Officials from USDA met with business leaders in Rapid City, South Dakota to seek their input on ways federal, state and local officials can help improve economic conditions and create jobs. The session was the second White House Business Council meeting held; the first was held in Missouri. The meeting was hosted by Kristi Wagner, Program Developer with South Dakota Rural Enterprise, Inc. and facilitated by Jonathan Adelstein, Administrator of USDA Rural Development’s Rural Utilities Service, and a member of the White House Business Council on Winning the Future.
Adelstein said, "We heard really a lot of good advice from business leaders that are skilled in creating jobs in South Dakota. They're sometimes frustrated with the government, they're sometimes very happy about ways the government has helped them to succeed. And we're trying to learn from the good things, we're trying to streamline and get the bureaucracy out of the way and make sure regulation doesn't inhibit job growth." Adelstein says White House officials will leave Washington and reach out to the business leaders in every state by the middle of June.
Major issues identified included energy, education, health care, technology, access to capital, and immigration. The hour and a half long session was recorded and a summarization of the meeting was provided to policy makers. These sessions are just the beginning of conversations to “win the future” to out build and out educate the rest of the world.