[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 65 (Monday, May 20, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4549-S4550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               THE NEW HOMESTEAD ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY ACT

  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, I will not be taking the full half hour. 
So the Senator from Nevada, if he wishes to make comments, might want 
to make comments following mine.
  It was 140 years ago today that the original Homestead Act was signed 
into law. I want to comment for a moment about that act and about 
legislation that was introduced in the Congress.

[[Page S4550]]

  Here is a copy of the stamp that was issued in 1962--a postage stamp 
commemorating the original Homestead Act. A sod house from North Dakota 
was commemorated on that postage stamp.
  President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law. The purpose of 
that was to encourage people who wanted to seek new opportunity to 
populate the middle part of our country--the heartland of our country. 
And people did go to the heartland of America.
  My great-grandmother, a Norwegian immigrant who lost her husband to a 
heart attack, along with her six children, got on a train and went to 
Hettinger County, ND, and pitched a tent. She raised her family, built 
a home, started a farm, and ran a family farm.
  That courageous Norwegian immigrant widow did what many Americans 
did. They just made an opportunity out of something that was there for 
them--the Homestead Act.
  Then she had a son. That son had a daughter and that daughter had me. 
And that is how I came from Hettinger County, ND.
  A lot of Americans have a similar story in their background about how 
they are living in this country.
  But the Homestead Act was successful in moving people out to start 
farms, ranches, and small communities in this country.
  One-hundred forty years later, this is what is happening to our 
country. You will notice that in the middle of our country--in the 
heartland of America--we are being systematically and relentlessly 
depopulated once again. As you will see, North Dakota has a substantial 
loss of population in almost all of its rural counties. In North 
Dakota, the chart shows what is happening. Ninety-one percent of our 
counties are suffering from substantial out-migration: Montana, 54 
percent; South Dakota, 73 percent; and, Nebraska, 66 percent.
  There is this relentless depopulation of the central part of our 
country.
  Some wring their hands, gnash their teeth, and ask what they can do, 
and say perhaps nothing. I happen to think we can do something.
  Last March, the Bismarck Tribune ran an Associated Press story 
talking about the cycle of what is happening in many of these States, 
from North Dakota to Texas. Schools are closing. Farmers are giving up. 
Young people are moving out, leaving behind the elderly in communities 
struggling to keep their names on the map.
  The latest census number shows dozens of counties in South Dakota, 
North Dakota, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, and Illinois have lost people 
in the 1990s. The question is, What, if anything, can we do about that?
  I have introduced a piece of legislation here in the Congress with my 
colleague Senator Hagel from Nebraska. Very simply, our legislation is 
similar to the Homestead Act of 140 years ago, except we don't have 
land to give away anymore. So we say to people who would move in and 
stay in these local areas that are rural by nature and which have been 
losing population, here are the reasons for you to stay. There are 
incentives for you to stay.
  Much of the country aspires to have what they have in many of these 
rural counties and local communities: good places in which to live, 
great places to raise a family, good neighborhoods, safe streets, 
strong schools and other things that people aspire to have. Yet we are 
trying to recreate that in other areas of the country, even as we are 
losing it in the heartland.
  Again, the question is, What can we do about that? Senator Hagel and 
I have introduced a piece of legislation called the New Homestead 
Economic Opportunity Act.
  It says to people, if you live and work in these out-migration 
counties after you graduate from college, we will forgive part of your 
college loan.
  We will provide a tax credit for a home purchased by individuals 
living in these counties that are suffering from out-migration.
  We will protect home values by allowing losses in home value to be 
deducted from your Federal income tax. In many of these small towns, 
when you build a home, it is worth less immediately after it is built 
than the cost of construction.
  We will establish Individual Homestead Accounts to help build savings 
and increase access to credit if you are living in one of these rural 
counties.
  Then there are business incentives as well. Say you create or keep a 
business in one of these rural counties losing population, States can 
offer investment tax credits for newly constructed buildings and 
accelerated depreciation for equipment purchases. There are a whole 
series of things that represent business incentives, either to stay 
there and start a business or come there and create a business.
  The New Homestead Economic Opportunity Act also recognizes in order 
to be successful in starting or keeping business in rural areas, you 
have to have venture capital. Our legislation would establish a 
national venture capital fund in order to do that.
  The National Association of Counties has endorsed the New Homestead 
Economic Opportunity Act, saying:

       As you are aware, some of America's rural counties are 
     facing critical hurdles . . . many rural counties are 
     experiencing an out-migration of youth to more urbanized 
     areas of the country due to a lack of economic opportunities 
     . . . Your legislation is a good attempt to ameliorate this 
     out-migration from rural America and we fully support your 
     efforts.

  The same is true with many other organizations. I will put up a chart 
showing just a few of them: The National Telecommunications Cooperative 
Association, the North Dakota Association of Builders, the North Dakota 
Association of Realtors, bank groups, credit unions, and more.
  The question for this Congress is, Will we do something about what is 
happening to rural areas in the heartland of our country?
  When America's cities were suffering a crisis and inner-city blight, 
America went right to work. It put on its work clothes and said: All 
right, we're going to help America's cities, we're going to do a model 
cities program and an urban renewal program, and we will not allow our 
cities to fail.
  I supported that. Good for us. The fact is, many of our big cities 
have turned around completely, and they now have economic life and 
vitality. The question for the Congress and the country is, Will we do 
something to restore economic opportunity in the heartland of this 
country? I hope we will.
  So I wanted, on the 140th anniversary today of the original Homestead 
Act, to point out there is a new Homestead Act that has been introduced 
in Congress by Senator Hagel and myself. And we have done that for a 
very important reason. We hope our colleagues will join us in allowing 
us to move that piece of legislation in this Congress.

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