“A giant wave is coming, it’s going to crash, and we’re not ready for it.” For more than a year, I’ve heard versions of this statement everywhere, from small, county-level gatherings to national rural development convenings. Hundreds of federal funding programs stemming from the Infrastructure and Jobs Act, the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act are surging billions of new dollars toward rural and tribal infrastructure and innovation initiatives.
After decades of disinvestment, resource-starved rural places need infusions of new capital. But the federal funding wave is coming fast, and it will overwhelm rural resource deserts suffering from chronic, generation-spanning investment droughts. Rural communities and regions are unprepared, lacking the capacity to navigate federal funding opportunities and the technical expertise and resources to develop viable applications.