The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development State Director Bob Morgan highlighted the ways the Biden-Harris Administration is delivering on its promises to build a better America and rebuild the backbone of the country, the middle class in rural Pennsylvania.

“Today, we are highlighting USDA Rural Development’s actions in 2022 to rebuild our economy and rural communities, minimize the impacts of climate change, create good-paying jobs for American workers, and invest in our families,” Morgan said.

In fiscal year 2022, USDA Rural Development invested more than $789 million in rural Pennsylvania. You can view the national level news release on the USDS Rural Development website.

Here is a look at USDA Rural Development’s actions in 2022 to rebuild our economy and rural communities, minimize impacts of climate change, create good-paying jobs for American workers, and invest in our families.

• Single Family Housing Program: $412 million
• Multi-Family Housing Program: $55 million
• Water & Environmental Programs: $27 million
• Community Facility Program: $74 million
• Business Programs: $182 million
• Electric Program: $37 million

For detailed information you can view the newly launched Rural Data Gateway website.

ARC issued a Request for Proposals for our POWER (Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization) Initiative.

POWER investments help create economic growth and diversification in Appalachian communities affected by job losses in coal mining, coal power plant operations, and coal-related supply chain industries. Since 2015, ARC has invested more than $396 million in 449 projects across 360 coal-impacted communities through POWER.

In 2023, ARC is investing up to $65 million in partners and projects boosting broadband, entrepreneurship, tourism, agriculture, and other budding sectors.

POWER Pre-Application Workshops

ARC is hosting several upcoming workshops to answer questions and share best practices so prospective grantees can submit strong applications.

• 2/21 – POWER Pre-Application Workshop (Virtual)
• 2/23 – POWER / ARISE / INSPIRE Workshop (Belden, MS)
• 2/28 – POWER / ARISE / INSPIRE Workshop (Knoxville, TN)
• 3/2 – POWER / ARISE Workshop (Pittsburgh, PA)

Questions?

If your organization could use assistance in project development and/or grant writing, please contact your Local Development District (LDD) or email Jennifer Lench at DCED at jlench@pa.gov.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH) would like to share this message from the Chief Statistician of the United States (CSOTUS) within the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) about an important step in advancing the collection of race and ethnicity data across Federal agencies.

The Office of the CSOUTUS took a key step forward in its formal process to revise OMB’s statistical standards for collecting and reporting race and ethnicity data across Federal agencies by releasing a set of initial proposals in a Federal Register Notice. Comments are open now until April 12, 2023.

In 2022, the Chief Statistician of the United States (CSOTUS) within the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) convened the Federal Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards (Working Group) to review and develop recommendations for revising OMB’s 1997 Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (SPD 15).  Input from stakeholders and the public will be critical in guiding the Working Group as it continues to refine and finalize its recommendations.

The proposals are open for anyone to provide thoughts and reactions, including how they may affect different communities, by April 12, 2023 at Regulations.gov, where you can submit comments by searching for “OMB-2023-0001.” If you would like more information, the Working Group also has a new public website at: spd15revision.gov where you can learn more about the initial revision proposals and how the public can get involved, or read a recent blog post from the White House announcing the news.

Increasing the collection of standardized demographic data across health care systems is an important step towards health equity. To learn more about the CMS efforts on data collection, review The Path Forward: Improving Data to Advance Health Equity Solutions.

Looking for more information about the CMS Office of Minority Health? Visit our website at https://go.cms.gov/omh and subscribe to our listserv for the latest information.

The interactive map shows 56 states and territories that have received grants from the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program.  More than $42 billion has been committed to infrastructure planning and deployment nationwide.  Click each state or territory on the map to learn the details of current internet availability, amount of funding, and contact information for the state/territory Broadband Office.

  This resource highlights the role of a behavioral health care manager (BHCM) to screen and monitor patients, coordinate care with other healthcare providers, track treatment response, and recommend patient medications. The University of Rochester is one of three Centers of Excellence for the federal Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP).

 Here, you’ll find a recording and presentation slides from the January 18 webinar that gives an overview of the new Rural Emergency Hospital designation, policy and regulatory requirements, and an introduction to technical assistance provided by the Rural Health Redesign Center.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released information on three Medicare accountable care initiatives in which groups of providers collaborate to improve care.  For 2023, the Medicare Shared Savings Program will have 456 accountable care organizations (ACOs), including 2,240 Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and 467 Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs). The ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (ACO REACH) model will have 132 ACOs with 78 RHCs and 15 CAHs.  The Kidney Care Choices Model will have 130 entities with more than 8,000 providers participating, including newly expanded areas in North Dakota and South Dakota.