that put this together and worked hard for the last 12 months.
Kim Helgerson, our grant program lead, John Carr,
Neil Kanar, Ron Frans, and Chris Tarpy,
Ryan Verhope, and Amber Mankie. We wouldn't be here today
in this setup without Steve Zigweid who just worked the last seven days
straight to make this happen, so thank you to that team.
Vernon Electric led by Craig Burros and Vernon's Board of Directors,
Jim Matheson and the Staff of NRECA for their industry leadership
and support. Of course, President Biden for his leadership
and vision to invest in rural America
and Secretary Tom Vilsack for championing rural communities
and the next generation of AG leaders.
Andy Burke, the Administrator of the Rural Utility Service
under his leadership, the RUS has accomplished something truly remarkable.
Delivering new era in less than a year
and accomplishing their founding mission to support rural families
and farmers. Please join me in recognizing this group of wonderful people.
The new era investment launches the next chapter in Darryland's 80-year history.
It's a transformative opportunity for Darryland
and our 24-member co-ops in the 27 cities, towns
and villages we serve. It's a win-win-win,
it's a win for our members, the environment, and the farm economy.
This investment will allow us to, let's have an applause,
the farm economy.
This investment will allow us to accelerate our energy
transition. Yesterday we were to crawl
and today we're to run. The impact of this current grant
will be stunning, reducing our carbon footprint by 70 percent
or over 3 million metric tons equivalent
to 700,000 cars on the highway.
This is good news for everyone, lower emissions
and lower costs. Thanks again for joining us today for what's truly
a transformative day for Darryland Power and the rural communities
that we serve. Thank you so much.
Please welcome Sherry Stewart, representative of the International
Board of Electrical Workers.
Thank you. President Biden, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture,
Vilsack, Governor Evers, distinguished guests.
My name is Sherry Stewart and I am here on behalf of the
113,000 active members of the IBEW
in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois
and Indiana. I am a proud 23-year member of
IBEW Local 31 in Duluth, Minnesota, where I am a trained
journey-level relay and substation technician.
The IBEW's membership, thank you.
The IBEW's membership spans the utility, construction,
telecommunications, broadcasting, manufacturing,
railroad and government sectors. We are honored to be on
the leading edge of the transformational growth set into motion
by the infrastructure, energy and microchip laws championed
by the Biden-Harris administration.
Because of these laws, across the country, we are building billions
worth of electricity transmission projects and the new electric
vehicle and battery storage plants. And we are methodically
constructing the electric vehicle charging system. We are organizing
and training more members than ever, extending the benefits of good
family-sustaining jobs to more and more people, here
and in communities coast to coast. We are broadening and deepening the middle
class, just as intended by the Biden-Harris administration.
In just the last year, across the IBEW,
we have brought in 17,500 new members.
We haven't added so many members to the union in decades.
Solar has been a huge growth area for this region,
with hundreds of members building the industrial solar projects
that are powering the grid with renewable energy.
And in Mondovi, where local 953 business manager Brady Weiss
also happens to be the mayor, IBEW members
are building the electrical vehicle charging infrastructure to support
five electric school buses thanks to a grant from the infrastructure law.
Thank you.
The IBEW is also proud to represent the skilled utility workforce
here at Vernon Electric Co-op, who will be powering the energy
transition being announced here today by President Biden.
Today, Wisconsin is booming, thanks to these targeted
investments that pay good wages, support the growth of renewable
energy, and allow us to continue to recruit and hire
workers from underrepresented communities.
Again, I am honored to be here to represent the professionals
whose skills are so forward oriented.
I look forward to working with all of you to uplift our communities
as we work to construct a cleaner future.
Thank you.
Please welcome the Governor of Wisconsin, Tony Evers.
Thank you.
Thank you all.
Thank you so much.
What a beautiful day in Wisconsin.
How's it going, Wes?
Good?
First of all, we absolutely have to thank our host here at
Vernon Electric Co-operative for having us and all the tremendous
partners and community leaders that are here with us today.
It's great to be here today to welcome President Biden and USDA
Secretary Vilsack back for another visit to the great state of Wisconsin.
You know, thanks to President Biden and the Biden-Harris
Administration, and we're working to build a 21st-century
infrastructure and workforce that Wisconsin needs to compete
in a 21st-century economy.
And that includes Wisconsin's rural communities.
Make no mistake, this work is happening in communities of all shapes
and sizes and in industries across America.
Thanks to President Biden and Vice President Harris,
and it's happening all around us right here in Wisconsin.
President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure law has helped support
our work to fix the darn roads, including over 7,400
miles of roads and 1,780 bridges across the state.
And I notice there's some stuff going on right here in Westby.
You got to fix them, folks.
You got to fix them.
So get this with the help of the Biden-Harris Administration
under my administration.
More than 410,000 homes and businesses across Wisconsin
will have new or improved high-speed Internet.
President Biden, that was a lot of work, but we couldn't have done
it without President Biden.
President Biden and Vice President Harris are also helping us
get harmful contaminants like PFAS and lead the heck out of our
water.
And I know that hits home right here in the driftless area, right down
the road.
Folks in Campbell and French island have been relying on
drugs and bottles of water for years due to water
contaminants.
But let me be clear here.
President Biden and Vice President Harris aren't just solving
problems of the past.
They're actually helping us build a brighter future while they're
at it.
Because President Biden and Vice President Harris believe, as I do,
and I'm sure that you agree with this, that we don't have to
choose between mitigating climate change and protecting our
environment or creating good paying jobs and building a strong
economy.
You know what?
We can and we have to do both.
Look at all the projects happening across our communities or the
good work and the good work by partners like Vernon Electric
and Dairyland Power Co-op to see firsthand that these goals are
not mutually exclusive.
If you're the Infant, excuse me, Inflation Reduction Act and
the bipartisan infrastructure law, President Biden and Vice
President Harris are helping jumpstart Wisconsin transition to a
robust clean energy economy that will lower energy bills, create
good paying, family supporting jobs, and promote energy
independence, including in our rural areas.
Folks, it's all great news for our state and it's because Joe
Biden and Kamala Harris, they get Wisconsin.
I'm so grateful for the President and Biden Harris
Administration's investment in Wisconsin and I'm so excited for
the future that we're working hard to do together.
Can I get a heck yes for that?
Folks, there you go, Westby.
Thanks so much.
Take care of your roads.
See you soon.
Thank you.
Please welcome United States Secretary of Agriculture,
Tom Vilsack.
Thank you very, very much.
It's great to be here.
Certainly want to thank Vernon Electric Cooperative and the
Dairyland Power Cooperative for the opportunity to be here
with you all today.
You know, five years ago at the World Dairy Expo here in
Wisconsin, then Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue,
spoke a harsh truth to all of us about those who care about
small and mid-sized farming operations and the important role
they play in rural America.
In response to a question about the loss of small dairy
operations, the Secretary lamented that in the United States,
you have to get big or you have to get out.
This was a challenge to all of us to find a better way.
And I'm pleased to say that the Biden Harris Administration
with the President's leadership accepted that challenge.
With the passage of the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law, the President's Inflation Reduction Act,
and other available USDA resources,
we are developing new fields of expanded opportunity for small
and mid-sized family farming operations.
Opportunities that will complement and not compete with the
important work of large-scale commercial-sized agriculture.
Our approach is simple.
When you consider that 90 percent of American farm families
are relying on the jobs and off-farm income from those jobs
to help stay on the farm, it raises a fundamental question.
And that question is, why can't we have a system in which
it's the farm that works harder rather than the farm family?
In real terms, that's what we're now doing here in Wisconsin
and across the United States.
Here's what it looks like.
You only need to look at what is happening here, Governor Evers,
and your home state of Wisconsin.
The USDA and DeLong Company, for example, are partnering
to pay farmers here in Wisconsin and six other states to offset
the cost of growing crops using climate-smart and sustainable practices.
In addition to lowering the cost of growing those crops,
these farmers will also receive a premium for the grain and the
fruit that is being produced from these climate-smart practices.
In fact, some of that grain and fruit is finding its way
to the central standard distillery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
to make a variety of climate-smart spirits.
I'm told, Governor, and I understand that the cherry vodka is quite a hit.
Now, this is just one of 27 projects here operating in the state of Wisconsin,
covering 46 commodities where farmers will be paid to embrace
climate-smart practices and receive a higher return for their work.
USDA, as part of the President's competitive agenda,
has invested in more processing capacity here in Wisconsin as well.
This is providing a better price and a better market for livestock producers here.
More choice and lower costs for consumers here in Wisconsin.
USDA provided funding, for example, for the Crescent Meats facility
in Chippewa County.
That expansion project created new markets and better markets
for producers of cattle, hog, lamb, and other species.
They're now making a variety of specialty products.
This is just one example here in Wisconsin of 17 investments we've made
to expand processing capacity and more market opportunity.
Now, we're here today to celebrate an historic investment
in the new era program.
Now, I'd like to be able to make that announcement,
but I think the boss would be upset if I did.
So, I'm not going to make the announcement.
But I am going to say that this is another new field of expanded opportunity.
Recently, I was outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin at the Dairy Dreams Dairy Operation.
That dairy is converting the manure from their operation
into a variety of organic fertilizers that they now use on their fields
to reduce the cost of raising the feed for their cattle.
This saves us a significant amount of cost on the cost of fertilizer.
In addition, this dairy operation is also selling the methane from that manure
to a renewable gas company, which is developing a new stream of income
for that dairy operation.
Finally, we're working to make sure that American agriculture leads the way
in the development and investing in new bio-based products,
like sustainable aviation fuel made from agricultural products.
Now, this opportunity is going to more than double the amount of biofuel production in the U.S.
Now, that means higher income for farmers, particularly in the Midwest,
and better paying rural jobs for those in Wisconsin.
The investments in the historic investment the President will announce today
are creating new and expanded opportunities for small and mid-sized family farming operations.
Now, this is good news.
This is good news for Wisconsin.
It's good news for rural America, and it's good for all of America,
because when farmers do well, rural America does well,
and when rural America does well, all of America does well.
For that reason, may God bless those who farm and ranch
and provide us with the food that we need, the fuel and the energy for our economy.
God bless you all. Thank you.
God bless you all.
President of the Wisconsin Farmers Union.
Good afternoon.
I'm Darren Vindrudin, a third-generation organic dairy farmer right here in Westby, Wisconsin.
I also have spent the past decade serving as the President of Wisconsin Farmers Union,
a statewide organization representing family farmers.
My wife and I have two kids and four grandkids.
We've lived on our dairy farm for my entire life, and my dream has always been to pass
it on to my son and our grandchildren.
But before President Biden came to office, I was losing hope that that would happen.
Things were becoming more expensive, and the farm situation was not what we desired.
We actually were thinking that maybe at some point you might have to sell it.
But then, when I met President Biden four years ago during a town hall style campaign,
he listened.
As I shared the issues that impacted our community, it was clear we mattered to him.
He shared with me his comments to invest in all of rural America.
Four years later, he's keeping that commitment.
When he came to office, I and many other farmers were dealing with the wait times of a year
or more at the local meat processors, which hit our bottom lines and limited our ability
to get independent or get local meat to our communities.
But then he strengthened independent meat and poultry processing capacity and made
a real difference for family farmers like mine.
And that's just one win.
I put on many miles as farmers union president, and I see the Biden-Harris administration's
handiwork and the infrastructure improvements from our bridges and roads to renewable energy.
As I prepare to transition my family farm to my son Brett and his family, the fourth
and fifth generation on the farm, I know that these efforts will smooth the way for
those that follow.
We have a solar array on our farm, which is helping to trim our electric costs right
now in half.
We are able to pay for that system in eight years and eight months.
We hope that the actions that are happening today and the program will help to continue
to diversify and improve our energy supply.
There are naysayers out there saying that solar and wind are too cost prohibitive for
a regular Joe.
But that's not true.
President Biden's historic laws have led to critical renewable energy projects right
here in Vernon County.
It's been an exciting past four years for farm country.
President Biden has sparked some real positive change across the rolling hills of Westby
in Vernon County.
My business is now prospering more than it ever was, and I can finally have peace of
mind knowing that I'll be able to pass my farm onto my son and my grandchildren.
With this, it's now a true honor to introduce someone who feels like a regular Joe to us
and who has made this all possible for my family and for so many others across rural
America.
President Joe Biden.
Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, Wisconsin.
First time I was here is about 180 years ago with William Proxmire and I was a 31 year
old senator.
I'm only 40 now, but please have a seat if you have one.
It's great to be back.
Before I begin with your permission, I'd say a few words about the school shooting yesterday
in Winder County, Georgia.
You know, my wife, Jill and I are mourning those four gunned down two students and two
teachers.
I'm wounded and hospitalized, nine others, I'm sure you are as well.
You know, students, just young teenagers, educators, just doing their job, communities
like so many around the country, just getting back to school and a joyous and exciting
time, absolutely shattered, shattered.
I directed my team to meeting the insurer that we're doing everything we can to provide
support.
The Department of Justice and the FBI are working closely with the state and local law
enforcement of investigating this.
You have a lot of information, not all of it.
We're grateful with school personnel and first responders who have prevented more people
from being killed or injured and brought the suspect to custody.
But as a nation, we cannot continue to accept the carnage of gun violence.
I'm a gun owner.
I believe strongly in the amendment, we need more thought and more than thoughts and prayers.
Some of my Republican friends in Congress who just finally have to say enough is enough.
We have to do something.
Together, let's ban assault weapons.
My dad is a hunter.
I don't know how a whole hell of a lot of deer were in Kevlar vests.
I'm serious about this.
High capacity magazines, once again, what do we need them for in terms of domestic use?
There are too many people who are able to access guns that shouldn't be able to.
So let's require safe storage of firearms.
I know I've mine locked up, but how could you have an assault rifle, a weapon in a house,
not locked up and knowing your kid knows where it is?
Got a whole parents accountable if they let their child have access to these guns.
Let's enact universal background checks and then immunity for gun manufacturers.
I realize I'm in a rural area like the real parts of my state where guns, we all have them.
And it's not popular to talk about it, but the truth is there's a difference between
rational and irrational.
Imagine, you know, the only outfit in the world that we can't sue and by law, pass by law,
are gun manufacturers.
How about if that was the case with big tobacco?
What do you think would happen?
We're not able to have sued tobacco.
How many more people would be dead now but for the ability to change the law?
Folks, common sense measures are supportive of our responsible gun owners.
You know, it won't bring back those children, but thousands of children have been gunned
down.
You know, more children are killed or die from a gunshot wound than any other reason
in the entire United States.
Every disease, every accident, everything.
More die is a consequence of a bullet in the United States of America, but to help save
lives if we do the things we're talking about and prevent communities from being
ripped apart again.
We can do if we do it together, and I really think we can.
So I just wanted to say that before we begin.
And now to our event today.
Thank you, Darren, for that introduction and for sharing your story as a family farmer.
And thank you to one of America's best – I say one of the three best governors in the
entire United States of America.
Where is it?
There he is.
Tony, you're the best, pal.
When I think of Tony – I mean this sincerely.
One word comes to mind – integrity, integrity.
And so next to him is a former governor of not far from here from Iowa named Tom Bill
Sakuza, and his wife, Christian – Christian, you're the – yeah, there you are.
She's smart and he is, just like Jill Smart and I am, but Tom's doing a hell of a job
as Secretary of Agriculture.
And thanks to all the local elected labor and community leaders that are here, and a
special thanks to Brent Ridge, CEO of Dairyland Power Cooperative, for hosting us today.
You know, I come from the state of Delaware, everybody thinks it's the eastern industrial
state.
Our largest industry in Delaware, and I served as senator there for 36 years – I know I
don't look that old, but I am – for 36 years, is agriculture.
It's a $4 billion enterprise in the Del Marva Peninsula, and its co-ops made it happen.
But millions of Americans run co-ops like yours for electricity every single day, and it
matters.
In June of 2021, five months after I came to office, I went to nearby La Crosse, Wisconsin.
It was the 65th anniversary of President Eisenhower's sign of the bill that created
the interstate highway system.
I talked about my vision to do something just as historic to invest in infrastructure and
clean energy, so much more in rural America, to invest in all Americans, to propel us into
the future, creating millions.
And I mean millions of good-paying jobs and positioning in America to win the economic
competition of the 21st century.
And I'm back again today to begin a series of trips and events showing that progress
we've made together by our investing in America agenda, an agenda that has come to
fruition over the last decade – invest in America, invest in American workers here
in Westby.
You know, I'm proud to announce that through my investments, the most significant climate
change law ever – and by the way, it is a $369 billion bill, it's called – we
should have named it what it was, but at any rate, the Department of Agriculture is able
from that legislation to announce $7.3 billion in grants to 16 electrical co-ops nationwide
to help rural communities transition to clean, affordable, reliable energy.
It's the most significant transformative investment in electrician and electrification
and clean energy for rural Americans and its FDR's new deal nearly 90 years ago, and that's
not like that.
And it includes Dairyland Power Cooperative that will receive $580 million to develop
and purchase solar power, wind power, energy stores, right here in Wisconsin and all across
the Midwest.
And here's why it's a game changer.
Before the new deal, private companies have used to provide affordable electricity to
rural communities.
As a result, one in 10 rural households, only one in 10, had electricity before FDR came
to power.
So farmers had to organize electric co-ops to distribute electricity to their families
and their communities.
With help from the new deal, there are now more than 800 rural electric co-ops to provide
electricity for 40 million Americans in 48 states.
With key challenges, they've overcome them, but they're still the co-ops are still non-profits.
They don't have the same resources that private utility companies have to modernize their
energy infrastructure.
And for decades, they couldn't access tax credits and make clean energy more affordable.
That's why Campbell and I ensured for the first time in American history that these
non-profit co-ops can benefit from clean energy tax credits just like for-profit utilities
have for decades.
We also created new tools for co-ops to refinance prior debts so they can go out there and not
be held back from investing in their future.
Today's historic announcement of $7.3 billion for rural electric co-ops builds on those
steps.
It means clean affordable electricity for over 5 million rural households and businesses
across 23 states.
It means 20,000 jobs, good paying, high-quality jobs, including union jobs, so rural America
is empowered to lead our clean energy future.
It means covering the upfront costs to clean energy so rural families can save on their
energy bills and get just a little more breathing room at the end of the month.
And it means rural entrepreneurs and manufacturers were so fundamental to our economy, are powered
with reliable affordable energy and they can create more job opportunities in their communities.
And guess what, it's also good for the environment as well.
Because of our historic actions, we're going to reduce by 43 million tons greenhouse gas
pollution every single year as a consequence of these investments.
That is the equivalent of removing pollution from more than 10 million gas-powered vehicles.
10 million.
It's going to save $265 billion in health care costs because of better, cleaner quality
of air.
People aren't breathing polluted air and getting sick.
That comes from the NIH.
It matters, folks.
You know it.
And folks, I've kept my commitment to be present for all America and all Americans,
including rural America.
The communities are the backbone, and that's not how you're the backbone of this country.
You deserve the same resources as folks in our cities and our suburbs.
And that's what today's announcement is all about.
Generating rural power for rural America.
But that's not all.
Last year, I was next door with your good neighbor, Governor Waltz of Minnesota.
I think the guy's gone, please.
I talked about we're making the most fundamental and significant investment ever in rural America,
creating new and better markets, new income streams that are generators of rural America
that can grow and thrive.
For example, we're taking on big corporations and doing everything from increasing competition
to the meat markets to boosting domestic fertilizer production.
In fact, here in Wisconsin, that means $12 million to lower fertilizer costs for farmers
across the state, which also creates jobs and grows new businesses.
Here in Wisconsin, we're also invested $47 million to lower energy costs, install renewable
and energy-efficient technologies like solar panels behind me on farms and rural small
businesses.
Darren just shared how that's cut his family electricity bill in half, rubbing farmers
and ranchers, and entrepreneurs tackle the climate crisis, climate-smart agriculture
such as cover crops, nutrient management, storing carbon in the soil.
These practices reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and improve overall health of the soil and
the water.
They put us on a path to continuing to grow the food, the fuel, the fiber that will power
our nation for decades to come.
Through our bipartisan infrastructure law, it's a fancy way of saying that $366 billion
for an environment, most significant investment in America's infrastructure.
And what the infrastructure bill, by the way, the bipartisan bill, that was $1,200 billion.
And guess what?
We're still lowering the deficit.
Anyway, the most significant investment in America since Eisenhower's interstate highway
system, we invested $4 billion so far in 350 projects to modernize Wisconsin transportation.
Justin Wisconsin, that's been invested.
Infrastructure is going to be three rhymed about to the new 14, U.S. 14, and the new bridge
and county highway am.
Folks, look, just like we're making the most significant investment in rural electrification
as FDR, we're also making the most significant investment ever in affordable high-speed
Internet.
Because affordable high-speed Internet is just as essential today as electricity was
a century ago in order to be able to do business.
And when things are shut down, the kid doesn't have to sit outside of McDonald's anyway.
That's why we've invested $1.6 billion just in Wisconsin to connect everyone to affordable
high-speed Internet in Wisconsin.
And since I took office, 72,000 more Wisconsin homes and small businesses have access to high-speed
Internet for the first time ever.
We're going to keep it going.
We've also invested $200 million to release lead pipes across the state so a kid can drink
clean water without worrying about brain damage and changing their schools as well.
We've launched the Rural Partners Network, put in a new federal staff in the ground
to help communities access federal resources, let them know what they are, where they go,
how to get it, because it's complicated.
So I want people on site being able to tell people how they qualify, how they apply,
how they get it done.
And after years, and importantly, 90 percent of our semiconductor chips, which I might
add, American vented, we invented the computer chip.
It's needed for everything for automobile engines to weapons.
We passed the Chips and Science Act, has led private companies from around the world to
come back.
We used to have 40 percent of the market, not too many years ago, and now we've got down
to basically zero.
So right from countries around I travel from North Korea, anyway, South Korea to across
the world to get these computer chip factories to come, I asked when we convinced one of
the companies in South Korea to invest in building these chips in America, I said, why
would you do it?
They're investing several billion dollars.
I said, because you have the most advanced workers in the world, and it's the safest
place in the world to invest.
Well, our Chips and Science Act has led private companies from around the world to invest hundreds
of billions of dollars in new chips and battery factories, and more of them right here in
America.
With the leadership of your governor, you've already added 200,000 new jobs and attracted
you to over $5 billion in Wisconsin, and private sector investment in clean energy
and advanced manufacturing.
In fact, this spring, I was with your governor, Ray Scene, where Microsoft announced a $3
billion investment, $3 billion investment, to build a data center.
South Africa is one of the most powerful artificial intelligence systems in the entire
world.
It's going to create thousands of good-paying jobs on site, and across the state creating
even more opportunities in rural communities.
Let's remember, my predecessor promised you that he would redevelop Foxcom, factory
and Ray Scene.
You been there lately?
He didn't do a damn thing.
Nothing.
Folks, all these investments means family farms can stay in the family.
Rural entrepreneurs can build their dreams.
Their children and grandchildren won't have to leave home to make a living.
I don't know how many of you have been confronted growing up, where everything's going well,
and the son or daughter comes to the mom or dad and said, I can't stay, there's not work
for me here.
I've got to leave.
That's stopping now.
Because we're spending opportunities to benefit everyone, building the future where no one
is left behind.
Growing in the economy from the middle of the bottom up, not the top down, because you do
that.
Everybody does well.
My dad used to have an expression, Joey, a job as a model.
My dad was a hard-working guy.
He didn't go to college, a real red guy, because of World War II anyway.
He worked like hell.
He always come home and didn't refer to go back and close the shop.
My dad used to say, Joey, a job's bought a lot more than a paycheck.
It's about your dignity.
It's about respect.
It's about being treated with respect.
It's about knowing you can look at your kid in the eye and say, honey, it's going to
be okay.
You're not going to have to leave home to get a job.
That's a stark contrast to my predecessor.
When he was in office, he enacted a true trillion-dollar tax cut, two trillion-dollar
tax cut, that overwhelmingly benefited the very wealthy and the biggest corporation
that drove up federal deficit every single year of his presidency.
He left office as the largest annual deficit in American history, three trillion dollars.
And, by the way, I made a commitment when I got elected, and my vice president made
it similar to him.
No one making under $400,000 will see a single penny in their tax rates, not a single penny.
Neighbor that I come from and claim on dollar in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and say, well,
that's too damn much.
But the point is, is to make sure that we know it's not a this-in-the-attack on the wealthy.
He left us with a pandemic raging in economy reeling.
His allies in Congress, with all due respect, I've had this conversation with your Senator
Ron Johnson, voted against every one of the things I talked about today.
Every single thing I talked about in terms of rural economy, he voted against it, voted
against it.
It's hard to imagine your Senate voted against interest in the rural state, was so large
and so consequential, as the state of Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, your other Senator, Tammy Baldwin, has done everything to take care of the state
so she can be devoted to it.
Vice President Kamala Harris fought like hell for all of you, and for the future worthy
of your aspirations.
Look, just think about how far we've come.
We have more to go.
Too many people are still in trouble.
But nearly four years that we've been President and Vice President, we've won those extraordinary
periods of progress in American history.
COVID no longer controls our lives.
We've gone from an economic crisis to the strongest economy in the world.
Let me say it again.
We have the strongest economy in the world, and no one challenge that we got a more to
do.
We're seeing something else.
In thousands of cities and towns across the country and across Wisconsin, we're seeing
the great American comeback story.
The way I see it, and I talked to the other team, talks about how bad off we are and how
America is the way I see it, today's announcement is about far more than just giving rural America
the power to turn on the lakes.
It's about giving the power to shape our own future.
In fact, Wisconsin has been, it has a strong, strong history of neighbor helping neighbor
and forming cooperatives, which are literally owned and powered by the people of Wisconsin
because of you, we're planting seeds today that grow and blossom for generations that
come.
That's what we're seeing here in Wisconsin, a state with a proud tradition of rural communities
leading our nation forward, and again, that's not an exaggeration.
We've been a leader in the nation.
Let me close with this.
As I travel this state and the country, I hope you feel what I feel.
Pride.
Pride in our hometowns.
Pride in making a comeback.
Pride in America.
Pride in knowing we can get big things done when we work together.
Folks, I've never been more optimistic about our nation's future.
Just as I remember who hell we are.
We're the United States of America.
That's who we are.
Not a joke.
We're the only nation in the world that's come through every crisis stronger than we
would into that crisis because we're a hard work and optimistic people, decent people.
We know from experience that there's nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we work together.
And again, that's not an exaggeration.
We work together.
I'm in the days when I first got started with a lot of Republican senators.
My close friends, we work together.
We compromise.
We didn't talk about things if we were in a dire moment that democracy was a stake.
We actually worked together.
We fought like hell, but we worked together.
We got to return that for our children because our democracy depends on them.
I'm keeping you too long in the sun, so let me just say God bless you all and may God
protect our troops.
Thank you.
We take care of our own, we take care of our own, we're in this last night.
Thank you.
We take care of our own, we've got a beautiful state.
We're the eyes, the eyes with the will to see.
We're the hearts that run over the mercy.
Where's the love that is not forsaken me?
Where's the word that set my hands, my soul free?
Where's the spirit that'll rain rain over me?
Where's the promise from seed and shining seed?
Wherever this flag is flown, wherever this flag is flown, wherever this flag is flown,
we take care of our own, we take care of our own, wherever this flag is flown, we take care of our own,
we take care of our own, wherever this flag is flown, we take care of our own, we take care of our own,
wherever this flag is flown, we take care of our own, wherever this flag is flown,
we take care of our own, wherever this flag is flown, we take care of our own,
but then I know it's growing strong.
We take care of our own, we take care of our own, we take care of our own, we take care of our own,
we take care of our own, we take care of our own, we take care of our own,
we take care of our own, we take care of our own,