FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 17, 2024
CONTACT: [email protected]
One Country Project Convenes Leaders to Uplift Rural Priorities
Three-day virtual 2024 Rural Progress Summit will investigate the challenges rural Americans face and proposed policy solutions
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, One Country Project (OCP) announced its third annual Rural Progress Summit, which will take place virtually from June 4 - 6, 2024. The Summit will bring together OCP board members, policymakers, and rural stakeholders working to elevate rural America’s needs and policy priorities.
46 million people reside in rural regions – a population that for many years has been declining as residents seek economic opportunity, health care, and other services elsewhere. Despite being a key voting bloc that determines who’s making decisions in Washington, D.C., rural Americans’ most pressing concerns have long gone unaddressed – and the lack of focused federal funding has exacerbated infrastructure issues, health care deserts, and rural-urban divides. OCP’s Rural Progress Summit shines a light on these challenges, and convenes political leaders, issue experts, and rural advocates to discuss the policies and issues that are important to rural communities and how those priorities can be elevated both on Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.
“Rural America stands at a crossroads. While historic investments in infrastructure and industry are beginning to flow in, key policies like the Affordable Connectivity Program and the Farm Bill are overdue for a renewal,” said OCP founder and former U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp. “Our third annual Rural Progress Summit comes during a presidential election year, a time to look back at what we’ve accomplished and look ahead at what work still needs to be done. We’ll have exciting conversations about the solutions local leaders have created using a lot of ingenuity, if not a lot of resources, and examine how to improve economic opportunity, health care access, agricultural viability, and more.”
The three-day conference will be hosted by the One Country Board of Directors, which includes Heitkamp, former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, North Carolina State Representative Ashton Clemmons, Iowa State Senator J.D. Scholten, and Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski.
Panel topics will include:
- Paid family leave policies at the state and federal level;
- Initiatives to curb the child care cliff;
- A featured conversation with the team behind the documentary War Games;
- Rural health care and hospital closures;
- Agriculture, including the currently-stalled Farm Bill and opportunities for AI to increase precision agriculture’s efficiency;
- The fentanyl crisis, with perspectives from law enforcement, addition medicine practitioners, and policy experts;
- Project 2025’s potential impact on America;
- The 2024 election, determining control of the White House, Congress, and state legislatures;
- And more.
###
About One Country Project
Rural America holds an essential role in moving the United States forward and the One Country Project is dedicated to ensuring Rural America’s priorities and values are heard and reflected in policy at the federal level. To learn more, visit us at www.onecountryproject.com or on Twitter or Facebook.