THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

PRESIDENT CLINTON'S TRIP TO EAST ARKANSAS

Highlighting the Need for Investment in the Delta

December 10, 1999

TODAY, PRESIDENT CLINTON WILL VISIT EAST ARKANSAS AS PART OF HIS CONTINUING EFFORT TO HIGHLIGHT THE NEED FOR INVESTMENT IN THE DELTA REGION. After speaking to the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce about the importance of trade and economic development to the long-term prosperity of Arkansas, the Delta Region and the nation, President Clinton will begin his Delta visit in West Memphis, Arkansas. At the Eugene Woods Civic Auditorium in West Memphis, the President will underscore his commitment to revitalizing local economies in East Arkansas through public-private partnerships, job training, and long-term new investments. Later, at Earle High School in neighboring Earle, Arkansas, he will discuss the crucial role of education and computer skills in creating strong local economies.

In August of this year, President Clinton met with community leaders in Helena, Arkansas, to discuss strategies to revitalize the region's economy. In October, a large delegation from the Delta came to the White House to continue that dialogue. The President's trip today marks the latest phase of his ongoing initiative for East Arkansas and the entire Delta region.

EAST ARKANSAS AND THE CHALLENGE OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

As a result of the longest peacetime economic expansion in American history, conditions in East Arkansas have improved in recent years. Nevertheless, much work needs to be done:

• At $14,742, per capita income in Crittenden County - where West Memphis and Earle are located - fell 30 percent below the national average in 1997, the most recent year for which census data on income is available.
• In that same year, per capita income in neighboring Cross and Pointsett counties were 63 and 66 percent, respectively, of the national average. Their unemployment rates in 1998 were 7.8 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively, both well above that year's national rate of 4.5 percent.
• In the Arkansas Delta, the African-American infant mortality, despite improvement in recent years, remained at 13.8 per 1,000 live births in 1997, nearly double the national rate of 7.2 per 1,000 live births.

IN EAST ARKANSAS, PRESIDENT CLINTON WILL BE JOINED BY THESE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND OTHER FEDERAL OFFICIALS: Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln; Congressman Marion Berry; Lieutenant Governor Winthrop P. Rockefeller; Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater; Secretary of Education Richard Riley; Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, Department of the Treasury Gary Gensler; and other high-ranking administration officials.

TO HELP SURMOUNT THE CHALLENGES FACING EAST ARKANSAS, PRESIDENT CLINTON TODAY WILL ANNOUNCE:

• Over $110 million in President's FY 2001 budget to create new Delta Regional Authority to assist the Lower Mississippi Delta Region. The Delta Regional Authority will target funding and resources to economically distressed counties throughout the Delta. By closely coordinating federal, state and local efforts, it will help address the region's challenges in areas including economic development, transportation, education, job training and health care. The $110 million budget request includes $30 million in new resources to create the Delta Regional Authority. The remaining $80 million will be targeted to the Delta from existing programs at the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Transportation, Agriculture, Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services.
• A Presidential Memorandum to create an Arkansas Delta Circuit Rider Program. The President will direct 14 federal agencies - including HUD, USDA, HHS, Commerce, SBA and others - to develop a pilot program by March 1, 2000 that, for the first time ever, will provide targeted, coordinated assistance to individual Delta communities. Modeled on the federal judges of yesteryear who rode horseback in a "circuit" through their districts to hear cases, this pilot program will help Delta communities identify specific economic development needs - such as housing, transportation, tourism, infrastructure technology, education and health care -- and then leverage private and public funding to meet those needs. The investment of resources by each federal agency will vary depending on the specific needs of each community but may include technical assistance, traveling seminars and deploying staff.
• Investment of $16 million to establish the Arkansas Rural Health Care Initiative. The Arkansas Enterprise Group (AEG), headquartered in Pine Bluff, is the lead entity for the Arkansas Rural Health Care Initiative Revolving Loan Fund. The Revolving Loan Fund, designed to provide resources to develop and improve rural health care infrastructure in Arkansas, represents a partnership of several lenders. These lenders have collectively pledged to make available $16 million in loans to health care providers, including hospitals, clinics, doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners and other providers. Special emphasis will be placed on lending in seven Arkansas Delta counties that face significant health care challenges, including Chicot, Crittenden, Desha, Lee, Monroe, Phillips and St. Francis counties. AEG is an affiliate of Southern Development Bancorporation, a CDFI that provides community development loans to distressed communities throughout southern and eastern Arkansas. Since 1996, the U.S. Department of Treasury CDFI Fund has awarded a total of $5 million to Southern Development Bancorporation.
• A $1.2 million grant to create a 35,000 square foot mail sorting facility. In 1992, Eaker Air Force Base closed, resulting in massive layoffs and revenue losses in Blytheville. Currently, the U.S. Postal Service uses the former base for mail sorting operations during the Christmas holidays, hiring 700 local employees. It shares the facility with Leading Edge, the largest aviation painting company which is expected to increase employment from 150 to 500 employees. To keep these companies in Mississippi County, the $1.2 million grant, from the Economic Development Administration, will help finance a new 35,000 square foot facility to house the mail sorting operation and also accommodate future alternate uses. This grant to the Blytheville-Gosnell Regional Airport Authority will help create 350 new jobs and retain 850 jobs at the airport.
• Establishment of a new office for the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service (US&FCS) and the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Located at Mid-South Community College and working with the Department of Education, the office will assist East Arkansas businesses export more of their goods and services. Through the US&FCS's Rural Export Initiative, electronic commerce tools will be used to provide opportunities in the global marketplace. The office will pay special attention to the needs of small and medium sized businesses attempting to penetrate overseas markets.
• New partnership to train dislocated workers in trucking industry. A partnership of the American Trucking Association (ATA) Foundation, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Professional Truck Driver Institute of America (PTDIA), Inc., state and local workforce development organizations in Tennessee and Pennsylvania are expanding a truck driver training program into West Memphis, Arkansas to train dislocated workers as truck drivers. This new, expanded partnership will help bring jobs to the West Memphis area by both responding to the shortage of trained drivers in the long-haul trucking and taking advantage of the unique position of the Memphis area as one of the leading transportation hubs in the nation.
• MCI/WorldCom Marco Polo Foundation will offer Internet training for all teacher trainers in the seven Delta states. The MCI/WorldCom Marco Polo Foundation will provide free technical assistance to teachers throughout the Delta region on how to use the Marco Polo Program. This program - developed in partnership by MCI, National Geographic and the National Endowment for the Humanities -- offers rich, standards-based educational materials to K-12 classrooms. With this training, teachers will have access to the vast interactive content of the website and enrich their students' learning experience.
• Delta Safe Schools Conference. On March 9, 2000, Arkansas State University at Jonesboro will host the first-ever Delta Safe Schools Conference. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, this conference will bring together teams from the seven Delta states for training and technical assistance in four areas: comprehensive safe school planning, effective use of research, federal funding for safe schools, and model safe and drug-free schools programs. This conference will teach educators at the state, district and local levels how to make classrooms and campuses safer and drug-free.
• Rural College Multi-Agency Technical Assistance Workshop. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and hosted by Phillips Community College in Helena on March 13-14, 2000, the workshop provides college administrators with grant-writing and program-application assistance and helps them obtain technical assistance from numerous federal agencies and programs with discretionary dollars for post-secondary educational institutions.

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