Good afternoon,

It looks like the upcoming presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is shaping up to be one big political open mic night. With the debate right around the corner, the two campaigns have found themselves stuck negotiating whether or not to leave the microphones on throughout the debate.

During the debate between President Biden and former President Trump, the two campaigns came to an agreement that both candidates would follow a microphone etiquette in which microphones would be "muted throughout the debate except for the candidate whose turn it is to speak." This time, the Harris campaign has flipped the switch on this, calling for microphones to be on for the entire debate. However, concerns from Trump's team about how the former president will handle this environment is holding up the decision and on Sunday night, Trump himself questioned whether he'll participate in the event hosted by ABC. Details around the presidential debate may be at a standstill, but rural America sure isn't.

Here are a few developments in rural America infrastructure ...

BREAKTHROUGHS IN RURAL BROADBAND

• Access to affordable and reliable broadband internet service is vital to life in modern American society. Without connectivity, everything from the agriculture industry to students in rural schools would suffer. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 22.3% of Americans in rural areas and 27.7% of Americans in Tribal lands lack broadband coverage.

• Recently, the bipartisan Rural Broadband Protection Act, led by Senators Amy Klobuchar and Shelley Moore Capito, passed the Senate Commerce Committee. The bill "would require the FCC to establish a more thorough vetting process to ensure that providers applying for federal funding are capable of delivering reliable broadband access to underserved, rural communities."

• Senator Klobuchar has been a strong advocate in Congress for expanding access to broadband for rural communities and serves as co-chair of the Senate Broadband Caucus.

RESUSCITATING A CLOSED RURAL HOSPITAL

• Since 2010, nearly 150 rural hospitals across the U.S. have either closed or scaled back their services significantly. As a result, millions of Americans living in rural communities no longer have access to critical health care services.

• A rural community in North Carolina is determined to resuscitate its lifeless hospital using a new federal program. Roughly a year ago, Martin General Hospital located in Martin County, North Carolina shut down. Several generations of local families relied on the hospital and the community was devastated to see it go.

• In the midst of great uncertainty, Martin County has been working on a plan to bring Martin General back from the dead, building upon a provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which "created a lifeline for struggling hospitals in rural areas." The bill enabled small facilities to convert to "rural emergency hospitals," provided hospitals millions in annual funding, and made hospitals eligible for increased reimbursement rates for some outpatient services covered by Medicare. The only drawback: rural emergency hospitals are required to provide 24/7 care and they are not allowed offer inpatient services. Despite this inconvenience, twenty-nine hospitals across the U.S. have converted to rural emergency hospitals since January 2023.

• Martin General is attempting something no other facility has attempted yet. The hospital is planning to reopen using the rural emergency model even though it has been completely closed for a year. Residents in rural communities need access to critical care and this hospital is determined to execute an impactful return for its people and serve as an example for other rural communities with shuttered hospitals.

• This week, Vice President Harris and Tim Walz are riding the momentum from last week's Democratic National Convention and are visiting southern Georgia, ending in Savannah. Georgia is a crucial battleground state, flipping to blue for Biden in 2020.

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