signed by the
President last fall, substantial new resources--$134 million nationally
through the Title I program--are available to turn around low-
performing schools. This law also requires school districts receiving
these Accountability Fund grants to provide students in low-performing
schools with an opportunity to choose a higher-quality public school.
In July, 2000, the seven Mississippi Delta States will receive over $19
million to provide low-performing schools with additional supports.
The fiscal year 2001 budget would provide states and districts with
additional support to help improve educational quality in low-
performing, high-poverty schools. The President's request for Title I
includes $250 million for a second year of Accountability Fund grants
to help turn around chronically failing schools. The seven Delta states
will receive more than $35 million through second year allocations
under the Title I Accountability Fund.

21st Century Community Learning Centers

Some students need extended learning opportunities to learn the
basics in the core subject areas. The 21st Century Community Learning
Centers program has provided students in all seven Delta states with
after-school programs that are academically rigorous. Here are two
examples of promising extended learning programs.
--The Mid-Delta 21st Century Community Learning Centers Consortium in
Mississippi is implementing an expanded after-school program
and a four-week summer academy in four school districts located
in the Mid-Delta Empowerment Zone. High rates of poverty, low
levels of educational attainment, and high rates of
unemployment plague the area. In 15 of the 18 districts, more
than 80 percent of the students are eligible for free and
reduced lunch. The public school enrollment in this district
accounts for 12 percent of Mississippi's dropouts. The
consortium, which is based at the Humphreys Public Schools,
operates programs four days a week, two hours daily. Academic
skill enhancement in math and language arts is offered two days
a week. Training sessions on violence prevention and conflict
resolution skills are also offered. All of the centers have
implemented parenting programs that operate three times a week
offering skills in literacy, job training, and life skills.
--The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board in Louisiana has after-
school centers at one of its middle schools and its two feeder
elementary schools. The Centers integrate Title I activities,
school health services, transportation and new technologies for
learning. Working with a variety of local non-profit
organizations, 21st CCLC program funds allow its three school
Centers to build and expand upon existing support for after-
school activities. For instance, the Boys & Girls Club is
serving approximately 100 students at the Prescott Middle
School Center in extended day activities and its summer day
camp.
The President has requested $1 billion in fiscal year 2001 for the
21st Century Community Learning Centers program, a $547 million
increase from last year. The seven Delta states would receive millions
of dollars to support high-quality extended learning opportunities for
young people, especially those attending high-poverty schools.

Class Size Reduction Initiative

The Administration has also provided school districts with funding
to create smaller classes for students in the Delta. The Project Star
study--conducted in the Delta State of Tennessee--clearly demonstrates
the positive impact of smaller classes of 13-17 students in the early
grades on student achievement, especially among poor students. By the
summer of 2000, Delta school districts will have received more than
$100 million through the Class Size Reduction Initiative to hire
approximately 3,000 new teachers to reduce class size in the early
grades.
Using Class Size Reduction funds allocated in fiscal year 1999, the
Jackson Public Schools in Jackson, Mississippi hired 20 additional
teachers and placed them in 20 low-performing elementary schools. Many
of these teachers had previously retired or had left the district, but
were recruited to return because of the opportunity to teach in smaller
classes and to work closely with other teachers. These experienced
teachers are also serving as mentors for less experienced teachers and
they often team up with beginning teachers to provide regular support
and supervision.
The President has also requested an additional $450 million for
Class Size Reduction to reduce class size in the early grades, for a
total of $1.75 billion. The request would bring the total number of
teachers hired under this program to 49,000, almost halfway to the
President's goal of hiring 100,000 new teachers by 2005. The seven
Delta states would receive over $231 million.

Teaching To High Standards

A quality teacher is the greatest in-school factor influencing
student achievement. The Administration is requesting a total of $1
billion in teacher quality and recruitment funding incentives. For
example, the Teaching to High Standards State Grants--a Title II ESEA
reauthorization proposal--would promote $690 million professional
development linked to state standards and assessments. We need to help
provide teachers with the resources and training necessary to bring
standards to the classroom. Under this new proposal, the seven Delta
states would receive over $90 million in state formula grant funding to
support quality teaching.

Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration

The Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program helps
raise student achievement by assisting public schools across the
country to implement effective, comprehensive school reforms that are
based on reliable research and effective practices, and that include an
emphasis on basic academics and parental involvement. As of July, when
fiscal year 2000 funds are distributed, Delta States will have received
over $70 million, providing start-up funds to schools to implement
comprehensive reforms. The President has requested an additional $20
million for CSRD in fiscal year 2001 for a total of $240,000,000, which
would bring the total funding allocated to the seven Delta states under
CSRD to approximately $100 million.
Poindexter Elementary School in Jackson, Mississippi is using a
grant from the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program to
implement the Success for All model. Success for All is an intensive
reading program that features research-based instructional practices,
extensive professional development, and frequent assessment. Although
Poindexter has just begun implementation, faculty, and parents are
committed to making schoolwide improvements that will help all children
reach high standards.

MODERN SCHOOL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

School Modernization

Students and teachers cannot reach for excellence in outdated,
falling down, overcrowded classrooms. This is indeed a serious problem
here in the Delta region. In 1990, the Delta Commission report stressed
the importance of providing all young people in the Delta with a safe,
technologically-rich educational experience to enable them to fully
participate in the information-based economy of the 21st century.
For this reason, the Administration has proposed in fiscal year
2001 to subsidize almost $25 billion in bonds through the President's
School Modernization Bond initiative. Under this program, holders of
the bonds would receive tax credits in lieu of interest, and States and
school districts would therefore not need to pay those financial costs.
The seven Delta States would receive an estimated $3.3 billion to
upgrade school facilities.
Furthermore, this year the President has proposed $1.3 billion in
discretionary funds for urgently needed school renovations and repairs.
Numerous construction projects could be funded in the Delta through
grants and no-interest loans, with a priority on high need districts.

Technology Literacy Challenge Fund

The Delta region has received millions of dollars in Federal
funding during the 1990s to help ensure that teachers have the skills
and resources to provide students with a rich educational experience
enhanced by advanced technology. This funding has been often targeted
to high-poverty regions such as the Delta.
Between fiscal year 1997 and fiscal year 2000, Mississippi received
$25 million in funding for technology software and training through the
Technology Literacy Challenge Fund (TLCF), with approximately half of
that funding targeted to the Delta. Delta districts in Louisiana
received $4,600,000 of the $5,900,000 in TLCF funding allocated by the
State in sub grants directly to districts. For example, St. Barnard,
St. Charles, Plaquemines, and Jefferson Parishes in Louisiana received
a $450,000 TLCF grant in fiscal year 1998 to provide teacher-training
initiatives focused on technology connected lessons in mathematics.
The Department fiscal year 2001 budget also provides $450 million
for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund (TLCF), an increase of $25
million from last year, to help schools bring technology to the
classroom. The seven Delta states would be allocated more than $65
million through TLCF in fiscal year 2001.

E-rate

Mississippi is one Delta state that has benefited substantially
from Federal funding for technology and, in particular, Internet hook-
ups. For example, Mississippi received $25 million in discounts between
January 1998 and June 1999 from the E-rate to wire schools and
classrooms to the Internet. Due in part to these Federal investments,
the percentage of schools in Mississippi with ``network connections''
increased from 10 percent in 1995 to 51 percent in 1998.
During my visit to Mississippi last October, I had a chance to see
first-hand the impact of Federal education dollars on technology at
Brown Elementary School in Leflore County, Mississippi. During my visit
to a computer resource center at Brown Elementary, Principal Jean Hall
informed me that the computers were paid for by Title I funds, the
software program used to teach reading was funded through TLCF, and the
Internet hook-ups were made in part affordable by the E-rate. This
resource center provides students the opportunity to expand their
vocabulary and reading comprehension skills.

Middle School Technology Teacher Training

As part of the Administration's Delta Regional Authority proposal,
the Department of Education is also requesting $10 million for a
targeted demonstration program to provide middle school teachers in the
seven Delta states with training on how to use technology in the
classroom. Teachers at the school or district level would serve as
``master teachers'' of technology to assist other colleagues with
technology.

Star Schools

Star Schools funding provides a wide variety of technology services
to schools, such as interactive video training programs. Funding under
Star Schools is provided to consortia of States. Two consortia have
received funding in the Delta.
--The mission of Project Impact is to transform traditional
classrooms into technology-rich centers of learning to help
students to achieve high academic standards. The Star Schools
Consortia for Project Impact--which includes Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Missouri--will have received $10 million in
funding between fiscal year 1997 and fiscal year 2001. Project
Impact delivers instruction to elementary and middle school
students and teachers through a distributed learning system,
which allows participants to access information via satellite,
television, multimedia, and the Internet.
--The Next Generation distance learning project will provide
Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi over $9.6 million between
fiscal year 1997 and fiscal year 2001. The Next Generation
project develops curriculum-based computer materials in science
and mathematics and distributes those resources on demand.
Specific projects entail building an Internet-based Calculus/AP
Calculus course and creating, with the National PTA as a
partner, stronger ties between the school and community.

MCI WorldCom Foundation Marco Polo Internet Teacher Training

On December 10, 1999 at Earle High School in Earle, Arkansas,
President Clinton announced a unique partnership between the
Administration and the MCI WorldCom Marco Polo Foundation. The MCI
WorldCom Foundation Internet website provides K-12 teachers with
quality lesson plans and materials in the core academic subjects areas.
The Foundation has agreed to train, free of charge, as many as 4,500
district curriculum specialists throughout the seven-state Mississippi
Delta region on how to access information from their Internet site.
These specialists, in turn, will train over 100,000 teachers on how to
effectively incorporate the Marco Polo lesson plans into their day-to-
day teaching.
Having worked on behalf of the Administration with MCI WorldCom
Foundation Director Caleb Schutz to secure this initiative, I can
attest to the Foundation's commitment to ensuring that all teachers in
the Delta region have access to high-quality, engaging resources. The
lesson plans, developed by leading institutions such as the National
Endowment for Humanities and Kennedy Center of Performing Arts, provide
teachers with the tools necessary to teach to high standards.

TARGETED SUPPORT FOR DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS

Title I--Aid to Disadvantaged Students

The Delta Commission report in 1990 called for increased ``targeted
services to low-income rural students.'' The Administration has
provided the overwhelming majority of federal education funding to poor
communities in the Delta through the Title I program. In fiscal year
2000 alone, the Department will provide over $350 million to school
districts in the Delta region through Title I to serve disadvantaged
students.
The Department is requesting $8.4 billion in fiscal year 2001 for
Title I grants to local educational agencies, an increase of $416
million. Title I provides additional funding to educate educationally
disadvantaged children, especially those attending high-poverty
schools, to achieve academic success. School districts in the seven
Delta states will receive approximately $370 million in fiscal year
2001 under Title I formula funding.

Migrant Education

The Migrant Education program, authorized by Title I, Part C of
ESEA, provided formula grants to State education agencies to establish
or improve programs for children of migrant workers. In fiscal year
1999 alone, the seven Delta states received approximately $20 million
through Migrant Education formula grants.
The Department also provides additional educational funding to the
Delta for migrant students through competitive grants. For example, the
Migrant Education High School Equivalency Program (HEP) is a
discretionary grant program designed to help migrant farm workers and
their children complete and succeed in post-secondary education. Two
currently funded Migrant Education HEP projects are in the Delta
region.
--Mississippi Valley State University in Itta Bena, Mississippi
received a $353,000 HEP grant in fiscal year 1999 to support
its longstanding migrant education program. This program serves
about 120 migrant and seasonal farm workers each year. The
average student is African-American, is between 17 and 23 years
of age, and is a member of a large family of seasonal farm
workers. The primary goal of the program is to help students
complete the GED and enter post-secondary training or
employment. A majority of the students annually complete the
program requirements and earn their GED. According to a recent
program evaluation, approximately 45 percent of the students
continue on to post-secondary education or vocational training,
and about 35 percent are placed in career positions.
--Based at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, the Southeastern
HEP program is a multiple-site project serving migrant and
seasonal farm workers in a three-state region. The project
coordinates closely with other State and district programs.
During the 1998-99 school year, 91 percent of the 135 migrant
students who participated in this Tennessee-based HEP program
completed their GED.
The Administration's fiscal year 2001 budget provides a $25.3
million increase for Migrant Education programs. The total Department
request for Migrant Education this year is $380 million.

Bilingual Education

In addition to Migrant Education, another essential component to
the President's Hispanic Education Action Plan is an effort to promote
English language skills among Hispanics and others whose first language
is not English. Several southern States, including Delta states, are
experiencing large increases in limited English proficient (LEP)
student populations. For example, the number of LEP students in
Arkansas and Kentucky has increased by more than 100 percent since
1991. Below are two examples of Bilingual Education discretionary
grants recently awarded in the Delta.
--The Biloxi Public Schools in Harrison County, Mississippi received
a $150,000 Bilingual Education grant in fiscal year 1998 to
support the Educational Economics and Mainstream Project
(EESPMP). The EESPMP is an enhancement project that serves
approximately 236 LEP students in grades four though seven in
nine Delta schools. Extended learning time is supported through
an after-school bilingual tutoring program and an intensive
English-language summer school.
--The Jefferson Parish School District in Jefferson, Louisiana
received a $210,000 Bilingual Education grant in fiscal year
1998 to support comprehensive school services for LEP students.
The 1,808 LEP students in the Jefferson Parish School District
receive English language instruction and native language
tutoring in core academic subjects. This Comprehensive School
grant allows Jefferson Parish School District to establish
bilingual classes in grades K-2. Teachers will be provided with
innovative professional development to better prepare them to
instruct in a bilingual environment.
The President's fiscal year 2001 budget request includes $460
million for bilingual, foreign languages, and immigrant education
programs, an increase of $54 million over last year.

IMPROVED MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) makes
available student achievement data in reading and mathematics that can
be compared between States that elect to take part in this voluntary
national assessment. All of the Delta States excluding Illinois take
part in the state NAEP assessment. (Since the NAEP exam is given to a
representative sample of students across a particular state, district-
by-district comparisons cannot be made.)
During the 1990s, students in the Mississippi Delta made
significant achievement gains in mathematics. Between 1992 and 1996,
fourth- and eighth-grade students in Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi,
and Tennessee demonstrated statistically significant improvements on
the mathematics exam. Fourth graders in Louisiana also significantly
improved their mathematics scores on NAEP (SEE APPENDIX A).
During this period of NAEP score increases, countless individual
Title I schools have experienced substantial improvement on State
mathematics assessments. For example, fourth-grade students at the Glen
Oaks Park Elementary School in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana,
where three-fourths of the students are eligible for free or reduced
priced lunch, have improved their median national percentile rank on
the mathematics section of the California Achievement Test (CAT) from
the 29th percentile in 1993 to the 75th percentile in 1997.
Eisenhower Mathematics/Science Consortia
Improved mathematics achievement is also supported by the
Department of Education's regional Eisenhower Math/Science Educational
Consortia. Ten Eisenhower Consortia identify and disseminate exemplary
mathematics and science education materials and provide technical
assistance in implementing innovative teaching methods.
The Eisenhower Mathematics/Science Consortium SERVE has supported a
host of innovative projects in the state of Mississippi that have
helped to improve student achievement in mathematics and science.
--The Eisenhower Consortium SERVE collaborated with the Leflore
County School District in Greenwood, Mississippi to sponsor the
nine-week Mississippi Research Project. Eighth-grade students
from Greenwood participated in a nine-week biology research
project that included a hands-on science program at the Gulf
Coast Research Center. Students either traveled to the Gulf
Coast for the field experience or learned about it from
materials and specimens brought back by fellow students. Prior
to the research field experience, the average student score on
a marine life test was below the 50th percentile. After the
Gulf Coast visit, the average test scores of the participants
were above the 75th percentile. The project organizers in
Mississippi called the Gulf Coast field experience ``the single
most important factor'' influencing student success.
--In 1998, Booneville Public High School, in Booneville, Mississippi
was one of 50 schools recognized nationally at the School Tech
Expo Showcase of Model Schools, a program to honor schools that
have utilized the latest technology to dramatically improve
classroom learning. The Eisenhower Consortium SERVE supports
the Booneville Public Schools in various ways. The Consortium
introduced programs that expose young people to careers in math
and science.
--The Eisenhower SERVE Consortium recently funded Algebra Project
training sessions for teachers in Jackson, Mississippi. The
Algebra Project attempts to increase the proportion of urban,
inner-city, and rural students who take ownership of their
educational experience, enroll in advanced mathematics courses,
enter college, and later become contributors to their
communities. According to recent studies, students exposed to
the Algebra Project take college preparatory math courses at a
higher rate and score higher on achievement tests than their
non-participating peers.
When touring schools in Mississippi last fall, I attended a
distance learning mathematics class taught by Algebra Project Director
Bob Moses. The lesson I observed provided ninth-grade students at
Lanier High School in Jackson, Mississippi and Simmons High School in
Hollandale, Mississippi the opportunity to expand their ability to
utilize the graphic calculator through distance learning instruction.
Students in this Algebra Project class demonstrated not only the
ability to utilize a graphic calculator as a learning tool, but also
the motivation to continuously expand their understanding of
mathematics.

IMPROVED LITERACY LEVELS

In 1990, the Delta Commission acknowledged that the Mississippi
Delta region had one of the lowest literacy rates in America.
Investments made this past decade by Federal, State, and local
governments in reading instruction, especially in the early grades, are
beginning to show signs of impact. Reading scores on the NAEP
assessment have either improved or remained constant for students in
the six Delta states taking part in the NAEP assessment. Between 1992
and 1998, fourth-grade students in Mississippi and Kentucky made
significant improvements on the NAEP reading exam (SEE APPENDIX A).
One school that has demonstrated significant improvement in student
achievement in the 1990s was the Portland Elementary School in Ashley
County, Arkansas, where three-fourths of the students are eligible for
free or reduced priced lunch. Since instituting an innovative reading
program through a $60,000 Department grant in 1994, Portland Elementary
School saw average third-grade reading scores on the Standard
Achievement Test increase from the 25th percentile in 1993 to the 46th
percentile in 1999.

America Reads

President Clinton's America Reads Challenge has supported increased
literacy levels in the Delta. This national campaign challenges every
American to help all children learn to read, including those with
disabilities or limited English proficiency. The America Reads
Challenge sparks collaboration between educators, parents, college
students, and other community members.
Under the America Reads work-study waiver adopted in July of 1997,
the Federal government pays 100 percent of the wages of college work-
study students who serve as reading mentors or tutors to preschool and
elementary school children. By 1998, more than 1,100 colleges joined
the America Reads work-study program, including dozens of schools in
the Delta region.
The Macon Ridge Economic Development Region in Louisiana formed a
partnership with the Louisiana Coalition for Literacy to help improve
reading skills of children age 6 through 12. Delta Service Corp
members, Federal work-study students and community volunteers served as
tutors for the children at the Concordia Public Library, the Concordia
Parish Head Start Center, and the Tenas Parish Head Start Centers.
Tutors also assisted Parish librarians with ``Prime Time Family
Reading'' events to help encourage reading at home as well.

Reading Excellence Act

In October of 1998, Congress authorized $260 million through the
Reading Excellence Act to serve approximately 500,000 pre-Kindergarten
through third-grade children. The Reading Excellence program attempts
to provide children with the readiness skills and support the need to
learn how to read by the end of third grade and elementary school
teachers with training on effective, research-based methods of reading
instruction.
In August of 1999, the Department of Education awarded 17 states
Reading Excellence program grants through a competitive process. Two
Delta states received funding in fiscal year 1999: Kentucky and
Louisiana. Kentucky was allocated $7.5 million and Louisiana was
awarded $15 million over three years under the Reading Excellence
program. This year a new Reading Excellence program competition for
$241 million will fund approximately 12 new state grants for three
years. The Administration has requested $286 million for the Reading
Excellence Act in fiscal year 2001, a $26 million increase.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

In 1990, the Delta Commission report talked about helping provide
additional Federal resources to ``rural schools'' in the region. The
Department of Education is committed to providing the Mississippi Delta
region with technical assistance that is targeted to the region's
unique circumstances. The Department is hosting two conferences in
March aimed at improving the quality of education in the Delta.

Delta Safe Schools Conference

Last week, on March 9 and 10, more than one hundred educators from
all seven Delta states attended the first-ever Delta Safe Schools
Conference at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
Participants attended training workshops coordinated by the National
Resource Center for Safe Schools that provided information on various
programs that have effectively reduced school violence and student
substance abuse. Presentations were also provided by Department of
Education staff on the various Department grant programs aimed at
supporting safe schools.
Jonesboro, Arkansas was selected as the site of the conference
since the community was awarded a three year, $8.4 million grant in
1999 through the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative. Through the
initiative, the Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human
Service provide Federal funding to promote comprehensive approaches to
school safety. The Jonesboro Public Schools will work in partnership
with alcohol and drug, human service, and early childhood programs to
provide high-quality training and support to both students and school
personnel.

Delta Regional Rural College Workshop

Today is the final day of Department of Education-sponsored Delta
Region Rural College Workshop. Phillips Community College in Helena,
Arkansas served as the host site on March 13-14 for the workshop. The
38 community colleges in the seven-State Delta region have been invited
to bring staff teams to this workshop to attend training sessions that
will strengthen their skills in seeking competitive grants, and to hear
presentations on existing program models that can be replicated in this
geographic region. Other Federal agencies/organizations are
participating in the conference, including the National Science
Foundation, the Department of Labor, and the Appalachian Regional
Commission.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I will return once again to my experience in the
Mississippi Delta last fall. Staring down the fields of cotton during
harvest season provided me a flashback to the heroics of the Civil
Right movement activists in the 1960s. I can remember vividly the photo
essays, the poetry, and the music that captured that historical period
in ways that invite every American to reflect upon the enduring effects
of the period.
The first phase of the Civil Rights movement was giving young
people access to integrated schools and other public facilities and the
right to vote. The next stage is providing all students with a world-
class, technology-rich education in order to allow them to fully
participate in the 21st century. We must end what Secretary Riley calls
``the tyranny of low expectations.'' As was the case with the early
Civil Rights movement, this change will not occur without dedication
and hard work. The challenge for the Federal government is to help
provide educators at the state and school level with the tools to do
the job.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for providing me the opportunity to return
to Mississippi and testify before your subcommittee. I will be happy to
answer any questions you may have about the Department's efforts to
expand educational opportunity in the Mississippi Delta region.

Appendix A: National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Test
Results for Mississippi Delta States

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mathematics scores Reading scores
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1992 State 1998 State
State 1992 State 1996 State 1992 State 1996 State average--4th average--4th
average--4th average--4th average--8th average--8th grade grade
grade math grade math grade math grade math reading reading
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arkansas.................... 210 \1\ 216 257 \1\ 262 211 209
Kentucky.................... 215 \1\ 220 263 \1\ 267 213 \2\ 218
Louisiana................... 204 \1\ 209 250 252 204 204
Mississippi................. 201 \1\ 208 246 \1\ 250 199 \2\ 204
Missouri.................... 222 225 271 273 200 216
Tennessee................... 211 \1\ 219 259 \1\ 263 212 212
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Denotes a NAEP score increase between 1992 and 1996 that is considered ``statistically significant
improvement'' based on sample size and diversity of student characteristics.
\2\ Denotes a NAEP score increase between 1992 and 1998 that is considered ``statistically significant
improvement'' based on sample size and diversity of student characteristics.

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

STATEMENT OF ALBERT C. EISENBERG, DEPUTY ASSISTANT
SECRETARY FOR TRANSPORTATION POLICY
Senator Cochran. I think I'm going to turn now to Mr.
Eisenberg for his comments; and then when he completes his
statement, I'll have an opportunity to ask questions of the
entire panel. Albert Eisenberg is the Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Transportation Policy at the U.S. Department of
Transportation. You may proceed.
Mr. Eisenberg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's a great honor
for me to be here to represent the Department of Transportation
and the administration. We very much appreciate your holding
this hearing. We commend you for it. It's an important hearing
and we look forward to working with you on a bipartisan basis
for the common goals of progress in the Mississippi Delta.
I will summarize my remarks and appreciate your insertion
of the report for the record. While my comments encompass the
entire Mississippi Delta region, as a former county-elected
official, and county board chairman, I recognize the local
quality of public policy, so I hope you will bear with me if
references to Mississippi appear with some regularity in my
testimony.
Mr. Chairman, the administration and the Department of
Transportation have a deep concern of this region. We have
worked assiduously with you, with Congress, and with others for
the economic and social progress of this important part of
America's heartland.
And over the last 7 years, much progress has indeed been
made. My testimony indicates for the region and many of its
communities the trends are heading in the right direction.
Lower unemployment and increased job growth, higher earning for
jobs, and several key measures as the Nation's strong economy
has reached into the Delta.
Yet, we all know there are significant critical challenges
that remain in infrastructure, housing, job adequacy,
education, private investment, as many places unfortunately
continue to lag behind non-Delta communities in the Delta
region and across the country as well.
The Mississippi Delta Region Initiative, this
administration, builds upon the recommendations of the 1990
Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission whose landmark
report pointed the way for the Delta's progress in the ensuing
decade.
The President has designated Secretary of Transportation,
Rodney Slater, to lead this initiative. And under his
leadership, I serve as the chairman of the Initiatives
Interagency Taskforce which includes departments represented
here on this panel today.
Our work is based on numerous listening sessions,
conferences, meetings, and consultations with public, and
private State holders throughout the Delta. And I had the
opportunity to spend a great time in the Delta last year.
For example, we held a listening session in Vicksburg in
October of last year, and the President and several Cabinet
members visited Clarksdale. In July, the Department of
Transportation team, which I led, held a series of
consultations in Greenville, Tallahatchie County, and here at
this university this past December.
An interim report which has been alluded to in other
testimony resulted from such consultation. It's been widely
distributed and I ask that a copy of this report be included in
the record.
Senator Cochran. A copy of it will be printed in the record
in full.
[The information follows:]

The Mississippi Delta: Beyond 2000

FOREWORD

In the autumn of 1989, Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas wrote
eloquently of both the bright promise and the profound problems faced
by the people of the Mississippi Delta region. In submitting the
Interim Report of the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission to
President George Bush, Governor Clinton first delivered the ``bad
news'': people in the Delta ``are the least prepared to participate in
and to contribute to the nation's effort to succeed in the world
economy.'' Then, Governor Clinton conveyed the ``good news'':

``The Delta region has tremendous human resources: people with a
strong work ethic, and rekindled hopes for the future. Productive land,
water, timber, energy and vast natural beauty are abundant along the
banks of the Mississippi River. The Delta people are trying to help
themselves. Each of the states in the Delta region made significant
progress by investing in education, economic development, human
services, and transportation.''

In the spring of 1990, Governor Clinton submitted to President Bush
the final recommendations of the Lower Mississippi Delta Development
Commission. Entitled The Delta Initiatives: Realizing the Dream--
Fulfilling the Potential, the Final Report carried out the objectives
mandated by legislation passed in 1988 (Public Law 100-460): to study
and make recommendations regarding economic needs, problems, and
opportunities in the Lower Mississippi Delta region, and to develop a
ten-year regional economic development plan. As Chair of the
Commission, Governor Clinton emphasized that the report was not just
another tome to be consigned to the dusty shelves of government
archives, but was a ``Handbook for Action--one that can turn the Delta
and its 8.3 million people into full partners in America's exciting
future, full participants in the changing global economy.'' This
Interim Report of ``The Delta: Beyond 2000'' summarizes some of the
progress made over the past decade in fulfilling the recommendations
offered in The Delta Initiatives, and begins to review the challenges
still remaining for the Delta's people at the dawn of a new millennium.
The present volume builds upon an update on transportation and
employment issues completed in 1995 by the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA), entitled Linking the Delta Region with the
Nation and the World. The FHWA update emphasized that the 1990
Commission's recommendations ``served as a guidepost in President
Clinton's administration and during the 1996 budget negotiations and
reconciliation efforts to balance the budget in a way that reflects the
values and priorities of the American people.'' In 1990, Rodney E.
Slater took part in the Commission's work as vice-chair of the Arkansas
State Highway Commission, and in 1995 he directed the update as
Administrator of FHWA. In Linking the Delta Region with the Nation and
the World, Administrator Slater stressed that the Commission's 1990
recommendations embodied the President's goals: ``investing in
education, training, and the environment; protecting Medicare and
Medicaid; and targeting tax relief to working families.''
As Secretary of Transportation, Mr. Slater has collaborated with
many federal, state and local entities in continuing the vital efforts
to promote the Delta's development. In July, 1998, Secretary Slater
convened a meeting with Delta grassroots leaders and federal officials
in Memphis, Tennessee. Jill Long Thompson, Under Secretary for Rural
Development of the Department of Agriculture, played a dynamic role in
helping Secretary Slater organize that meeting, where ten federal
agencies signed the Mississippi Delta Regional Initiative Interagency
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Original signatories included the
Departments of Transportation, Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, Education,
Interior, the Small Business Administration, and the Environmental
Protection Agency. In 1999, the initiative was expanded to include the
Departments of Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs, Justice, Energy,
the National Office of Drug Control Policy, and other agencies. This
Interim Report is a product of the collaboration of these agencies'
efforts throughout the Clinton administration, and Secretary Slater
would like to extend his deep appreciation to all of them for their
diligent work. The MOU's purpose is to create a basic framework for
cooperation among the participating agencies ``on economic
revitalization initiatives in the Delta region.''
The Delta 2000 Initiative recognizes that the federal agencies play
only one part in promoting the region's advancement. It is essential to
forge a coalition of federal, state, local, private business, nonprofit
foundations, and other grassroots organizations to meet the challenges
the region will face beyond the year 2000. The Interim Report condenses
many of the important developments in the Delta during the 1990s, but
it is not an exhaustive study of all federal activities in this immense
region--it would require many volumes to accomplish that feat. For
those people interested in detailed analysis of particular issues
analyzed in this Report, an extensive ``Inventory'' will be available
from the Department of Transportation, and will also be placed on the
DOT website (http://www.dot.gov/). As discussed in the Executive
Summary, the major product of this year's effort to gather and update
data on current issues will be a report on recommendations for the
Delta's future development. In the autumn of 1999, a series of
listening sessions will be held in the region to acquire ideas,
information, and counsel from the Delta's people.
We have achieved some progress in the Delta over the last decade,
but many challenges remain. During his domestic tour in the summer of
1999, President Clinton successfully reminded America that certain
areas of our country--such as the Southwest Border region, Appalachia,
native American reservations, and the Mississippi Delta--have not fully
participated in the unprecedented prosperity of the 1990s. The Delta
was featured prominently in that tour, including a meeting in
Clarksdale, Mississippi. In August, 1999, the President met with local
leaders in Helena, Arkansas. The underdeveloped regions like the Delta
offer great opportunities for new markets to the private sector, and a
coalition of federal, state, and local entities must cooperate to make
those opportunities become a reality. Governor Clinton poignantly
expressed that thought ten years ago, in words that ring true today:
``Our own people are leading the way. However, much more must be done
if the Delta region is to become a full partner in America's future.
That will require the federal, state and local governments as well as
many private sector groups and the community at large to work together
in a spirit of dedication and innovation.''

INTERIM REPORT OF ``THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA: BEYOND 2000''

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In 1988, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. Representatives and
Senators supported the legislation creating the Lower Mississippi Delta
Development Commission, including Rep. Mike Espy of Mississippi, Rep.
Bill Alexander of Arkansas, Senator Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and many
other members of Congress from the Delta. Governor Clinton chaired the
Commission, with Governor Ray Mabus of Mississippi and Governor Buddy
Roemer of Louisiana serving as Commissioners. The Lower Mississippi
Delta is comprised of 219 counties in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas,
Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois. The region has historically
suffered from endemic poverty. The Delta Initiatives: Realizing the
Dream--Fulfilling the Potential embodied the ideas and information
gathered from many public hearings, research, and statistical
information presented by the Delta's people concerning how to promote
economic development and improve the region's quality of life.
The Commission published an Interim Report in October, 1989
containing an extensive array of data and detailed summaries of
projects then underway. The Final Report published a year later focused
on recommendations for improving the Delta's economy in the future. The
Interim Report of ``The Delta: Beyond 2000'' initiative--published a
decade after the original Commission began its work--will review the
progress achieved in fulfilling many of the 400 recommendations of The
Delta Initiatives, with some concise summaries of remaining challenges
for the future. It should be emphasized that this Interim Report is
only the beginning of this year's effort to gather data on current
issues in the region; the major product will be an action plan for the
Delta's future, to be completed by late 1999. This major report will
publish supplemental data and updates of ongoing projects along with
new trends that have taken place over the last ten years. However, this
plan will primarily focus upon new recommendations for the future
social and economic progress of the Delta. The major emphasis in the
report on the Delta's future will be upon gathering the information,
ideas, and recommendations from grassroots sources throughout the
region.
Solving the historic problems of the Delta is a long-term
initiative, and those who worked for the original Commission in 1988-90
often pledged that they were committed to this project for the long
haul. This Interim Report will demonstrate that in many respects,
limited progress has been achieved in addressing the profound social
and economic conditions of the people who live at the very heart of
America. The great life-giving artery of the Mississippi River, as John
Gunther once wrote, ``remains what it always was--a kind of huge rope,
no matter with what knots and frays, tying the United States together.
It is the Nile of the Western Hemisphere.'' The region encompasses rich
natural resources and physical assets, as well as a deep historical and
cultural heritage.
Yet, as Governor Clinton stressed in 1990, the Delta cannot become
a full partner in America's future without ``an honest assessment of
where we are in the emerging global economy and what we have to do to
increase the capacity of all our people to succeed in it.'' Thus, while
summarizing the advances made in many areas of transportation, health
care, economic development, education, housing, environmental
protection and other vital issues, the Interim Report acknowledges that
many compelling problems remain in a region that has historically
lagged behind much of the nation in the realm of economic opportunity.
The Delta 2000 Initiative follows the grassroots policy of the original
Commission, as it seeks information and counsel from local communities
throughout the region in preparing the report focusing on the Delta's
future. In this endeavor to seek the counsel of Delta residents, a
series of listening sessions will be held in the Delta in the autumn of
1999.

THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA REGIONAL INITIATIVE INTERAGENCY MEMORANDUM OF
UNDERSTANDING, 1998

This Interim Report marks the first step in fulfilling the
Mississippi Delta Regional Initiative Interagency Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU). As discussed in the Foreword, 10 federal agencies
signed the MOU at a meeting with local Delta leaders organized by
Secretary Rodney Slater in Memphis, Tennessee in July, 1998. The MOU
was expanded to include a number of additional agencies in 1999. The
Memorandum's purpose ``is to establish a general framework for
cooperation among the participating agencies on economic revitalization
initiatives in the Delta region.''
The participating agencies pledged to ``work together to coordinate
and support a broad-based government-wide review and assessment of the
Delta.'' The Memorandum underscored the rural nature of much of the
Delta, stating: ``This effort will build upon the work of President
Clinton and Vice President Gore to strengthen rural communities for the
21st century.'' In particular, the agencies committed themselves to
provide an update of the 1990 Report, The Delta Initiatives: Realizing
the Dream--Fulfilling the Potential, as well as to continue the process
of implementing that report's recommendations. Looking forward to the
major report on recommendations for the future that will be published
later in 1999, the MOU stressed the importance of cooperating with
state and local organizations in developing an action plan for
revitalizing the region. The Memorandum recognized that the Delta ``has
long been considered one of the poorest regions of the Nation.''

SUMMARY OF THE INTERIM REPORT

The Interim Report follows the major categories set forth in The
Delta Initiatives, focusing on transportation; human capital
development (including education, community development, job training,
health, and housing); natural and physical assets (agriculture, natural
resources and the environment); and business and industrial development
(technological and entrepreneurial enterprise, small business
development, and tourism). For people interested in extensive data and
analysis on a particular issue, there is a detailed Inventory on each
of these issues that buttresses the Interim Report. Several of the
Interim Report's key findings include the following:
--Transportation.--The Commission's 10-year goal envisioned an
improved network of limited access highways, airports, and rail
and port facilities to promote economic growth. The great
majority of the nearly 70 specific transportation
recommendations in The Delta Initiatives have either been
fulfilled or substantially fulfilled. The Intermodal Surface
Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and the
Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century of 1998 (TEA-21)
dramatically increased Highway Trust Fund investment in
highways and transit. Delta states have used the flexibility
established in ISTEA to fund improvements to the Great River
Road, as well as for scenic easements, historic preservation
and other projects. For example, in Arkansas during the 1990s
approximately $140 million was used to complete about 120 miles
of highway reconstruction, surfacing, widening and other
projects in Delta counties. Such transportation improvements
are a powerful engine for economic growth and improving the
quality of life in the Delta.
--Job growth.--From 1993 to 1998, the annual average unemployment for
the entire 219-county region declined from 7.5 percent in 1993
to 5.7 percent in 1998. During this period, 184 of the 219
counties experienced job growth. There were some substantial
success stories, such as declining unemployment rates for the
major regional urban areas such as Pulaski County, Arkansas;
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; Shelby County, Tennesee; and Hinds
County, Mississippi, that were similar to or slightly lower
than the historically low national unemployment averages of the
1990s. A few rural areas witnessed improvement, such as Madison
Parish, Louisiana, where the unemployment rate fell from 14
percent in 1990 to 7.5 percent in June, 1999.
President Clinton signed the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and the
Workforce Investment Act of 1998, two major pieces of
legislation that are dramatically helping people make the
transition from welfare to work. The impact of these laws is
explored in depth by the Department of Labor and other agencies
in the Report and the Inventory. Virtually all of the
participating agencies pursued policies directly or indirectly
related to job growth, such as welfare-to-work, transportation,
small business promotion, Empowerment Zones and Enterprise
Communities, and other economic development initiatives.
--Persistent unemployment dilemmas in rural areas and inner cities.--
However, some inner city neighborhoods did not participate in
the overall urban prosperity, and rural areas in general still
lagged far behind the national unemployment rate. In fact, some
rural counties still suffered from unemployment rates two and
three times as high as the national average. For example, St.
Francis County's unemployment rate declined from 13.4 percent
in 1993, but in 1998 its annual average--though a substantial
improvement--still remained at a high 9 percent. The continuing
unemployment problems in many rural areas pose the greatest
remaining challenge in the region's employment horizons.
--Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities (EZ/EC) and Champion
Communities.--The EZ/EC program is the major Clinton-Gore
administration innovation in the field of community
development. In Round I of the EZ/EC program announced in 1994,
there were eight rural and five urban EZ's and EC's in the
Delta, with another rural Delta EZ (in southern Illinois) being
added in Round II of the program in 1999. There are more than
50 rural ``Champion Communities'' and four urban Champion
Communities in the Delta; these are communities that did not
receive EZ or EC designations, but developed strategic plans
and receive priority assistance in response to their federal
applications for funding and technical help.
The program is based upon the principles of sustainable
development, leadership from the local grassroots level,
economic opportunity, long-range strategic planning, and
community-based partnerships. The Interim Report summarizes the
federal funding and tax incentives offered by the EZ's and
EC's; however, the grassroots leadership and strategic planning
phases of the program are more important, ultimately, than the
federal funding amounts. One of the great successes of the
program has been the communities' successes in ``leveraging''
funds. For example, the rural communities drew $10.225 million
from their EZ/EC funding from 1994 to the beginning of 1999,
while their total funding--including state, local, private
business, and nonprofit foundation sources--amounted to ten
times that much, or approximately $107.4 million. The EZ's and
EC's provide a model for grassroots community leadership and
sustainable development.
--Education.--Nearly a decade after the 1990 Commission's
recommendation to target resources to ``low-income, rural
students'' in the Delta, the Department of Education provided
over $350 million in fiscal year 1998 alone to high-poverty
school districts in the Delta. Under President Clinton's Class
Size Reduction Initiative, the Department provided more than
$50 million to this region in fiscal 1999 to hire approximately
1,500 new teachers in the early grades. A series of initiatives
such as the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund (TLCF), Star
School and the ``E-rate'' targeted funding for improving
technology to high-poverty regions. For example, the Delta
districts in Louisiana alone received $4.6 million under TLCF
in fiscal year 1998.
While continued investment in public education is needed to
increase student academic achievement in the region, many Delta
schools and districts have recently demonstrated significant
gains in student test scores. For example, third grade students
at the Portland Elementary School in Ashley, Arkansas improved
their reading scores on the Stanford Achievement Test from the
25th percentile in 1993 to the 46th percentile in 1999. The
percentage of eleventh graders in the Memphis City Public
Schools scoring `proficient' on the Tennessee Comprehensive
Assessment Program (TCAP) Writing Assessment increased from 19
percent in 1994 to 56 percent in 1999. ``We still have a long
way to go, but we believe our progress is largely a result of
our schoolwide approach to reform and the initiation of
extended learning opportunities, both of which are facilitated
by Federal program funding and flexibility reforms,'' states
Memphis City Schools Superintendent--and American Association
of School Administrators (AASA) 1998-99 Superintendent of the
Year--Dr. Gerry House.
--Agriculture.--Agriculture remains an economic juggernaut in the
Delta. This region is one of America's most prolific producers
of cotton, rice, soybeans, and other major agricultural
products. USDA pursued policies to promote the economic
viability of the traditional major producers, as well as new
initiatives intended to promote direct marketing, sustainable
agriculture, alternative products such as aquaculture, and
other policies aimed at preserving marketing and credit
opportunities for small and minority farmers. In the late
1990s, farmers faced one of the most severe depressions in
American history. Emergency federal relief for agriculture was
developed in the summer of 1999, and this legislation will be
dealt with in depth in the major recommendations for the
Delta's future to be completed later in 1999.
--Infrastructure.--The Departments of Commerce, HUD, EPA, Energy, and
USDA's Rural Development have brought numerous local
infrastructure projects to the region, such as adequate water
and sewer systems, telecommunications, electricity and natural
gas, rural health care, public safety and other projects needed
for economic development and improved quality of life. For
example, the Department of Commerce programs provided more than
370 grants totaling over $114 million in the Delta from 1993 to
mid-1999. The total funding for the 219-county area from Rural
Development's Community Facilities, Rural Business Programs,
and Water & Waste programs amounted to approximately
$858,224,000 from 1993 to mid-1999. The Rural Utilities Service
provided first-time telephone service to more than 8,200 rural
residents, while more than 77,000 residents received improved
telecommunications. In addition to traditional infrastructure,
Rural Development's Distance Learning and Telemedicine program
combined improvements in access to health care and educational
opportunities in the health care field for approximately
800,000 rural residents in the region.
--Natural Resources and the Environment.--The Clinton-Gore
Administration has dealt with major natural resource and
environment issues facing the Delta, including wetlands
protection and restoration, air and water quality protection,
wildlife and natural resource conservation, and environmental
justice. In 1993, the Administration developed a fair,
flexible, and effective wetlands policy that increased
regulatory certainty for private landowners while protecting
wetlands. This policy has resulted in the protection, creation
or enhancement of approximately 300,000 acres of wetlands
through a variety of programs, including the Wetlands Reserve
Program. In addition, by the end of the decade a total of 2
million acres were enrolled in the Conservation Reserve
Program, which had begun before the 1990s but expanded during
the decade. This Program encourages voluntary enrollment of
highly erodible land, cropped wetlands, wildlife habitat, and
wetland restoration acres to ensure protection from erosion
while improving water quality and wildlife habitat.
Approximately two million acres are currently enrolled in the
Delta.
The Administration is working to empower States and localities to
prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse
brownfields and other waste sites. It is also providing
stronger public health protections by establishing new safety
standards for all pesticides used on foods under the Food
Quality Protection Act, and by providing new tools and
resources for cleaner, safer water under the 1996 Safe Drinking
Water Act Amendments and the 1998 Clean Water Action Plan. In
addition, the Administration is focusing attention on the
environmental and human health conditions plaguing minority and
low-income communities in the Delta. The designation of the
Lower Mississippi River as an American Heritage River by
President Clinton in 1998 is helping to focus these and other
federal efforts to strengthen historic and cultural
preservation, natural resource protection, and economic
revitalization.
--Tourism.--The natural splendors of the Delta, as well as its
historical and cultural sites, are among its major tourist
attractions. Thus, initiatives related to preserving natural
resources and the environment support efforts to promote the
region's tourist industry. Tourist revenue brought almost $13
billion to the Delta in 1998. Millions of visitors come to
enjoy the natural beauty, culture, food, and deep historical,
musical and literary heritage of the region. The President's
designation of the Lower Mississippi River as an American
Heritage River in 1998 (as mentioned above) will help preserve
and enhance the great river's appeal for tourism. The National
Park Service, Department of Transportation, Department of
Commerce and other agencies pursue a series of initiatives
designed to promote tourism for the region.
--Housing.--Under the leadership of Secretary Andrew Cuomo, HUD has
promoted more equitable housing opportunities for moderate and
low-income people, both in homeownership and rental housing.
HUD has vigorously enforced the Fair Housing Act to attack the
problem of discrimination in housing. Funding for HUD's
homelessness assistance programs more than tripled from 1992 to
1999, although the 1990 Commission's ambitious goal of
eradicating homelessness entirely in the Delta remains elusive.
HUD has pursued innovative housing policies to expand
opportunities in inner city areas; one example is the
renovation of the Farish Street district in Jackson,
Mississippi.
--Rural housing.--USDA's Rural Housing Service assisted approximately
43,000 Delta households to buy or improve their homes; loans
for single-family housing in the region from fiscal years 1993
through 1999 came to a total of $2.236 billion. In rental
housing, more than $254 million was provided for more than
10,000 rental units in the region. Despite these achievements,
senior citizens and minorities in the region still suffer from
inadequate housing. Fifty eight percent of rural elderly
renters in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi are ``cost-
burdened'' in housing, meaning that they pay greater than 30
percent of monthly income for shelter costs. Rural African
Americans in the Delta have a 51 percent poverty rate in
Arkansas, a 54 percent rate in Louisiana, and a 52 percent rate
in Mississippi. While some areas have experienced some advances
in housing, large sectors of the population have not
participated in these gains, especially low-income senior
citizens and African Americans in rural areas.
--Health Care.--In the Report, the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) reviews Medicare, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF), and the special needs of rural
hospitals and inadequate access to health care in rural areas.
HHS also pursues programs aimed at improving health care for
senior citizens, minorities, and HIV/AIDS patients in the
Delta. A division of the Centers for Disease Control has worked
on an initiative for health education, training, research and
environmental health in the region through the Mississippi
Delta Health and Environment Project, a partnership among
federal, state and local governments, Historically Black
Colleges and Universities (HBCU), faith-based organizations,
community organizations, and environmental advocacy groups in
the region.
--Child care and youth issues.--HHS takes the lead in a series of
child care initiatives. The early childhood education program,
Head Start, expanded its enrollment in Arkansas, Louisiana, and
Mississippi from 41,996 in 1990 to 55,248 in 1998. The Child
Care Development Fund, Healthy Child Care America Campaign, and
other child care efforts are active in the Delta. A network of
Family Youth Services Bureau Program centers operate in the
region to prevent youth from dropping out of school, provide
temporary shelter to runaways and reunite them with their
families when possible, and help teenage parents make the
transition from unemployment to self-sufficiency. Teen
pregnancy declined in Arkansas by 7.9 percent from 1991 to
1995, while in that period Louisiana reduced its rate by 8.2
percent and Mississippi by 5.9 percent. The national reduction
was 6.5 percent. Despite these gains, teen pregnancy in the
region is still too high.
--Hunger, nutrition and food security.--The Food and Nutrition
Service of USDA reviews issues in the school lunch, food stamp,
the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants
and Children (WIC), Cooperative Extension nutrition programs,
food recovery and gleaning, and other initiatives that form the
hunger safety net for low-income Americans. Although these
bedrock anti-hunger programs have eliminated the most grievous
cases of malnutrition that Senator Robert F. Kennedy dramatized
with his travel through the Delta in 1967, low-income people in
the Delta still suffer from inadequate access to good
nutrition.
Two innovative models of anti-hunger efforts are the Lower
Mississippi Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative
and the Mississippi Action for Community Education (MACE) anti-
hunger partnership. The research initiative is a coalition of
community leaders, nutrition experts, and USDA officials that
evaluates nutritional health in the Delta and develops
strategies for addressing them. The MACE anti-hunger efforts
include food stamp outreach, nutrition education, support for
local food pantries, and increasing School Breakfast and summer
feeding programs. For example, during 1994 and 1995, MACE
sponsored and administered a demonstration food stamp outreach
program through a grant sponsored by USDA. MACE was
instrumental in identifying and enrolling thousands of low-
income and/or elderly people living in rural areas of the
Mississippi Delta region who were eligible for but not
receiving food stamps. This project also supports efforts to
expand summer feeding and School Breakfast programs in rural
school districts.

REMAINING CHALLENGES: RURAL POVERTY AND INNER CITIES

The Report demonstrates that two challenges remain especially
poignant for the years beyond 2000: addressing the plight of both rural
areas and of inner city neighborhoods in unemployment, health care,
housing, the agricultural economy, and a host of other issues. In part,
the dilemma of the rural poor feeds the problem of the inner city poor,
for many agricultural laborers and small farmers forced from the land
by mechanization and other broad socio-economic trends of the past 50
years sought refuge in the great urban centers, both outside the region
and in Memphis, New Orleans, Jackson, Little Rock or other cities. The
statistics show that for the majority of people living in the Delta's
cities, employment and other measures of prosperity are improving; but
some neighborhoods in the city's heart have been left behind. As
Michael Harrington wrote in his classic, The Other America: Poverty in
the United States (originally published in the 1960s and updated in the
1980s), many of the sharecroppers and cotton pickers from Arkansas and
Mississippi or the rural poor from southeast Missouri ``share common
problems--the fact that the backwoods has completely unfitted them for
urban life.'' Many of the inner city's poor arrived from rural areas
and became mired in cycles of poor education, dependency and poverty.
Attacking the problems of poverty in the most downtrodden rural areas
will thus relieve some of the long-term pressures on depressed inner
city neighborhoods. Among all families, average poverty rates in the
rural Delta have been in a range 6 to 9 percent higher than in urban
Delta areas. Actions flowing from the Mississippi Delta Regional
Initiative should be channeled into those areas which have the most
urgent need for help. The Delta's rural areas persistently lag behind
not only the national standards but even those of the urban areas of
the region in all of the fundamental issues analyzed in The Delta
Initiatives.

THE PLIGHT OF MINORITIES AND RACE RELATIONS

Historically, the melancholy legacy of racial discrimination has
posed one of the most formidable barriers to the Delta's progress.
Approximately 40 percent of the region's population is African
American, yet the measures of prosperity and opportunity are depressing
for this large section of the Delta's people. For example, poverty
rates among rural African Americans in Arkansas, Louisiana and
Mississippi all range above 50 percent. The Clinton administration has
pursued an array of initiatives intended to address racial and ethnic
disparities in employment, educational opportunity, health, small
business, housing, and other fields. The Empowerment Zones and
Enterprise Communities in the region are located in areas with large
minority populations. The voluminous data gathered in this Report and
the accompanying inventories on specific issues should foster a
dialogue about race relations that will aid the Delta 2000 Initiative
in developing a plan for the future that will ameliorate race divisions
and bring fair opportunities for all races and ethnic groups in the
region. The listening sessions in the autumn of 1999 will provide
another forum for this dialogue. At the height of the civil rights
movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., lamented the racial oppression
in the Delta in his famous ``I Have a Dream'' speech, but envisaged a
day in the future when it would become an oasis of racial
understanding: ``I have a dream that one day, even the state of
Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering
with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of
freedom and justice.'' Mississippi and the other areas of the region
have advanced beyond the racial oppression of those troubled times, yet
the Delta still faces a long journey before it reaches King's vision of
racial justice.

NEW ISSUES FOR THE APPROACHING MILLENNIUM

The Commission's Report in 1990 was a wide-ranging, broad-minded
document that looked ahead to many of the developments and issues that
the region dealt with during the decade. In The Delta Initiatives,
Governor Clinton explicitly used a phrase about expanding into ``new
markets'' to reach areas whose potential had not yet been developed.
President Clinton focused on this same theme in his New Markets
Initiative, which is intended to focus investment and resources in
developing those regions of America that did not fully enjoy the
national prosperity of the decade, such as the Southwest Border region,
Appalachia, Native American reservations, and the Mississippi Delta. No
one, however, could have foreseen such extraordinary developments of
the decade as the unprecedented national prosperity, with low
inflation, low interest rates and high economic growth; the explosion
of technological advancement and gains in productivity; or the
expansion of computer technology and the information revolution of the
Internet. This Interim Report deals with some of these new
developments, such as the use of telemedicine and distance learning,
the increasing importance of computers in education and business, and
others. In the listening sessions and the creation of recommendations,
the Delta 2000 Initiative will remain attentive to new and emerging
issues for the next century.

EMPOWERMENT AT THE GRASSROOTS LEVEL

This Interim Report is founded upon the work of literally hundreds
of federal employees, most of whom live and work in the Delta. They
gathered and compiled this data from their records, experiences, and
from countless conversations and interactions with the region's people.
Nonetheless, this Report marks just the first step in beginning the
dialogue that will be fostered in the autumn listening sessions and
will culminate in a ``Blueprint for the Delta's Future'' by the end of
1999.
The principal contributors of the new recommendations for the
future will be the grassroots leaders throughout the region. The
federal government is only one partner in the dynamic coalition needed
to move the region forward. Federal, state and local governments,
private business, and nonprofit foundations must all play key roles.
The federal government can provide technical assistance and resources,
but ultimately, empowerment and lasting change flow from leadership at
the grassroots level. As Bill Clinton expressed the empowering nature
of broad-based grassroots participation in 1990, ``Being in the
vanguard of change need not be a distinction limited to the freedom-
hungry citizens of Eastern Europe or Poland or the aggressive business
people of Singapore or Korea. The people of the Delta belong in that
vanguard. They want to be there, and they can be, if each of us will do
our part.''

DEFINITION OF THE DELTA REGION

Six decades ago, William Faulkner wrote movingly of the Mississippi
River's profound allure: ``A river known by its ineradicable name to
generations of men who had been drawn to live beside it as man always
has been drawn to dwell beside water, even before he had a name for
water and fire, drawn to the living water, the course of his destiny .
. .'' The Mississippi Delta region encompasses 219 counties stretching
from the area around New Orleans, Louisiana to southern Illinois. More
than 8.3 million people live there. The seven states making up the
region are bound together by basic shared characteristics. The region
is blessed with great natural resources: the rich fertile soil along
the Mississippi River's east and west banks, a warm climate with long
growing seasons, and a total of over two million acres of water area,
including more than 89,000 miles of rivers and streams. The region
boasts a deep cultural heritage, including many of the great musical
and literary figures of the twentieth century, such as Mahalia Jackson,
Louis Armstrong, Richard Wright, Eudora Welty, and Faulkner.
Notwithstanding its assets, however, the Delta has historically
been plagued by hardship and poverty. With the mechanization of large-
scale farms early in the twentieth century, the Delta experienced an
exodus of its children to the industrial centers of America.
Substandard housing, inadequate transportation systems, limited access
to capital, limited business and industrial development, low
educational levels, and other deficiencies have troubled the region's
people. Strained race relations have compounded the problems associated
with the Delta's poverty. While this Interim Report summarizes some of
the constructive efforts to address these problems, much work remains
if the region is to overcome the legacy of its often troubled past.
The majority of the region lies in the southernmost area of the
Delta. Of the 219 counties, 42 are in Arkansas, 45 are in Mississippi,
and 45 parishes are in Louisiana. For Arkansas, Louisiana and
Mississippi, these counties make up over half of the area and
population of these states. The Tennessee Delta region includes the
large urban area of Memphis and a total of 21 counties in western
Tennessee. Louisiana has the most heavily populated Delta region, with
more than 2.8 million people living there--approximately one third of
the entire region's population (based on the 1990 Census). The
Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee Delta areas had roughly similar
populations in the range of 1,350,000 to 1,450,000. Over 7 million of
the region's inhabitants live in the four southernmost states. A total
of about 1.3 million people live in the northermost areas of the Delta
in Missouri, Kentucky, and Illinois.
The region includes 29 counties in Missouri, 21 counties in
Kentucky, and the 16 southernmost counties of Illinois. Relatively
speaking, of course, the Delta regions of Kentucky, Missouri, and
Illinois are much smaller portions of these states. The data discussed
in this Interim Report focuses on areas within the 219-county region.
However, since the Delta areas are economically and politically linked
to the states in which they are located, a few passages in the
extensive Inventory (referred to the Foreword) will include some
statistics placing these areas within their statewide context. However,
the great majority of the facts and figures in the Inventory, and
virtually all the material in the Interim Report itself, will focus on
the 219-county region. The major report on the Delta's future will
include extensive additional data specific to the 219 counties.

SECTIONS OF THE INVENTORY

For those people interested in an in-depth analysis of a particular
section or sections summarized in the Interim Report, the Inventory
addresses the major themes of The Delta Initiatives, broadly
emphasizing human capital development, natural, physical and
environmental assets, and business and industrial development. This
Inventory will focus on the fundamental thrust of The Delta Initiatives
recommendations rather than a compilation of minutiae on every one of
the 400 recommendations. It is important to recognize that this
Inventory consists largely of federal actions
The authors of the 1990 Report had no illusions about the
difficulty of the initiatives they were launching, and stressed that
the goals were purposely designed to be ambitious. The authors stated,
``The Delta Commission recognizes that some may not be fully attained
within a decade's time, but together the goals outline an overall plan
that can make the Lower Mississippi Delta and its citizens full
partners in creating the nation's best possible future when the dawn of
that new age arrives.''

HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT

Community Development

``Ever since I became President, I have done what I could do to
increase investment in undeveloped areas through the empowerment zones,
which give tax credits and put tax money into distressed areas--through
getting banks to more vigorously approach the Community Reinvestment
Act and setting up Community Development Financial Institutions.''--
President Clinton, speaking about community development in his
Clarksdale, Mississippi ``New Markets'' initiative tour, July 6, 1999

The field of community development embodies one of the Clinton-Gore
administration's most innovative policy initiatives: the Empowerment
Zones/Enterprise Communities (EZ/EC) program. The 1990 Report contained
a major section on ``Community Development,'' the basic principles of
which are now being supported in EZ/EC communities in the Delta and in
other regions of the country. In Round I of the EZ/EC program announced
in 1994, there were eight rural and five urban EZ's and EC's in the
region, with 39 additional rural communities and four urban communities
in the region gaining ``Champion Community'' status under the program.
These communities receive priority assistance in response to
applications for funding and technical assistance.
The family of EZ/EC communities enjoyed a major expansion
nationwide with the announcement of Round II in January, 1999. A number
of new communities were designated in the Delta, including a new
Empowerment Zone in rural southern Illinois and 15 new rural Champion
Communities, bringing the total number of Champion Communities to more
than 50. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
administers the urban communities, while rural communities
participating in the program are assisted by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA). The urban Enterprise Communities are in Pulaski
County, Arkansas; Ouachita Parish, Louisiana; Memphis, Tennessee;
Jackson, Mississippi and New Orleans, Louisiana. The rural Empowerment
Zone and Enterprise Communities are as follows: the Mid-Delta
Mississippi Empowerment Zone, Mississippi; North Delta Mississippi EC,
Mississippi; Northeast Louisiana Delta EC, Louisiana; Macon Ridge EC,
Louisiana; Mississippi County EC, Arkansas; East Central Arkansas EC,
Arkansas; Fayette/Howard EC, Tennessee; East Prairie Enterprise
Community, Missouri; and, finally, in the Round II designation in 1999,
the new Southernmost Illinois Delta EZ was established in Illinois.
EZ/EC principles.--The EZ/EC program is based upon four key
principles: economic opportunity, sustainable community development,
community-based partnerships, and strategic vision for change. Each
community was required to engage in extensive community planning to
develop a strategic plan for its EZ/EC application. The communities
received Health and Human Services Social Security block grants, and
Empowerment Zone employers gained a number of tax incentives, such as
tax credits equal to 20 percent of the first $15,000 in wages or
training expenses for qualified employees.
A crucial feature of the program was the communities' success in
leveraging their federal funding with commitments from state, county,
and local governments, private businesses, and nonprofit and foundation
awards. The average leveraging ratio for rural communities in the
period from 1994 to the beginning of 1999, for example, was
approximately 10 dollars of additional funding for each one dollar of
EZ/EC funding. The total amount these communities drew from EZ/EC
funding was approximately $10.225 million, which leveraged roughly ten
times as much, or about $107.4 million. Thus, the great majority of the
EZ/EC communities managed their financial resources so as to multiply
the impact of the federal funding and make their community and economic
development sustainable for the long term.
The community development section of the inventory provides details
about specific projects regarding a variety of issues in the Delta,
including: job creation and retention; housing; health care;
infrastructure; small business development; small and limited resource
farmer issues; education and training; and other issues. The program
looks forward to success for the Round I and Round II communities, as
well as the possibility of continued expansion through passage of a
third round of community designations throughout the Delta and the rest
of the country.
Moreover, in collaboration with the Department of Treasury, many
communities have been assisted by the Community Development Financial
Institutions initiative, which has provided extensive financial support
for many community development organizations in local areas throughout
the region. In President Clinton's ``New Markets Initiative'' trip to
Clarksdale, Mississippi, in July, 1999, he announced nearly $15 million
in new private investments in the Enterprise Corporation for the Delta,
a nonprofit organization that uses federal grants to leverage private
investments in business. The President announced that the Bank of
America would pledge $500 million in equity for business enterprises in
low-income areas; of that total, $100 million will go into a Community
Development Financial Institution (CDFI). The President said that ``We
are going to do everything we can in the government to give the
financial incentives necessary for people to invest here.''
Regional planning.--The communities also played a dynamic role in
promoting a regional approach to economic and community development.
The rural and urban EZ's and EC's in the region banded together to form
the Southern EZ/EC Forum, which is working with other nonprofit
foundations as well as local, state and federal governments to promote
their long-range vision of regional development. The Forum, calling
itself the Mississippi Delta Regional Initiative, was organized in 1995
and has developed its own multi-state strategic plan. Vice President Al
Gore has endorsed the Southern EZ/EC Forum's efforts, which are among
the key forces supporting the overall ``Delta: Beyond 2000''
initiative.
An important regional entity that promotes the Delta's development
is the Delta Compact, which is largely comprised of community-based
nonprofit organizations in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi that
attempt to direct resources to the most distressed communities and
populations in the Delta. More than 35 Delta Compact signatories have
committed over $40 million in resources and technical assistance to
this collaborative enterprise.
The Department of Commerce continued its longstanding policy of
providing regional planning support to the Delta during the 1990s. The
Agency funded 29 multi-county regional planning organizations (Economic
Development Districts) helping Delta communities develop comprehensive
economic development strategies to provide economic opportunity. The
Economic Development Administration (EDA) provided further support for
regional planning efforts by funding seven University Centers servicing
the Delta.
Examples of EZ/EC community development accomplishments.--The EZ/EC
program is the most innovative and wide-ranging of the development
initiatives discussed in this report, since it is inter-related with
activities for transportation, job creation, health care, education,
infrastructure, small business development, and other issues analyzed
in all sections of The Delta Initiatives. The following examples are
just a tiny sampling of EZ/EC activities, but they reflect the types of
grassroots community development generated by this program:
--Job growth promoted by regional distribution center in
Mississippi.--Using tax credits and EZ/EC funding, the Mid-
Delta Mississippi EZ attracted a regional distribution center
for Dollar General Stores that created hundreds of jobs in
Indianola, Mississippi. The project involves a 800,000-square-
foot facility that will ship household products to 370 local
stores. Public and private investment in this project exceeded
$38 million. The Mississippi Department of Community and
Economic Development provided $2 million in community
development block grant funds. EZ tax credits provided up to
$3,000 for every resident hired. Dollar General invested more
than $25 million. With all the leveraging of private and state
funds, this project received a 30 to 1 return on the initial
EZ/EC investment of $900,000. In this largely agricultural
area, the job base had been shrinking due to technological and
market changes in farming. The CEO of Dollar General, Cal
Turner, Jr., stated that his company chose Indianola because of
the availability of labor and the total community support. The
center provides large numbers of well-paid jobs and has the
potential to help stop the brain drain of people leaving the
local area.
--Job creation and/or retention at Macon Ridge EC.--By early 1998,
the Macon Ridge Louisiana EC summarized its record regarding
jobs: a total of $953,000 was loaned, with leveraging of
private funds adding up to $787,000. A total of 118 minority
jobs were created or retained, with 111 jobs held by women
being created or retained. The EC reported 25 minority-owned
businesses and 20 businesses owned by women participating in
the program.

Community Housing Efforts:

Housing revitalization in Mississippi County.--The Mississippi
County, Arkansas EC developed and implemented a comprehensive plan for
affordable housing development and community improvement in Mississippi
County. The plan coordinates efforts to achieve affordable home
ownership, rental opportunities, and community improvement projects. To
address the problem of a lack of information about credit and housing
opportunities, the EC implemented a credit repair counseling and home
ownership training program. Since its inception, 70 families have
participated in this counseling program. The EC area has suffered from
deteriorating housing stock that has lowered the standard of living for
many low-income families. In response, the EC created a preservation
and rehabilitation program for owner-occupied units. The EC surpassed
its original goal of rehabilitating 20 housing units and now has
rehabilitated 43 homes. The EC has also focused on creating affordable,
clean decent rental units for low-income residents. The EC has
constructed 57 new rental houses for families, again surpassing its
original goal of 20 new homes.
Partnerships with nonprofit grassroots organizations.--The North
Delta Mississippi EC has developed an effective collaboration with
Tallahatchie Development League (TDL), a nonprofit, grassroots
organization that promotes community development in ``education,
economics, and family life.'' TDL is a partner in the EC's Housing
Preservation Grant Program, and also takes part in the EC's Housing
Preservation Grant program. In partnership with the North Delta Area on
Agency, TDL offers 27 meals per day to senior citizens in the Tutwiler
community. The League has co-developed 72 units of housing within the
EC. TDL also provides consulting services to communities and other
nonprofits in preparing applications for housing, Rural Development
Section 515 programs, the Affordable Housing Program, and community
development block grant funding.

Community Health care:

Delta Futures project for reducing infant mortality and teen
pregnancy.--This federally funded ``Delta Futures Safe at Home
Project'' provides a series of services in nutrition, the Women,
Infants and Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition program, health
information and education about the dangers of tobacco. The North Delta
Mississippi EC partners with a consortium of health care providers,
schools, Head Start, businesses, and community-based organizations that
contribute solutions to the fight against infant mortality, low
birthweight, and infant mortality.
Nursing Assistants Program.--The Northeast Louisiana Delta EC
sponsored a Nursing Assistants program at the Louisiana Technical
College's Tallulah campus. Students are enrolled dually in high school
and the nursing assistants program, which enables them to become
certified nursing assistants who can go to work immediately after
graduation. In 1998, 37 students enrolled in two classes in Tallulah
and 20 enrolled in a class in Lake Providence. Last year, 22 students
graduated from the program. The program is an excellent preparation for
students considering a job in the health care industry.
Infrastructure
Macon Ridge, Louisiana infrastructure development.--Numerous
examples of infrastructure development took place in 1998 in the Macon
Ridge Enterprise Community, which received a series of infrastructure
improvements through USDA Rural Development funding. The following are
several prominent examples:
--Turkey Creek Water System received a grant amount of $1,815,000
and a loan of $695,000 for the construction of a rural
water distribution system, including water production
wells, elevated storage tank, distribution lines and
service connections for approximately 400 households in
Franklin Parish.
--In Ferriday, Louisiana, a Rural Business Enterprise Grant of
$225,000 was used to acquire the land and building for the
Macon Ridge Enterprise Community Resource Center.
--In Harrisonburg, a $250,000 grant and $200,000 loan was used to
construct a new wastewater treatment facility.
--For the Concordia Parish Water District, a $1.294 million grant
and $482,000 loan upgraded a water system that had been
inadequate by constructing three new water wells, four
exchange units, a new metal building and a 200,000 gallon
potable water storage tank.
--In the towns of Wisner, Newellton, and St. Joseph, and Catahoula
Parish, USDA Community Facilities grants were used for
improvements to fire and police department equipment.
Railroad improvements to Tennessee industrial park.--The Fayette/
Haywood County EC solved a major transportation problem for the Haywood
County industrial park in Brownsville, Tennessee. The industrial park
had been filling up and there were almost no sites remaining with
railroad access. The EC applied for a $600,000 USDA Rural Development
grant and started laying a railroad spur to the underserved area of the
park. A Fortune 500 company got in touch with the park just as the spur
was being constructed, ultimately resulting in the opening of a $20
million high-tech papermaking plant employing 35 people. The USDA
funding was essential to the project, which came in under budget, in
turn enabling a second spur to be built that will encourage more firms
to locate at the Brownsville park.
Telecommunications.--The Fayette County/Haywood County EC is
working with local and state partners to promote a state-of-the-art
community telecommunications center for workforce development. The
Fayette County School Board is creating a Telecommunications and
Business School that will be equipped with computers and Internet
access. The EC developed a strategy to establish job training programs
relevant to the needs of local and regional markets. Local and state
officials, Shelby State Community College, and Rural Development are
all cooperating in this joint effort to enhance telecommunications in
the local area.

Community Small Business Development:

Historically Black colleges and Universities grant for business
incubator.--The Northeast Louisiana Delta Community Development
Corporation worked with Grambling State University to obtain a grant
from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop
a business incubator for new and emerging micro-businesses. The grant
was awarded through the Office of Community Services' Historically
Black Colleges and Universities. This project will provide economic
opportunities and promote self-sufficiency for low-income residents of
the area.
North Delta Revolving Loan Fund for small businesses.--The North
Delta EC has funded 19 small businesses from its revolving loan fund.
Each loan was in the amount of $10,000. The businesses provide job
opportunities and entrepreneurial opportunities for local residents.
The EC's vision for a business revolving loan fund (RLF) became a
reality for Quitman County, as the EC Board approved Quitman County
Economic Development District as administrator for the RLF. In 1998,
the business plan application process led to 15 loans, 88 percent of
which were made to minorities. The total amount loaned was $166,300,
which was used for a variety of purposes from business expansion or
purchasing equipment to inventory replenishments for existing
businesses.
One third of the $250,000 available was set aside for businesses
going into the new business incubator located in Lambert, which will be
in operation by the fall of 1999. An additional EC initiative is a new
Community Training Institute, which will provide training in budgeting,
grant writing, credit repair, and other issues of interest to EC
residents.

Community Education and Training

Little Rock preschool program.--In the Pulaski County/Little Rock,
Arkansas EC, the ``Success by Six'' program is creating a community
where children have the necessary skills to enter school ready and able
to learn. The EC is partnering with 10 state and local entities and a
steering committee representing more than 50 individuals or
organizations. ``Success by Six'' features home visits by volunteer
neighborhood residents who are trained as family resource advocates.
For families with pregnant women or children under 6 years old, home
visitors conduct assessments, determine household needs, and connect
family members to community resources such as health care, social
services, and educational programs. The program is working with roughly
20 families. Approximately 10 home visitors have been trained, with
many more submitting applications to take part. Research has
demonstrated that by reaching out to families when children are in
their earliest formative stages, serious problems can be avoided in the
future and less funds will be expended upon remedial education, health
care, or other social costs. The program is planned as a long-term
assistant for family resources.
New Orleans Safe Harbor Schools Initiative.--The New Orleans EC
created a ``Safe Harbor Schools'' initiative for educational activities
in 10 sites within the community. Now in its fourth year of operation,
the program is moving beyond basic survival skills to include creative
learning experiences in language, arts and math. Safe Harbor Schools
offered tutoring programs and enrichment activities presented by
certified teachers. Offerings included computer skills and family
learning events, as well as classes in conflict resolution and
mediation. Four of the Safe Harbor sites are for middle and high school
students. In the Algiers community, the program is focusing on out-of-
school populations due to a high truancy and dropout rate, with GED
preparation and career counseling being offered to 50 EC youths and
students. Progress has been made in keeping students motivated by use
of the computer lab and job training center, and through contact with
the school's numerous partners. The project has been a success for many
young people who completed their GED and job training.
With the success of Round I and the announcement of Round II in
early 1999, the family of Delta EZ's, EC's, and Champion Communities
enjoys great promise for future growth. The particular projects
summarized above represent only a small fraction of the
accomplishments, but they demonstrate how communities are meeting and
in many cases surpassing the program's goals, leveraging resources and
creating sustainable development. Ultimately, the success of the EZ/EC
idea flows from men and women in the Delta communities who have
demonstrated the commitment and hard work needed to make their vision
of opportunity and revitalization become a reality.

Community Efforts to Fight Substance Abuse

In 1990 the Commission recommended that drug intervention,
education, and prevention programs be improved and/or created to make
local communities and schools in the Delta drug-free. Like other areas
of America, the Delta continues to suffer from drug and alcohol abuse
and associated problems of student failures, drug dependency, and
crime. Obviously, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies
play a crucial role in the fight against substance abuse. Many of the
specific steps recommended by the Commission involved the Congress, the
state and local level, religious organizations, or local school
districts. The Clinton administration has pursued a variety of
initiatives to promote collaboration among state, local and federal
entities. The Office of National Drug Control Policy (or ONDCP, based
in the Executive Office of the President) coordinates many of these
collaborative initiatives, including the following examples:
--High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program (HIDTA).--This
program encourages joint efforts among federal, state and local
law enforcement agencies to address critical drug trafficking
problems that have a harmful impact in surrounding areas of the
United States. Each HIDTA assesses regional drug threats, and
then designs and implements strategies to combat the threats.
Nationwide this program grew from five regional programs with a
$25 million budget in 1990 to 31 programs and a $184 million
budget in fiscal year 1999. The Delta was included in this
expansion: six counties in the region have been designated in
three separate HIDTA programs. East Baton Rouge, Jefferson, and
Orleans parishes in Louisiana and Hinds County in Mississippi
are part of the Gulf Coast program; Cape Girardeau and Scott
counties in Missouri are in the Midwestern program.
The Gulf Coast HIDTA was designated in 1996. The Coast serves as
one of the transit and staging zones for drug trafficking, due
to the 8,000 miles of coastline, extensive swamps, rivers,
hundreds of small airstrips, and an intricate rail system.
Funding of $6 million in 1999 was distributed across the Gulf
Coast to support state operations centers and associated task
forces to disrupt drug trafficking organizations, reduce the
demand for drugs, and strive for a drug-free environment in
local communities.
--Drug-Free Communities Program.--The Office of National Drug Control
Policy funds community coalitions that work to increase
collaboration among government, the private sector and
community organizations that demonstrate a long-term commitment
to reduce drug use. For example, in fiscal year 1998, the Shady
Grove M.B. Church coalition of Greenville, Mississippi received
$100,000 to provide after-school and other prevention programs
for local youth. This local coalition serves the city of
Greenville as well as Washington, Bolivar and LeFlore counties.
This grant in fiscal 1998 was funded as part of a nationwide
competitive process, and the program is continuing, with
another round of grants to be announced later in 1999.
--The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.--This campaign is one
of the Office of National Drug Control Policy's most important
efforts to implement the first goal of the National Drug
Control Strategy: ``Educate and enable America's youth to
reject illegal drugs, as well as alcohol and tobacco.'' This
campaign disseminates drug prevention messages through
television, radio, video, newspaper, Internet, and other
formats. In 1997, the total Media Campaign funding for the
Delta was $3.087 million. This investment also generated
significant pro-bono contributions in the form of free air time
for the campaign through news and public affairs programs as
well as other programming with drug-prevention as its theme.
The effort serves major media markets in the Delta such as Little
Rock, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Jackson, Paducah, Kentucky, and
Springfield, Missouri. Examples of local outlets carrying Youth
Anti-Drug Media Campaign messages include television stations
such as WNOL in New Orleans, KDEB in Springfield, KBSI in
Paducah; radio stations such as KIPR in Little Rock, WEMX in
Baton Rouge and KMEX in New Orleans; and newspapers such as The
Jackson Clarion Ledger, New Orleans Times-Picayune, and many
others. A comprehensive school program reaches middle and high
school students throughout the region. Vehicles for the school
program include Weekly Reader, Scholastic, Channel One (in-
school television). The overall media campaign reaches 82
percent of teachers, coaches, mentors and other people in a
position to directly influence youth on an average of 3.5 times
each week. Ninety percent of all teenagers see anti-drug
advertising an average of 4.4 times each week.

HOUSING

HUD has worked with local communities throughout the Delta in
promoting more equitable housing opportunities for moderate and low-
income people. The Housing inventory contains detailed information on
HUD's efforts to reduce the financial, informational, and systemic
barriers to homeownership as a part of President Clinton's National
Homeownership Strategy.
HUD pursues a series of other projects for assisting moderate and
low-income people, such as escrow accounts of a percentage of monthly
rent for high-end rent paying tenants to be used later for down
payments on homes; Community Development Block Grant funding projects;
assistance with loans; assistance for the elderly and disabled; and a
variety of policies aimed at eradicating racial, religious or other
forms of discrimination in housing. The Commission had recommended that
an additional 400,000 units of decent, affordable rental housing be
provided for low-income Delta residents, and HUD reported that building
permits for an estimated 310,000 such units had already been issued by
1998.
Homelessness issues.--An array of initiatives aimed at eliminating
homelessness from the Delta. While acknowledging that this ambitious
goal has not yet been achieved, addressing homelessness is one of the
Clinton administration's priorities. Nationally, funding for HUD's
homelessness assistance programs grew dramatically from $284 million in
1992 to $975 million in 1999. An innovative approach called Continuum
of Care involves comprehensive and cooperative local planning to ensure
the availability of a range of services--from emergency shelter to
permanent housing--needed to meet the complex needs of the homeless.
However, the 1990 Commission set the highly ambitious goal of
eradicating homelessness by 2001. That goal has not been met.
Housing discrimination issues.--HUD has greatly expanded efforts to
enforce the Fair Housing Act. From the early 1990s to 1998, HUD secured
more than $3.2 million to compensate people who had suffered
discrimination in violation of housing laws. Using its authority under
the Fair Housing Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, HUD has investigated, settled,
and when necessary prosecuted cases of housing discrimination.
Rural housing.--In addressing housing problems for rural areas,
USDA's Rural Housing Service assisted nearly 43,000 Delta households to
buy or improve their homes. These loans for single-family housing in
the region from fiscal years 1993 through 1999 came to a total of
$2.236 billion. Regarding rental housing, the 1990 Report recommended
that Section 515 Rural Renting Housing and Section 521 Rental
Assistance programs be expanded. Through these programs, RHS provided
more than $254 million in low-interest loans for more than 10,000
rental units in the rural areas of the Delta.
As the distressed rural counties of the Delta suffered many of the
worst unemployment rates, these areas also experience many of the worst
housing problems. The Housing Assistance Council reported in 1997 that
people in rural areas of the Delta are more likely to live below the
poverty line: 24 percent of the Arkansas rural residents lived below
the level, 29 percent of the Louisiana residents, and 31 percent of the
Mississippi rural residents lived below the poverty line. Yet even
these statistics mask the staggering levels of poverty among the most
vulnerable rural groups: for the three states mentioned above, rural
African Americans in the Arkansas Delta have a 51 percent poverty rate,
the African American rural poverty rate in Louisiana is 54 percent, and
for Mississippi the level is 52 percent. Among all races, single-parent
families with children are the most likely to be poor. Among all
families, poverty rates in the rural Delta on average are approximately
6 to 9 percent higher than in urban Delta areas. African American,
female-headed households in the rural Delta faced poverty rates of 76
percent in Arkansas, 79 percent in Louisiana, and 75 percent in
Mississippi.
These poverty rates obviously pose serious problems for housing in
the region. About 6 percent of African American households in Arkansas
lack plumbing, 4 percent in Louisiana, and 6 percent in Mississippi--
the averages of the entire population are almost three times superior
to that rate. People in the Delta have a higher housing cost burden--
defined as paying greater than 30 percent of monthly income for shelter
costs. In Arkansas 42 percent of the rural households and 39 percent of
the urban are cost-burdened, 47 percent of the rural households and 44
percent of the urban in Louisiana, and 44 percent of rural households
and 43 percent of the urban in Mississippi. Senior citizens are
especially vulnerable: 58 percent of rural elderly renters in Arkansas,
Louisiana and Mississippi as a whole are cost-burdened. Thus, while
some areas of the Delta have experienced some advances in housing,
major populations have been left behind, especially the low-income
elderly and African Americans in rural areas.

HOUSING EFFORTS HELP REVITALIZE DOWNTOWN JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI DISTRICT

Forty years ago, Jackson, Mississippi's Farish Street district was
a thriving commercial and residential area where African-American
businesses and blues clubs flourished. The 125-block district traces
its roots to a settlement founded by freed slaves in the 1860s.
``From the 1920s through the era of Jim Crow, Farish Street was
really in its heyday,'' says Michael Hervey, Executive Director of the
Farish Street Historic District Neighborhood Foundation. ``It was a
self-contained community because African-Americans had no place else to
go. After integration, though, many residents elected to move out and
look for the American Dream in the suburbs.''
Like other inner cities neighborhoods across the country, the
Farish Street district experienced its share of disinvestment during
the 1960s and 1970s. However, Farish Street was luckier than other
inner-city neighborhoods that watched urban renewal change their unique
characters. Historic buildings along Farish Street remain standing and
intact. When the area received a historic district designation in 1994,
its downward spiral began to reverse.
The first sign of that reversal was the Farish Street Housing
Project, a $2.5 million, foundation-initiated project that renovated 35
historic shotgun houses during 1998. The foundation is now seeking
support for a $15-million project to create an entertainment district
that Hervey hopes will become a regional tourist destination.
The housing project, completed in March 1999, involved a host of
partners. The National Equity Fund provided $1.6 million from the sale
of Historic Preservation Tax Credits. A consortium of local banks
furnished $600,000 and the City of Jackson gave $175,000 from its
Community Development Block Grant allocation from the Department of
Housing and Urban Development.
The shotgun homes, built between 1930 and 1950, were completely
gutted inside and their outside structures were retained and restored.
Each home required new plumbing, electrical wiring, fixtures, and
appliances. Eligible residents who qualify for Section 8 rental
subsidies will be able to rent the one-, two-, and three-bedroom
bungalows. After the 15-year tax credit compliance period ends, the
homes will be sold to qualified buyers. For now, tenants won't pay more
than 30 percent of their incomes for rent.
The project will provide much-needed housing in an area where more
than half of the residential stock is vacant, substandard, or
abandoned. In addition, the project already has helped the local
economy by providing construction jobs for almost 60 local workers.
Minority-owned firms received 80 percent of the project's business.

EDUCATION

While education is primarily a responsibility of state and local
governments, improving K-12 education is a major priority of the
Clinton-Gore Administration. During this decade, the U.S. Department of
Education worked in partnership with the state and local level to help
increase levels of student achievement, create greater regulatory
freedom, and expand targeted funding in the Mississippi Delta region.
Targeting of funds to poor communities.--The Clinton-Gore
Administration has met the Commission's 1990 goal of providing
``targeted services to low-income, rural students'' in the Mississippi
Delta. The Department of Education--through its Title I program--
provided over $350 million in fiscal year 1998 alone to high-poverty
school districts in the Delta to help improve student achievement.
Under the Administration's Class Size Reduction Initiative, Delta
school districts received over $50 million in fiscal year 1999 to hire
up to 1,500 new teachers in the early grades. The Project Star study
conducted in Tennessee demonstrates the positive impact of smaller
classes of 13-17 students in the early grades on student achievement,
especially among poor students.
Migrant farmworkers and their children living in the Delta have
also benefited from Federal funding. During the 1998-99 school year, 91
percent of the 135 migrant students who participated in a University of
Tennessee Program--supported by a $350,000 Federal grant in fiscal year
1999--completed their G.E.D. A $270,000 Federal grant in fiscal year
1999 provides family literacy services to 120 migrant families residing
in the Kentucky Delta through the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative
(OVEC). Native-American students living on reservations in the region
have also received additional Federal funding. The Department of
Education awarded $177,097 in fiscal year 1999 to the Mississippi Band
of Choctaws to implement a tutorial program aimed at improving student
academic achievement.
Access to technology.--The Delta region has received millions of
dollars in Federal funding during the 1990s to help insure that
teachers have the skills and resources to provide students with a rich
educational experience enhanced by advanced technology. Four Federal
programs--the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund (TLCF), Technology
Innovation Challenge Grants (TICG), Star Schools and the E-rate--all
target funding for technology to high-poverty regions. In fiscal year
1998 alone, Delta districts in Louisiana received $4,600,000 of the
$5,900,000 in TLCF funding allocated by the State in subgrants directly
to districts. For example, St. Barnard, Plaquemines, St. Charles, and
Jefferson Parishes in Louisiana received a $425,000 TLCF grant in
fiscal year 1998 to provide teacher-training initiatives focused on
technology-connected lessons in mathematics and language. Between
fiscal year 1998 and fiscal year 1999, Concordia and Catahoula Parish
Schools in Louisiana received over $2,600,000 in Federal TICG funding
to expand the successful Trainer of Teachers program to poor, rural
school districts in order to help teachers use technology to improve
student learning in core academic subjects, such as English,
mathematics, and science.
Increased flexibility for states and schools.--The increased
flexibility provided to states and schools by the Department of
Education has helped bring about improved student achievement. The
Commission recommended in 1990 that Congress allow ``states and/or
school districts to employ innovative pilot projects to educate low-
income, at-risk students.'' Schools and districts were given greater
authority to create their own reforms through the 1999 reauthorization
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Due in great part
to the implementation of a research-based schoolwide reform supported
by Federal legislation and funding, the percentage of fourth graders in
the Memphis City Public Schools scoring `proficient' on the Tennessee
Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) Writing Assessment increased
from 20 percent in 1996 to 34 percent in 1997. According to Memphis
City School Superintendent--and 1998-99 American Association of School
Administrators (AASA) Superintendent of the Year--Dr. Gerry House,
``the increased funding and flexibility in Federal programs support our
goal of improving student achievement by focusing resources in a
coordinated way to meet the diverse educational needs of our urban,
poor children.''
In 1997, a pilot program called Ed-Flex granted 12 states
(including Illinois) increased flexibility in decision-making on the
use of Federal funds in exchange for increased accountability for
improved student achievement. President Clinton signed legislation in
1999 expanding Ed-Flex eligibility to all 50 states.
Mathematics achievement.--During the 1990s, students in the
Mississippi Delta have made the greatest achievement gains in
mathematics. The Commission called for all Delta students to
demonstrate ``competency'' in mathematics and science at ``grades four,
eight and twelve.'' Results from the voluntary National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) demonstrate that mathematics scores have
improved this decade in the three states where a majority of the
population reside in the Delta region. NAEP test scores for fourth and
eighth grade students in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi improved
by significant amounts between 1992 and 1996. Many schools within these
three States experienced substantial improvements during this period of
NAEP score increases. For example, fourth grade students at the Glen
Oaks Park Elementary School in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana have
improved their median national percentile rank on the mathematics
section of the California Achievement Test (CAT) from the 29th
percentile in 1993 to the 75th percentile in 1997. The federally funded
Eisenhower Math/Science Educational Consortium has provided numerous
teachers in the Delta with training aimed at improving teaching and
learning. The Consortium recently funded Algebra Project training
sessions for teachers in Jackson, Mississippi. Studies have
demonstrated that the Algebra Project has had a beneficial impact in
Jackson on student motivation and problem-solving skills.
Literacy levels.--The Commission in 1990 called for a general
increase in ``literacy'' for children and adults in the Delta. Under
the Clinton-Gore Administration's America Reads Work-Study Program, the
Federal government pays 100 percent of the wages of work-study students
who tutor children or adults in literacy programs. Numerous colleges
located in and near the Delta region take part in the America Reads
program in order to help reach the President's goal of ensuring that
all children can read by the end of the third grade. Federal funding
has supported efforts in the Delta to improve literacy levels for both
children and adults. Since instituting an innovative reading program
through a $60,000 Department of Education grant in 1994, the Portland
Elementary School in Ashley, Arkansas saw average third grade reading
scores on the Stanford Achievement Test increase from the 25th
percentile in 1993 to the 46th percentile in 1999. Over 1,400 adult
learners in five Mississippi Delta counties in Louisiana--East Carroll,
Madison, Tensas, Catahoula, and Concordia--are provided literacy
training and life skills by a $330,000 matching Federal-State Adult
Education grant.
The Department of Education and other advocates of improved
education in the region recognize that these improvements are just a
beginning, and much more progress needs to be achieved to bring all the
Delta's schools up to the level of opportunity enjoyed by most
Americans.

TEST SCORES IMPROVE AT NEWBERRY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MEMPHIS CITY SCHOOL
DISTRICT

The Newberry Elementary School in Memphis, Tennessee enrolls over
850 students in kindergarten through the fifth grade. Over fifty-five
percent of the students at Newberry are eligible to receive free or
reduced-price school lunches. Supported by Federal legislation passed
in 1994 that expanded opportunities for schoolwide reforms, Newberry
implemented a research-based reform model through New American Schools
known as Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound (ELOB). Through adopting
the ELOB model, educators at Newberry have instituted a schoolwide
curriculum that centers on the purposeful, in-depth study of two or
three projects each year from an interdisciplinary perspective. School
projects usually take students outside the school and bring the
community inside the school.
Students at Newberry have demonstrated dramatic improvements in
writing. The number of fourth grade students scoring `proficient' on
the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) Writing
Assessment increased from 13 percent in 1994 to 79 percent in 1999.
Teachers at Newberry foster a `culture of revision' by maintaining
writing portfolios for all students and providing real-life writing
exercises. For example, during the 1998-99 school years, students were
asked to write letters to local businesses requesting supplies to
create a school garden. ``When students write to business people in
their own community requesting products, they are motivated by a desire
to express themselves clearly and accurately,'' explains Newberry
fourth grade teacher Kelly Douglas.
Technology has helped students at Newberry improve their writing
skills. Federal funding has allowed the Newberry school and similar
schools across the country to substantially increase their number of
computers and Internet hook-ups. ``The Internet pushed the roof off the
building and collapsed the walls. Now the whole world is our
classroom,'' explains Newberry Principal Marilyn Ingram.

JOB GROWTH

In the six years following the completion of the Lower Mississippi
Delta Development Commission's Final Report, 365,000 new jobs were
created in the region, an increase of almost 12 percent. In 1993, the
annual average unemployment for the entire 219-county region was 7.5
percent. (Averages over an entire year are more accurate than comparing
the figures for a single month, which can contain temporary
aberrations.) By 1998, the annual average unemployment had fallen
almost two percentage points, to 5.7 percent. Over this period, all but
35 counties in the region experienced job growth.
Despite the general improvement in the region's employment level,
many of the poorest counties still suffer from high unemployment. For
example, in 1988, West Carroll Parish in Louisiana had an unemployment
rate of 24.86 percent. By 1998, the annual unemployment rate for West
Carroll Parish had declined by more than 10 percent, but it remained at
the high level of 14.8 percent. In Arkansas, St. Francis County's rate
fell from 13.4 to 9 percent from 1993 to 1998, while Lee County's
unemployment fell from 11.2 to 9.2 percent; the lower levels are still
far higher than the national rate that hovered roughly in the 4.3
percent range in 1998-99. Unemployment in Williamson County, southern
Illinois, fell from 12.8 to 8.2 percent. There were other rural
counties that did not improve over this period. Coahoma County,
Mississippi, for example, had a 10.9 percent unemployment rate in 1993,
and by 1998 the level was still at 10.4 percent.
In contrast, many of the urban areas of the region enjoyed low
unemployment levels in the 1990s. Pulaski County, Arkansas (4.9 to 4.0
percent), Jefferson Parish, Louisiana (6.1 to 4.1 percent), Shelby
County, Tennessee (5.5 to 3.7 percent), Hinds County, Mississippi (from
5.3 to 4.1 percent) all improved to rates that were comparable or
slightly lower than the national average from 1993 to 1998. Clearly,
these figures show that the more rural areas in the heart of the Delta
either did not participate at all in the economic boom, or their
relative improvement left them at still unacceptably high levels. While
problems remain in some areas of the large cities, the most urgent need
for economic regeneration lies in the rural areas like West Carroll
Parish or St. Francis County that continue to suffer from unemployment
rates two and three times higher than the national average.
Job training.--The 1990 Commission Report emphasized that ``even
entry level positions now require advanced skills attainment,'' and
therefore it is essential that Delta residents have access to the most
comprehensive job training programs possible. The U.S. Department of
Labor has promoted a series of job training and welfare-to work
projects that are summarized in this section. President Clinton has
signed the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and the Workforce Investment Act
(WIA) of 1998, two major pieces of legislation that will have a major
impact on achieving this goal:
Welfare-to-Work.--Moving people from welfare-to-work is now one of
the primary goals of Federal welfare policy. The Balanced Budget Act of
1997, signed by the President on August 5, helps to achieve that goal
by authorizing the U.S. Department of Labor to provide Welfare-to-Work
Grants to states and local communities to create additional job
opportunities for the hardest-to-employ recipients of Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). This program is helping Americans
make the transition from welfare and dependency to work and self-
sufficiency.
In order to receive formula funds under the Welfare-to-Work
program, a state must submit a plan to the Department of Labor for the
administration of a grant. After the Department determines that the
plan meets statutory requirements, states administer the formula funds
and assure that they are coordinated with funds spent under the TANF
block grant. Generally, private industry councils (or workforce
investment boards) established under the Job Training Partnership Act
administer the program at the local level in coordination with elected
officials. Funds allocated to states are based on a formula that
equally considers states' shares of the national number of poor
individuals and adult recipients of TANF assistance. A state is allowed
to retain 15 percent of the money for welfare-to-work projects of its
choice. For every two dollars of federal funding, states provide one
dollar of non-federal funding.
Under this program, the 25 percent of funds not allocated by
formula are available for competitive grants awarded by the Secretary
of Labor directly to local governments, private industry councils,
community development corporations, community action agencies, and
other private organizations that apply in conjunction with a private
industry council or local government.
In 1998, substantial federal welfare-to-work formula allocations
were devoted to the Delta. The 45 Delta parishes of Louisiana received
a total of over $15 million in 1998. The Service Delivery Area (SDA)
including Cross, Phillips, Crittenden, St. Francis, and Lee counties in
east Arkansas received over $1.4 million, while the Southeastern SDA
including Grant, Arkansas, Lincoln, Bradley, Ashley, Desha, Jefferson,
Cleveland, Drew, and Chicot received over $1.25 million. The central
area including Arkansas' largest county, Pulaski, as well as Prairie,
Monroe, and Lonoke counties received $826,311. The northeastern
Arkansas SDA received over $750,000. Mississippi did not submit state
welfare-to-work plans in either 1998 or 1999. The Inventory section on
job training contains an in-depth analysis of statistics on each local
area in the region.
Examples of the kinds of programs designed to move people from
welfare to work are much more instructive than a recitation of the
dollar figures:
--New Orleans Welfare-to-Work Collaborative.--Under the competitive
grant part of the program, an important example was the $5
million project awarded to the City of New Orleans for the New
Orleans Welfare-to-Work Collaborative, an organization made up
of more than 60 businesses, service providers and consumer
representatives. This project emphasizes pay for performance
and family self-sufficiency. It will provide specialized
services for substance-abusing mothers and noncustodial parents
of children receiving welfare benefits. The target community--
in the central city of New Orleans in an Enterprise Community,
New Orleans East and Lower Ninth Wards--faces a shortage of
low-skill jobs that pay a wage sufficient to sustain a family.
A lack of education, inadequate transportation and child care,
and substance abuse are major problems this project will
address. The Orleans Private Industry Council will establish an
Employer's Information Line to provide information on the
incentives to employers to hire welfare recipients. This line
will also be a rapid response mechanism to solve any workplace
problems in relation to newly hired workers in the program. A
work center will provide job skills and educational assessments
of each participant; it will work with local agencies to expand
transportation and child care facilities. The program aims to
move these populations into long-term employment, thereby
increasing both the financial and emotional support that
noncustodial parents give to their children.
--Little Rock one-stop work center.--Another $5 million under the
competitive grant phase of this program was awarded to the City
of Little Rock for an innovative project that focuses on a
``one-stop center'' anchoring employment and supportive
services. A unified, individualized Employment Support Plan
will be developed with each client, with the goal being a
connecting and focusing of services that promote sustained
employment. A ``whole family'' approach includes job placement,
employment education and training, substance abuse treatment,
assignment of a personal mentor/job coach to assist with job
retention, child care and transportation assistance, and help
in locating housing. The Pulaski County plan integrates ``high
tech'' assistance based on computer-linked providers and data
bases with ``high touch'' help from personal mentors and job
coaches. This plan involves a coalition of state, federal,
university, private business, and nonprofit foundations as
partners, including: Advocates for Battered Women, Goodwill
Industries, United Way of Pulaski Center, Housing Authority--
Little Rock, Southwest Airlines, University of Arkansas at
Little Rock, and Arkansas Employment Security Department.
--Hinds County, Mississippi Remedial Employment Opportunity Program
(REOP).--Although Mississippi did not submit a state plan and
thus did not take part in the formula funding for welfare-to-
work, Hinds County, Mississippi did receive a $3,294,191 award
under the competitive grant part of the program. The target
community includes the city of Jackson, an Enterprise Community
in an area of historically high poverty. The project aims to
address the same fundamental problems as do the New Orleans and
Little Rock plans: inadequate education, poor work histories,
substance abuse, inadequate transportation and child care, and
inadequate job skills. The goal of REOP is to match new workers
and their need for economic self-sufficiency to area employers.
Local substance abuse treatment centers, housing and other
community organizations will work with private employers. The
Education and Training Institute, Inc., (ETI) is a social
service corporation charged with strengthening the family
through self-sufficiency. ETI will manage the program in the
recruitment, outreach, eligibility requirements, case
management, referrals and follow-up for the Hinds Private
Industry Council.
Workforce Investment Act of 1998.--On August 8, 1998, President
Clinton signed the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998. This new
authority overhauls the job training system by repealing the Job
Training Partnership Act effective June 30, 2000 and by bringing
together many Federal, State and Local partners into a comprehensive
one-stop service delivery system--a customer-driven overhaul that will
help employers get the workers they need and empower job seekers to
meet the challenges of the new century by getting the training they
need for the jobs they want.
Annually, the Department of Labor allots by formula federal job
training funds to the seven states in the Lower Mississippi Delta
Region. These funds may be used to provide a wide array of services
based upon individual need for low-income adults and youth, welfare
recipients, and dislocated workers. Governors, in turn, allocate the
funds to local communities where decisions are made on who will be
served from among the eligible population, and how the funds will be
used to help or qualify individuals find new jobs or first jobs. State
and local officials have significant flexibility regarding how these
funds are used and generally make decisions based upon the population
being served and the needs of the local communities. One stop delivery
systems have been developed throughout the Delta, where access to
America's Job Bank and America's Talent Bank is available to all job
seekers. Approximately twenty Job Corps Centers are located in the
region, with more than 10,000 youth receiving residential basic and
vocational training annually.
The welfare-to-work and workforce investment reforms are relatively
new programs, and thus data on their effects are not complete as of
yet, although the gradual increases in job growth and reduction in
welfare rolls appear to be moving in the right direction. The welfare-
to-work programs provide innovative new approaches to the old problems
of ending the debilitating cycle of dependency and unemployment.

LINKING LIVABLE COMMUNITIES, TRANSPORTATION AND JOBS IN THE DELTA

In many areas of the Delta, small communities struggle with the
challenge of finding jobs and obtaining transportation to the
workplace. Some rural counties in Mississippi, for example, face a
rising demand for transit due to substantial growth in the number of
people commuting to job sites, as well as a growing population of
senior citizens. Aurelia Jones-Taylor is a dynamic grassroots leader
who has worked with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and other
federal, state and local organizations to promote connections between
transportation and job growth. She has a master's degree in Business
Administration and 25 years experience in project management.
Ms. Jones-Taylor was instrumental in implementing a series of
public transportation accomplishments in the north Mississippi Delta.
Through a Livable Communities Project, the FTA provided a $100,000
grant for marketing and communications, improving transit facilities
such as bus stops and shelters, and expanding access to job
opportunities. Passengers have better knowledge of arrival and
departure times of buses. The project helped to enhance other capital
projects and leveraged funding from other agencies. ``It means improved
service delivery, safe and secure places where clients can wait for
rides and better on-time services,'' says Ms. Jones-Taylor.
Another innovative transportation project was ``JOBLINKS,''
designed to help Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
recipients in the North Delta Mississippi Enterprise Community find
transportation to job sites. The project succeeded in helping to
connect 279 people in rural northern Mississippi with jobs and to
develop relationships with employers.
JOBLINKS was created by the Delta Area Rural Transit System
(DARTS), which received $90,000 from the Community Transportation
Association of America to provide general public transit services. When
Welfare-to-Work was first being implemented in Mississippi, DARTS
partnered with local stakeholders to interview residents of housing
projects about job readiness, need for child care and transportation to
jobs. DARTS provided vouchers for people seeking jobs, as well as free
transportation for the first two weeks after they obtained employment,
until the person received the first paycheck.
Ms. Jones-Taylor is Executive Director of DARTS, which was
established in 1992 by the Aaron E. Henry Community Health Services
Center, a private, nonprofit corporation providing primary health care
services. The Health Services Center began providing rural public
transit services for access to health care in the 1990s. The Federal
Transit Administration (FTA) approved the transportation plan for this
project. In 1997 alone, for example, more than 130,000 one-way trips
were provided, of which more than 80 percent were employment and job-
training related.
Jones-Taylor pursued a strategy of obtaining funding from multiple
sources. She coordinated an Innovative Financing Grant of $290,000 from
FTA to renovate an existing facility to become a Regional
Transportation Center. A Rural Business Enterprise Grant of $234,000
from USDA was used to provide matching funds and purchase buses. The
Mississippi Department of Economics and Community Development also
provided $200,000 to buy vehicles. Service is provided 24 hours per
day, seven days per week. The Regional Transportation center provides
``one-stop shopping'' services for multi-county areas. Jones-Taylor
said, ``The problem is moving a few people over a large distance with a
little money. Without the cooperation of all transportation providers,
it won't be done.'' The center allows the coordination of dispatching,
vehicle storage and maintenance for rural and specialized transit
providers. The providers each had separate contracts with fuel
suppliers, maintenance garages and service organizations; they would
often provide service in overlapping areas. The new transportation
coordinating center allows these transit providers to increase daily
service up to 20 percent with their existing staff and equipment, while
remaining within existing levels of funding.
Before these transportation improvements, many people in Coahoma
and Quitman counties had to endure round-trip commutes exceeding 140
miles to the job center where they worked in Robinsonville,
Mississippi. DARTS expanded public transportation from those counties
to Robinsonville; in addition, the enhanced system supports the
transportation needs of employees at small businesses by providing
group rides to day care centers, job placement centers, and employment
sites. Says Jones-Taylor, ``The Livable Community grant, JOBLINKS, and
the other innovative transportation improvements help rural people in
the Delta make the critical transition from poverty to self-
sufficiency.''

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

The 1990 Report placed great emphasis upon issues in the field of
health and human services. In the Inventory, the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) provides an in-depth review of Medicare,
Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and other
major programs.
Medicaid.--Through HHS' review and revision of Medicaid plans, HHS
and the Delta states have been working in partnership to maximize
Medicaid coverage for eligible recipients and increasing coverage to
the working poor not previously covered through state plans. Title XXI
(the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP) has allowed states
to expand access to health care coverage through Medicaid and new
state-designed insurance programs. The Department has exercised its
authority under the Social Security Act to expand health care coverage.
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) now partners
with Medicaid to assure that transitional Medicaid services are
available to TANF recipients as they move from public assistance to
self sufficiency. Moreover, in March, 1999, HHS agencies issued a guide
to states that in part sets out opportunities the states have under the
law to expand coverage under Medicaid to low-income working families.
HHS will be contacting all states about these opportunities as well as
reviewing how effectively they coordinate Medicaid and TANF.
HHS also reviews a series of programs for improving health care
access for senior citizens, minorities, and HIV/AIDS treatment and
services in the Delta. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry (called ASTDR, this is part of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention) has been working through the Mississippi Delta Project:
Health and Environment, a partnership among federal, state and local
governments, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU),
faith-based organizations, community organizations, and environmental
advocacy groups in 219 counties in the Delta. This initiative includes
health education, training and research. The research projects are
designed as models for developing partnerships regarding environmental
and public-health related concerns in the region. For example, the
ASTDR has developed an Assessment Protocol for Excellence in
Environmental Health that has been used in pilot projects in Arkansas
and Mississippi to identify environmental hazards. In fiscal year 1999,
the ASTDR will implement this protocol in Memphis, Tennessee, in
collaboration with the Memphis-Shelby County Health Department and
local community groups. ASTDR is also working with EPA as well as state
and local health officials and environmental justice advocates on an
initiative based in Memphis and other Delta areas on an initiative
focusing on environmental justice issues. This effort primarily
involves minority and low-income people regarding environmental health
issues.
HIV/AIDS.--The HIV/AIDS Bureau of HHS targets medical services for
unserved or underserved populations. This program involves formula
grants awarded to states to improve the quality, availability, and
organization of health care and support services for people living with
HIV. The AIDS Drug Assistance Program provides assistance in providing
HIV/AIDS medical therapies to uninsured or underinsured people. A
Special Projects of National Significance Program provides funding to
public and private nonprofit entities to assist in the development of
innovative models of HIV care. For example, a project at the University
of Mississippi Medical Center is enhancing the capacity of health care
providers in rural clinics to diagnose and treat HIV by expanding the
Delta AIDS Education and Training Center's capacity to provide clinical
training. In particular, this project gives training for rural health
care providers with a computer-based distance learning system. For
areas of the highest HIV incidence, the Center makes available updated
medical references, means for interactive training, and access to
sources of additional HIV funding.
Child care.--The Head Start program provides early childhood
education to young people throughout the nation, and the Delta in
particular enjoyed substantial increases in the number of children
enrolled from 1990 to 1998. In Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, the
number of children enrolled in Head Start expanded from 41,996 in 1990
to 55,248 in 1998. Head Start in the Delta in recent years has
increasingly placed emphasis on full-day, full-year models that meet
child care needs of working parents.
The Child Care Development Fund, which is the primary source of
federal funds to states, Indian Tribal Organizations and territories to
assist low-income families to pay for child care, has had a major
impact in the Delta. A series of initiatives for improving child care
are now underway. The Child Care and Head Start bureaus have launched a
new training and technical assistance initiative, Quality in Linking
Together: Early Education Partnerships (QUILT), which will work with
state, tribal, and regional leaders to develop a strategic approach to
support early education partnerships at the local level. A Head Start/
Child Care Workgroup has been established to address the need for full-
day, full-year services to children and families. Members from central
as well as regional offices of Head Start, Child Care and QUILT are
developing strategies for combining resources, sharing information on
training and technical assistance. The Healthy Child Care America
Campaign is a collaborative effort of health professionals, child care
providers, and families that has developed a Blueprint for Action,
which identifies goals for child care and suggests specific ways of
achieving these goals. The Inventory discusses in detail a series of
other child care initiatives on childhood immunization, dissemination
of child care information, and related issues.
Youth services.--The Family Youth Services Bureau provides programs
that serve vulnerable youth in the Delta. The Basic Center Program
provides temporary shelter to runaway youth while working to reunite
them with their families when possible. The Transitional Living Program
provides long-term residential, educational and vocational resources to
homeless youth. This program works to keep youth from dropping out of
school, and it especially focuses on helping teenage parents make the
transition to work and self-sufficiency, thereby preventing them from
becoming dependent on public assistance. There are two Basic Center
shelters and a Transitional Living Program in Jackson, Mississippi, and
a Basic Center shelter in Vicksburg, Mississippi. There are four Basic
Centers in Arkansas, five in Louisiana, three in Kentucky, and
Tennessee has several Centers, including one in Memphis.
Teen pregnancy.--Finally, teen pregnancy decreased in the years
from 1991 to the mid-1990s in the Delta, but is still too high.
Arkansas and Louisiana reduced their rates of teen birth and
pregnancies by a higher percentage than the nation as a whole between
1991 and 1995: Arkansas' reduction was by 7.9 percent and Louisiana
reduced its rate by 8.2 percent, as compared to the national reduction
of 6.5 percent. Mississippi's rate decreased by 5.9 percent. In 1995,
the President created the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy,
through which HHS has developed partnerships with national, state and
local organizations, private business, faith-based organizations,
tribal organizations, parents and other family members, and
adolescents. The goal is to build new partnerships that promote
community-wide efforts to prevent teen pregnancy.
Infant mortality.--Infant mortality declined overall in the 219
Delta counties during the last decade. Those counties experienced a
16.6 percent reduction in infant mortality between the aggregated
average calculated for the four-year period 1986 through 1989 and the
period 1994 through 1997; for those same periods, the national infant
mortality rate declined by 25 percent.
For the densely populated counties of Pulaski, Arkansas; Hinds,
Mississippi; Shelby, Mississippi; and East Baton Rouge, Jefferson,
Orleans, Ouachita, Rapides, and St. Tammany Parishes in Louisiana,
there were 12.42 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990. That
number gradually declined in the 1990s, falling to 10.71 in 1997 (the
most recent year for which statistics are available). Thus, infant
mortality rates declined by approximately 14 percent from 1990 to 1997
in these eight Delta counties.
These major population centers in the Delta still lag behind the
national average, which declined from 9.22 infant deaths per 1,000 live
births in 1990 to 7.23 in 1990, a decrease of 22 percent. Even more
disturbing was the plight of minorities in the Delta: for example, in
Mississippi, African Americans' infant death rates fell from 15.5 to
14.7 per 1,000 live births from 1989 to 1996; similar statistics for
Arkansas showed a decline from 15.5 to 13.8, and in Louisiana a decline
from 15.6 to 14.7. The rates for African Americans are approximately
double those of whites in these three states. The rates for all people
declined from 11.7 to 10.8 in Mississippi; 9.9 to 9.1 in Arkansas; and
11.0 to 9.8 in Louisiana. Despite the decreases, infant mortality rates
in the Delta are still much too high.
Rural health care.--The Commission recommended a careful review and
revision of Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements to eliminate inequities in
payments to rural hospitals.'' The Medicaid program provides the
following options:
--ADD-ON PAYMENT.--States currently have considerable latitude in
determining rates of payment in the Medicaid program. Rural
hospitals receive Medicaid funding as described in their State
plans. One way for a State take into account the unique
position of rural hospitals is to establish within that State's
Medicaid plan a methodology that specifically targets rural
hospitals. Through a State Plan Amendment, a State could elect
to institute a special add-on payment for rural hospitals in
addition to their regular reimbursement.
--DISPROPORTIONATE SHARE HOSPITAL PROGRAM.--Another avenue of
flexibility currently open to States is the Disproportionate
Share Hospital (DSH) program. Within certain Federal limits,
States can designate any group of hospitals as qualifying for
DSH payments, including rural hospitals. States can amend their
State plans to implement a DSH payment that would be geared
toward their rural hospitals: the qualifications for this DSH
payment can be crafted in such a way that any uncompensated
care costs incurred by rural hospitals could be met through the
State's DSH program. Such an option would be feasible to the
extent that these hospitals have incurred uncompensated free
care and Medicaid costs, and provided that the State's DSH
methodology overall does not cause the State to exceed the
hospital-specific DSH payment limits or the State's
statutorily-defined DSH allotment.
The Medicare program provides:
--Rural Referral Centers.--Rural referral centers (RRCs) were first
identified for special consideration in the 1983 Prospective
Payment System (PPS) legislation. Congressional intent was to
recognize that, within rural areas, there were hospitals that
provided care in a volume and with the sophistication of
hospitals in urban areas. These hospitals serve as ``referral''
sites for rural physicians and other community hospitals that
may lack the resources or expertise to handle cases outside the
norm. Any hospital that was classified as a rural referral
center (RRC) in 1991 and had since lost that status was
grandfathered back into the RRC program by the Balanced Budget
Act. In addition, the BBA made it easier for RRCs to get a
higher wage index under PPS.
--Medicare-Dependent Hospitals.--The Medicare Dependent Hospital
(MDH) program was reinstated by the Balanced Budget Act of
1997. The Medicare-Dependent Hospital designation was
originally created under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act
of 1989. It provided extra financial assistance to rural
hospitals with less than 100 beds that had 60 percent or more
of inpatient days or discharges attributable to Medicare
patients. Originally, the Medicare Dependent Hospital
designation was set to expire for cost reporting periods ending
on or before March 31, 1993. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation
Act of 1993 extended the designation until September 30, 1994
with a smaller financial benefit for MDH status. The Balanced
Budget Act reinstated the MDH program for cost reporting
periods beginning on or after October 1, 1997 and before
October 1, 2001.
In 1998, the Balanced Budget Act provided for funding to States to
help stabilize small rural hospitals, develop networks and integrate
emergency medical services in rural areas. These development grants are
being made under the State Rural Hospital Flexibility Program,
authorized at $125 million through fiscal year 2002. With a $25 million
appropriation for fiscal year 1999, this new grant program will help
stabilize rural hospitals and improve access to health services in
rural communities. Grants will be awarded to states for: (1) developing
and implementing rural health plans with broad collaboration; (2)
stabilizing rural hospitals by helping them consider, plan for, and
obtain designation as ``Critical Access Hospitals'' (CAH); (3)
supporting CAHs, providers and communities as they develop networks of
care; and (4) helping improve and integrate emergency medical services.
Hospitals that are designated as Critical Access Hospitals will
receive cost-based payments from the Medicare program. Medicare
payments to all other hospitals will not change. Delta states have the
option of participating in this program.

ONE DELTA COMMUNITY'S STRUGGLE FOR ADEQUATE HEALTH CARE

Many distressed communities in rural areas struggle to preserve
access to health care. Como, Mississippi, home of the famous blues
artist ``Mississippi'' Fred McDowell, is an underserved town in the
Delta with 1,500 residents in town and 1,500 residents in the outlying
country. ``It's a sleepy, laid-back town that's had a little health
clinic since God was a boy,'' says Stuart Guernsey, local administrator
for the North Delta Mississippi Enterprise Community. Then, as happens
in too many rural areas, the for-profit hospital that operated the
clinic gave two weeks notice and left town.
This posed a huge burden for many residents. For the aged and
disabled who lived far from town, the additional 10 miles to the next
town was a logistical and economic burden. Many couldn't afford the $20
it would cost to be driven there and back.
The town publicized the need to raise money to tide the clinic over
to the next funding cycle. They sponsored many events, including one at
the elementary school on Martin Luther King Day, and managed to raise
$10,000 in goods and services. They still needed $20,000 to keep the
clinic open for six months. Then the local people hit on a new idea:
they asked the elementary school principal to have his fourth and fifth
grade students to write an essay beginning, ``We need a health clinic
in Como because. . .''
Responses ranged from the touching to the hilarious. Sixty of these
letters were sent overnight to Doris Barnett and Janet Wetmore of the
Health Resources Services Administration, with whom Guernsey had been
corresponding. Three days later he received a call. The money had been
awarded. ``We would probably have gotten their money anyway,'' says
Guernsey, ``but the timing of the letters was perfect and their
poignancy bumped things along.''
The Aaron Henry Community Health Center re-opened in April, 1998 to
the delight of Como residents and students. One of the fifth grade
students who wrote a letter, Ortavius Towns, expressed his gratitude by
saying, ``We want to thank the government for opening the clinic back
up to provide health care for children and adults. I'm glad I wrote
that letter.''
The Enterprise Community (EC) helps the clinic with transportation
for clients and publicity, as well as in bringing partners to the table
in cases such as the closure. The EC also assists another clinic in
nearby Crenshaw, Mississippi that has a dental office, pharmacy, and
general family practice clinic. Crenshaw--like so many rural places in
the Delta--is even more isolated than Como, with nearest town 15 to 20
miles away. The arduous efforts of these small towns exemplify the
struggles of many Delta communities to maintain adequate health care.

HUNGER, NUTRITION AND FOOD SECURITY

``There are others from whom we avert our sight. Some of them--are
on the back roads of Mississippi, where thousands of children slowly
starve their lives away, their minds damaged beyond repair by the age
of four or five.''--Senator Robert F. Kennedy, speaking in 1967 about
hunger and poverty in the rural Mississippi Delta

In 1967, Senator Robert F. Kennedy riveted the nation's attention
on the terrible plight of hungry people in the Mississippi Delta. As a
member of the Senate Labor Committee's Subcommittee on Poverty, Kennedy
went with Marian Wright Edelman, Charles Evers and others to the
poorest places in the Delta. Edelman recalled Kennedy holding children
with bellies swollen from malnutrition and lamenting, ``How can a
country like this allow it? Maybe they just don't know.'' Partly as a
result of the national outcry generated by Kennedy and others in that
era, the hunger safety net has been strengthened for the hungry in the
Delta and other depressed areas of America: school lunch, food stamps,
the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and
Children (WIC), and the Cooperative Extension nutrition programs have
become bulwarks in the fight against hunger in America. While it is no
longer easy to find flagrant instances of hunger and malnutrition that
existed in the 1960s, there are still many people in the Delta who do
not have secure access at all times to a high-quality, reasonably
affordable food supply.
The more subtle, but nonetheless serious problem of hunger and food
insecurity in the prosperous world of the 1990s confronts the basic
dilemma Kennedy regretted three decades ago--the reality that many
prosperous Americans are unaware that so many people, especially
children, often go to bed hungry in underdeveloped areas like the
Delta. The Commission in 1990 recognized the importance of these
nutrition programs. Vice President Al Gore has attempted to address
this issue, working with U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Dan
Glickman in convening the 1997 National Summit on Food Security to
awaken public consciousness about this persistent problem. The Vice
President has emphasized the need for supporting the bedrock anti-
hunger programs such as school lunch, WIC, and food stamps. The Vice
President endorsed the efforts of USDA and other federal agencies to
work with private anti-hunger institutions to expand field gleaning
activities to provide food for the hungry, and to increase the amount
of food rescued from being thrown away and given to food banks and
similar organizations. President Clinton signed the Good Samaritan Act,
which reduced liability concerns for good faith donors of food to anti-
hunger organizations. The Lower Mississippi Delta Nutrition
Intervention Research Initiative and other anti-hunger organizations
have played an important role in the quest to promote adequate
nutrition in the region.
The 1990 Commission specifically recommended that residents of the
Delta should have access to health education programs, of which food
security is a vital part. As an example of research on the food
security issue, USDA's Economic Research Service Geographic Information
System (GIS) analyzed access to grocery stores in the Delta. The
analysis combined data on the location and sales of grocery stores by
postal ZIP code, with the location of all consumers, as well as
consumers with incomes below the poverty level. The analysis
demonstrated that substantial areas in the region are underserved by
grocery stores, leaving substantial numbers of residents with little
access to stores offering a wide variety of food at reasonable
distances.
In response to the nutrition needs of the Delta, USDA joined with
community leaders and nutrition experts in the region to form the Lower
Mississippi Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative. The
mission of this Initiative is to evaluate nutritional health in the
Delta, and to help develop successful strategies for addressing
nutritional problems on a larger scale. Participating institutions
include Alcorn State University, Arkansas Children's Hospital Research
Institute, Southern University, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff,
and the University of Southern Mississippi.
The Delta Nutrition Intervention Research Initiative completed a
survey of 36 Delta counties and parishes in Arkansas, Louisiana and
Mississippi on nutrition and health problems, community resources
available to address them, and other community-based food security
issues. The Initiative completed a ``Foods of Our Delta Survey'' that
studied collection of dietary intake data and pilot projects on food
security, health preferences, and food assistance programs. The
Initiative continues to pursue ongoing nutritional research projects,
as part of the overall effort to expand public awareness of the
persistent problem of hunger and inadequate nutrition, and to develop
sound models to address those problems.
Despite the progress on some issues, problems persist in the health
and human services arena, particularly in providing appropriate
services to low-income and minority Delta residents. HHS and its local,
state, and private partners are committed to building upon the
accomplishments made thus far in the 1990s to bring equal opportunities
in health and human services to the people of the Delta.

MISSISSIPPI ANTI-HUNGER PARTNERSHIP

Mississippi Anti-Hunger and Poverty project.--Formed in the
afternoon of the Civil Rights Movement, the Mississippi Action for
Community Education (MACE) is a non-profit community development
corporation that tries to break the cycle of chronic poverty and
deprivation suffered by the rural poor in an 18-county area in the
Delta.
A close look at socioeconomic conditions confronting African
Americans in the Mississippi Delta reveals some startling statistics.
One out of every five families is poor--twice the national average. One
out of every two African American Mississippi children are born into
poverty. The unemployment rates for people of color living in the MACE
service area average 9.6 percent, with between 46.4 percent and 62.8
percent of all non-white families living below the poverty level.
Against this background, MACE created its Anti-Hunger Partnership and
Empowerment Program (MAPEP), consisting of a diverse group of
AmeriCorps members working with action-oriented community-based
organizations located throughout the Delta.
MACE has attempted through intensive research and collaboration
efforts with various social service agencies, community-based
organizations, empowerment zone initiatives, and government entities to
develop a strategic plan and set of objectives that build upon each
other. The anti-hunger program targets the counties of Humphreys,
Washington, Sharkey/Issaquena, Madison, Tallahatchie, and Quitman. A
major part of MACE's service area is located within the Mid-Delta
Empowerment Zone (MDEZA) and the North Delta Enterprise Community
(NDEC). The objectives of MAPEP are food stamp outreach, nutrition
outreach, support for local food pantries, and growth of Summer Feeding
and School Breakfast Programs.
During 1994-95, MACE sponsored a food stamp outreach program
through a grant sponsored by USDA. MACE was instrumental in identifying
and enrolling thousands of low-income and/or elderly people living in
rural areas of the Mississippi Delta region who were eligible for but
not receiving benefits. The members use direct door-to-door contacts
with program-eligible residents within the target counties plus other
areas in need, and provide other appropriate technical assistance,
transportation, and related services to connect residents with food
stamp benefits.
MAPEP AmeriCorps members promote nutrition and food safety among
low-income families and elderly residents. This consists of community
outreach including workshops held at senior citizens' facilities,
faith-based organizations, schools, recreational centers and in-home
visitations. MAPEP AmeriCorps members also provide referrals on behalf
of elderly residents to such programs as Meals on Wheels, elderly
nutrition centers, and church-sponsored feeding programs. Where
necessary, the AmeriCorps members make every effort to provide
transportation for these residents. The members work with local
extension agencies, specifically with their nutrition experts, to
sponsor workshops in the counties served by MACE.
Despite efforts to provide adequate, nutritious food supplies to
poverty-stricken residents of the Delta, many obstacles still inhibit
this process--low wages, long distances to major grocery stores, poor
transportation, and inadequate education. In 1998-99, nine community
gardens and three food pantries were set up, with more than 50,000
pounds of food distributed. MACE also works with six local school
districts to support expansion of the Summer Food Service Program and
the School Breakfast Program. These are important supplements to the
school lunch program. Educational research studies have amply
demonstrated the importance of a healthy breakfast for students to
learn.
MACE followed the principle that community self-help efforts are
most effective when all segments of the community participate. Its
local affiliates, located throughout the Delta, have extensive
histories of providing direct services for the social and economic
interest of rural residents, who comprise 95 percent of their
membership. Placing MAPEP AmeriCorps members with the affiliates gave
the program immediate acceptance among those it seeks to serve.
Melvina Carter of Hollandale, Mississippi stated her appreciation
for this grassroots anti-hunger effort by saying, ``Before I started
getting food from MAPEP, we could hardly make ends meet. We had to use
extra money to pay the electric bill, but now we get cheese, powdered
milk, margarine and a lot of other stuff that we couldn't afford.''

ENVIRONMENTAL, NATURAL AND PHYSICAL ASSETS

TRANSPORTATION

``The Mississippi Delta is the crucible of Southern culture. Its
celebrated Highway 61 crosses the historic landscape of the Native
American settlements, slave plantations, blues juke joints, civil
rights scenes, agribusiness, third-world poverty and settings from the
fiction of Richard Wright and Tennessee Williams. These diverse worlds
offer a unique portrait of both the American South and our Nation.''--
William Ferris (now chairman of the National Endowment for the
Humanities), writing in Encyclopedia of Southern Cultures, 1989

Transportation is crucial to the achievement of the Commission's
goals. Transportation allows people to reach health care facilities,
jobs, markets, tourist sites, and educational institutions. It helps
businesses prosper by providing access for workers and customers, and
it helps farmers get their produce to market. It is, as Secretary
Rodney Slater says, ``the tie that binds.'' As previously mentioned, In
the six years after Governor Clinton submitted the 1990 Report, 365,000
new jobs were created in the Delta, an increase of almost 12 percent.
In the period from 1993 to 1998, overall regional unemployment fell
from 7.5 to 5.7 percent. Advances in the region's transportation system
played a crucial role in this economic development.
The Commission's 10-year goal was an improved system of limited
access highways, airports, and rail and port facilities in order to
promote economic expansion and growth. More than 70 of the Commission's
recommendations were related to what it described as the creation of a
``Delta Transportation Network.''
The Commission made several general highway recommendations,
beginning with one urging that Congress and the President should
release funds currently being held in the Highway Trust Fund. Highway
Trust Fund investment in highways and transit was increased
dramatically by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of
1991 (ISTEA) and the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century of
1998 (TEA-21). ISTEA authorized $151 billion over six years for highway
and transit programs while TEA-21 went one step further. The 1998 act
created new budget categories for highway and transit discretionary
programs, establishing a budgetary firewall between the transportation
programs and other domestic discretionary spending. As a result, TEA-21
guaranteed a spending level of $198 billion over six years. In
addition, TEA-21 increased to 90.5 per cent the minimum annual return
on contributions to the Highway Trust Fund for every state. The Delta
region states are expected to receive additional Federal transportation
funding through this provision.
The Great River Road.--Another major recommendation stated that
Congress should prioritize funding for the Great River Road and
immediately provide funds for its completion. Individual states are
using the flexibility established in ISTEA to fund improvements to the
Great River Road and for scenic easements, historic preservation and
other projects. For example, in Arkansas since 1990 about 120 miles of
improvements, including easements, historic preservation, highway
reconstruction, highway resurfacing and major widening, have been
completed at a cost of about $140 million.
Aviation.--The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provided
approximately $48 million to airports in the Delta for the Airport
Improvement Program (AIP) between 1993 and 1999. Federal legislation
authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to make project grants for
airport planning and development under the AIP to maintain a safe and
effective system of airports. Eligible projects under the AIP include
airport system and master plans; construction, expansion or
rehabilitation of runways, taxiways and aprons; items needed for safety
or security; navigational aids; land acquisition; noise control; and
limited terminal development.
Rail service.--The Department of Transportation has engaged in a
series of rail service improvements in the region. For example, in
November, 1998, Secretary Slater announced the designation of the Gulf
Coast High Speed Rail Corridor linking New Orleans with Baton Rouge and
other cities in the South. Under TEA-21, this Corridor received
approximately two million dollars in earmarks for high-speed rail
development and grade crossing.
Completion of Commission's transportation projects.--The heart of
The Delta Initiatives transportation recommendations consisted of a
detailed inventory of transportation improvements for the highways,
aviation, maritime, and rail network of the Delta. Probably no other
area discussed in the 1990 Report contained such a large number of
highly specific recommendations; and there is probably no area that now
displays as many successful completions of those recommendations. These
efforts were led by the Department of Transportation, with important
contributions by the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies. The
Corps, DOT, Commerce and other agencies contributed substantial federal
investments in the area of maritime transportation. For example,
Commerce funded feasibility studies for port facilities in seven
communities of Louisiana alone. The Corps completed over 30 navigation
projects along the Mississippi River, while DOT completed numerous
maritime transportation projects throughout the entire region. The
great majority of the nearly 70 specific recommendations for all modes
of transportation in the original report have either been completed, or
significant progress has been made in completing them. These
transportation projects have provided a powerful impetus to improving
the quality of life and economic development in the region.

TRANSPORTATION AND TOURISM-RELATED PUBLIC INVESTMENTS PROMOTE PHILLIPS
COUNTY

Transportation projects and public investments related to promoting
the tourist industry served as a catalyst for economic development in
Phillips County, Arkansas in the 1990s. Important improvements
included:
--1990--Resurfacing and road rehabilitation projects were begun on
more than 32.4 miles of state highways connecting population
and production areas.
--1990--The Delta Cultural Center, a museum with exhibits on the
culture and landscape of the Arkansas Delta, opened in Phillips
County.
--1991--The Arkansas General Assembly approved a highway improvement
program that included substantial capacity improvements for
Phillips County.
--1993--Stage I of the new Helena Slackwater Harbor was finished and
Stage II was begun. The harbor will facilitate the transfer of
bulk goods (particularly agricultural goods) between highway
and water transportation.
--1994--The King Biscuit Blues Festival, begun in 1986, had a record
success. Attendance at this festival, an annual tourist event
held in downtown Helena, grew from 15,000 to 80,000 in less
than a decade. Attendance continued to be high through the late
1990s.
--1995--Developments continued on the Helena Riverwalk, an elevated
boardwalk with a view of the Mississippi River. Site visits for
passengers on the Mississippi riverboats, and the Lexa-to-
McGehee bicycle and pedestrian trail (acquired partly with
transportation enhancement funds) enlarged the county's scope
for tourism.
--1995--Further transportation improvements consisted of widening,
reconstruction, and resurfacing were developed for about 32
miles in the county.
--1995--Contracts were let for seven miles of new railroad
construction to provide rail access to the slackwater harbor
and for a 16-inch water line to serve industrial tenants.
Construction began for a new road to the north end of the
slackwater harbor.
--1995--The first tenant for the slackwater harbor was announced and
appropriate site construction began. A new plant was located in
the industrial park adjacent to the slackwater harbor.

AGRICULTURE

The 1990 Report recognized the major importance of the agricultural
sector in the Delta. Adequate credit must be made available to high-
risk farmers, and the Report generally emphasized the need for helping
minority or limited-resource farmers who are troubled by small acreage
and limited capital. The Commission urged more attention to direct
marketing and other alternative marketing methods, and the development
of sustainable agriculture. USDA under Secretaries Mike Espy and Dan
Glickman inherited a problem of discrimination against minority farmers
by USDA in the past, and while they have acknowledged the terrible
plight of African American farmers and how much remains to be done to
alleviate this problem, they have changed policies at the Department
and promoted greater attention to the problems of minority and limited
resource farmers. USDA attempted to reverse policies of the past that
had discriminated against small and minority farmers, and such programs
as farm credit for socially disadvantaged farmers were expanded. In the
Clinton administration, USDA has devoted tremendous attention to the
task of improving the plight of the small and minority farmer.
Marketing for minority and limited resource farmers.--During the
1990s, USDA increased its efforts to promote farmers' markets and other
direct marketing initiatives to assist limited resource farmers.
Secretary Dan Glickman pursued a series of objectives recommended by
the National Commission on Small Farms in 1997-98, including promotion
of better marketing for the roughly 94 percent of America's farmers who
are in the medium to small range in size.
USDA conducted a series of marketing feasibility studies and other
technical assistance were provided to farmers' markets in the Delta.
Marketing initiatives for aquaculture, for farmers seeking to change
from tobacco to other crops, and other alternative agriculture projects
were assisted. The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Farmers' Market
Nutrition Program greatly expanded in scope from 1993 onwards. The WIC
farmers' market program simultaneously creates a new market for small
fruit and vegetable farmers while promoting better nutrition for
nutritionally at risk women, infants and children. Missouri, Illinois,
Kentucky were part of the program before 1998, and Arkansas and
Mississippi joined the WIC Farmers' market program in 1998; the Delta
is the center of activity for this program, because the region contains
large concentrations of produce farmers as well as WIC clients. In
addition, the Foreign Agriculture Service has conducted a new series of
policies designed to include small farmer cooperatives in farm export
trade opportunities.
Cooperatives' assistance for small farmers.--In other initiatives
addressing the Commission's concern for limited resource farmers, USDA
promoted its programs for assisting cooperatives, which are ideal
mechanisms for addressing low population densities, smaller markets,
and higher service costs. USDA's Rural Business Cooperative Services
funded 25 technical assistance projects in the Delta, and conducted a
series of projects with 1890 land grant institutions.
Sustainable agriculture.--The Commission urged Congress and USDA to
support a stable, sustainable, agriculture, which is profitable yet
preserves the environment. On this subject, USDA has formed the
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program (SARE). SARE has
pursued a variety of projects in the Delta aimed at promoting value-
added enterprises, sustainable forestry practices, and environmental
research projects. The Delta will also benefit from President Clinton's
Executive Order of August 12, 1999 creating a national initiative to
accelerate the growth of bioenergy, which is the use of biomass
(organic matter) to produce electricity, transportation fuels such as
ethanol, or chemicals. Corn has long been used to produce ethanol, and
the technology is improving for using rice straw as a viable biomass
resource.
The farm crisis.--The Delta is one of the most prolific
agricultural regions in America. Annually the region's farmers produce
huge quantities of cotton, rice, soybeans, and many other agricultural
products. USDA assists the Delta's farmers in their vital efforts to
provide the food and fiber essential for America's livelihood. However,
in the late 1990s, farmers in the Delta suffered from a national and
international crisis in agriculture. Federal relief for farmers emerged
in the summer of 1999, and this legislation and the farm crisis will be
a vital part of the dialogue in the listening sessions and the
recommendations for the future.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The Commission recommended that local infrastructure, such as
adequate water and sewer systems, telecommunications, electricity and
natural gas, rural health care, public safety and other projects were
essential in the quest for greater economic development and improved
quality of life. The Commerce Department, HUD, and USDA's Rural
Development brought numerous infrastructure projects throughout the
Delta. For example, from 1993 to mid-1999, EDA provided over $114
million in assistance. The total funding for Rural Development's Rural
Business Programs, Community Facilities, and Water & Waste programs
amounted to approximately $858,224,000 for the period from 1993 to mid-
1999.
Water and waste programs.--The water and waste programs provided a
sound water supply and improved water and waste disposal systems in
many rural areas. EPA's Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving
Funds (CWSRF and DWSRF) are providing millions of dollars in low-cost
financing for a broad range of infrastructure projects, including the
construction or improvement of wastewater treatment plants, management
of stormwater and sewer overflows, and implementation of polluted
runoff control projects. In addition, they are providing financing for
the installation, upgrading, or replacement of water infrastructure to
ensure that systems provide drinking water that meets all public health
standards. In recognition of the special needs facing small systems, a
minimum of 15 percent of the funds available through the DWSRF must go
to systems serving under 10,000 persons. Also, to assist rural
communities where even a low-interest loan may not be affordable,
states have the option of providing additional subsidies to
disadvantaged systems through their DWSRF, including forgiveness of
principal and extended loan repayment terms.
USDA's Rural Utilities Service provided $287,945,936 in loans and
$217,664,431 in grants for water and waste services. In addition to
financial assistance, Rural Development provided extensive technical
assistance through engineers and other USDA personnel. Many of the
areas served were previously burdened by inadequate or nonexistent
infrastructure, as well as deficiencies in organizational structure and
management needed to obtain financing. The quality of life in many
areas has been substantially improved by provision of sewer, water and
other services in the 1990s, although many other rural areas in the
region still lag behind in infrastructure. Rural Development continues
to receive a large number of applications for these types of funding.
Energy supply and delivery.--Assuring an adequate, reliable supply
of electric power to the Delta is crucial for the economy. Industry
will not locate new businesses and factories without reliable power.
The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Rural Utilities Service pursue a
variety of programs for supporting electric infrastructure. DOE
conducts numerous research and grant programs that support this
critical infrastructure, benefitting public and private utilities,
universities, small businesses, farms and families. Three modern
nuclear power plants are located in the region: Riverbend in West
Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, Waterford in St. Charles Parish,
Louisiana, and Grand Gulf in Claiborne County, Mississippi. These
plants produce large amounts of electric power--over a third of the
region's entire electricity supply--without emitting noxious fumes
displacing tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The emissions associated
with acid rain and global climate change are not emitted from the
region's nuclear power plants, thereby maintaining economic development
without damaging air quality.
Beginning in fiscal year 2000, the Department of Energy's Nuclear
Energy Plant Optimization (NEPO) program will work with utilities in
the Delta and elsewhere to develop new technologies to assure that
these economically vital power plants to continue supporting
sustainable, environmentally responsible economic growth well into the
21st century. The Department of Energy also works with the region's
universities, in cooperation with local electric utilities, to provide
research and technology development. This year a new grant was awarded
to Louisiana State University. DOE's nuclear technology program
provides substantial support to Historically Black Universities and
Universities (such as Southern University and Xavier University in
Louisiana, Tennessee State University, and others) including grants and
scholarships.
Rural electric power.--The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) plays an
important role as a federal credit agency, providing financial
assistance and technical guidance for rural utilities. RUS is the
successor to the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), which was
formed in 1935 at a time when only 10 percent of the nation's rural
homes had electricity. The agency makes loans for construction of
distribution lines, transmission lines, generating plants and related
facilities so that they can provide electric service to rural areas at
affordable costs. RUS makes the loans primarily to rural electrical
cooperatives, nonprofit associations, and public utilities. Borrowers
repay the loans with interest from their operating revenues. The
electric projects contribute to job creation and encourage small
business, farming and retail establishments in the region. The projects
are far too numerous to list in their entirety, but to give two
examples:
--Woodruff Electric Cooperative Corporation, Forrest City,
Arkansas.--Woodruff Electric Coop received RUS loans for
investments in electric infrastructure for projects that had
created several hundred jobs by mid-1999, with estimates of
total job creation over the period of the loans estimated at
approximately 900 jobs by the fall of 2001. Through the aid of
the statewide electric cooperatives association, Woodruff was
instrumental in recruiting several major industries to counties
with endemic poverty, including Cross, Lee, Monroe, St.
Francis, Woodruff, Prairie, and Phillips counties.
--Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation, Brownsville,
Tennessee.--This coop engaged in numerous infrastructure
projects in eight western Tennessee counties during the 1990s.
Approximately 4,000 jobs were generated by investments in
electric power involving RUS loans. Loans included one for more
than $2 million to clients in Haywood (part of the Fayette/
Haywood Enterprise Community), as well as $1,433,958 for
Lauderdale County and $1,145,000 for Hardeman County. The
agency makes substantial loans to ``outmigration'' counties--
where more people are leaving than coming into the county.
Telecommunications, health care and distance learning.--Rural
Development provided first-time telephone service to thousands of rural
residents, while more than 77,000 residents received improvements in
the form of upgraded telecommunications infrastructure. The Rural
Utilities Service provided a total of $298 million from fiscal years
1993 through 1999 for electric, telecommunications, and distance
learning. USDA's Distance Learning and Telemedicine program combined
improvements in access to health care and educational opportunities in
the health care field for approximately 800,000 rural residents of the
region.
USDA's Rural Development invested a total of $3.39 billion for
infrastructure, housing and business development projects in the Delta
from 1993 to 1998. However, mere dollar figures do not themselves tell
the story of accomplishments or deficiencies. Community development
leaders increasingly stress the importance of embracing a comprehensive
approach that takes into consideration all phases of an area's social,
educational and economic life. As discussed in the Community
Development section, the Empowerment Zones, Enterprise Communities and
Champion Communities have promoted business and industrial development
in their communities, and they provide an effective model for community
development. These activities, in addition to those of SBA, RBS,
Commerce, as well as state and local entities, have promoted private
sector development in the region. Yet it is painfully clear that in
some areas of the Delta, the impact of the economic recovery has not
been experienced, and the region as a whole has not participated fully
and fairly in the prosperity of this decade.

ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES

The Commission recognized the importance of protecting and
enhancing the vast natural resources of the Delta while improving the
quality of life and economic viability of local communities. The
Commission focused on a variety of concerns about natural resources,
including wetlands, water quality and quantity, air quality protection,
and other environmental issues.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Departments of
Agriculture, Commerce, the Army Corps of Engineers and other divisions
of the Department of Defense, and Interior have partnered with tribal,
State, and local governments, as well as with the private sector, to
achieve the Commission's goals. These collaborative efforts have
resulted in a wide spectrum of accomplishments in the areas of
environmental protection, water and air quality improvements, waste
management, wetland quality and quantity, habitat preservation and
restoration, forestry and minerals management, environmental outreach
and planning, and support of local empowerment efforts. A total of
approximately 300,000 acres of wetlands were protected, enhanced or
created by the various wetlands programs, including the Wetlands
Reserve Program. In addition, by the end of the decade a total of 2
million acres were enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (this
program is discussed below; it had begun before the 1990s and was
expanded during the decade.) The following examples highlight the
Clinton Administration's achievements in these areas.
--A fair, flexible and effective federal wetlands policy.--Following
years of controversy over wetlands regulatory policy, the
Clinton-Gore administration established a policy in 1993 that
provides increased regulatory certainty for private landowners
while protecting wetlands. This bold Administration action has
substantially reduced the controversy over wetlands. Highlights
include the use of a single, widely acceptable, wetland
delineation procedure that all federal agencies use,
establishment of an administrative appeals process, and rules
ensuring that certain prior converted croplands are not subject
to wetland regulations.
--Protecting and restoring freshwater wetlands and bottomland
hardwoods.--Through land acquisition, reforestation,
conservation easements, and partnerships with public and
private landowners and conservation agencies, freshwater
wetlands and bottomland hardwoods were restored and protected
throughout the Delta. Federal agencies are collaborating with
various groups on projects in Louisiana, Mississippi,
Tennessee, and Kentucky. About 22,000 acres of wetlands have
been restored on National Wildlife Refuges, in addition to more
than 150,000 acres restored in cooperation with private
landowners and State agencies. In addition, an extensive
database has been compiled that is of wide practical value for
wetlands and environmental issues.
--The Wetland Reserve and Conservation Reserve Programs.--By the end
of 1999, nearly 300,000 privately owned wetland acres will be
voluntarily enrolled in the Wetland Reserve Program, which is
aimed at restoring wetlands on marginally productive
agricultural land. Expanding wetlands enrollment is one of the
key actions in the Clinton-Gore Administration's Clean Water
Action Plan. The financial benefits of the Wetland Reserve
Program, including permanent and long-term easements and
alternative sources of income in the form of hunting and other
recreational leases, have enabled landowners to reduce their
debt and stay on their land while restoring wetlands on a
voluntary basis. In addition, privately-owned acres throughout
the Delta are also currently enrolled in the Conservation
Reserve Program, which encourages voluntary enrollment of
highly erodible land, cropped wetlands, wildlife habitat, and
wetland restoration acres to ensure protection from erosion
while improving water quality and wildlife habitat.
Approximately two million acres are currently enrolled in the
Delta.
--Restoring coastal wetlands.--Federal agencies have been active in
the protection and restoration of Louisiana's coastal marshes
and swamps, which have been disappearing at the rate of 25 to
35 square miles per year. Since 1991, more than 90 coastal
wetlands restoration projects have been undertaken to protect,
restore or create as many as 80,000 acres of coastal wetlands.
The 74 active projects will protect, restore or create about
64,400 acres of coastal wetlands.
--Reducing pollution threats to National Wildlife Refuges.--
Restoration of wetlands and shallow water areas on former
agricultural lands through Interior programs as well as USDA
habitat restoration programs have reduced pollution threats to
National Wildlife Refuges in the Lower Mississippi Valley.
--Protecting and improving water quality and quantity.--Efforts to
protect water quality in the Delta region continue to progress
on many fronts, with federal, state, public and private
partners working together. More than 35,000 acres of riparian
buffers have been installed, and multiple polluted runoff
control projects have been implemented. Best Management
Practices to help reduce agricultural runoff have been
evaluated for most commodities produced in the Delta.
Freshwater diversions and barrier island restoration projects
are also on-going in the Delta to enhance marshlands. In
addition, a series of ground water projects addressing
withdrawal and recharge issues are being conducted to evaluate
future demand and availability of water, including studies on
the Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer in eastern
Arkansas--one of the major agricultural areas in the nation--as
well as the Sparta aquifer in Arkansas and Louisiana, a major
source of water for public and industrial needs.
--Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Nutrient Task Force.--Scientific
investigations in the Gulf of Mexico have documented a large
area with oxygen levels so low that most aquatic species cannot
survive. A coalition of federal and state agencies have banded
together to assess the causes and consequences of this Gulf
``dead zone,'' and to develop strategies for reducing nutrient
loads in the lower Mississippi Delta, which are thought to be
the predominant cause of the oxygen depletion. While the focus
of the assessment is on hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico, the
effects of changes in nutrient concentrations, loads, and
ratios on water quality conditions within the Mississippi-
Atchafalaya riverine systems is also addressed, and the Task
Force has become a major force for addressing overall water
quality issues in the Gulf.
--Remediation, reclamation, and redevelopment.--Remediation and
reclamation activities in the Delta region include Interior's
rural abandoned mine program, which has reclaimed two-thirds of
the 22,000 coal mine acres in the Delta. In addition, several
Brownfields Assessment Demonstration Pilots are being conducted
in the Delta to provide a cleaner environment, new jobs, and an
enhanced tax base. These goals are achieved by addressing
abandoned or under-utilized industrial and commercial
facilities, the expansion or redevelopment of which are
complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.
--Environmental Education and Outreach.--Federal and State agencies
and private organizations worked together to empower
communities, and increase environmental education and regional
awareness in the Delta region. Activities included efforts to
increase public awareness of chemicals released into the air
and water, medical testing on the impact of the pesticide
methyl parathion, and funding of the Centers for Children's
Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research to provide
community-based prevention and intervention projects.
--Environmental Justice.--Federal agencies helped provide community
training, infrastructure development, data collection and
dissemination, community clean-up projects, children's health
initiatives, business start-ups, strategic planning, and
cooperative business ventures in low-income and minority
communities through the Environmental Justice Program, various
rural assistance programs, and other activities.
--American Heritage Rivers Initiative.--The Lower Mississippi River
was designated as one of fourteen American Heritage Rivers,
with segments along Memphis, Tennessee, and between Baton Rouge
and New Orleans, Louisiana. The local communities that
nominated their stretches of the river have identified
environmental priorities linked to reclaiming lands for people
and wildlife, including wetlands protection, brownfields
redevelopment, and riverfront redevelopment. Several federal
agencies, including the National Park Service, Environmental
Protection Agency, Army Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife
Service , National Marine Fisheries Service, and U.S.
Geological Survey are working with local community groups to
protect natural and wildlife amenities, preserve historic
sites, develop tourism opportunities, and enhance greenways
along the river.
Federal agencies have been active in the Delta in many ways. The
Administration continues to work with local, state, and private
partners in addressing the remaining challenges in the field of the
environment and natural resources.

PRESERVING THE DELTA'S NATURAL RESOURCES

The lower Mississippi River valley has lost more than 85 percent of
its bottomland hardwood forests over the last 50 years. Now, actions
are being taken on public and private lands to reverse the downward
slide, and to grow new forests.
On and around Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge in Mississippi, 14,000
acres have been replanted since 1989. In 1999 alone, almost 5,300 acres
were planted with bottomland hardwood seedlings, including a variety of
oaks such as Nuttall, willow, water and cherry bark, as well as ash,
cottonwood, sycamore, persimmon, sweet pecan and sugar berry. This
extraordinary effort involved the Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge, the
Mississippi Department of Transportation and some private landowners.
Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and other volunteer groups planted 1.5 million
seedlings in a three-month period.

``This land, like a lot of the soybean land, should never have been
cleared. Three out of five years it's wet, and we have a vested
interest to control and manage for duck hunting. The next natural step
was to restore the high ground to trees. We are looking forward to
having deer hunting there.''--David Coon, Wetland Hunting Club in the
Mississippi Delta.

These newly-forested wetlands benefit many wildlife species--black
bears . . . white-tailed deer . . . wood ducks, mallards and other
waterfowl . . . shorebirds . . . and migrating songbirds. Efforts such
as this will go a long way in restoring much needed habitat for
wildlife and a place for people to enjoy for generations to come.

BUSINESS AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

A variety of job creation and retention initiatives, welfare-to-
work projects and other initiatives have been promoted in the Delta.
The Small Business Administration (SBA), USDA's Rural Business Services
and the Department of Commerce especially contributed regarding these
issues. This section if the Inventory concludes by addressing tourism
issues, which has great potential not only for promoting economic
development but also for preserving the Delta's profound cultural,
musical and literary heritage.
In 1990, the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission noted
that ``the central challenge facing the Delta is the challenge to
develop a strong business and industrial sector that will enable the
region's economy to be one of growth and vitality . . .'' Using
innovative methods, such as ``circuit rides,'' SBA's field offices and
resource partners located throughout the region are conducting
extensive outreach activities to the Delta's small business community.
Activities focus on informing small businesses about available
financing programs and about training and technical assistance
resources.
Access to capital.--Since 1990, the SBA has reemphasized existing
programs and streamlined procedures to make it easier for small
businesses to gain access to capital. For instance, since 1990 SBA's
504 program (offering fixed rate financing on purchases that also serve
a public purpose) has made $1.2 billion in loans through 41 lenders
operating in the region. SBA has also developed new programs. For
example, in 1991 the Microloan Program was established. It was inspired
by a community-lending program in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The Microloan
Program serves the Delta's smallest businesses and as many as 14
intermediary lenders in the Delta have provided over 1,000 SBA funded
microloans. These have been powerful engines for retaining and creating
jobs.
New resources, such as the Mid-Delta Enterprise Community's One
Stop Capital Shop in Itta Bena, Mississippi and Women's Business
Centers in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, New Orleans, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee were created to help small
businesses obtain the financing and technical assistance critical to
building a successful small business.
SBA also helps families and businesses of the Delta during times of
disaster. SBA's Disaster Assistance Program provides Federally funded
assistance for funding long-range recovery. Between fiscal year 1991
and fiscal year 1998 SBA made over 10,00 loans in Mississippi Delta
counties.
Rural economic development.--USDA's Rural Business-Cooperative
Service (RBS) pursues a number of activities for promoting business
development in the rural Delta. The Business and Industry (B&I)
Guaranteed Loan Program helped create jobs and stimulate rural
economies by providing financial backing for businesses. Similarly, the
Intermediary Lending Program provides loans to intermediaries, which in
turn provide loans for recipients developing business facilities or
community development projects. The Rural Business Enterprise Program
assists public bodies, nonprofit corporations, and federally recognized
Indian Tribal groups for development of small and emerging private
business enterprises. Another major rural development engine is the
Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant Program, which financed
economic development and job creation projects based on sound economic
plans. In the fiscal years from 1993 to 1998 in the 219 counties of the
region, these Rural Business Service programs provided a total of
$245,128,336 in loans and $28,702,124 in grants.
The Department of Commerce has also been active in the Delta, using
its infrastructure, planning, technical assistance and business
finance/revolving loan fund grants to stimulate economic growth and
provide job opportunities. Commerce provided over $114 million in
grants to the region during the fiscal year 1993 to mid-fiscal year
1999 period.

LOCAL INGENUITY CREATES JOBS IN A LOUISIANA DELTA COMMUNITY--LOCAL
UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS FROM 14 PERCENT IN 1993 TO 7.5 PERCENT IN JUNE, 1999

The economic life of Tallulah, Louisiana, changed for the better
one winter evening in 1998 when Moses Williams sat down to watch the
television news. As the camera panned the New Orleans seaport, the
newscaster announced that Avondale Industries, the sixth largest
shipbuilding firm in the country, was looking for expansion sites in
Louisiana. Williams, president of the Northeast Louisiana Community
Development Corporation, knew exactly where he wanted Avondale to
expand. He called Tallulah Mayor Theodore Lindsey, and in February,
1998, both sent letters to Avondale asking the company to consider
opening a shipbuilding plant along the Mississippi River in Tallulah.
That summer, the deal was closed and the Northeast Louisiana Delta
Enterprise Community had a new employer.
The Avondale success story was part of job creation initiatives in
Madison Parish during the 1990s that led to a decrease in unemployment
from 14 percent in 1993 to 7.5 percent in June, 1999. ``That's the
lowest unemployment we've had here in 20 years,'' said Williams.
Williams soon discovered that because Avondale uses a modular
approach to building its ships, the company could produce ship parts
off the coast and then move those parts to New Orleans to be assembled.
That made Tallulah a good candidate for the plant. In letters to
Avondale, Williams and Lindsey pointed out Tallulah's other advantages:
It already had a port facility on the Mississippi and a trained labor
force of welders who were ready to work. In fact, says Williams,
Tallulah had more welders than local businesses could employ. All had
received their training through courses at the local campus of
Louisiana Technical College.
``The college had actually been catching flack for producing too
many welders,'' says Williams. ``Once those welders were trained, they
couldn't find jobs here, so they were leaving Tallulah and going down
south for part of the year to work offshore.''
When Avondale executives showed interest in Tallulah's port
facility, state and local officials got involved to induce the company
to make its move. Avondale invested $2 million to renovate an existing
building on the port. The Louisiana Legislature contributed $1.3
million to make infrastructure improvements so the port could
accommodate Avondale's operation. The company qualified for Federal and
State tax credits.
Avondale now employs 75 local residents and expects to increase its
workforce to 200 by the end of 1999. The new jobs are a welcome shot in
the arm for an area ``where unemployment is always more than twice the
State average,'' says Williams. Those jobs may be just the beginning of
economic development success for Tallulah, as the shipbuilding
operation attracts other business to the city. Not long after receiving
a firm commitment from Avondale, the local Enterprise Community lent
$118,000 to a sewing company (called LAPCO) that specializes in making
jackets for welders. Intrigued by the possibility of selling its
product directly to the shipbuilder, LAPCO leased a vacant, city-owned
building and used its EC loan to purchase factory equipment. LAPCO,
which opened its Tallulah plant in August, 1998, will employ 50 to 100
local residents.
The fact that Tallulah managed to recruit a large corporation to
bring in a plant locally does not mean that this is the identical
pattern for other communities to follow, or that the success of this
project came from outside the community. To the contrary, the key
elements of success behind this project came from within the community
itself: the skilled labor, the technical college, the port facility,
the local ingenuity, and above all the cooperation and leadership that
came from people in Tallulah. The collaboration of local leaders with
federal, state, and private entities in these successful projects
provides a good example for communities to follow in job creation and
business development.

TOURISM

``There are few more beautiful sights than an Arkansas forest in
late February; I mean a forest in the river-bottom, where every hollow
is a cypress brake--Scarlet berries flicker on purple limbs, the cane
grows a fresher green, and in February, red shoots will be decking the
maple twigs, there will be ribbons of weeds which glitter like jewels,
floating under the pools of water and ferns waving above, while the
moss paints the silvery bark of the sycamores, white-oaks, and gum-
trees on the north side as high as the branches, and higher, with an
incomparable soft and vivid green.''--The nineteenth century writer
Alice French, writing about the natural beauty of the east Arkansas
Delta, 1887.

The Delta hosts millions of tourists every year who come to enjoy
the natural beauty, history, culture, food, and music of this wonderful
region. These visitors are also a critical part of the Delta economy,
bringing almost $13 billion in added revenue annually into the region.
Because of the economic power of tourism, Delta communities throughout
the region enjoy new businesses, jobs, home and school construction,
and other opportunities. The table below demonstrates the strength of
the tourist market in the Delta. The dollar totals cover only the 219
Delta counties of each state for 1998. Memphis and New Orleans are such
large tourist attractions that they give a major boost to the dollar
figures for their respective states. These amounts are based on
national as well as state models for measuring tourist revenue.

[In billions of dollars]

Arkansas.......................................................... 1.8
Illinois.......................................................... 0.27
Kentucky.......................................................... 0.55
Louisiana......................................................... 5.67
Missouri.......................................................... 0.78
Mississippi....................................................... 1.36
Tennessee......................................................... 2.54
______
Total....................................................... 12.96

The Great River as a natural resource attraction.--Woven deeply
into the fabric of the nation's history, the 975-mile reach of the
lower Mississippi River presents the Delta's most under-utilized
natural resource attractions. The river and its 2.5 million-acre flood
plain possess abundant fisheries, wildlife resources, and opportunities
for hunting, fishing, boating, hiking, and sightseeing. In July, 1998,
President Clinton designated the Lower Mississippi River as one of
fourteen American Heritage Rivers, with segments along Memphis, and
between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The President began the American
Heritage Rivers Initiative in 1997 in order to support local efforts to
enhance America's rivers and river fronts. The goals of this Initiative
include historic and cultural preservation, natural resource
protection, and economic revitalization. It will use federal resources
more effectively to assist communities, but it does not create any new
regulatory requirements for property owners or state, tribal and local
governments. Several federal agencies will work with local communities
to protect the natural and wildlife amenities of the great river and
surrounding wetlands.
Promotion of tourism.--The Department of Commerce works closely
with the private sector in promoting tourism into the region. One
example of this activity is Commerce's work with Travel South USA, a
nonprofit regional marketing organization that represents Arkansas,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and several other Southern
states. Commerce Secretary William Daley announced in 1999 that Travel
South had been selected to take part in the Market Development
Cooperator Program, a public-private partnership developed to help
small and medium-sized American firms expand exports that support jobs
for Americans. Travel South will receive a $400,000 grant for this
project. This funding will allow Travel South to implement a strategic
marketing program designed to increase visitation from Latin America
into the region.
National Wildlife Refuges.--The Fish and Wildlife Service's network
of National Wildlife Refuges throughout the Delta serves as an
excellent resource for ecotourism development. This is another example
of the inter-related nature of the major issues addressed in the 1990
Commission's report--preservation of wetlands and the other natural
resource and environmental initiatives also reinforce the vast
ecotourism potential of the Delta. National Wildlife Refuges
established or enlarged with the aid of a total of $25.4 million in
federal funds during the 1990s include Bayou Savage National Wildlife
Refuge in Orleans Parish; Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge on
the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain; Bayou Cocodrie National Wildlife
Refuge southwest of Vidalia, Louisiana; and Black Bayou Lake National
Wildlife Refuge in Ouachita Parish. These refuges comprise more than
54,000 acres.
National Parks.--Similarly, a number of National Park Service
Projects were established or enlarged in the 1990s. The Ozark National
Scenic Riverway received $10.8 million in additional funding in 1998.
By 1995, virtually all privately owned land had been purchased along
the scenic Buffalo National River. The Natchez National Historical Park
was authorized in 1988; during the 1990s $8.5 million was devoted to
acquiring land and properties for the Park, which is one of the best
preserved concentrations of antebellum properties in the country. Jean
Lafitte National Historical Park received $3.9 million in the 1990s to
acquire land within the park and park protection zone. The National
Park Service recently conducted a Congressionally-mandated study of the
Atchafalaya Basin that developed a range of alternatives to protect
natural resources and provide for recreational use. Alice French wrote
so eloquently of the Delta's natural splendor a century ago, and these
actions are vital in ensuring that the region's natural beauty will
endure for future generations to see and enjoy.
Mississippi Delta Region Heritage Study.--The Mississippi Delta
Region Heritage Study was presented to Congress in 1998 as an initial
analysis of the Delta's cultural, natural, and recreational resources.
In particular, it highlights potential locations for an African
American Heritage Trail and a Native American Cultural Center. This
study brought together a diverse coalition of federal, state, and local
entities, tribal governments, private nonprofit organizations, academic
institutions, and communities throughout the seven-state, 219-county
region. The National Park Service worked closely with the Louisiana
Endowment for the Humanities to identify museum organizations that had
exhibitions interpreting Delta culture. The Center for the Study of
Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi conducted research to
find sites not listed on the National Register of Historic Places that
could have an important role to play in expanding interest in the
Delta's culture and history for visitors to the region.
The region that produced Mahalia Jackson, Louis Armstrong, Eudora
Welty, Walker Percy, William Faulkner, and Richard Wright
unquestionably enjoys a profound cultural heritage. In analyzing ways
of expanding the Delta's tourist industry, the Lower Mississippi Delta
Region Heritage Study provides an excellent foundation from which the
federal, state, local and private partners can make decisions regarding
promotion of cultural preservation and tourism in the Delta in the next
century. New Orleans and Memphis are already capitalizing on the
tourist industry's potential; and scenic areas in some parts of the
Arkansas Delta have also experienced some successes, as revealed by the
$1.8 billion in tourist revenue for that area in 1998. One example of
the potential for growth is the success of the King Biscuit Blues
Festival in Helena, Arkansas: this annual tourist event for blues
enthusiasts drew 15,000 visitors when it began in 1986, but expanded
more than five times to an attendance of 80,000 in the mid-1990s. But
many other areas of the region have untapped markets, and such
initiatives as the Mississippi Delta Region Heritage Study provide
insights into ways of tapping the Delta's great potential for a dynamic
and rapidly growing tourist industry.

DIVERSITY

A fundamental theme running throughout the Report is the need to
ameliorate race relations in the Delta. Racism has been one of the most
destructive forces in preventing the people of the Delta from making
progress in attacking the region's social, political, and economic
problems. In many areas--community development, educational
opportunities, small business assistance, and others--there have been
important strides made in the 1990s for the African-Americans,
Hispanics, Native Americans, and other minorities in the Delta.
However, much remains to be done, and minorities in the Delta have not
received their fair share of participation in the economic boom.
Approximately 40 percent of the Delta's people are African American.
The number of Hispanics in the region is relatively small but is
growing rapidly.
There are exceedingly diverse and numerous issues discussed in this
Report and the following Inventory that deal partly or entirely with
race relations. A sketch of several examples is listed below, as an
illustration of some of the important activities underway in the field
of ethnic and race relations:
--Magnet Schools.--The Magnet School Assistance Program (MSAP) has
assisted school districts that are planning and implementing
magnet schools as part of the district's approved desegregation
plan to reduce, eliminate or prevent minority group isolation.
For example, the Monroe City School District in Louisiana will
receive up to $3,730,659 over three years of its MSAP project
to establish technology-based magnet schools at Carroll Junior
High School and Carroll Senior High School. The program will
foster partnerships with business, technical colleges, and
universities to create a strong link between school-based and
real-world learning.
--Minority education at elementary, secondary and college levels.--
Through the 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA), additional Federal resources
were directed to schools with high percentages of students
living in poverty through the Title I program. A substantial
majority of elementary and secondary schools in the Delta
receive Title I funding. At the college and university level, a
number of initiatives have been pursued, including assistance
for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
program, which makes up another major component of the effort
to assist minorities obtain opportunities for educational
advancement.
--Bilingual and migrant education programs.--The Department of
Education's Bilingual Education program assists Hispanics and
others with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), and its Migrant
Education Program reaches out to migrant farm workers' children
who suffer from the combined effects of poverty, mobility, and
limited English proficiency that are characteristic of many
migrant children. For example, the Orleans Parish School
District received $463,676 in Federal funding in fiscal year
1998 through a Bilingual Education Comprehensive School grant
to restructure, upgrade, and reform the current program for
over 1,300 LEP students speaking more than 20 languages.
--Minorities in the agricultural sector.--The U.S. Department of
Agriculture has pursued a number of policies for assisting
small farmers and farm workers, many of whom are minorities.
Expansion of marketing opportunities, more credit
opportunities, and other policies for the disadvantaged have
been pursued, although much remains to be done to correct the
historic discrimination that has been inflicted upon minority
farmers.
--Farm labor.--Similarly, numerous efforts have been made to provide
aid for farm laborers, many of whom are African American or
Hispanic. In addition to the education programs cited above,
housing is a major issue for migrant workers. Farm Labor
Housing in the Delta region, as funded through USDA Rural
Development, has traditionally consisted of single family
dwellings located on private lands, which the agricultural
producer funded. But, with changes in the agricultural economy
of the Delta, there has been a shift away from that type of
housing. In the 1990s, Mississippi built 26 on-farm labor
housing units totaling $1.23 million, and western Tennessee
built two units at a cost of over $100,000. In Arkansas,
however, construction of new, on-farm units has continued at a
more significant rate, and an innovative, overnight housing and
referral facility for migrant farmworkers was developed in
Hope, Arkansas. During the 1990s, Rural Development in Arkansas
provided 47 domestic Farm Labor Housing loans to finance 62 on-
farm units totaling approximately $2,610,000.
Moreover, Rural Development in Arkansas also granted $2.5 million
to construct the new Hope Migrant Complex. The Hope Migrant
Farm Labor Center was constructed to assist families and
individuals as they travel through a ``migrant stream''--where
workers travel to points north and south, anticipating work
opportunities along certain routes. Each year, thousands of
families following the midwestern migrant stream travel through
Hope, and many families stop at the Labor Center to rest. They
are provided with housing, job referrals and social services
assistance. Farm workers have historically been among the most
socially and economically distressed groups in the region,
despite their essential contribution in producing the food
Americans eat every day. USDA's Rural Development and the U.S.
Department of Labor are working on this and other projects to
assist farm workers throughout the region.
--Housing opportunity.--The Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) has vigorously invoked its authority under
the Fair Housing Act to prosecute cases of housing
discrimination. HUD has funded the Fair Housing Initiatives
Program, which supports private nonprofit organizations, state
and local governments and other entities committed to enhancing
compliance with the nation's fair housing laws. Furthermore,
HUD launched a rigorous, independent study of racial and ethnic
discrimination in housing and rental sales in order to enhance
its continuing effort to enforce fair housing opportunities.
--Minority small businesses.--The Small Business Administration's
(SBA) MicroLoan program assisted small businesses throughout
the region, with over half of them going to African Americans.
SBA's Section 7(a) Loan Guaranty Program provides loans to
eligible, credit-worthy small businesses that cannot obtain
financing on reasonable terms through normal lending channels.
This program has steadily increased its loan activity for
minorities. In fiscal year 1992, 15 percent of the loans were
made to minorities and 14 percent to women, while in fiscal
year 1998, that percentage had risen to 24 percent to
minorities as well as 24 percent to women. In fiscal year 1999,
SBA guaranteed 4,052 loans in the region, amounting to more
than $755 million, and almost half of the loans were to
minorities and women. Similarly, the Community Development
Financial Institutions Fund has provided opportunities for
small businesses, including many African American businesses,
working with community development organizations such as the
Enterprise Corporation for the Delta and many others.
--Minority government contracts.--The federal government has made a
concerted effort to provide minorities with opportunities to
increase involvement with federal contracting. The 1990
Commission explicitly recommended such assistance. The
Department of Defense gives attention to minority defense
contract awards, and SBA's Section 8(a) program is a set-aside
for small disadvantaged businesses. African Americans, Hispanic
Americans, Native Americans and Asian Pacific Americans are
included among those assumed to be disadvantaged under the
Small Business Act. There are 683 companies taking part in
Section 8(a) in the Delta region. Examples of the benefits: in
four Delta counties in Arkansas in 1998, $18.5 million in
federal contracting dollars were awarded to small and
disadvantaged businesses; three Louisiana Delta counties
received almost $32 million.
--HUBZones.--Similarly, the historically underutilized business zone
program provides federal contracting opportunities for
qualified and certified individually-owned small businesses
located in areas with high unemployment, low-income residents,
or on Native American reservations. Almost every county along
the Mississippi River is included among the more than 7,500
HUBZones across the nation. SBA pursues a number of other
policies aimed at providing fair opportunities for minorities
(and all small, disadvantaged businesses) through its Small
Business Development Centers and other initiatives.
--Minority health.--In 1998, President Clinton instructed federal
agencies to pursue a major initiative to eliminate racial and
ethnic disparities in health. The U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services is leading this effort to focus attention on
minority health issues. One example of this attention is the
Mississippi Delta Environmental Health Project, supported by
HHS through a cooperative agreement with the Minority Health
Professions Foundation. This project determines environmental
and other problems that affect minority health, addresses
demographics, identification of health care providers and
environmental services in the region, and implements strategies
to address these problems.
--Environmental Justice for Minorities.--Pursuant to the Clinton
administration's Executive Order 12898, ``Federal Actions to
Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-
Income Populations,''the Environmental Protection Agency has
funded a variety of low-income and minority communities through
its Environmental Justice Program, including grants to Delta
institutions of higher learning to study hazardous waste,
health and the environment in the region.
--Empowerment Zones, Enterprise Communities, and Champion
Communities.--One of the major Clinton-Gore administration
innovations in community development is the EZ/EC program. The
15 rural and urban EZ's and EC's in the Delta are located in
economically distressed areas with large minority populations.
The Inventory discusses in detail these numerous initiatives aimed
at providing fair social and economic opportunities regardless of race
or ethnic group. But much more needs to be done to attack the remaining
racial problems. As the Delta 2000 Initiative moves forward to
recommendations for the future, we especially invite suggestions and
ideas as to how we can advance civil rights for all people in a region
that has suffered historically from the blight of racism.

LOOKING FORWARD TO THE DELTA'S FUTURE

Many challenges remain--from lifting up the economies of the most
distressed rural areas and inner cities, to improving health care for
residents of all racial, ethnic, as well as socio-economic status, to
building upon the progress made during the 1990s in such areas as
transportation, preservation of natural resources, and education. The
Report for the Delta's Future will include a section supplementing the
data summarized in the Interim Report, and then will proceed to the
crucial issue of recommendations for the future. True to the
Commission's original emphasis upon an honest assessment of ``where we
are in the emerging global economy,'' this Interim Report acknowledges
that many areas of the Delta continue to be troubled by social and
economic problems. The recommendations for the future will be developed
in depth in the Report for the Delta's Future, to be completed by the
end of 1999. All people interested in the development of the region
that lies at America's heart are invited to provide their information,
suggestions, constructive criticism, and ideas as the Mississippi Delta
Regional Initiative continues the work of revitalization begun in 1990
and carries it into the next century.

Mr. Eisenberg. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Department of
Transportation for its part has either completed or has
underway the overwhelming number of the 70 transportation
recommendations of the 1990 commission outline.
My written testimony indicates a significant investment of
transportation funds that the administration, working with the
States, localities, and nonprofit organizations, has made in
the Delta States and in the Delta communities.
Among the projects benefitting Mississippi are funding for
I-69, four-laning funds for I-61, airport improvement grants
for nine Mississippi airports totaling $33.8 million,
transportation enhancement funds for Clarksdale, HOV
construction funds for I-55 South, shipyard modernization funds
for Ham, Mississippi, and funds for ITS deployment in Oxford to
name just a few facilities.
In a few weeks, a final report and agenda cataloging the
progress of the Delta since the 1990 commission report will be
finalized. It will be entitled ``Delta Vision, Delta Voices:
The Mississippi Delta Region Beyond 2000.''
It will be formally unveiled at a national conference on
the Mississippi Delta to be held in the Washington D.C. area on
May 10 and 11 held there in order to focus national attention
on the Delta and its needs.
An important part of that report will, in fact, be the
voices of the Delta where groups, individuals, interested
parties, Members of Congress, anyone who has a view to submit
to us will have that view and those recommendations,
incorporated in that report, making it clear that we are all
together in this great endeavor.
Consistent with the administration's continuing commitment
to the Delta that has been noted here today already, the
administration has requested $159 million for fiscal year 2001
programs and projects in the region. My testimony along with
the others outlines these requests.
A principal issue before you, of course, is the creation of
the Mississippi Delta Regional Authority, which I would like to
discuss. This has been introduced, as you know, in both the
House and Senate as H.R. 2911, S. 1622 and enjoys bipartisan
co-sponsorship as well as the announced support of several
Delta Governors also on a bipartisan basis.
The authority contained in these two bills is the top
priority of this administration and of this President. He
believes that it is vital to improving the long-term economic
security of this region.
It's modelled on the successful Appalachian Regional
Commission which had played an important role to the progress
of the Appalachian States.
Mr. Chairman, it's important to separate what the proposed
authority would do from what it would not do. The authority is
rooted in the fact that this region is not a collection of
States. It is a region bound together by one of the world's
great rivers, by a rich tapestry of history, heritage,
cultures, and common needs and problems.
The authority would be a wonderful example of the
devolution of responsibilities to the States and their partners
that this Congress has so strongly and effectively espoused.
The Governors would all be members of the authority and would
choose their own co-chairman to serve with the counterpart
chosen by the President.
This authority would be the home for homegrown solutions to
regional problems. It would provide technical assistance to
small, poorer localities that are only part-time staffed and
negotiate sometimes complicated application procedures
necessary to require Federal funds for critically needed
projects.
This function would work in close partnership with the
State, municipal, and county organizations which now assist in
this role.
Mr. Chairman, of the 164 Delta municipalities in
Mississippi, some 50 percent of their mayors are part-time. And
many of the full-time mayors are actually retired persons or
people who hold second jobs.
Local governments have told us that authority assistance
with this kind of function would be a great benefit to them.
The authority would also aid communities with dollars to match
the funding requirements of Federal programs, the matching fund
requirements.
The transportation projects typically require a non-
federally match of 20 percent. It would also provide grants for
a variety of Delta needs determined by the States and their
partners.
It would serve as the gathering place for States,
localities, private sector industries, charitable, academic,
faith communities and institutions to determine and address
region-wide solutions to region-wide problems.
Recognizing that many of the problems do not stop at each
State's borders, this authority would reach across State lines,
helping States and localities, partners, to address issues and
needs that could not be resolved solely within each State. In
doing this, it would fill a large gap that exists in the
Delta's capacity to work together across this vast region on
the common problems it faces.
There is no broad regional entity in the Delta today that
serves as a continuing gathering place for policies, programs,
projects, technical assistance, research, and regional
marketing and promotion. Without such an institutional
framework, large-scale interstate efforts have a tough time
holding themselves together.
This authority would provide a one-stop shopping
opportunity for all who have an interest in the progress of the
Delta, and that one-stop shopping opportunity would produce
results for less cost and with much less redtape. And it would
provide a regional forum for the generation of new ideas and
new efforts.
This authority, however, would not supplant existing
structures. It would not usurp anybody's power prerogatives. It
would create no new layers of government. The legislation
specifically indicates it would not impose any program or
project on any State. This authority would be of the Delta and
for the Delta.
Mr. Chairman, we are mindful of your interest to the
contributions of the Delta that will be found among the
region's colleges and universities. We encourage and welcome
that involvement within the context of an institutional
framework of the authority as well as the contributions that
they may make on their own.
The region has outstanding institutions of higher learning.
In areas such as research, conferences, programs, particularly
pertinent to their areas of concentration, these institutions,
along with other public and private entities through the
region, should and must have the opportunity to participate in
the overall effort to promote a more cohesive approach to
regional efforts. We are committed to this kind of a
partnership.
Let me quickly mention the specifics of the
administration's budget request at which point I will conclude.
The budget request as noted does contain this new authority,
contains a number of programs and projects, some of which my
colleagues have indicated today.
Sixty-nine million dollars would be provided for the
Department of Transportation alone. That transportation request
provides for $25 million specifically dedicated to I-69 and the
Great River Bridge, and an additional $23 million for
additional bridge and road projects to be decided by the States
and their partners at their discretion.
In addition, there is $20 million for improved access to
jobs, health care, and other needs of which $5 million is
specifically charged for new bus purchases and establishment of
new routes. And as is noted, $30 million would go for this
Delta Authority, the overwhelming result of which would go
specifically to Delta communities to their needs.

PREPARED STATEMENT

Mr. Chairman, I would conclude at this point and with my
colleagues be happy to address any questions you might have.
[The statement follows:]

Prepared Statement of Albert C. Eisenberg

INTRODUCTION

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you
today to discuss the role of the Department of Transportation
specifically, and of the Administration generally, in addressing the
needs of the Mississippi Delta Region. We commend you for holding this
hearing in order to focus attention on the issues and concerns
confronting this region. My testimony will concentrate on programs and
activities of the Department, as well as the broader Mississippi Delta
Region Initiative of the Administration. This initiative, chaired by
the Department of Transportation, features a proposed Delta Regional
Authority and budget requests from several federal departments, which
total $159 million.
The Administration has demonstrated a long and continuing
commitment to addressing the range of needs facing the Mississippi
Delta Region. This important part of America's heartland encompasses
seven states, 219 counties and parishes, and 8.5 million people, bound
together economically, historically, socially, and culturally by one of
the world's great rivers. During the last seven years, the region has
made important social and economic progress as it seeks to take its
full place in the circle of prosperity that the rest of the country
enjoys. At the same time, we fully recognize that numerous challenges
remain in a number of domestic areas, including economic growth,
transportation infrastructure, education, health services, and housing
opportunities. For example, in 1999, in 15 Delta counties, the
unemployment rate was higher than 10 percent.
The Administration's Mississippi Delta Region Initiative is a
comprehensive proposal that should be viewed as an evolution of the
Administration's commitment to the social and economic progress of the
Mississippi Delta. We believe that the proposal will add value to the
work that has been going on in the Delta and will help the region to
participate more fully in the unprecedented prosperity and economic
growth that the country is experiencing.
Our proposals come from the Delta. We spent a long time listening
to the voices of the Delta in four listening sessions and numerous
discussions held throughout the region. The result is a comprehensive
regional initiative with many pieces:
--An interim report on the federal government's progress toward
meeting the recommendations and goals of the 1990 commission
report;
--A final report and agenda entitled ``Delta Vision, Delta Voices--
The Mississippi Delta Region Beyond 2000;''
--A national conference to take place in the Washington, DC, area to
focus national attention on the Delta region; and
--A legislative package, including a proposed Mississippi Delta
Regional Authority and funding proposals addressing key issues
affecting the Delta.
Before discussing the Department's and the Administration's
efforts, let me first briefly summarize the recent history of federal
efforts in the region.
In 1988, with bipartisan support including you, Mr. Chairman, the
U.S. Congress established the Lower Mississippi Delta Development
Commission, with the mandate to study the unique problems of the region
and make recommendations for future action. Two years later in 1990,
the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Commission, chaired by then-
Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton, submitted its final report entitled,
``Realizing the Dream . . . Fulfilling the Potential.'' This report
contained 63 goals and more than 400 recommendations for the federal
government and the non-federal public and private interests in what the
Commission called a ``handbook for action.''
Now nearly a decade later, the Administration's Mississippi Delta
Region Initiative, led by Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, has
been charged with assessing where we stand in relation to the goals and
recommendations that were set forth in 1990, and developing
recommendations for the next set of actions. Under the Secretary's
leadership, I chair the interagency task force responsible for
producing the final report and agenda of the initiative entitled,
``Delta Vision, Delta Voices--The Mississippi Delta Region Beyond
2000,'' as well as the May 10-11, 2000, national conference for the
initiative. An Interim Report entitled, ``The Mississippi Delta Beyond
2000, Interim Report'' reviews the federal government's programs and
investments in the Delta and their outcomes. Produced in September
1999, the report has been distributed to public and private
stakeholders throughout the Delta.
This interim report summarizes the progress made in the Delta since
1990 across the range of federal programs and activities: in
transportation, job growth, unemployment, empowerment zones, education,
agriculture, infrastructure, natural resources and the environment,
tourism, housing, health care, child and youth issues, and hunger and
nutrition concerns. I commend this document to you, and submit a copy
of this interim report that I ask be included in the record.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ASSISTANCE TO THE DELTA

Specifically, I would like to highlight a number of USDOT
transportation investments in the region that have important relevance
for the future of the Mississippi Delta and the improvement of its
economic conditions.
The Department of Transportation maintains a continuing presence in
the Mississippi Delta, contributing effectively to help meet the
transportation needs of the states and their communities, both rural
and urban.
As you know, the greatest amount of the transportation funds under
the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation are provided under
the Federal-aid highway program and are apportioned to each state by
formula. At the same time, substantial funding for public transit is
provided through congressionally earmarked projects and formula grants
to states and transit agencies. The Department also administers a
number of programs that Congress has authorized for competitive
application, addressing such needs as job access, support of
international trade, and innovative transportation financing and
solutions.
It is important to note that the projects funded by the Department
are determined by the states and localities working in partnership with
their stakeholders through planning, with a strong public participation
component that is described in TEA-21 and supported by the Department.
Advances in the region's transportation system play a crucial role
in its economic development. In 1990, the Lower Mississippi Delta
Development Commission's (LMDDC) 10-year goal envisioned an improved
network of limited access highways, airports, and rail and port
facilities to promote economic growth. The great majority of the nearly
70 specific transportation recommendations in the 1990 report, The
Delta Initiatives, have either been fulfilled or substantially
fulfilled.
The LMDDC made several general highway recommendations, beginning
with one urging that Congress and the President release funds currently
being held in the Highway Trust Fund. Highway Trust Fund investment in
highways and transit was increased dramatically by the Intermodal
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and the
Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century of 1998 (TEA-21). ISTEA
authorized $151 billion over six years for highway and transit
programs, while TEA-21 went several steps further, providing new
programs, new flexibility, and new guarantees of funding for the
states. TEA-21 guaranteed a spending level of $198 billion over six
years.
Job Access.--The Department of Transportation has awarded
approximately $3.86 million in fiscal year 1999 Jobs Access and Reverse
Commute funds to the Delta (roughly 5.5 percent of Jobs Access funding
for fiscal year 1999). The Job Access and Reverse Commute grant program
assists states and localities in developing new or expanded
transportation services that connect welfare recipients and other low-
income persons to jobs and other employment related services. The
program encourages a coordinated approach to transportation services.
Highway Projects in Kentucky.--The Delta counties of Kentucky have
received over $194 million in federal funds for highway construction
and rehabilitation since 1993. Projects have included major
rehabilitation on the Western Kentucky, Pennyrile and Purchase
parkways, and bridge and approaches on US 51 in Ballard County and on
US 60 in Livingston and McCracken counties. Additionally, a study for a
potential I-69 Connector from I-24 to Marion County has been conducted,
as well as a study for a potential I-69 alignment around Henderson from
Pennyrile Parkway to the Ohio River crossing.
The Great River Road.--Another major recommendation of the 1990
report stated that Congress should prioritize funding for the Great
River Road and immediately provide funds for its completion. Individual
states are using this increased flexibility to fund improvements to the
Great River Road and other major highway-related facilities. In
Arkansas alone, since 1990, about 120 miles of improvements, including
easements, historic preservation, highway reconstruction, highway
resurfacing and major widening, have been completed at a cost of about
$140 million.
Aviation.--The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provided over
$400 million in financial assistance from Federal discretionary and
entitlement funds allocated from the Federal Airport and Airway Trust
Fund for Airport Improvement Program (AIP) projects to over eighty
airports within the Mississippi Delta between 1993 and 1999. Federal
legislation authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to make project
grants for airport planning and development under the AIP to maintain a
safe and effective system of airports. Eligible projects under the AIP
include airport system and master plans; construction, expansion or
rehabilitation of runways, taxiways and aprons; items needed for safety
or security; navigational aids; land acquisition; noise control; and
limited terminal development.
Rail Service.--The Department of Transportation has engaged in a
series of rail service improvements in the region. For example, in
November 1998, Secretary Slater announced the designation of the Gulf
Coast High Speed Rail Corridor linking New Orleans with Baton Rouge and
other cities in the South. Under TEA-21, this corridor received
approximately two million dollars in earmarks for high-speed rail
development and grade crossings. In addition, AMTRAK has proposed,
based on its recent market-based analysis, to expand passenger rail
service on the Crescent between Meridian, MS. and Dallas-Forth Worth,
TX.
Safety.--The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
has signed agreements on safety projects and programs, such as seat
belts and child car seat usage, with the following Delta communities:
El Dorado and Union Counties, AR; Jonesboro, AR; Paducah, KY; Mayfield,
KY; New Orleans, LA; Cape Girardeau, MO; and Jackson, TN.
Completion of the Commission's transportation projects.--The heart
of The Delta Initiatives' transportation recommendations consisted of a
detailed inventory of transportation improvements for the highway,
aviation, maritime, and rail network of the Delta. Probably no other
area discussed in the 1990 Report contained such a large number of
highly specific recommendations; and probably no area now displays as
many successful completions of those recommendations. These efforts
were led by the Department of Transportation, with important
contributions from the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies. For
example, the Department of Commerce funded feasibility studies for port
facilities in seven communities of Louisiana alone. The Corps completed
over 30 navigation projects along the Mississippi River, while DOT
completed numerous maritime transportation projects throughout the
entire region. As noted above, the great majority of the nearly 70
specific recommendations for all modes of transportation in the
original report have either been completed, or significant progress has
been made in completing them. These transportation projects have
provided a powerful impetus to improving the quality of life and of
economic development in the region.

RECENT TRANSPORTATION ACTIVITIES IN THE DELTA

Many vital transportation activities were underway in the Delta in
recent years. The following are several major examples of the ongoing
efforts to improve the region's transportation.
--The construction of the I-69 High Priority Corridor will extend
from Sarnia, Ontario, Canada to Brownsville, TX at the Mexican
border, and will result in major benefits for the nation's
transportation system, as well as the Delta Region. The
Corridor crosses the states of Arkansas, Mississippi, and
Tennessee, and would potentially have connectors to all of the
Delta states. It is expected to generate 27,000 more jobs and
$11 billion in wages over a 30-year period. TEA-21 set aside
$140,000,000 for each of fiscal year 1999 through fiscal year
2003 for the National Corridor Planning and Development Program
and the Coordinated Border Infrastructure Program. In fiscal
year 1999, a $10 million grant under the Corridors and Borders
Program was awarded for environmental studies for the entire I-
69 corridor. Mississippi DOT used its portion of the grant
($923,913), to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS)
for the section of I-69 from the US 61/relocated MS-304
interchange south of Memphis to the Great River Bridge near
Rosedale.
--The four-laning of US 61 from the Tennessee state line to the
Louisiana state line is progressing well. The segment from the
Tennessee state line to south of MS 4 is complete and open to
traffic. Paving for the segment from south of MS 4 to south of
Coahoma County, MS, near US 49 is scheduled to be completed in
June 2001. The segment from the Coahoma County line to
Clarksdale, MS, is complete. The section from Clarksdale to the
Bolivar County, MS, line, which includes the Bypass of
Clarksdale, has been awarded for grading and bridges, and is
about 55 percent complete. Paving for this segment is scheduled
to begin in September 2000 at an estimated cost of $10 million.
The section from the Bolivar County line to Shelby, MS, has
just begun. The paving contract for the section from Shelby to
Merigold, MS, is about 50 percent complete, and the segment
from Merigold to Leland, MS, is complete and open to four-lane
traffic.
--Nine airports in Mississippi received over $120 million in Federal
Airport Improvement Program (AIP) assistance since 1993.
Jackson International is the most active airport in the state
and benefited from improved air service in the past few years
including the introduction of low fare service and the
substitution of all-jet service for previous prop service. This
increased use has resulted in more wear on the airfield
pavements requiring overlays and rehabilitation. The soil
conditions in Mississippi result in substantial expansion and
contraction, which requires more rehabilitation and overlay.
This maintenance was performed at Olive Branch, Greenville, and
Yazoo City airports among others. Greenwood's airport serves as
an aircraft salvage yard for the disassembly of air transport
aircraft. Apron and taxiway improvements were made at
Greenwood.
--In Clarksdale, MS, a Transportation Enhancement Program grant
amounting to $1.6 million has helped transform the old train
station there into the Blues Museum. The depot also houses
several businesses and includes an area for bands to perform.
An additional $870,000 in Transportation Enhancements Federal-
aid funds has been provided to acquire and restore the historic
Greyhound Bus Station and to purchase and refurbish vintage
rail cars for a museum exhibit on the existing rail spur
adjacent to the bus station and the recently restored
Clarksdale Depot. The Greyhound Bus Station will be used as a
tourist information center and will accommodate tour buses. The
project is currently in the design stage. These projects are a
focal point for Clarksdale's effort to revitalize the central
city area and to promote tourism. They provide jobs in both the
service and industrial sectors.
--The Memphis International Airport is in the midst of a multi-
million dollar expansion program, including the completion and
opening of a new east parallel runway in 1996. A center
parallel runway will be completed and open in late 2000. Since
1990, the FAA has approved airport improvement projects for
airports in the Memphis region totaling $211.6 million.
Integrally related to the airport work is the reconstruction
and widening of a highway near the Memphis International
Airport to improve access for airport patrons and the Federal
Express distribution center. All of this activity supports for,
the evolution of Memphis as a distribution center for the
nation and a key economic center for the Delta, resulting in
major economic development and substantial job growth for the
region.
--Crowley's Ridge Parkway, Arkansas' only National Scenic Byway, is a
200-mile route running through eight counties in the Arkansas
Delta that is already generating job growth. Local authorities
expect that the Byway will generate 160 new jobs directly
related to tourism in the area. Arkansas received more than
$1.03 million in fiscal year 1999 Scenic Byways discretionary
funds for 3 projects along the Crowley's Ridge Parkway:
--$324,000 for development of educational and promotional material
for the Parkway;
--$630,148 for development of a visitor/interpretive center in
Piggott, Arkansas, at the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and
Education Center; and
--$91,776 to establish a student internship and service learning
program in association with the management and development
of the Parkway and development of a hiking/biking trail and
an African-American Tour along the Parkway.
The interpretive center was officially opened in July 1999. The
town of Piggott, with less than 4,000 people, has opened or expanded 16
new businesses, with eight of them directly related to tourism, has
formed a downtown revitalization committee to develop a master plan,
and has hosted architectural students from the University of Arkansas
Community Design Center to assist with the project. Similar economic
benefits are occurring elsewhere along the parkway. Five of the eight
county seats along the parkway are developing downtown revitalization
plans, three new museums have opened, historic structures are being
renovated, and improvements are being made in the five state parks
along the ridge.
--The State of Illinois has been allocated $749,000 in fiscal year
2000 National Scenic Byways discretionary grants for the Ohio
River Scenic Byway, entirely located within the Delta region of
Illinois. These funds are available for various enhancements
such as marketing programs, safety pull-offs for farm
machinery, visitor centers, restroom facilities, and
interpretive kiosks. These grants are expected to stimulate
commerce and tourism along this designated National Scenic
Byway. In addition, prior to fiscal year 2000 and since fiscal
year 1992, FHWA has obligated $162,000 in National Scenic
Byways funds for enhancements to this byway.
--MARAD's Title XI Program has provided a significant benefit to
shipyards in the Delta region. Approvals were granted to
finance the construction of over 250 vessels costing in excess
of $3.5 billion in this region. MARAD also provided
approximately $40 million Title XI financing for the
modernization of four shipyards in the Delta region--Avondale,
LA; TT Barge, LA; North American Shipping, LA; and Ham, MS.
--HOV Lanes construction on I-55 South, consisting of two projects,
is widening I-55 and adding High Occupancy Vehicle lanes (HOV)
between the Mississippi State line and I-240 in TN. This
approximately 5.7-mile section of roadway is being improved
using Federal-aid funds. The additional capacity will reduce
congestion on heavily traveled Interstate 55 in Memphis.
--Light Rail in Memphis, Tennessee including the first extension of
Memphis' vintage trolley system, connecting the Main Street
Trolley with the Memphis Riverfront. It has been completed. The
Medical Center Rail Extension is envisioned as the last segment
of the downtown rail circulation system, as well as the first
segment of a regional light rail line. The Federal Transit
Administration (FTA) approved the Memphis Area Transit
Authority's (MATA) request to enter preliminary engineering for
the rail extension, and this engineering work was completed in
late 1999. The capital cost of the project is estimated at
$30,400,000. Congress appropriated funds for the Memphis
Regional Rail in fiscal year 1994 and fiscal years 1996-99.
--The Memphis Central Station Intermodal Terminal project involves
renovation of an historic train station to create a facility
that will be used as an intermodal terminal for MATA buses,
trolleys, and AMTRAK. Its estimated cost is $23 million, with
an estimated Federal Transit Administration participation of
$14.3 million. Private sources will provide approximately $5.5
million. Memphis received $3.9 million for this project in
fiscal year 1993, and another $8.7 million in fiscal year 1995.
Site improvements and building restoration have been completed.
Part of the building will be leased to private businesses, and
other areas will be provided for a day care center. MATA's
Information Center and a police substation are housed on the
first floor. The Career Center was officially opened in 1999.
Various agencies housed in the center provide job counseling,
training, and placement services for clients making the
transition from welfare to work.
--With Congressional approval, the Coast Guard nears completion of a
new Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) Lower Mississippi River. With
a radio call sign of ``New Orleans Traffic,'' this VTS will use
of ship-to-ship transponders, radar and closed circuit video
cameras to improve the safety of the Lower Mississippi River
waterway and Delta Region. First stage testing is complete as
50 Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders were
acquired and tested aboard various types of vessels throughout
a 276-mile expanse from the entrance to the Southwest Pass to
20 miles above Baton Rouge. The second stage of testing will
soon determine compliance with the universal standard and
interoperability between manufacturers, providing over 60
transponders throughout the region. Area stakeholders,
representing all major sectors of the maritime industry have
played a critical role in executing this successful partnership
effort.
--West Memphis' new transit service partnership with MATA officially
opened in June 1999, with vital support from the mayor of West
Memphis, Arkansas, Arkansas' First District Congressman Marion
Berry, and state Department of Human Services representatives.
This effort was the product of the Crittenden County TEA
Coalition, utilizing state Department of Human Services funds
that provide seed money for ``welfare to work'' initiatives.
MATA busses will provide one local route to key destinations
for medical, shopping and other needs, as well as an express
route to and from Memphis.
--The Central Arkansas Transit Authority (CATA), in Pulaski County,
has received the most federal transportation financial
assistance in Arkansas. To date, CATA has received 19 grants
for a total of $31,568,518. The grantee currently has 6 active
grants with total obligations of $11,268,430. Two recently
approved grants include $180,000 (part of a fiscal year 1997
earmark) for preliminary engineering and project management
services for a River Rail Project, and $794,000 for a Downtown
Transfer Center. Another example of transportation projects is
a $485,000 Job Access grant to CATA that will provide
dependable and low-cost transportation for those moving from
dependency into self-sufficiency. New services will include
extending the reach of the present system into fast-growing
retail and service employment areas with vans operating on
flexible schedules and routes. The grant will provide:
--A one-time start-up of five vans for employees of a local
business;
--A mobility manager to develop transportation agreements and
programs for coordinating transportation for those entering
the job market within the Little Rock Enterprise Community;
and
--``Graveyard shift'' service from local hospitals to a downtown
transfer center and ``night owl'' distribution runs with
user-side subsidy of taxi service or publicly owned vans.
Many other examples of transportation activities are underway in
the Delta in addition to the projects cited above. These projects
demonstrate progress and the ongoing commitment to improve the
transportation network for people throughout the Mississippi Delta.
--The fiscal year 2000 DOT Appropriation for the Delta is consistent
with the Department's strong commitment to the Delta Region.
DOT appropriations in the Delta for fiscal year 2000 exceed
$18.6 million, including $5,183,000 in Mississippi for projects
such as ITS deployment in Oxford, buses and bus facilities in
the North Delta Planning District, a Pearl River Airport
Connector Study, and a Next Generation Landing System at McComb
Airport. Missouri's share of this appropriation includes
$600,000 for job access provided to Southeast Missouri State
University; $1.44 million for transit projects in Franklin
County, MO, and for the Southeast Missouri Transit Service. Bus
grants for Louisiana Delta communities total $4.1 million,
while another $3 million is provided for the Florida Avenue
Rail Highway Bridge in New Orleans.

THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA REGION INITIATIVE

An important product of the Initiative is the ``Delta Vision, Delta
Voices'' report and agenda, which will summarize the progress toward
implementing the 1990 goals and recommendations, indicate unfinished
business of the Initiative, recommend what needs to be done to complete
the work of the Initiative, and provide strategies for accomplishing
that work and recommendations on how to proceed. In addition,
recognizing that the Delta's future concerns all levels of government,
the private sector and the charitable and faith communities, the report
will contain a special section featuring recommendations, ideas, and
commitments from the many stakeholders and interested parties that care
about the Delta's progress.
The work of the task force has included a high level of involvement
and partnership not only among federal departments and agencies, but
also especially with the leaders and stakeholders of the Delta Region.
Administration-sponsored listening sessions were held in the Delta to
gather the perspective of the leaders and stakeholders in the region
for the Task Force's report. The sessions took place in 1999 on:
September 25 in West Memphis, Arkansas; October 1 in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana; October 2 in Vicksburg, Mississippi; and October 4 in Cape
Girardeau, Missouri. Over 600 people from the region attended these
sessions. In addition, the President, Secretary Slater, and other
Cabinet officials and Administration leaders have had continuing
communications with Delta stakeholders in meetings, site visits, and
conferences, in order to ensure that the Initiative benefits from the
Delta's views and knowledge.

Establishing a Delta Regional Authority

A key element of the Administration's plan for the Delta is
establishment of a Delta Regional Authority (DRA). The Authority is
patterned after the Appalachian Regional Commission and will involve
close coordination with state and local officials. The President would
appoint the federal co-Chairperson of the DRA. The Governors of the
seven member states would serve as DRA members and would elect one of
these Governors as the states' Co-Chairman.
The DRA is a top priority of this Administration and this
President. He believes it is vital to improving the long-term economic
security of this region. Legislation has been introduced in both the
House and the Senate that would accomplish this goal, S. 1622 and H.R.
2911.
The goal of the DRA is to increase the amount of resources and
improve the effectiveness by which those resources are used to address
the pressing development needs in the Delta. The Authority would
provide for the long-term continuing coordination of resources in the
local community. Creation of a new Federal agency will allow us to meet
this goal by strengthening the Federal-state partnership, and will
provide an on going, targeted federal presence in the region. As
members of the Authority, the Governors of the seven Delta states and
the federal members will identify the projects that the Authority will
fund. Half of the Authority's resources will be targeted to the most
distressed counties in the region. We expect the Authority will
actively work with existing economic development organizations to help
identify and prioritize needs. Community-based organizations as well as
state and local governments will be eligible to receive Authority
funding.
The Authority would:
--Provide technical assistance to smaller, poorer localities that
have only part-time staff to negotiate the sometimes
complicated application process necessary for acquiring federal
funding for critically needed transportation, housing, basic
infrastructure and economic development projects;
--Aid needy localities in meeting the matching fund requirements of
federal programs that require such matches;
--Foster cooperation among states, localities, private sector
interests, and charitable, non-profit groups to determine
region-wide solutions to regional problems; and
--Provide a regional view on issues that cannot be adequately
addressed on a state-by-state basis.
I would like to elaborate on these points.
Establishment of the Authority would recognize that the problems
and needs of the region do not stop at the borders of individual
states. If regional problems that affect all states are to be
addressed, there needs to be an entity that has the ability to pull
regional resources together. An institutional framework that can range
across the vastness of this region would be of vital assistance in
assuring that regional interstate agreements essential to the Delta's
progress not only advance but also last for as long as they are needed.
The Authority would play a very useful role in coordinating
programs, not only among federal agencies, but also between the federal
government and state, local, and private programs and projects. Such
public/private coordination will not only make assistance to the Delta
more timely and cost-efficient, but it will also help create and
maintain the strong partnerships essential to the Delta's progress.
Administration's Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2001
Now, let me turn to the Administration's budget proposal for fiscal
year 2001.
The Delta Region today exhibits a blend of progress and challenge.
Similar to several other regions of the nation (Appalachia, the
Colonias region along the Mexican border, and Native American
communities and portions of Alaska) it has faced persistent economic
development difficulties that warrant special federal assistance. I
have previously discussed the region's unemployment rates. There are
other indicators of progress as well. While many Delta counties have
relatively low poverty rates, over half of the Delta counties have had
poverty rates over 20 percent for the past four decades. The poverty
rate in distressed counties of the Delta is now at 32 percent, compared
to a national rate of 13 percent. In addition, the per capita income in
the Delta's distressed counties is only 53 percent of the U.S. average.
President Clinton's fiscal year 2001 Budget targets $159 million
for the Mississippi Delta. Of that amount, $30 million will be used to
create a Delta Regional Authority, $69 million would be dedicated for
transportation improvements, and the remaining $60 million would
support economic development and human resource proposals. Federal
agencies would allocate the funding as follows:
--Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide $22
million in Community Development Block Grants to support rural
housing and economic development. The funding will be awarded
through a competitive process for economic revitalization and
community development initiatives in the Delta region.
--Department of Commerce will provide $10 million through targeted
Economic Development Administration funding for public works
and infrastructure grants.
--Department of Agriculture will provide:
--$4 million for the Intermediary Relending Program, which finances
loans to intermediary borrowers who in turn lend the funds
to rural businesses, community development corporations,
and others for the purpose of improving rural economic
opportunity. The $4 million represents loan subsidy costs
and would support a loan level of $8 million.
--$2 million for Partnership Technical Assistance grants, which
provide technical assistance to under-served communities to
create strategic plans, better use USDA's rural development
grant and loan programs, and achieve sustained economic
viability, job creation, and improved quality of life.
These grants will be run through the Rural Business
Opportunity Grant Program.
--Department of Labor will provide up to $5 million in grants through
the Dislocated Worker Employment and Training Program--a state
operated program that provides core services, intensive
services, training and support to help permanently separated
workers return to productive unsubsidized employment. The
Department of Labor will award dislocated worker grants for
qualified applicants from the 7 States and 219 counties
comprising the Mississippi Delta region.
--Department of Education will provide $10 million for a targeted
demonstration project designed to provide training to middle
school teachers in the seven-state Mississippi Delta region.
Research suggests that middle school is an especially critical
point for learning the technology-related skills that students
will need to be successful in high school and beyond. The
program will use a ``train-the-trainers'' approach, preparing
one or several teachers from each school who can then be
technology leaders, serve as resident experts, and assist other
teachers in their schools or districts.
--Department of Health and Human Services will provide $7 million
through the Health Resources and Services Administration's
Rural Health Outreach program for grants to fund rural health
clinics in the Mississippi Delta region. This request will fund
up to 30 new Rural Health Outreach grants, and will support a
wide range of services in the Delta Region including primary
care, dental care, mental health services and emergency care.
Each grant will require participation by a consortium of three
or more providers to encourage the development of shared
service arrangements among providers and new networks of care
in the Delta Region.
--Department of Transportation will provide:
--$20 million in transit funds, consisting of $15 million from the
Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) Capital Investment
Grants program for public transit buses and bus facilities
to provide affordable transportation and $5 million from
FTA's Access to Jobs and Reverse Commute Grants to promote
vanpools and new bus routes. Access to Jobs helps non-
profits and local governments to assist residents with
vanpools, new bus routes, and employer provided
transportation alternatives.
--$48 million for new bridge and highway infrastructure in the
Delta, including $25 million specifically for I-69 and the
Great River Bridge, and;
--$1 million from Federal Highway Administration administrative
funds for technical assistance, including training on
federal programs, and development of a regional
transportation plan and a tourism-marketing plan.
I would like to discuss the proposed fiscal year 2001
transportation funding in greater detail. In the listening sessions and
other meetings and forums, many Delta leaders and stakeholders had a
number of transportation related suggestions, which the Department's
fiscal year 2001 budget request seeks to accommodate.
Transportation Projects.--Transportation development, particularly
intermodal connections and elimination of bottlenecks, were highlighted
by state and local leaders as critically important to the enhancement
of economic opportunity in the Delta. For such projects, we propose a
total of $103 million for fiscal year 2001-fiscal year 2005, of which
$48 million would be made available in fiscal year 2001 and another $55
million would be provided from fiscal year 2002-fiscal year 2005. In
fiscal year 2001, the funding would be made available through the
Revenue Aligned Budget Authority (RABA). In fiscal year 2001, $23
million would be dedicated to high priority projects in the Delta
Region and $25 million would be provided to Arkansas, as the lead
state, for development of the I-69 corridor and the Great River Bridge
Project.
Training.--Listening session attendees made it clear that a great
need exists for information on the programs, activities and related
funding of the federal government and how to access them. We propose a
continuing set of training/information sessions for stakeholders,
including local government officials, private non-profit groups, and
other interested parties to improve familiarity with the programs of
the Department and the process for using them. The project would use
existing funds that now go for a variety of outreach and training
activities, and project managers would coordinate with other agencies
and departments, as appropriate, which would be providing their own
training and education programs. In fiscal year 2001, $1 million would
be made available to this effort from FHWA's limitation on
administrative expenses.
Access.--Residents of the vast rural areas and numerous small towns
of the Delta suffer from disproportionate isolation and diminished
opportunities for access to the normal daily activities of life. Many
Delta residents have experienced substantial difficulties in getting to
and from employment opportunities and related daily activities such as
job training and education, and child day care services, health care
services and other basic needs such as access to retail food and
clothing stores. In its proposed fiscal year 2001 budget, the
Department proposes $20 million dollars to support public transit in
the Delta.
Mid-South Community College Transportation Careers Program.--This
college in West Memphis, AR, has proposed an ambitious and important
initiative to encourage careers in the area's burgeoning transportation
and distribution industries. This initiative would both benefit area
youth who are often under-trained and under-employed, and the affected
industries which suffer a labor shortage. Mid-South's program would
link the college with high schools and other institutions of higher
learning through a network of facilities, specialized curricula and
technology. The total cost of the program is currently estimated in the
$25-$27 million range, most of which involves the construction of new
buildings and related facilities. The cost could be reduced
substantially if existing space were employed. Since DOT does not fund
education buildings, its role would be to assist with educational
materials and other soft costs, while other federal agencies such as
Labor and Education would determine their capacity and authority to
provide appropriate financial support for facilities and other program
elements. It would be expected that state and business interests would
participate financially in light of their own interests in the success
of such an enterprise. No new monies would be required to undertake the
DOT portion of this activity.
Regional Transportation Plan.--Delta leaders have expressed great
interest in the formulation of a Delta Region transportation plan. The
proposed plan would give direction to the Delta's region-wide
transportation needs. It would also send a clear signal to the business
community about the region's potential as a business location. The plan
could be developed with modest new funds aimed at coordination
activities among states and localities and technical assistance. The
plan could include illustrative projects not included in the required
Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and long-range plan, but which
would be desirable if funding were available. The proposed Delta Region
plan would also highlight interstate intermodal facilities. The
Department would provide funds to bring states and MPOs together around
the idea of a coordinated process to develop a plan and then provide
technical assistance and related support in the actual development of
such a plan. The development of a Delta Region transportation plan
could be an enterprise of the proposed DRA, working in concert with
State DOT's and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO's), as well as
their national associations, such as the American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Association of
Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO). A portion of the $1 million
from the FHWA limitation on administrative expenses would be dedicated
toward this effort.
Tourism Marketing Plan.--The Mississippi Delta region enjoys
extraordinary recreational, historical, and cultural assets that today
generate more than $13 billion per year in revenue from related tourist
activities. The development of a regional tourism-marketing plan would
harness in coordinated fashion the power of the region's tourism
bureaus and agencies locally and at the state level, along with related
private sector interests such as chambers of commerce, hotel and
restaurant associations, and other entities, to market the entire
region as a tourist destination. This would not only be an efficient
means of promoting the region's tourist assets, but it would also
enhance the region's tourism profile in this country and abroad. The
initiative would feature a region-wide conference that would establish
the framework of the plan and then a longer-term action program.
Existing authorities among relevant federal departments and agencies
would combine with funds from public and private tourism interests to
defray conference and related costs. Such agencies would include DOT,
which has interests in scenic by-way, Millennium Trails, American
Heritage Rivers, national park and public lands transportation, as well
as the Departments of Interior and Commerce. Federal funding would be
used for technical assistance and coordination of activities in
partnership with state and local agencies and private sector entities.
A portion of the $1 million would be dedicated toward this effort from
the FHWA limitation on administrative expenses.
Mr. Chairman, the future progress of the Mississippi Delta region
is a goal that we all share. I thank you for the opportunity to share
the Department of Transportation's views on this goal, and I would be
pleased to answer any questions you may have.

Senator Cochran. Thank you very much, Mr. Eisenberg, for
your statements, and we appreciate your summarizing the Delta
Regional Authority Proposal and giving us your information
about how it would really work and what it would and would not
do.
Yesterday, I had an opportunity to be a part of a meeting
in Jackson that was called by a new partnership that's being
developed, a partnership between business and industry in our
State, the elected public officials of our State, education
leaders in our State, all for the purpose of trying to develop
a strategy for economic development through strong
relationships with State and Federal leaders.
A very high-minded goal, but one that is really at the
heart of our hearing today, too, to try and examine how here in
the Mississippi Delta we can develop stronger relationships
between our leaders at the State, local, and Federal level to
enhance the economic development in the region.
And some of the notes that I made yesterday I brought with
me because I wanted to get the reaction of this panel to some
of the comments and statements that were made that I thought
were particularly insightful.
One of the goals that was decided and that should be
pursued at this meeting was to get industries to let the other
leaders know what industries they foresee as being important to
our State's economic development. And I think that's an
appropriate exercise for the Delta region as well.
We have to know, one person said, what products we have
that the market demands. This is an initial first step in
developing a strategic plan for economic development. What can
we produce here in Mississippi that the markets of the State
and the Nation and the world need? For example, of course, here
in the Mississippi Delta we need to think of agricultural
commodities. We can produce that.
But what other products can we produce? And it was observed
that we should target our efforts to taking advantage of the
aerospace, telecommunications, manufacturing, automotive, and
biosciences here in our State.
The private sector of our State has become successful in
all of these areas and so job opportunities exist in these
areas. The challenge then for our education leaders and
political and Government leadership is, are we designing
programs to educate and train and enhance the opportunities of
the people in this region to participate in the industries in
these areas, aerospace, telecommunications, manufacturing,
automotive, and biosciences?
I'm not going to just make a speech. I am going to ask
questions of the panel. But I wanted to pass that on as an
observation which I think would be helpful for all of us to
think about and to try to help ensure that we translate into
strategies and programs that will mesh with this overall
strategic plan for economic development for the State of
Mississippi.
Ms. Thompson, there was a good deal of emphasis placed by
the administration on Rural Development Initiatives, which have
now led to the creation, as you described, of enterprise zones
and empowerment communities. And these programs are now
underway.
I think they were slow getting started. I remember asking
maybe you even, why we were having so many meetings and weren't
providing any loans and grants to people who wanted to take
advantage of these new economic development programs?
And we've gotten beyond that now, so we had an opportunity
to see some results in the enterprise zones or the community
programs. How do you think this Delta Regional Authority
Initiative is going to affect the ongoing work of the
Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Area that you are
responsible for and how is it going to help you do the jobs
that you have already started in the enterprise zone and
empowerment community programs?
Ms. Thompson. One of the things that we have discovered in
working with empowerment zones and enterprise communities
across the country is that there are some major challenges
initially for the zones in the communities because they don't
have a history of working together.
You have a lot of smart people and a lot of talented people
who have been working independently of each other doing some
very successful kinds of things, but not getting the kind of
overall results that you want because they're all working
independently of each other.
So that challenge of getting people to recognize that if
they work together and pool their resources and their talents,
they can make more things happen in their communities. That's a
challenge and we are moving to the point where that is even
more understood in communities today, in the zones today, than
it was a couple of years ago.
We're also finding that it's difficult for an individual
community or a small region to do well unless it recognizes the
role that it plays as part of the larger region. Another
example in addition to the Mississippi Delta would be the
Southwest border region of the United States.
And we're trying to work hard to coordinate what goes on in
Southern California and Arizona and New Mexico and Southern
Texas.
Senator Cochran. That's the Colonias Program?
Ms. Thompson. In the Southwest Border Initiative and
they're tied together and I think that we could be even more
successful at the Department of Agriculture with the tying
together of a regional approach to development so that in
Mississippi, in the Delta area of Mississippi, what happens
there is not done in isolation of what's happening in
Mississippi or in the Delta region of Tennessee, for example,
or Southern Illinois.
Because there really are a lot of similarities as you go
across, go up and down the river through the Delta communities
and they can all be more successful if they were tied into a
regional strategic plan in growth and development, I believe.
Senator Cochran. One of the important roles of the
Department of Agriculture is assisting with housing needs, and
we've worked with you and your Department to try and make sure
we targeted funding in our appropriations bills to support some
of the needs for housing and improvements in existing housing
in this region.
Can you tell us whether the Delta Regional Initiative will
have any impact or make any difference in the housing effort
that we're making through the Department of Education and
Agriculture programs?
Ms. Thompson. It will have an impact on rural housing in a
couple of ways. First of all, there would be funding for rural
housing. But I also believe that learning to become a
successful homeowner is a greater challenge if you come from a
family that didn't own their own home.
And so there is a lot of education and learning regarding
how to buy a home, how to get the best deal on the house, how
to get the best interest rate, and then how to maintain the
home and make sure that payments are being made and so forth.
And I think that through the Delta Regional Authority, through
the coordination of efforts, we would do a better job of
providing technical assistance to help first-time homeowners,
particularly those who are coming from families that don't have
a history of home ownership.
Senator Cochran. There's one statement that you made that I
think we should take to heart and that is the coordination of
effort is needed in the Delta, and I assume by that that means
State and local governments and other organizations such as the
Delta Council, which is represented here and will be a part of
the next panel, and other groups who do volunteer work to try
to help improve the lives of those who live in this region.
Is that going to be something that we could expect from the
Delta Regional Authority, is the coordination of effort?
Ms. Thompson. There would be a greater coordination of
effort, but not just in the Delta part of the Mississippi, but
in the larger Delta from Southern Illinois down to the Gulf.
And I think that would be important, but I think it is very
important that the Delta Regional Authority work with the
entities that are already there, the State and local
governments, the community-based organizations, private
industry, also the education institutions including a
university like Mississippi Valley State, and also high school
and elementary schools.
It's going to be very important for the authority to tie
together and to provide information opportunities for networks
to form that currently don't exist. In many cases they don't
exist within the Delta area of a particular State, and in
general, do not exist up and down the Delta.
Senator Cochran. We're trying to coordinate some resources
and efforts among representatives of some of the Delta region
States, the lower Mississippi Delta, the lower Mississippi
River Delta, of course, includes Arkansas and Mississippi and
Louisiana.
A few years ago Senator Bumpers from Arkansas and Bennett
Johnston from Louisiana and I collaborated to develop a
nutrition education program, trying to train people with
dollars that were allocated to colleges and universities in
these three States so that we would have leaders in the
communities of these three States who were well-trained and
better prepared to deal with the challenges of teaching others
how best to prepare and design diets to try and keep our
citizens on a track to good health and long life.
This is a real big need in the lower Delta region. Is there
anything in the Delta Regional Authority planning that would
support or supplant, you said programs weren't going to be
supplanted, but I wonder what would be the effect of the Delta
Regional Authority on ongoing efforts like that which are
funded on an annual basis in the Department of Agriculture's
budget?
Ms. Thompson. Well, I think one of the biggest challenges
that small communities face is that you get to the county line
and you have a different government and it's not always easy to
work together because of the way funds get channelled to the
respective counties or representative townships even.
When you get to a State line, there's an even bigger
barrier; but with the Delta Regional Authority, in essence,
that line would become invisible because there is probably
something even greater than the individual State. And there's
so many common challenges in the Delta region.
And as you go from State to State, you see communities
facing the same kinds of struggles, whether it's nutrition,
education, health care, housing, job creation; and this would
allow us to better coordinate and I think be more efficient
with the dollars and programs that we have.
But for it to work, it's going to have to tie together the
institutions that are already in existence and doing good work
individually in the respective communities.
Senator Cochran. Ms. Johnson, just the other day Secretary
Riley was in Mississippi. I know he was in Bolivar County. He
was at Delta State University and when we had our hearing to
review the budget of the Departments of Education, Health and
Human Services, and Labor, I was there and able to ask him
about his trip and make some observations about how we could
better utilize funds that are appropriated to the Department of
Education in our State.
But I mentioned that visit because we were talking about
some of the programs that are designed to help States like
Mississippi, and it seems to me with this Delta Regional
Authority, I don't know whether we could use the funds that are
designed to go to this authority or to be coordinated by this
authority, but some new emphasis needs to be made on insuring
the grant applications that are submitted from States in this
region for things like reading enhancement programs, are given
careful consideration, maybe even preference, because of the
needs that exist here.
I don't know of any investment that would be more important
to economic development than teaching the children, as you say,
to read by the time they finish the third grade. And we're not
doing that in a lot of our schools in this State.
We've done a lot to improve educational opportunities in
Mississippi. As a matter of fact, according to Richard
Thompson, who is our State Superintendent of Education, he made
comments at this meeting that I attended yesterday that were
very impressive about the improvements in education that we
have made.
He said since 1985 we have made more progress than any
other State; but we were so far behind, we have not caught up
yet. And here is another thing he said. We rank third in the
Nation in the number of board certified teachers. That's pretty
good. Mississippi ranks third in the Nation.
We're achieving some great things. We received a $100
million private gift for reading programs to achieve this goal
from the Barksdale family. But we have some goals that are not
going to be met unless we get some additional support from the
Federal level.
For example, Governor Musgrove has as a goal by 2002 that
every classroom in our State will be linked to the Internet,
but that's going to cost money. And Dr. Thompson said there was
a reading grant application that was submitted to the U.S.
Department of Education just recently for $32 million, and it
was not approved. The State is reapplying and will try to
rework and make the application more attractive.
I hope that you'll be able to go back and bring that to the
attention of the grant applicant readers of the Department that
we have pending or will soon have pending a $32 million grant
application designed to achieve the goal that you and I and
others know we have to achieve if we're going to catch up and
to provide students in our State with the kind of successful
experiences they need to participate in the economic
development opportunities that we have here in our State.
Now, I am going to ask some questions and one is about the
Elementary-Secondary Education Act that is up for
reauthorization as you pointed out in your comments. I'm
worried that the formula for allocating the funds is going to
hurt Mississippi because we're going to get less under the
reauthorization that's being recommended than we now get.
Do you know anything about that position and the position
of the administration on the allocation of funding to Title I
eligible States?
Ms. Johnson. I'd want to answer by responding to your
reading of that proposal. It is our goal to award a grant to
every one of the 50 States plus the District of Columbia. And
so when States submit applications that are not accepted, we
immediately go in and work with the State officials to help
them develop an acceptable application.
There have been workshops offered and we're very confident
that with the right kinds of technical assistance offered to
the State that ultimately every State will have that goal.
You know, as public stewards of the funds, we need to
ensure that when the funds are awarded they're used
appropriately, and so that's the reason for providing ongoing
assistance. So I'm very confident that at some point,
Mississippi will receive one of these grants.
Senator Cochran. Thank you.
Ms. Johnson. On the targeting of funds for Title I, we have
always believed that Title I funds need to be targeted to the
areas where the students are most in need, where levels of
poverty are very high, where large numbers of students are
eligible for either free or reduced-priced lunch. That is still
our belief.
The formulas for targeting are developed at the House and
Senate level, and we are supporters of ensuring that the
targeting remains focused on children who need it the most. Our
concern, now, is that the bill working its way through the
Senate would reduce that targeting and not increase it and that
the monies would not be focused on high poverty students. This
is not the position of the administration.
Senator Cochran. Okay.
Ms. Johnson. So we are going to support and argue for an
allocation formula that continues and focuses on high-poverty
children.
Senator Cochran. Thank you very much for that assurance. We
will be on the same side in that argument.
Ms. Johnson. Great.
Senator Cochran. The Delta Regional Authority, of course,
is the real subject of our meeting here today, but education is
so important and is such a focus of my interest that I want to
ask, do you think the Delta Regional Authority proposal is
going to be of any particular benefit to our education effort
and need to improve our schools and strengthen our colleges and
universities in this region?
Ms. Johnson. Let me start by first of all answering the
question, yes, it will be of an immense benefit and let me give
you the reasons why. As we were preparing for the submission of
our proposals authorizing Elementary and Secondary Education
Act and I lead that effort for the U.S. Department of
Education.
We travel to many rural areas around the country and what
we heard so frequently is the fact that rural areas were not
successful in receiving grant applications to the degree that
larger areas are experiencing success.
So what this authority could do would be to help the rural
areas come together as consortiums and they can submit their
applications because their needs are so common. Give large
numbers of students, regardless of which of the seven States
they reside in, who lives in poverty, families who are
illiterate as well as children who have low literacy levels.
By coming together to the authority, they can improve their
opportunities for winning competitions.
They can improve their opportunity for teacher training.
They can improve the opportunities to disseminate what we know
to be promising practices that can be replicated in our schools
throughout the Delta region.
We can offer regional workshops which sometimes are not
cost effective if you try to offer them in one place, but as we
just recently concluded two workshops in Arkansas for the Delta
region, we can begin to do that more frequently.
We're able to get the information, the knowledge, and the
training out to all of the school districts; and we think they
have so much in common they can only benefit from that.
Although it's absolutely true that Mississippi has made great
progress, it still has a long way to go to improve the quality
of their students achievement to be competitive with the rest
of the Nation.
Senator Cochran. One of the programs that I've tried to
support through arguing for increased appropriations is
assistance in the area of technology and the use of computers
and other new, modern equipment in our classrooms.
There have been a couple of demonstration programs in the
Mississippi Delta that have proven that with access to
computers, children take a greater interest in the classroom
work. There are fewer dropouts. People show up every day ready
to work, ready to learn, and it's so obvious that it's a big
benefit.
Are there enough dollars being made available to your
Department to provide leadership in this area, to identify ways
to assist schools and districts in areas like the Mississippi
Delta, to improve their access to technology that's useful in
the classrooms?
Ms. Johnson. We submitted a budget for the Department of
Education that we thought was fiscally appropriate to improve
the quality of technology supports throughout our public
schools.
We are given a certain amount to work with. We recognize
the caps and we have put tremendous, tremendous emphasis on
improving technology support throughout the school districts in
this country.
The Federal Government I think has taken the leadership
role in ensuring that all of our schools have access to the
Internet through the E-rate. We have and some of the studies
provided more support for bringing technology, particularly
computers and software, into the classrooms than have local and
State governments provided.
And so we are the impetus and we are setting the conditions
that need enhancing and to be enhanced at a State and local
level. If you're asking me can we use more money the answer
would always be yes to that.
Senator Cochran. We're working on that.
Let me turn to Mr. Eisenberg and ask you about the Delta
Regional Authority and how it's going to make available the
funds to State and regional government agencies? I think you
indicated that there would be funding that would go to the
communities through the Delta Regional Authority.
How would that actually work?
Mr. Eisenberg. Well, let's get the mike down here for the
record. Mr. Chairman, the authority would have an amount of
funding that's dedicated to it for a variety of the programs.
The Governors who really make up the commission would, with
their stakeholders, with their partners, public and private,
develop the plans and projects that then would be the substance
of that money.
They would then work with the recipients. They would be
able to take applications that would help people apply for
funds both within that pot of money dedicated specifically to
the authority as well as beyond. And again, as I note in my
remarks, homegrown solutions for regional problems and the
money would flow from the authority as it does in the
Appalachian Regional Commission.
Senator Cochran. In your statement you talked about some of
our specific transportation projects in this area that your
Department is supporting. I-69 is something that we've all
heard about and we expect benefits to flow to the Mississippi
Delta from the completion of Interstate 69.
Could you give us an update on where we are with that. I
know there's a study being done.
Mr. Eisenberg. Right.
Senator Cochran. How far along is that?
Mr. Eisenberg. The final supplemental EIS has been approved
for the Great River Bridge portion near Rosedale, and we
anticipate the record of decision will be approved very, very
soon. As you know, under the corridors and borders program, a
$10 million grant was approved last year for the States for
location and environmental studies.
We understand that the Mississippi Department of
Transportation plans to use its portion of the grant which is a
little over $900,000 to prepare an EIS for a section of I-69
from US 61 relocated and State 304 interchange south of Memphis
to the Great River Bridge near Rosedale.
There are a number of other activities going on respective
to different sections of that project. It is our hope that that
regional authority would be the participant in bringing
elements together to talk about the future of this very
important facility and to gather the resources from the
different States to promote that particular project.
Senator Cochran. You also mentioned the four-laning of
Highway 61. This is something that's been long awaited and
seems like it will never be finished. What can you tell us
about the effect that the Delta Regional Authority would have
on completion of projects like four-laning Highway 61 and
maintaining and improving our ports along the Mississippi
River?
Mr. Eisenberg. Well, the great bulk of the Department's
money goes directly to the States with some pass-through to the
so-called metropolitan planning organizations, the regional
planning organizations.
Of course, all money ultimately is local, but planning
elements and the funding allocations go as I've indicated. Much
of that money, if not, well, actually the overwhelming bulk of
that money, you know, Mr. Chairman, this formula allocated.
There are earmarks, of course, that Congress has produced for
high priority projects and partners with that formula money.
Having traveled US 61, I noted the particular way that a
two-lane highway works to hold up traffic as it tries to get to
where it needs to go. I certainly understand from firsthand
experience the need for improvements along that facility.
Of course, it involves more than just one State and the
authority, of course, could focus attention, again, since all
Governors will be together in that area, they could decide
where the priorities are and using their State departments of
transportation and their particular authorities in this regard
to move things forward.
A great bulk of that money does, as I say, come from
allocations from the States; but we do have the authority for
obvious responsibility to make decisions to where the money
goes.
But we're trying to give a little help here in our own
budget with money directly allocated. This is not the usual
process for the Department of Transportation, but we give such
high priority to that particular facility and we are looking to
assistance in that regard to talk specifically about I-69,
again, and US 61, with regards to that.
Senator Cochran. One thing you may not know is that under
the new formula for allocating funds to States under the
transportation bill, so-called T21----
Mr. Eisenberg. Yes, sir.
Senator Cochran (continuing). That supplanted the ISTEA
bill. In the past 5 years if you compare the allocation that
our State gets, we get $120 million more each year under the
new bill than we got under the old allocation formula.
And that took a little bit of work, but it's like the Title
I funding challenge. The States are all competing for these
funds and there's just so much money that's made available for
these programs and they get allocated under formulas that are
decided by Congress as Ms. Johnson pointed out.
But I'm glad we'll have the administration's support on the
Title I fight as we work our way through that bill as it
proceeds through the Senate and the House. But we've already
achieved one of our goals and that was to get a much higher
allocation for our State under highway and transportation
funding formulas--$120 million a year more for Mississippi than
we got under the previous formulas.
Mr. Eisenberg. That's a great achievement, and certainly
the administration was supportive of the higher funding.
Senator Cochran. We're glad the President signed the bill.
Mr. Eisenberg. Yes, sir. Let me clarify the funding for
additional laning of US 61 could be found again depending on
how people want to allocate the funds, in the $23 million that
is specifically requested for unspecified road and bridge
projects in the Mississippi Delta area, the President's budget.
So you've got money dedicated to I-69, the Great River
Bridge, and $23 million additional allocated for these
unspecified projects above and beyond the money that you have
just indicated.
Senator Cochran. You mentioned airport development and
that's a very important challenge here in this region of our
State, and we are pleased to have support from the
administration on projects for funding for airport development
in this area.
Also, I mentioned ports. We had a delegation visiting
Washington the other day who were pointing out the needs for
funds through the Corp of Engineers for helping dredge certain
ports, one at Greenville, the inner harbor.
For example, we're trying to acquire funding for that, and
we've already brought that to the attention of the head of the
engineers, civil engineers, and we hope that the administration
will cooperate with us on that as well.
But these are all aspects of economic development because
without these facilities to transport what we produce in our
businesses and industries and on the farms of the Mississippi
Delta, we can't do it efficiently without a transportation
system. And that's how we compete with countries like Brazil
and others that are enlarging their agricultural production and
threatening the price stability by that production.
They don't have the transportation facilities. If they ever
develop them though, we're going to lose our competitive edge.
And we'll be up against a very serious problem.
Mr. Eisenberg. Mr. Chairman, I couldn't agree more with
your statement. The Department of Transportation looks at the
money, the programs that we have as enablers for larger
purposes. Just getting from one place to another and moving
around is not transportation.
Transportation is the enabling of economic development,
social and racial intergration, bringing people together across
distances, providing for livable communities, places that
people want to raise their children, want to work and live in.
And that's what transportation is supposed to do.
The economic development needs of this region are manifest.
They're clear and extend to which the port development
assistance that we can provide, additional road facilities,
bridge facilities that literally bring places together.
The rural transit kinds of activities that are so important
for people who are isolated from health care and jobs. Transit
within our larger communities so people can get to work in an
environmentally friendly way, efficient way.
These are all part of what we do and something that I'd
like to address that you have addressed to others involving
education. It's probably not well known. The Department of
Transportation with very little amount of money is very much
engaged in partnerships across the country, the transportation
careers promotion with our high schools and universities.
We find in this general area, particularly, we have a lot
of young people that could find good jobs within the
transportation and related industries such as distribution if,
in fact, they had the skills and, in fact, were presented with
the opportunities that were available, that are, in fact,
available in these industries.
Truck driving is one aspect. Trucking companies tell us
they have a 100 percent turnover a year in some cases and
they're offering $35,000 a year and $40,000 a year for jobs.
They can't hold people.
Senator Cochran. Don't get off into that too much because
it reminds me that this administration is getting us off into a
very serious quagmire with these high energy costs and trucking
companies. Individuals who are in the business are having a
hard time making a living now.
We had a whole caravan of truckers come to Washington the
other day to demonstrate their displeasure and policies of this
administration on gasoline and diesel fuel prices. And that's
hurting our farmers. It's hurting every aspect of our economy.
So one thing you have to know, don't train too many truck
drivers. There's not going to be any trucks to drive unless you
do something about the energy problems.
Mr. Eisenberg. We anticipate that this will be an issue
that is more short term than structural.
Senator Cochran. Well, we hope so. But just going around
with a tin cup to the oil producing cartel saying please, give
us a little more oil, that's what Secretary Richardson was
doing recently, and they just said no.
They've forgotten that we bailed them out in Kuwait and
Saudi Arabia and now they're not helping us to solve our energy
problems. It's really something that has to be addressed. Well,
I know you're going to take this into consideration.
Mr. Eisenberg. Well, I'm sorry I raised the topic, Mr.
Chairman.
Although the topic was education and was aimed at
supporting your wise impression and call for additional
educational opportunities, there are still opportunities for
young people within the transportation industry that we want to
promote on a national basis.
And again, looping back to the subject of the hearing
today, we really can't do this kind of a job as well with
little money and little staff. The best kinds of promotions and
transportation career development in many respects is high
tech. People don't know that, but it is.
Providing opportunities for young people here in this
region really ought to take place at the lowest possible level,
at universities like this one and others around the region who
have interests and who have lots of people who would be
interested, if presented with the opportunity and skills. And
we would just like to make a pitch for that.
Senator Cochran. Thank you very much. We appreciate your
being here and participating in the hearing and all of you on
this panel have added to our understanding of the Delta
Regional Authority proposal and what it is designed to do, how
it will mesh with other programs and initiatives for economic
development for this region.
Ms. Thompson, Ms. Johnson, Mr. Eisenberg, thank you very
much.
Ms. Thompson. Thank you.
Ms. Johnson. Thank you.
Mr. Eisenberg. Thank you.

NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES

Senator Cochran. We will now hear from our next panel of
witnesses. We have with us today Dr. Lester Newman, who is
President of Mississippi Valley State University; Dr. David
Potter, President of Delta State University.
Dr. Bobby Garvin was on our agenda to testify, who is
President of Mississippi Delta Community College. He is not
able to be here today, but he sent a good substitute, Dr. Tony
Honeycutt, who will represent Mississippi Delta Community
College.
Mr. Arthur Peyton, who is interim director of the Mid-Delta
Empowerment Zone Alliance, and Mr. Griffin Norquist, who is
representing the Delta Council. He is specifically going to
talk about the economic development department of the Delta
Council.
We appreciate very much your providing us copies of
statements. We've decided to include all of the statements that
have been prepared for the committee in the record as you have
submitted them in full, and we encourage you to make whatever
summary comments or other statements that you would care to or
you may read your statement if you'd like. We appreciate you
very much for being here.
Let's start with our host, Dr. Newman. This is Mississippi
Valley State's president. We thank you for hosting this event
and ask you to please lead off with your statement.

STATEMENT OF DR. LESTER NEWMAN, PRESIDENT, MISSISSIPPI
VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY

Dr. Newman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning. Thank
you for the opportunity to discuss the role of Mississippi
Valley State University and the role that Mississippi Valley
State University has and will continue to play in addressing
the needs of the citizens of the Mississippi Delta.
Mississippi Valley is proud of its contribution to the
development of the Mississippi Delta and highly expects to
continue expanding its efforts in the future.
There are three guiding principles that directs the
university's community and economic development efforts. These
guiding principles are, one, the development of human capital
through education is the prerequisite through economic
development.
Two, collaboration with public and private entities and
residents that's essential to sustain development; and three,
with education being both a necessary and an essential
condition of development, it is most important that
institutions of higher learning be the anchor for broad based
development as it relates to K through 12 for education, job
readiness, entrepreneurship, et cetera.
The presentation was developed based on the above
principles. First, the presentation will highlight some of our
past successes as well as our current activities. Finally, it
would focus on future needs of the Mississippi Delta.
If the Mississippi Delta is to move in the desired
directions where citizens are afforded a quality education,
have access to desired jobs, and have the opportunity to
develop wealth through business development.
Some of our past successes as well as current activities,
as stated above, development of human capital through education
is the prerequisite to human development. Teacher education is
the core of Mississippi Valley's mission.
In fact, we were founded as a teacher education
institution. This year the university celebrates 50 years, its
golden anniversary, of educating citizens of the Mississippi
Delta and the State.
To aid and enhance this effort, Mississippi Valley has
received approximately $580,000 annually for the past several
years from the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and
Extension Services.
We are very appreciative of these funds. And these funds
have been used to, one, enhance Mississippi Valley's teacher
education program and to address the K through 12 teacher
shortage in the Mississippi Delta; and two, enhance Mississippi
Valley's offices of admission and financial aid.
Mississippi Valley's College of Education is working
diligently to broaden, strengthen, and elevate its existing
teacher education program into a model program. Our primary aim
is to prepare students to become public school teachers in the
Mississippi Delta.
This is a primary concern of the university to address the
K through 12 teacher shortage. The teacher shortage that has
been experienced nationally is even more profound in the Delta.
The USDA funds have helped Mississippi Valley to enhance
its teacher education program with emphasis on teaching
effectiveness and to recruit and produce more students in
education.
Over the past 3 years, the following data reflects students
who have successfully completed the program and received
degrees both a bachelor's degree or master's degree in
education.
In 1997, we produced 41 students who received an
undergraduate degree in education and 10 students who received
masters' degrees. In 1998, 53 students received undergraduate
degrees and 11 students received masters' degrees. And in 1999,
49 students received undergraduate degrees and 19 students
received masters' degrees in education.
In addition to serving the university and the community
better, Mississippi Valley State University has established a
partnership with the Delta schools superintendents to establish
programs that will provide quality education not only for its
students, but public school teachers and students as well.
The mission of this partnership is to impact the teaching
and learning process. Mississippi Valley faculty will work with
the Delta public school teachers to prepare them to teach
science and technology in a more creative way.
More importantly, this partnership will allow students,
faculty--faculty and students rather, to work collaboratively
with area public school teachers and students to address
critical education concerns and issues.
Also, the USDA funds have been used to enhance the
admissions office. The admissions recruitment office's role is
to recruit students to the university. The admissions office is
one of the viable, supportive segments of the university whose
purposes are to, one, inform, recruit, and admit prospective
students to the university; and two, in a positive way, display
and promote the university's academic and nonacademic life.
It is important that the admissions office be enhanced in
order for the university to reach and educate more students in
the Delta of the opportunities and benefits of receiving a
college education.
Many of the students continue to be first generation
college students. Upon first encounter by the admissions
counselors, too often many of these students do not believe
that they have what it takes to go to college or to be
successful in college.
And as a result of our recruitment efforts, Mississippi
Valley is experiencing a growth in enrollment. This spring our
enrollment is more than 2,500 students, the highest in 16
years.
The large majority of these students come from within a 60-
mile radius of the campus and most stay in the Delta upon
graduation. Mississippi Valley has set a goal for the 2000 fall
term to increase its first time entering freshmen enrollment to
500 students. This number constitutes approximately a 45
percent increase compared to fall of 1999 term enrollment.
The overall enrollment goal is set for 3,000 students by
the fall of 2002. The office of student financial aid at
Mississippi Valley State University provides financial aid for
approximately 98 percent of the student body.
In order for the university to successfully reach its
enrollment goal, the financial aid office must be able to
present a more automated and appealing presentation to
potential students and to package financial aid more readily
than ever before.
Additionally, the office must be able to teach students
about financial and personal management practices that will
assist students in making sound decisions to help sustain them
through their tenure in college.
Another area that the university has emphasized and has
shown great success is in the area of community and economic
development. The university's Center for Economic Development
provides technical assistance and business-related services to
small business, entrepreneurs, agricultural-related businesses,
small towns, and nonprofit organizations in 10 counties of the
Mississippi Delta.
This region makes up the heart of the Mississippi Delta.
The rural population of over 180,000 is predominantly African-
American. The percentage of African-American population varies
from county to county with an average of 63 percent.
The university's Center for Economic Development has
secured a 5-year grant for the Mid-Delta Empowerment Zone for
the funding of the One-Stop Capital Shop. The purpose of this
program is to expand the services of the Center for Economic
Development by providing extensive small business resources and
services under one roof.
The One-Stop Capital Shop is a partnership agreement
between Mississippi Valley State University, the Mid-Delta
Empowerment Zone Alliance, and the Small Business
Administration.
Some of their accomplishments, the One-Stop Capital Shop,
the only research office housed on a historically black college
campus in the Nation provided clients with the latest business
resources, guides, computer software programs, and access to
the Internet.
The One-Stop Capital Shop allows the university's Center
for Economic Development's clients and other individuals an
opportunity to receive technical assistance and services to
develop a business project from start to finish.
The Center for Economic Development and the One-Stop
Capital Shop have served more than 250 clients within their
targeted area. They have assisted small businesses and faith-
based organizations to secure more than $440,000 in loans for
fiscal year 1999.
We sponsored a small town mayors conference held in
conjunction with the USDA Rural Development Office of
Mississippi to provide technical assistance to town personnel
with more than 100 participants attending the conference.
We have established a partnership with the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development to rehab and build new houses
for low income residents. And we've also hosted the First
International Trade Conference for the Mississippi Delta
Region.
Future needs and directions, to help residents, local
leaders, and elected officials with sustained community and
economic development, Mississippi Valley State University has
identified the following critical issues that need to be
addressed.
One, and foremost, is to continue to work to improve the K
through 12 educational system in the Delta. A solution that we
are offering is the establishment of a Center for Excellence in
Teacher Education that will emphasize effective teaching
practices that will ensure that all students learn, establish
partnerships and linkages with the area public schools, and
conduct and provide appropriate research that lends itself to
establishing effective models and best practices for
educational improvement.
Two, to provide new and expanded opportunities for K
through 12 and college students in the areas of science and
technology. And we are proposing to establish a Center of
Excellence in Science and Technology and one of the aspects of
this will be a summer science academy for middle and high
school students in the Delta region.
Three, address the poor health care practices of the
residents in the area, and our solution is to establish a
health, wellness, and literacy initiative that will help to
educate citizens regarding preventive health care and wellness
issues.
Four, expand on existing business and help to create new
businesses in the region. We are working to establish a Center
of Excellence in Business and Entrepreneurship which
incorporates the existing programs at the institution as well
as expand the efforts to provide a comprehensive approach for
business retention and development.
The center is expected to provide a set of educational
services to include the integration of entrepreneurship skills
and business development opportunities into the academic
courses.
Students will be encouraged and nurtured to create
businesses of their own. The center will provide technical
assistance and hands-on training for business persons. We'll
also do market development and business forecasts as well as
have community leaders, local officials, and others to identify
profitable market niches.
We're also proposing to establish the Delta Research and
Cultural Institute. This center is to assist the residents,
local leaders, and elected officials to capitalize upon the
vast natural and cultural resources in the Delta.
It is also designed, working collaboratively with
individuals, agencies, and community leaders, to conduct
research on educational and economic development issues in the
Delta. This research will be different from much of the
research currently conducted in that it will be prescriptive
rather than descriptive.
For too long people have come to the Delta and told us who
we are and what our problems are without working with us to
develop meaningful and sustained solutions. This institute
proposes to remedy the problem by working with community
leaders to identify problems, develop practical and workable
plans, and implement and evaluate these plans.
In summary, Mississippi Valley has a highly qualified
faculty, staff, and administrators who are committed toward
working together for a better and more prosperous Delta. Thank
you.
Senator Cochran. Thank you, Dr. Newman, for your excellent
statement. Dr. Potter, let's turn to you. Dr. David Potter is
President of Delta State University. Thank you for being here
and participating in our hearing.

STATEMENT OF DR. DAVID POTTER, PRESIDENT, DELTA STATE
UNIVERSITY

Dr. Potter. Thank you, Chairman Cochran. And I look forward
to working with you and our other partners in sharing goals and
the recent economic well-being of the Delta and improving the
quality of life of all of its people.
The mission assigned Delta State University by a board of
trustees is that of a regional university. And that designation
has implications for the university's educational, research,
and public service programs.
These obligations are especially significant for an
institution striving to contribute to the future of the
Mississippi Delta. The Delta's legacy of poverty generates many
needs and provides opportunities for the university in
virtually any direction we turn.
Fortunately, the people of the Delta not only have the
desire but the will and potential to lift themselves up given
the encouragement and the resources to do so.
I need not list all of the educational, social, and
economic and health problems that exist in the Delta. The
region has been studied to death, and you are familiar with the
myriad of challenges facing its people.
In May 1990, the lower Mississippi Delta developed a
commission chaired by then Governor Bill Clinton issued its
private report after a 2-year study. The report describes the
region as it existed 10 years ago; and unfortunately, much of
that description is still valid today.
It states, that:

* * * these are the people that by virtue of place are
surrounded by thousands of square miles of some of the
country's richest natural resources and physical assets. They
have used their sense of place to develop a cultural and
historical heritage which is rich and unique.
And yet these are the people who by statistics constitute
the poorest region of the United States of America for jobs are
scarce and job skill training almost unknown. And mortality
rates rival those of the third world, where dropping out of
school and teenage pregnancy are commonplace, where capital for
small farmers and small businesses are severely limited, where
good housing and health care are unattainable for many.
Industry and technology lags a decade behind and funds for
research and development barely trickle to colleges and
universities. Where illiteracy reigns as a supreme piece of
irony since the region has produced some of the best writers
and the worst readers in America.
Even so, these are people who prefer hope to despair. This
is a region that given the right tools and knowledge can help
the Nation as a whole strike a new balance of competitiveness
in the global economy. This is a land where the right actions
can still bring a new day.

At Delta State, we are making renewed determined actions to
be a part of those right actions, and we think we have achieved
some tangible and worthwhile results, especially in the arenas
of education, rural development, cultural opportunities, and
business development.
All of these efforts are part of an evolving and
comprehensive strategy to meet the unique constellation of
needs of our region, yet we still have much to do before we can
take full advantage of our Nation's unprecedented growth and
prosperity.
Let me share with you some examples of what we've
accomplished with the limited Federal support we have received
to date.
In education, our Center for Teaching and Learning provides
technology-related professional development for elementary and
secondary school teachers and serves as a laboratory for young
people thinking about entering the profession.
During the next school year, we will provide technology
training for 250 teachers using funds provided in part by the
Federal Government. This program helps ensure that Delta school
children will not fall further behind in having learning
opportunities related to the revolutionary national and
international development in information and communication
technologies.
Our Delta area association for the improvement of schools
is a model partnership of school leaders commended by the
National Counsel for the Accreditation of Teacher Education.
The partnership serves 34 school districts and provides
professional development activities for more than 1,400
teachers and administrators in 1999 supported by a mix of
Federal and State funding.
The national faculty has established a regional office at
Delta State. It provides special services and assistance to two
Delta school districts.
Working with the national faculty program, we are launching
this summer a Superintendents' Academy to provide future school
leaders with the most up-to-date knowledge of how to manage a
successful school district.
The Delta Education Initiative is our most ambitious
cooperative effort with a Federal agency supported this year by
$1.5 million from the U.S. Office of Education.
It addresses critical teacher shortage and leadership
development needs in this region to undergraduate scholarships
for prospective teachers, graduate fellowships to pursue
further study for working teachers, professional development
for administrators, and technological training in use of
technology for teaching and learning.
In rural development, our efforts are concentrated in our
Center for Community Development, established in 1994 through a
$5 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The mission
of this center is to build partnerships with communities and
organizations to help themselves.
The future program of the center is the Delta Partners
Initiative. This is an initiative to train two cohorts of young
Deltans to be the next generation of community leaders. It is
focused on teaching these promising citizens an understanding
of regional development and public policy issues, community
development strategies and successful models, regional capacity
building programs, and ways to increase literacy, and develop
local human resources.
The center also administers America Reads, Mississippi
Delta Reads Partnership, and Mississippi Delta Service Corps
programs all funded in total or in part by the Federal
Government.
In providing cultural opportunities, the university
believes that exposure to and participation in the arts is a
crucial determinate in the region's quality of life and
educational achievements.
Yet arts education is virtually unavailable in the Delta's
public schools. The university has helped fill that void in its
Center for the Performing Arts through matinee performances for
school children of nationally known musicians, actors, and
dancers, and to its State supported Summer Arts Institute.
More than 8,000 elementary and secondary school students
are exposed to and trained in the arts each year. Federal funds
support this effort modestly through a small grant from the
Mississippi Arts Commission.
In business development, so crucial to the economic future
of the region, support for small businesses is essential. Small
businesses comprise most of the Delta's economy, and they are
in great need of services in such critical areas as incubator
programs, technical assistance, capital development, and
counseling services.
Our efforts to date are concentrated in our Small Business
Development Center where we bring together the human resources
of our College of Business faculty to assist small business
owners. The center annually helps to create 150 new jobs, to
retain 350 existing jobs, and to facilitate $6 million of
capital investment, while serving about 300 clients per year.
These efforts, again, are supported by modest Federal funds
sufficient only to stimulate a small proportion of the business
activity needed for a thriving economy.
Our university is relatively new to Federal funding. We
intend to pursue these resources with intensity in the future
in support of this region. We believe that we are prepared to
be good stewards of Federal monies for the Delta.
We have received tangible results with our modest past
efforts. We have a capable and energetic faculty with a deep
knowledge of the Delta and its people based on firsthand
relationships and commitments.
We have a strong reputation within our local community and
a network of partners in the cause of development.
Our local understanding and longstanding ties to the region
make Delta State and its sister institution, Mississippi
Valley, the most effective conduit for Federal monies to
improve the quality of life in this region.
We can, and do use, these funds directly and effectively.
We have a record, as well of leveraging additional private,
State, and foundation support, that multiplies the impact of
Federal funds. We are, in sum, an excellent investment in the
Delta's future.
Thank you again for this opportunity to discuss our goals.
I'll be pleased to answer any questions.
Senator Cochran. Thank you, Dr. Potter for your helpful
statement. Now, we'll hear from Dr. Tony Honeycutt, who is
representing Dr. Bobby Garvin, President of Mississippi Delta
Community College. Dr. Honeycutt.

STATEMENT OF DR. TONY HONEYCUTT, DEAN OF CAREER AND
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, MISSISSIPPI DELTA
COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Mr. Honeycutt. Again, Mr. Chairman, on behalf of Dr.
Garvin, thank you for your presence here today and for your
work in support of the Delta region.
The Mississippi Delta area lagged behind in this State and
in the Nation in many areas. This has already been pointed out.
We feel that education and training, work force training, is
the key to the economic vitality of the Delta and to its
sustained economic growth.
We have continued over the last several years to
continually increase our enrollment. Our enrollment has grown
approximately 7 to 9 percent per year during that period of
time.
Our current enrollment for full-time students is 2,700 here
in the spring semester of 2000. It is important to point out
that over the last 3 years we have had 534 students request
student housing on our campus that we were not able to supply
because of a lack of dormitory space.
Through our work force training efforts last year
Mississippi Delta Community College conducted training
activities that involved 9,568 employees of 117 businesses
within the Delta region and our district.
Although we feel that this is a significant number of
individuals and companies, we point out that this represents
approximately 30 percent of the businesses that are in our
district.
We feel that we need to be able to enhance and expand our
existing work force training efforts and that through those
efforts we would be able to build the work force of the Delta.
Other programs that we currently are running in support of
the Delta programs, Delta counties, the Law Enforcement Academy
is in its second year of operation. We have so far graduated
approximately 150 certified law enforcement individuals who are
now working within the municipalities of the Mississippi Delta.
We believe that the sustained growth of our work force
training efforts are based upon and depend upon public and
private partnerships throughout the region.
Partnerships so far have resulted in the development of a
new, state-of-the-art training facility that was currently
under construction in Indianola, Mississippi.
This state-of-the-art training facility, 31,000 square foot
facility, received a major portion of its funding from the Mid-
Delta Empowerment Zone Alliance in the amount of $4 million.
Other funding has come from private sources. Individual
companies within the district have supplied funds and equipment
for that facility and also the State Department of Economic
Community Development has paid a portion of the costs for that
facility.
Again, we strongly emphasize the use of public and private
partnerships. We feel these are very effective. We feel that
the business industry communities are the ones that really
realize what skills their employees need; and in working with
them, it helps us to determine the types of training programs
that we need to better the work force.
A large part of the new training facility that is being
constructed in Indianola would be an assessment and job
profiling component. The assessment of the available skills of
the work force in this area, an evaluation of those skills, and
job profiling in the business industry sector to determine the
types of skill that the business industry requires.
The gaps between the available skills and the skills that
are required will target our training that will be conducted
with this center and throughout our Delta region.
We feel that there is a significant need for an expansion
of these programs, of training programs, for the work force
throughout the Delta and not only in the number of the training
programs but also in the scope of these training programs.
We are currently running training programs that are from
the basic skills from adult basic education up to supervisory
and management training, manufacturing techniques, other
techniques that the business industries are bringing into the
Delta area in order to prepare their work force.
Although my remarks here today have been brief, I would
like to also submit a written report to be entered into the
record. And in conclusion, I'd certainly again like to thank
you for your support of this region.
Senator Cochran. Thank you, Dr. Honeycutt, and the written
report will be accepted and printed in the record.
[The statement follows:]

Prepared Statement of Dr. Tony L. Honeycutt

First let me thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your interest in the
Delta region of our state and for your support of Mississippi Delta
Community College. I appreciate the opportunity to share with this
committee some of the activities we are currently involved in as we
partner with other institutions throughout the region to provide the
educational and training programs required by the new economy of the
Delta.
As you know, unprecedented changes are occurring in the way we
conduct of our lives today. The economy of the Delta is experiencing
renewed strength and growth and sustaining this growth requires that we
focus on the future. A well trained, technology literate workforce is
the key ingredient for continued economic growth and development.
Mississippi Delta Community College (MDCC) by virtue of its
mission, location, and rich program of curriculum offerings, is
committed to being a significant player in this renaissance.
MDCC's over 200 full-time professionals, plus numerous part-time
personnel, are willing to open their minds and doors to help students
achieve their educational goals. Our staff takes pride in the college
as well as a personal interest in each of its student. These
professionals are dedicated to their careers and to the success of our
students.
Enrollment at MDCC has steadily increased over the past seven years
reaching an all time high of over 2,700 credit students in the fall of
1999. These increases have resulted in considerable strain on our
existing infrastructure. Requests for dorm rooms have outpaced the
number of available rooms. Over the last two years, 534 students have
not been able to live on campus due to a lack of dorm space. Since
transportation remains a major barrier to educational access, this puts
these students at a disadvantage and could mean that they will not be
able to reach their educational and/or training goals.
The addition of new programs of study such as our Law Enforcement
Academy and the Dental Hygiene Technology has improved the Delta's
resources in the areas of health and safety. These and other programs
offered by the college have a significant impact on the overall economy
of the Delta and the State of Mississippi.
Historically, the Delta region found its wealth in its natural
resources such as: rich soil, abundant water, and agricultural crops.
The Delta added jobs by being a source of low wages and low-skilled
workers. Education and training were nothing but a cost, a burden to
the taxpayer. This old equation is reversing, in the Delta, the state,
and the nation. Natural resources are less important. Jobs for low-
skilled workers are disappearing even as pay for these jobs drop. The
emerging economy is not seeking the kinds of workers the Delta has
traditionally supplied. The new ``knowledge based'' economy builds
wealth on what people know, not just what they can coax out of the
ground.
Agriculture remains an economic juggernaut in the lower Mississippi
Delta region. This region has traditionally been one of America's most
prolific producers of cotton, rice, soybeans, and other major
agricultural products. In the decade of the 90's, agricultural
producers have faced one of the most severe depressions in American
history but there is hope. Recent developments in plant pathology and
availability of advanced technologies such as remote sensing, global
positioning systems (GPS) and geographic information systems (GIS) have
the potential to greatly improve agricultural productivity and enhance
crop yields. The rapid application of science and information
technology have dramatically changed the way producers, including
farmers, bring their products to the marketplace. However, farmers
remain reluctant to invest heavily in ``advanced technologies'' without
the assurance of a steady stream of highly qualified, technically
proficient workers capable of utilizing the technology to make
decisions.
Mississippi Delta Community College in collaboration with private
industry leaders, Mississippi State University, NASA, and the Delta
Research and Extension Center propose to develop and implement a
curriculum in Spatial Information Systems (SIS). This curriculum will
lead to an Associate Degree in Spatially Variable Agricultural
Production (SVAP), better known to some as Precision Farming. Through
input from existing ATE programs, and training partners established,
the curriculum will be developed around both short and long term
industry needs for an Advanced Agricultural Specialist (AAS). This
program will develop the students' basic competencies, workplace
values, and technological awareness through faculty/instructor
enhancement internships, practical classroom experiences, student
internships, and articulation of curricula from two to four year
levels. Programs such as this will help move the Delta from the old
economy to the new economy.
The old economy of the 40's and 50's with its backbreaking work,
tenant farming and rampant child labor positioned the Delta as the
poorest region of the poorest state in the nation. The Delta was and
remains today the poorest of the poor. But all is not lost; the Delta
has begun to loosen the chains of its traditional poverty. Deltans have
never been better educated, in number or degree, than they are today.
Although this is good, it is not good enough. As the Delta has climbed
to a higher rung on the educational ladder, the ladder has gotten
higher. The rungs on the ladder that students, parents, and schools
once considered final destinations are now only milestones on a life-
long educational journey in the knowledge-based economy.
After years of struggling with fragmented training programs,
Mississippi recognized that the solution to training deficiencies lies
in ``partnerships,'' involving employers, community colleges, secondary
schools, universities, economic development agencies, and other
institutions. With the passage of the Workforce and Education Act of
1994, Mississippi began the development of strong partnerships and
began implementing a training system that places the community colleges
at the center of this ``customer-driven'' delivery system. The
Workforce Investment Act passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by
President Clinton in 1998 further validates Mississippi's decision to
consolidate workforce-training programs into a one-stop delivery system
with community colleges at its center. Realizing that consolidation of
the state's workforce training efforts is the number one priority for
long range economic growth and development, the Mississippi legislature
passed SB 2796 (The Mississippi Comprehensive Workforce Training and
Education Consolidation Act) during the 1999 session. Although the
legislation did not accomplish all that many businesses and educators
wanted, SB 2796 did stay the course toward a unified educational/
training system for the state's workforce.
Legislation without strong public-private partnerships is not the
answer. The educational, legislative, community and business leadership
of the Delta realizes that the Delta has unique problems and that
unique measures are needed. Measures to overcome these problems must be
identified, implemented, and updated as needed. The demand for better
and faster training is increasing faster that our delivery systems will
be able to accommodate. In order to provide training that will not only
sustain the Delta's economy but also propel it into the new millenium,
educational institutions must retrofit their delivery systems to meet
the demands of employers and employees (incumbent and future) alike.
Far too many Deltans remain too distant, geographically and
educationally, from jobs that would move them into a higher standard of
living. Demographic trends and inadequate education continues to
threaten the Delta's march to prosperity in an economy that
increasingly discriminates against the uneducated and undereducated.
Just having the programs that other areas of the state and region have
is not enough, because as long as we keep training the way we have in
the past, we will keep getting the same results from our educational/
training programs. In other words, we must reevaluate our training
programs in light of recent advances in technology, manufacturing
processes, and modern business practices. MDCC took a proactive stance
seven years ago with its workforce training programs through the
creation of the Center for Career & Workforce Development but future
success depends on continuous input and support from the business
community. Input on the types of training that is required and support
(financial and other) that turns the training plan into a trained
workforce.
During fiscal year 1998-99, MDCC's Career & Workforce Division
conducted training and other activities for 9,658 participants from 117
businesses in our seven county service delivery area. As significant as
these numbers appear, it is important to realize that this only
represents approximately 30 percent of employers and employees in the
district. More efficient and effective educational/training programs
are needed if the region is going to reach its potential.
Wayne Gretsky, the greatest hockey player ever to play the game,
said ``you do not become a great player by going to where the puck is,
you become a great player by going to where the puck is going to be.''
It is not easy to predict the future and it is not easy to determine
the types of training programs that will be required in the future but
it is not impossible. We do know what we need to do in order to develop
the training programs for current and future workers. Input from
employers and employees must be gathered and analyzed to determine the
skills that will be required of the future worker. Training programs
must be designed, implemented, evaluated, and revised as required
skills change. It is important to note that this must be a continuous
process else we will constantly be training for yesterday's jobs. We
can no longer afford training programs that prepare individuals for
jobs that no longer exist or those that do not prepare individuals for
jobs beyond the entry level. Businesses operating in a ``lean''
environment are partnering with MDCC's Center for Career & Workforce
Development to ensure a steady stream of skilled employees. Relevant,
flexible, and learner-centered education and training programs are
being implemented to prepare our citizens and our companies to
participate in the new economy. Although this process is not a simple
one, we have already seen that it will work.
Two recent events highlight what can be accomplished when public-
private partnerships are allowed to work. Community leaders,
legislators, educators, and business leaders working together developed
a plan to establish a regional state-of-the-art training facility at
Mississippi Delta Community College. The newest component of MDCC's
workforce training efforts, the Delta Center, was developed with input
from current and potential customers and partners of the college and
has since received $4 million in construction funding from the Mid
Delta Empowerment Zone Alliance. Other contributions include $250,000
from the Department of Economic and Community Development, Dollar
General Corporation donated 10 acres of land valued at $140,000, Viking
Range Corporation donated all the kitchen equipment, U. S. Axminster
donated the carpet, and other corporate partners have indicated a
willingness to donate equipment to be used for training. The Delta
Center will be unlike any other training center in the state in scope
and delivery. Customized training programs designed to provide upgraded
skills, delivered at times convenient to the companies and employees is
the college's goal for this facility. The Delta Center, which will
operate as a component of the Center for Career & Workforce Development
at MDCC, is currently under construction and is scheduled for
completion in December 2000. We hope to receive additional funding
through an EDA grant from the Department of Commerce and a RBEG grant
from the Department of Agriculture to equip and furnish this very
important training facility.
Another recent event dealing with workforce training also points
out that the Delta has the desire and ability to bring people together
to mold solutions for its problems. While other groups were trying to
decide how to divide the state, the boards of supervisors of fourteen
Delta and part Delta counties formed a coalition that resulted in that
group being designated as the state's first service delivery area under
the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. The Delta Council spearheaded
efforts to ensure that the Delta's interest were paramount in this
process. This designation ensures that the Delta will decide what types
of training programs it needs and how best to deliver these programs.
The Delta will reach its potential for growth and development of
the human component of economic development only if we all pull
together. Yes, we have barriers to overcome but these barriers are not
insurmountable. We do not need to fix the blame or point fingers at
others for our lack of a highly skilled workforce. We are all in the
same boat, we call the Delta, and if one end of the boat springs a
leak, we all get wet. A highly skilled, flexible, technically literate
workforce is the major component of economic development and it is in
everyone's best interest to support the Delta's economic advancement
through the development of its human capital.

Senator Cochran. We will now hear from Mr. Arthur Peyton,
who is the interim director of Mid-Delta Empowerment Zone
Alliance.

STATEMENT OF ARTHUR PEYTON, INTERIM DIRECTOR, MID-DELTA
EMPOWERMENT ZONE ALLIANCE

Mr. Peyton. Senator Cochran, and to those of you here
today, I'd like to ensure you that I'm more than gratefully
delighted for the opportunity to testify.
I would like to say to you initially that I've sent a
detailed and comprehensive report to your office already
concerning the Mid-Delta Empowerment Zone. And I wrote one
piece of paper to you, but it talked too much about me, so I
elected to be precise when I looked at your press release that
came out and really address it to some extent and say to you
that I'm certainly happy to have you here on this campus.
What I really wanted to say to you, the Agriculture and
Rural Development and Related Agencies, is that the Mississippi
Empowerment Zone certainly is in great agreement with you being
here and we strongly support and applaud the President of the
United States and the administrative division in the position
of appropriating $153 million for the creation of the new Delta
Regional Authority.
Senator Cochran, I can testify that there is a need in the
Mississippi Delta for additional funds in order to meet the
needs of the people of the Delta. I think that Mississippi
universities, the Union College, and others who are part of
this certainly would be the individuals that could come in and
help out a great deal in trying to bring to fruition the kinds
of things that this area needs.
I firmly believe that the President of the United States,
the Congress, and the leadership in Washington should provide
the rules to oversee these projects. And furthermore, our
local, State, and business communities should be equal partners
in this initiative.
Now, when you consider the distribution of monies, that's
what I like to talk about, money. Majority of the needed funds
should go to needy families, those who are in very low income
areas of Mississippi. Only limited funds should be provided to
people already in excess of $60,000 in salary.
This includes the college people as well. I feel very
strongly that in the Mississippi Delta there has been too much
double-dipping with funds that have been made available.
People who are working 8 hours getting a fat-cat salary and
then, yet at the same time, they're getting this Federal money
and making $180,000.
I would further recommend that the executive branch, the
legislative branch, and the judicial branch of the Government
should work together to make sure that whatever monies are
appropriated that it's spent properly.
It is vitally important that the people who are involved in
any way in administrating these different programs, they should
be properly informed. The central administration should be able
to see to it that they do not suffer what we have suffered at
the Mid-Delta Empowerment Zone.
We failed initially to put people in place; and as a
result, we had 4 years of a real tragedy. But once we realized
we made a mistake, we've been able to go back and put in place
and create the kinds of programs that are essential for the
ongoing growth of this community.
Today I'm happy to report that the Economic Development
Division has leveraged $34,476,920.87.
The Housing Division has leveraged $4,393,073.50.
And in our General Division, we have leveraged
$11,691,760.94.
Now, I made all them mistakes because I can't deal with all
this big money.
But I would like to say to you that we have been able to
create at least 956 new jobs in the Mississippi Delta.
Now, as you know, I've sent to your office a copy of this
rough report and I've also included in that report the most
significant accomplishments. And then too, at the same time,
I've sent you the same report that I sent to the United States
Department of Agriculture's office about the success and the
failures of the Mid-Delta Empowerment Zone.
I congratulate you and I congratulate your staff and I hope
that you will continue to do the kinds of things that you are
doing as a Senator.
I was so happy to see you over in Greenville when you were
talking about Highway 69. And somebody approached you and told
you very vividly that that was a Republican highway. And you
said to them, that that highway is for the people.
Senator Cochran. That's right.
Mr. Peyton. And I never will forget that. Let me say this,
what we'd like to do is invite you and people from your
department to come back to us. We are going to have what is
called a mid-term, a midday, or a mid-something for the
empowerment zone.
And what we want to do is have all of the communities that
were historically involved, the representatives from
Washington, the representatives from the State, and all of our
local people to come back and look at the 5 years that we spent
trying to do what was good and yet at the same time find the
direction that we would like to go in the future.
I want to remind everybody here, the only thing that works
is work. Martin Luther King said it better than anybody else.
Fleece and locks and black complexions cannot fault with
nature's claim, it must differ with affection that dwells in
black and white the same. If I was so tall as to reach the
poles of wrath upon which I stand, I must be measured by my
soul. The mind, the mind, is a standard of a man. Thank you
very much.
Senator Cochran. Thank you, Mr. Peyton. We appreciate your
participation in the hearing and your statement for our
committee. We'll now hear from Mr. Griffin Norquist, who is
representing the Delta Council Development Department. Mr.
Norquist.

STATEMENT OF GRIFFIN NORQUIST, CHAIRMAN, ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT, THE DELTA COUNCIL

Mr. Norquist. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Griffin
Norquist. I am a native of the Mississippi Delta and Chairman
of the Board and President of the Bank of Yazoo City, as well
as, Chairman of the Economic Development Department of the
Delta Council.
As a fifth generation Deltan, I believe it is fair to say
that we have a strong interest in the future of the region.
Today I would like to briefly address both the general status
of our regional economic development activities, as well as,
specific areas that have been impacted by Federal action or
lack there of.
While the Mississippi Delta is far from achieving its
vision of economic heritage with the rest of the Nation, we are
making some significant progress. In the last 3 years alone the
18 Delta incorporated counties of Mississippi have had 42 new
industries located in the region with over 260 companies
constructing significant expansions.
This has resulted in over 7,000 new jobs and over a half
billion dollars in new investments. The capital income for the
region is gaining on State and national averages and
unemployment is continuing to decline. For the first time in
history, manufacturing wages in these Delta counties have
surpassed the $1 billion mark.
This progress has not been accidental nor will it reverse.
It is based upon strong working partnerships led by local
leadership and relying upon the continuing assistance of
numerous State and Federal agencies that have direct experience
in successful rural economic and community development.
The USDA Rural Development has provided tremendous
assistance through programs such as the rural business
enterprise grants, business and industry loan guarantees, and
critical funding for rural water and sewer projects.
Our universities and community colleges have long provided
critical assistance in terms of job training of small business
assistance and curriculum development. And local economic
development agencies are for the first time in history working
together to attract companies that will increase well in our
entire region. We would hate to see these locally driven
initiatives disrupted or superceded with new and potentially
less responsive bureaucracy.
There are a few specific issues I would like to address at
this point while noting that more detailed comments are
attached for the committee's official record. No area can
prosper without adequate transportation resources.
In addition to other highway programs, Mississippi is
taking great strides in opening up the US 82 corridor and will
soon complete this important four-lane project across the
entire State.
This highway crosses the Mississippi River near Greenville
and will eventually provide four lane access from the Alabama
and Mississippi State line in east Mississippi directly to
Little Rock, Arkansas.
The Greenville Bridge over the Mississippi River has been
classified as a navigational hazard by the United States Coast
Guard and is authorized for replacement.
The fiscal year 2000 budget included $9 million in critical
funding to finalize all preconstruction activities. This
funding was subsequently eliminated by the Department of
Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. We
believe that this high priority replacement of a documented
navigational hazard is critical to maximizing the economic
benefit of our highway infrastructure.
At the same time, we applaud the continuing development of
the I-69 corridor and believe it will do much to enhance the
economy of the area. Recognizing the importance of our
historically black colleges and universities, we would like to
express our support for increased funding for Mississippi
Valley State University for the purpose of strengthening
curriculum and management at the university.
This funding, which was not included in the
administration's budget, is essential to stabilizing growth
plans for Mississippi Valley State University. Delta State
University has embarked upon an initiative partnership with
Delta Council and 34 Delta school districts which will train
new school administrators, increase the number of new teachers
to alleviate our critical shortage, and enhance the overall
quality of K through 12 education.
We believe that this $1.5 million allocation should be
restored and expanded. Local institutions are best suited to
deliver positive results for the future of educational needs in
the Delta. And we urge the Congress and the administration to
emphasize these efforts rather than starting new projects
altogether.
Perhaps the single most important element of economic
development in the Mississippi Delta is that of job readiness
and skills enhancement training. In terms of upgrading our
employment and attracting new investment, the community
colleges in our area have been a crucial factor in recent
success.
Unfortunately, at the very moment that we are on the brink
of success, budget constraints may force institutions like
Coahoma Community College in Clarksdale and Mississippi Delta
in Moorhead to lay off training personnel.
Mississippi Delta has struggled to obtain funding for a
state-of-the-art training facility in Indianola and is
continuing to seek avenues to fund equipment and increase
staff. Working with USDA and the Department of Commerce, we
hope to be able to fully utilize these increased capabilities.
Once again, we need for the Congress and the administration
to strengthen these established and existing delivery systems
before moving the emphasis to more decentralized systems.
Lastly, I would like to take a moment to thank the
committees for supporting what is possibly the single most cost
effective economic development program in the country. For a
number of years, the committee has supported a modest but
crucial program called the Delta Rural Revitalization Problem
or Delta Project.
It's managed jointly by Mississippi State University and
the Development Department of Delta Council. This appropriation
has provided massive productivity improvement training for
companies such as Viking Range, La-Z-Boy, and Urban Industries.
As a result of this initiative work, Viking has expanded
five times and now is recognized as the leader in quality and
product flexibility.
Even more importantly, these funds have led to the creation
of the Delta Data Center. The Delta Data Center is staffed by
one person and operates on the premise that in the field of
economic development accurate data and timely response equals
success.
This operation has been instrumental in providing real-time
data resulting in the location of companies like Dollar
General, rural vendors, and numerous others in our Delta.
In addition, the center provides fast accurate information
to public and private partners resulting in new water and sewer
systems, work force training grants, public infrastructure, and
economic development marketing analysis.
It can easily be shown that the center has been
instrumental in creating over 1,000 jobs and hundreds of
millions in new investments.
At some point in the future we will be delighted to give
the committee a brief tour of the center and show the
staggering results of this Federal investment.
In conclusion, I would like to reemphasize our thanks to
the committee and our unwaivering support for the many partners
seeking to bring prosperity to the true Delta region.
We sincerely hope that any effort by the Congress and the
administration to bring a higher degree of emphasis to the
needs of our Delta region will use our existing and proven
public sector institutions such as, Mississippi Valley State
University, Delta State University, Coahoma Community College,
Mississippi Delta Community College, and the Mississippi
Department of Transportation as a primary delivery mechanism
for our growth. Thank you.
Senator Cochran. Thank you very much, Mr. Norquist. One of
the things that we haven't heard much discussion about today is
probably the biggest industry in the Delta and the source of
most of the jobs in the Delta, although the $1 billion payroll
from manufacturing jobs are very impressive, but that's
agriculture and those businesses that are related to
agriculture.
I know that we shouldn't overlook this major source of jobs
and funds and opportunities for the people who continue to live
and work here in the Mississippi Delta. Is there something that
we need to take back with us to Washington, like don't forget
the farmer or don't forget agriculture in all of this? Mr.
Norquist, you're probably situated to answer that question as
well as anybody.
Mr. Norquist. I would ask that you go back and ask them to
pray for us more than anything.
I would say that, Senator, had it not personally been for
you last year and what you did at the end of the session to
provide emergency help, I have no idea what would have happened
to us. We all appreciate what you did.
Our problem now is in the pricing, the increase of the fuel
costs is just absolutely going to ruin some of them. There's
just no way they can continue under the cost. And we also are
seeing for the first time, I think, and this is something that
the universities can be very helpful with, we're starting to
see the despair in their eyes for the first time.
It's one thing since 1995 when we had a crop disaster based
on some specific insect. It's another thing that the prices of
all of our crops do not allow us to make any money that's
reasonable. We have to have some help and it has to be a long,
continuing help. It cannot be something that allows the farmer
from year to year to struggle with the winds the way they are
blowing.
Senator Cochran. There are some programs that are designed
to help support lending to those involved in agriculture,
guaranteed loan programs from the Department of Agriculture.
Would you suggest that we need to be aware of the importance of
those and to support those? Could you get along with making
direct lending from banks or other private sector sources
without the Government programs?
Mr. Norquist. If it were not for the Government programs of
the special FSA Guaranteed Loan Program, and if you along with
our Congressmen, had not expanded that program to get the
dollar amount up to a higher level--the pressure now though is
the cash flowing of those needs and we must have some
relaxation from the USDA on those programs to allow the cash
flowing needs when we do have low crop prices as we do at this
point.
Senator Cochran. Related to efficiency in agriculture is
coming up with new technologies and doing the necessary
research to improve efficiencies in agriculture. Here in the
Delta we have some important research facilities not only at
colleges and universities, but we're laboratory based, research
laboratory, research is being done, but also Agriculture
Research Service facilities at Stoneville and Mississippi State
University's supported facilities are in the Delta too. How
important is that activity?
We do have some high quality jobs. Scientists are located
in the Delta. Many who work at these facilities to support them
earn good salaries. Can I take back to Washington that these
are needed and we need to continue to invest funds through the
Federal budget in these activities in the Mississippi Delta?
Mr. Norquist, I'll let you answer that, too, then I want
everybody to respond to that.
Mr. Norquist. I've never been between this many doctors
without a physical exam.
A specific example of what you're talking about, is if had
it not been for research at Stoneville in biogenetics after the
1995 cotton crop where the big army worm tore it to shreds and
we were able to come up with the genetic alternate so that the
crop does not have to take the amount of pesticides it was
costing them, that simply right there saved cotton farming in
our area of the State primarily, and it's because of the work
they had done.
The only way we can compete, and we're going against
foreign countries that subsidize their farmers dramatically, is
to have the proper research and the best place to have it is
here in the Delta where it is, where we do the job and do it
constantly.
Senator Cochran. Dr. Newman, I think I'm going to ask you
the same question in terms of the importance of the
biosciences. It's one of those areas that was identified in
that meeting I attended yesterday at Jackson State University.
Business and community leaders are trying to decide what our
goals ought to be and what the strategies should be to achieve
those goals, and that was one of the targeted areas of business
activity and development activity that we could concentrate on
in Mississippi and was a great advantage. Do you agree with
that?
Dr. Newman. I most certainly do, Mr. Chairman. It's
important that universities engage in research that can be
utilized by not only farmers, but also other entities in the
Delta. For example, Mississippi Valley is working with the
Agricultural Research Service in Stoneville now to develop a
program of bioinformatics which is an emerging field that we're
told that will create more jobs in science and technology in
the next few years than many other fields, most other fields.
We feel that we have to play that role as an institution to
be on the cutting edge not only providing the research, but
also working with persons in the community to be able to take
that research into the community that can be utilized and
develop into various businesses and markets that will allow the
Delta to grow and expand.
So research is the avenue that will allow us to connect the
theory with the practice that will move the community forward
in terms of the kinds of development, new developments that
will create new markets and jobs within the community.
Senator Cochran. Dr. Honeycutt, do you have programs at
Mississippi Delta Community College that are directly related
to agriculture jobs and job training, and if so, are they
supported in any way by Federal funds or the Department of
Agriculture?
Dr. Honeycutt. Yes, sir. We have agricultural technology
programs that operate through our regular vocational technical
programs and also some academic programs that are transferable
on to the senior universities.
We are currently working in partnership with Mississippi
State University, the research center at Stoneville, NASA, and
private sector individuals to develop a 2-year degree program
that we hope will be funded shortly by the National Science
Foundation to develop a 2-year associate's degree program in
precision agriculture which would be using geospatial
information and remote sensing technologies that are available
through NASA currently and how that would be incorporated to
make farming and agriculture more efficient in the Delta.
It is being tried in other areas of the country, we
understand, but the soil makeup and so on of the Delta and the
farming techniques of the Delta are different. And we're
working with Mississippi State and others, as I said, to
develop those types of programs now. And like I said,
hopefully, we will receive funding shortly for this degree
program. We've had very good responses from our inquiries about
it so far.
Senator Cochran. I congratulate you on your involvement in
that and wish you well in your quest for those funds. We'll
prepare to help you in any way we possibly can to help you----
Dr. Honeycutt. We'll appreciate it.
Senator Cochran (continuing). At the Washington level to
support that. Mr. Peyton.
Mr. Peyton. It's quite interesting that Mid-Delta has been
called upon by NASA in this State to kind of assist them in
some ways to perhaps get Valley State, I understand here in
Greenwood, there's a program being conducted. And what they
need is young people to be trained and we haven't had a chance
to talk to Dr. Newman about it, but we hope to do that in the
very near future.
But it seems to be exciting the kinds of things they tell
me they can do from way up there, from way down here is
unbelievable.
We're looking forward to working with them in that regard.
Senator Cochran. You probably heard Dr. Newman talk about
the summer training program initiative to get respective
students to come to the campus and talk about the possibilities
for technology training or science.
Dr. Newman. Science and technology.
Senator Cochran. Science and technology training, that
sounds like a good program. Could you help recruit students for
this or pass the word that this is a new addition? We have the
summer sports program. We have Federal funds that we try to
make available every year so that young students can come to
the campus and participate in that. That's been a successful
program in the past.
Dr. Newman. Yes, sir.
Senator Cochran. And I expect you'll gladly continue that
if you get the Federal funding for it.
Dr. Newman. Yes.
Mr. Peyton. We certainly welcomed that idea. Forty-five
years in the teaching profession I thought I was out of it, but
I'm ready to go back.
Senator Cochran. Tell us more about this initiative for
science and technology in the summer, opportunities that will
provide for young people, Dr. Newman.
Dr. Newman. The Science and Technology Summer Academy is
one of the aspects of our proposed Center of Excellence in
Science and Technology. This is our link to the community and
to the public schools. And we're working with the areas'
superintendents, 15 school districts, to develop the academy
that will provide students with rigorous hands-on learning
experience in science and technology.
We are also developing a faculty development program that
will work with both college professors and public school
teachers in teaching young people to make learning in science
and technology exciting. And we feel this will allow us to
address that great digital divide as we all talk about in terms
of technology and students who do not have the resources and
exposure to computers and the kinds of training in sciences.
We know that many of the area schools do not have qualified
teachers in math and sciences; so therefore, we feel that we
have to assist in providing that opportunity for young people
to have the grounding in that area that will allow them to be
successful in college.
Senator Cochran. I think that is an excellent idea and wish
you well in that new program. We can----
Dr. Newman. And may I add that we plan to start it this
summer.
Senator Cochran. Good, good. Dr. Potter, I was glad that
you mentioned the arts and education and the Performing Arts
Center at Delta State University. I don't know of anything
that's had such an impact in such a short period of time in
terms of attracting the quality of the performers who have been
there and the publicity throughout the Delta of the
availability of arts programs at the Delta State University, so
I congratulate you for taking full advantage of that and
enhancing the programs for art education and educating in the
performing arts there.
Somebody was pointing out to me the other day that in
schools where you do not have arts education curriculum in
music or some of the other arts programs, you don't have near
the attendance and drop-out prevention success as you do in
schools that do have those programs, so I'm hopeful that we can
do that throughout the Delta region, too.
There may be something we're missing the boat on not
including, you know, when I started school they had what they
called public school music. But they had a lot of other things
that children had an opportunity to do in the arts area. And a
lot of that is missing in our elementary and secondary schools.
Is that something that we can work on and improve in our
State without a whole lot of pain or requirement of Federal
funding? Can that be done with the State and local funds or do
we need a federally funded program for that?
Dr. Potter. There is a State program that we're working in
collaboration with now called the Whole Schools Program and the
concept behind that program is that the arts in elementary
schools are a vehicle or an entry point to stimulate students'
interests in all subjects, so using the arts as a kind of
teaching tool for other disciplines I think has a lot of
promise.
And we're hopeful, that that program is being hosted at
Millsaps this summer. We're hoping to host it around the State
the next summer. And we're talking about having the subject
matter of that arts education to be the Delta and its history,
its culture, and heritage so that you're not just using the
arts as a stimulus, but you're using the actual content of the
arts to help you better understand their own heritage and have
pride in that heritage. And that's a program that's run out of
the Mississippi Arts Commission.
Senator Cochran. Right now, you know, we have Bill Ferris
in Washington who's head of the National Endowment for the
Humanities. And he's a product of Vicksburg, Mississippi, out
in the country from Vicksburg, Mississippi, as a matter of
fact.
And he has a great deal of personal interest in the Delta
and Delta music and Delta arts and the history of it. And so we
might be able to take advantage of his position in that spot to
help enhance teaching and learning opportunities in this area
as well.
Well, I think you've all put in perspective the role that
education particularly can play in helping promote economic
development and provide the grounding education beginning at
the kindergarten level where we can improve the opportunities
of children who have grown up in the Mississippi Delta to take
advantage of the emerging job opportunities.
Griffin Norquist points out how manufacturing is now
becoming a very important part of the Mississippi Delta's
economy; but if we don't have the students who are competent
and skilled and trained and motivated and understand what the
requirements of the workplace are and what the expectations
are, we're going to miss out on a new growth opportunity for
our State.
So I think this panel certainly understands that, but maybe
promoting this as a way to stimulate the whole State and the
whole region and all of our schools and universities in the
State will be a worthwhile thing for us to have done today.
And that's one of the purposes for having this hearing, to
try to promote new ways of meeting the challenges that we face
in our State for economic progress.
We all want to move forward, but harnessing all of our
resources, taking advantage of relationships with the Federal
Government, and our congressional delegations has, being able
to bring Federal agency people here to get a better
understanding of what our special needs are and what our hopes
and aspirations are, I think we would be well served to take
fuller advantage of these relationships.
And business and industry leaders are hard at work. I can
testify to that from my personal meeting yesterday with a lot
of those leaders in Jackson. And I'm glad to see this new
initiative of working together, trying to cooperate more,
setting aside differences of race and culture and background
and previous experiences, we can pull together and achieve our
goal for the future. And I'm encouraged and I'm optimistic. I
think we're on the right track. And we've got a long way to go.
Like Dr. Thompson said yesterday, but we've come a long
way. We've achieved a lot of success in this State and it's not
well known.

CONCLUSION OF HEARING

I appreciate very much the opportunity of being here today
with our staff and representatives of our committee to hear
first hand how we can do a better job of supporting the
initiatives here in our State and particularly the Delta
region. Thank you very much. The hearing is recessed.
[Whereupon, at 12:15 p.m., Tuesday, March 14, the hearing
was concluded, and the subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene
subject to the call of the Chair.]