Good afternoon,

Summer is over, but it's still five o'clock somewhere. Grab a nice cold beverage as Congress returns to D.C. and political drama heats up.

OPERATING COSTS OF KIDS AND CONGRESS

• August's jobs report showed a stabilizing job market, but costs remain stubbornly high. Childcare is particularly pricey for families: it's the largest expense for households above housing, college tuition, and healthcare.

• $50 billion in federal childcare relief funding is set to expire at the end of September, forcing childcare centers to cut back during a shortage of 40,000 childcare workers or rely more on parents' contributions – meaning that costs are likely to increase beyond the already sky-high average of $10,600 per year.

• While the Biden administration has taken steps to lower childcare costs for working families, 59 percent of rural families live in childcare deserts where they lack access to affordable, quality childcare.

• As Congress returns to Capitol Hill, lawmakers must ensure rural parents can go back to work and continue providing for their families. OCP board member North Carolina State Representative Ashton Clemmons told Hot Dish Podcast host Joel Heitkamp, "I think we can either invest now in children, or we will be paying for what we don't invest in later." Read OCP's full statement here.

• The laundry list doesn't end there: lawmakers must also avert an impending shutdown. Republicans in Congress have shown that they're all-too-willing to court brinkmanship to push extreme policies forward at the expense of the government's functionality. The deadline for action is the end of the fiscal year, September 30 – which is also the day the Farm Bill will expire.

• It may take a miracle to pass both a fiscal year 2024 appropriations bill and a Farm Bill by the end of the month – but a very necessary miracle to guarantee that farmers, ranchers, and rural communities can continue to put food on America's tables.

BACK TO SCHOOL AND DEVELOPING HEALTHY FUTURES

• It's back to school time! What's the lunch lady putting on your child's plate? On the latest episode of the Hot Dish, Heidi speaks to Karen Ehrens, a registered dietician and leader at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, about improving the nutritional quality of school meals programs, societal costs of America's obesity problem and the challenges to healthy eating that many rural communities face.

• "We hear every month of the closure of grocery stores, hospitals and newspapers," says Ehrens. "Rural communities can find themselves at the end of a food distribution chain." The U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent award of $30 million to help rural school districts provide nutritious meals to students is intended to provide rural communities direction in making the best with what they have in the rural areas. Subscribe to the Hot Dish podcast and check out the latest episode here.

• OCP founder and former U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp recently...
  • Penned a blog post addressing the maternal health crisis.
  • Joined CNBC's Squawk Box to discuss the looming government shutdown.

• Wall Street Journal: The $53,000 Connection: The High Cost of High-Speed Internet for Everyone
• Kansas Reflector: Kansas embarking on five-year, $451 million project to spread high-speed internet statewide
• KOSU: USDA awards $4 million to rural Oklahoma businesses for renewable energy projects
• Louisville Public Media: Report shows status of rural Indiana infrastructure after additional funding

Be sure to follow the One Country Project on Twitter and Facebook, and check out The Hot Dish podcast.