REMARKS AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY - SANDY K. BARUAH, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF COMMERCE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - EXCELLENCE IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AWARDS PRESENTATION TO YUBA SUTTER ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION - SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2006

AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY

Introduced by Doug Ose, former 3rd District Congressman

Thank you, Congressman Ose, for that kind introduction. It’s a pleasure to be in the great state of California today representing President George W. Bush.

I am pleased to be joined today by Congressman Wally Herger, a real leader in Congress who is striving to create jobs and economic opportunity for the citizens of California. Also here today are Yuba City Mayor Eric Hellberg, Wheatland Mayor Enita Elphick and many other distinguished elected officials and guests. Welcome all.

It’s also a pleasure to be joined by Yuba Sutter EDC President Dan Flores and board members State Senator Sam Aanestad; Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa; and Assemblyman Rick Keene. I also want to recognize Tim Johnson, who has worked so hard and shown solid leadership in the transformation of Yuba Sutter.

What we all know here today is that the Yuba Sutter Economic Development Corporation is a national leader in economic development. Soon a lot of other folks will know this because today I am proud to announce that the Yuba Sutter Economic Development Corporation is the winner of the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration “Excellence in Economic Development Award” for 2006.

Each year, EDA bestows the “Excellence in Economic Development Award” on the best and brightest examples of economic development strategy and results. Award winners are selected by a distinguished and independent panel of economic development leaders, noted academics and government officials from across America. Believe me; the competition for these awards is intense as the bar for creative and innovative economic development initiatives gets raised every year.

This year, the winner of the Excellence Award for Rural Economic Development is right here in Northern California.

Rural America is home to near a quarter of the nation’s people and more than half of its commercial banks. Yet, with its wide-ranging geography, the ebb and flow of its industries, and its ever-changing technological and global challenges, America’s rural economy often performs differently than the rest of the U.S. economy.

Rural communities can win if they successfully engage in rural competitiveness strategies focused on entrepreneurship and innovation.

And that’s exactly what the Yuba Sutter Economic Development Corporation is doing right here in Northern California. You’ve come a long way Yuba Sutter.

Your focus on identifying the region’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats helped to identify new programs, projects and services that are catalyzing market-driven efforts to attract businesses, create jobs and enhance the tax base. Your “Blue Print for Success” embraced innovative, entrepreneurial activities that were effective and efficient in their deployment. In fact, Yuba Sutter EDC’s efforts have led the region from worst to first as Forbes magazine has recognized the region not once, but twice, as one of the top ten places to do business in the nation.

Yours is a strategy from which other parts of the country can learn, and part of our job as the Federal agency charged with advancing economic development is to share successful strategies with economic development practitioners across the nation.

For this reason, we have shared the Yuba Sutter EDC story with the rest of the nation recently through EDA’s magazine, Economic Development America, which features an extensive profile of the Yuba Sutter EDC in our Summer issue.

Through this effort, thousands of economic development practitioners across the nation will learn of the success achieved at Yuba Sutter EDC, and of the award I have the honor of presenting today.

As we celebrate the success of the Yuba Sutter EDC, I think it’s worthwhile to remind ourselves of what we have achieved as a nation in the past few years:

• This morning, my colleagues in Washington announced that 51, 000 new jobs were created for the 37th consecutive month. That’s over 6.6 million new American jobs in the last three years;

• The national unemployment rate “dipped to” 4.6%, which many economists say is essentially full employment, and is lower than where we were at the time of the 2001 terror attacks;

• Over the first half of this year, the U.S. economy grew at a 4% rate – faster than any other major industrialized country. Our growth rate is almost twice that of any E.U. nation and private sector forecasters expect solid levels of growth to continue for the rest of this year and into 2007.

• Real, inflation adjusted after tax incomes have increased about 15% since January 2001.

• More Americans own their own their own home than ever before – about 70% – which is a key economic driver.

• Inflation and interest rates remain in check and near historic lows.

• The Conference Board reports that consumer confidence is up as Americans are now paying less at the gasoline pump, and the L.A. Times reported recently that a majority of Americans believe that our economy is on the right track.

• And despite returning $880 billion to American taxpayers as part of President Bush’s tax cuts, tax revenues are up 11% in 2006 over last year and the Federal Government is collecting taxes at the highest level in history.

So, there is a lot of positive economic news out there, and while the bulk of the credit goes to American workers and businesses, I know that the pro-active steps President Bush has taken have put our economy on the right path.

This is important not just for the nation, but for Northern California as well – because a growing national economy provides the folks here in Northern California a better opportunity to realize economic growth right here at home. It takes both smart national policies and smart local initiatives to ensure that the American dream reaches all parts of our great nation – and we are celebrating both here today.

Again, I would like to thank all of you for being here today at this important ceremony. And now, the moment we’ve been waiting for, the presentation of the award.

Congressman Herger will now join me in presenting the 2006 EDA Excellence in Economic Development Award for Rural Economic Development to Dan Flores, Sam Aanestad, Doug LaMalfa and Rick Keene.

It is now my distinct pleasure to present on behalf of President George W. Bush the 2006 EDA Excellence in Economic Development Award for Rural Economic Development to the Yuba Sutter Economic Development Corporation.

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