Trump will discuss economic road map for rural America today

President Donald Trump will lay out an economic road map for rural America today that includes an emphasis on innovation and technology, including expansion of high-speed Internet access. Trump will speak at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Annual Convention in Nashville. Administration officials previewing the speech said it will be the first time in 26 years that a president has addressed the convention. While many economic sectors have recovered from the economic downturn, the nation’s rural areas have lagged in almost every indicator, said Ray Starling, special assistant to the president for Agriculture, Agricultural Trade and Food Assistance on the National Economic Council. “The administration recognizes that those challenges exist and is committed to not overlooking them or ignoring them,” Starling told reporters on Friday. “So that’s number one. There’s challenges there. It’s real.” Starling went on to say there’s agreement that a great potential economic driver for rural America is increased connectivity and that the administration will make a priority of expanding access to high-speed Internet...more