Double Shift

Congressman Perriello is back at work, where he has joined with over forty congressmen from both sides of the aisle to request that President Obama form an Office of Rural Policy. This follows the president's plan to form an Office of Urban Policy last week. Check out this article; it goes into more detail about the breadth of this coalition, which draws on rural districts from across the country.

This is what Tom was talking about on the campaign trail when he spoke in bipartisan, solutions-oriented tones. Contrary to popular belief, there actually are things we can discuss and address other than the big hot-buttons--call me naive if you want, but I'm encouraged when I see news like this. I think it shows that bipartisanship can work. 

This is also good news because of the obvious fact that rural areas face many of the same issues as more developed areas of the country, but often get overlooked--poverty, lack of educational opportunity, crumbling infrastructure, rampant social problems like drug addiction and teen pregnancy are some of the problems that face the 5th District alone. 

Go Tom!