Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 4/25/22

Vilsack will join Regan in North Carolina today and Tuesday as part of the administration’s Rural Infrastructure Tour to highlight federal resources available to rural communities under Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law.

This afternoon, Vilsack and Regan will join an agriculture stakeholder roundtable in Raleigh with N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. On Tuesday morning, they’ll travel to Franklin County to discuss water infrastructure investments in rural areas.

To recap: The White House launched the tour to reach rural Americans as billions of dollars for new infrastructure projects become available, as your host and Meredith Lee previously reported. The law includes $14.6 billion in rural-specific programs (not counting programs under the Transportation Department). Officials are in the process of traveling to over 30 communities across the country this month to promote the efforts.

The rural tour is in addition to a “Rural Partners Network” unveiled last week by USDA, which aims to ramp up on-the-ground staffing in rural areas across more than a dozen agencies to help communities access the new funds, especially those with limited resources to handle complex federal program applications.

Worth noting: The North Carolina tour is a homecoming for Regan, who was the Tarheel State’s top environmental regulator before joining the Biden administration. Ag groups were generally supportive of his nomination, citing Regan’s positive relationship with ag producers even as he navigated controversial issues like clean water regulations and pollution from large hog farms.