As we begin 2025, I’m filled with gratitude for the privilege to lead, collaborate, and deliver real results in Ohio’s rural communities on behalf of USDA. For the past three years as State Director for USDA Rural Development, I’ve been proud to help increase investment and create economic opportunities in the small towns and cities that make our state such a great place to live.

The Biden Administration has been committed to ensuring opportunities for all Americans, no matter where they live. During these past three years, USDA Rural Development invested more than $300 million through our Rural Business and Cooperative Services programs to help businesses, agricultural producers, co-ops, and economic developers gain access to capital so they could start, grow, or expand economic opportunities in their communities.

Whether that was helping a family-owned feed mill in Baltic expand its operations or providing loans to a small business in Ironton, we have been committed to creating jobs in rural Ohio. Perhaps most critically, USDA invested more than $50 million in 372 clean and renewable energy projects through our Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). These investments will help farmers and small businesses install solar panels, purchase new grain dryers, and install energy efficient lighting and insulation, making their businesses stronger, profitable, and sustainable in the years ahead.

We invested more than $120 million through our Community Facilities and Water and Environmental programs, funding infrastructure projects that will ensure clean water, make rural communities safer, expand access to educational opportunities for students, and increase access to quality health care. This included nearly $20 million invested through the American Rescue Plan Act to keep rural hospitals and assisted living facilities open and help them recover from the pandemic.

We celebrated rural community milestones: providing significant funds to the Village of East Palestine for a new fire station and community building, expanding a library in Fremont, breaking ground on a wastewater project in Chauncey, cutting the ribbon on a new public works complex in Washington Township near Mansfield, and celebrating the opening of a new 40-unit independent living facility in Mount Vernon.

We invested more than $1 billion in Single Family Housing loans and grants so more than 7,200 rural Ohio families could build, buy, or rehabilitate a home, ensuring our rural neighbors have a safe, affordable roof over their heads.

We invested more than $800 million through our Telecommunication and Rural Electric programs to modernize electric infrastructure and ensure more Ohioans had access to affordable high-speed internet and technology, educational and professional development resources, and tele-health services.

These success stories would not be possible without the women and men of rural Ohio that wake up every day thinking about how they can make their communities better. The Biden Administration and USDA Rural Development have been honored to walk alongside them to create new economic opportunities, address energy affordability, and invest in resilient infrastructure. But as much as we’ve achieved, there is still more work to do.

Looking ahead, I’m committed to continuing this work, fostering innovation, and building partnerships to ensure sustainable, equitable growth for the communities we serve.

Jonathan McCracken is State Director for USDA Rural Development in Ohio. A native of Wilmington, Ohio, he is a graduate of Wake Forest University and the George Washington University Law School.