S. HRG. 106–825 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA HEARING BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SPECIAL HEARING Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 63–943 cc WASHINGTON : 2001 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS TED STEVENS, Alaska, Chairman THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont SLADE GORTON, Washington FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky TOM HARKIN, Iowa CONRAD BURNS, Montana BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama HARRY REID, Nevada JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire HERB KOHL, Wisconsin ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah PATTY MURRAY, Washington BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota LARRY CRAIG, Idaho DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois JON KYL, Arizona STEVEN J. CORTESE, Staff Director LISA SUTHERLAND, Deputy Staff Director JAMES H. ENGLISH, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi, Chairman ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania HERB KOHL, Wisconsin CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri TOM HARKIN, Iowa SLADE GORTON, Washington BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California CONRAD BURNS, Montana RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois TED STEVENS, Alaska ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia (ex officio) (ex officio) Professional Staff REBECCA M. DAVIES MARTHA SCOTT POINDEXTER HUNT SHIPMAN LES SPIVEY GALEN FOUNTAIN (Minority) Administrative Support CAROLE GEAGLEY (Minority) (II) CONTENTS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY Page Statement of Jill Long Thompson, Under Secretary for Rural Development ..... 1 Opening remarks ..................................................................................................... 1 Prepared statement of Jill Long Thompson .......................................................... 5 Budget request ......................................................................................................... 7 Administrative expenses ......................................................................................... 7 Program budget request .......................................................................................... 8 Rural Housing Service ............................................................................................. 8 Rural business-cooperative services ....................................................................... 10 Rural Utilities Service ............................................................................................. 11 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Statement of Judith Johnson, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Elementary and Secondary Education ........................................................................................... 12 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 16 Administration fiscal year 2001 budget requests .................................................. 17 High standards for all students .............................................................................. 17 Modern school learning environments ................................................................... 19 Targeted support for disadvantaged students ....................................................... 20 Improved mathematics achievement ...................................................................... 22 Improved literacy levels .......................................................................................... 22 Department of Education technical assistance ..................................................... 23 DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Statement of Albert C. Eisenberg, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transpor- tation Policy .......................................................................................................... 24 The Mississippi Delta: Beyond 2000 ...................................................................... 26 Prepared statement of Albert C. Eisenberg ........................................................... 66 U.S. Department of Transportation Assistance to the Delta ............................... 67 Recent Transportation activities in the Delta ....................................................... 68 The Mississippi Delta Region initiative ................................................................. 71 NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES Statement of Dr. Lester Newman, President, Mississippi Valley State Univer- sity ......................................................................................................................... 87 Statement of Dr. David Potter, President, Delta State University ..................... 91 Statement of Dr. Tony Honeycutt, Dean of Career and Workforce Develop- ment, Mississippi Delta Community College ..................................................... 94 Prepared statement of Dr. Tony L. Honeycutt ...................................................... 95 Statement of Arthur Peyton, Interim Director, Mid-Delta Empowerment Zone Alliance ................................................................................................................. 98 Statement of Griffin Norquist, Chairman, Economic Development Depart- ment, The Delta Council ...................................................................................... 100 (III) ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 2000 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES, COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Itta Bena, Mississippi. The subcommittee met at 9:30 a.m., on the fourth floor of the Mississippi Valley State University Administration Building, Hon. Thad Cochran (chairman) presiding. Present: Senator Cochran. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY STATEMENT OF JILL LONG THOMPSON, UNDER SECRETARY FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT OPENING REMARKS Senator COCHRAN. Let me call the subcommittee hearing to order, first of all, to thank the officials here at Mississippi Valley State University for permitting us to convene the hearing on the campus. We’re very grateful to all of you who have helped us organize the hearing and make the arrangements for the conduct of the hearing. We extend to you our sincerest appreciation. We are very happy to acknowledge the leadership of Dr. Lester Newman, who is President of Mississippi Valley State University. We’ve had an opportunity to meet in my office and talk about the plans for the university and how our office can be helpful in the appropriations process in Washington. We know that we have provided annually a curriculum enhance- ment appropriation for Mississippi Valley State University over the last several years which helps to enrich the curriculum and support the budget of this university. We hope to be able to build on that investment here at this uni- versity, because we know the important role that it plays, not only in the State of Mississippi, but regionally, and we acknowledge that and congratulate you for it. This morning we are convening the hearing here in the Mis- sissippi Delta to review federally supported programs that are de- signed to promote economic development in this region of the coun- (1) 2 try. Our hearing has been authorized by the Chairman of the Com- mittee on Appropriations of the United States Senate, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. We are very happy to have representatives of three departments of our Federal Government here this morning to discuss the Delta Regional Authority, which has been proposed by President Clinton. We have reviewed some of the information that’s been made available, but we thought it would be appropriate to have rep- resentatives of the departments that would be coordinating the ac- tivities of the Delta Regional Authority here today to discuss the plans and let us know more about the details of what we can ex- pect from this program. We know that this has been an area of the country that has been beset with a lot of economic problems because of changing economic conditions. Agriculture, which had been the backbone, economi- cally, of the Mississippi Delta for so long, has undergone a tremen- dous change in terms of the kind of work opportunities that are available, the support industries that are needed. The modernization of agriculture has meant the loss of a lot of traditional jobs here in the Mississippi Delta and the outmigration of a lot of the people who used to live here in the Delta. So to deal with these realities, we’ve had to reexamine what will work in terms of economic development and new job opportunities for this area. And I think that is going to be in this area of accommodating to the realities of change that we find our biggest challenges. I’m con- vinced that we have some resources here in this region that we haven’t utilized to the fullest potential. And I’m particularly interested in trying to examine how we can better utilize our educational institutions. This university where we are today, others in the region, Alcorn State University, Delta State University,