An Iowan whose stalled nomination to a top government post was finally confirmed last year returned to the state to help present an economic-development check to a rural business. Tom Dorr, the Senior
Advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture, said a 450-thousand-dollar check presented to the Golden Oval egg plant in Thompson is proof the depressed rural economy’s recovering.
The new project will create 17 new jobs, he says and they’ll pay an average of 35-thousand dollars, good jobs to attract and keep young people in the community. Dorr, a farmer from northwest Iowa, said too many rural residents in Iowa have lost hope for recovering a thriving economy. The agency’s put out nearly 37-billion dollars in loans, grants and rural-development programs, and he points to a value-added development grant program he credits to Iowa U.S. Senator Charles Grassley, saying it’s led to 12-million dollars in development grants in Iowa in the last three years. Dorr’s nomination as Undersecretary for Rural Development at U.S.D.A. was blocked after he admitted applying for more subsidy money than his family farm qualified for, but the confirmation standoff ended when the president used a congressional break to perform a “recess appointment” last year. That appointment ended in December.