WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wants to make it easier for rural communities to get federal funding.
The senator announced the Rebuild Rural America Act at a press conference with north country leaders at the Fairgrounds YMCA in Watertown Tuesday afternoon.
The legislation would invest $50 billion in rural economic development, infrastructure, schools, hospitals and small businesses.
Gillibrand is pushing to get the money into this year’s farm bill.
“This is just a larger investment in rural America. So I am working on getting a bi-partisan lead and getting this into the farm bill in some form because we know it works and as I said, the farm bill only comes every 5 years so getting the resources now is really important,” said Gillibrand (D. – NY).
It comes as $15 million was announced last week for rural broadband in the north country.
Getting reliable, fast internet to more remote parts of the area has been a challenge.
Gillibrand says we can expect to see further funding down the road.
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