2012 Community Support Letter

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August 29, 2011

Dear Chairmen Rogers and Inouye,

We represent a diverse array of constituents, from Alaska to Puerto Rico and from Maine to Hawaii. Our rural communities comprise more than [250,000] Americans from all walks of life. Today, we are united by a common goal—to support the efforts of the Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) to improve the quality of life in rural America.

RCAP has been an indispensable resource for our communities. Their expertise and experience has enabled us to find affordable solutions to our water and wastewater infrastructure needs that will support economic growth in our towns. Without their help, our residents would be without safe drinking water and sanitary sewer systems, or would be paying unsustainably high utility rates. In short, without RCAP, hundreds of thousands of rural Americans and thousands of rural small business owners would be left high and dry without adequate water and wastewater infrastructure.

While we all recognize the need for Congress to put our nation’s fiscal house in order, it is imperative that we preserve programs that have a proven track record of success. For nearly 40 years, RCAP has partnered with a variety of federal agencies to provide needed technical assistance to rural communities in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. RCAP’s assistance has enabled our communities to develop local leadership capacity, leverage outside resources, and develop fiscally sustainable plans to manage our local water and sewer systems.

We are deeply concerned about the potential for cuts to the programs through which RCAP receives federal funding. RCAP’s work is funded primarily through three competitive grants—Rural Facilities Program Grants at the Office of Community Services at HHS, Technical Assistance and Training Grants from the Rural Utilities Service at USDA, and Small Systems Technical Assistance Grants from the Offices of Water and Wastewater at EPA. Eliminating or severely reducing funding levels for these programs will have a direct impact on our ability, as community leaders, to provide basic sanitary services to our residents.

Without a valuable partner like RCAP, we will have limited access to the outside capital, technical guidance, and other resources necessary to build, maintain, and operate our water and sewer systems affordably and sustainably. We therefore urge you to fully fund these vital programs so that we, and other rural community leaders, can continue to provide the more than 50 million Americans who live in rural areas with safe, clean drinking water and sanitary sewer services at affordable rates.

The benefits of adequate water and wastewater infrastructure in rural communities are numerous. During construction, it puts local construction workers back to work, giving a needed boost to the struggling industry. Once finished, adequate infrastructure encourages entrepreneurs and small business owners to open up shop, thereby revitalizing dilapidated Main Streets. It enhances public safety by providing firefighters with adequate water pressure to fight fires and improves public health by reducing the risk of contamination.

RCAP’s assistance is helping to make these benefits a reality in our communities, and with your continued support, they will be able to do so for thousands more. Please ensure that the programs RCAP competes for are fully funded to allow them to continue to improve the quality of life in rural America.

Sincerely,