Tool
Rural Policy Action Report
The Rural Policy Action Report outlines policies, priority legislation, and executive action that support working families and strengthens rural communities. The report also highlights the numerous policy successes related to the report and the ongoing challenges people in rural communities face.
Lift Up Our Top Priorities
The Rural Policy Action Report outlines policies that are popular with everyday Americans. The report provides a positive agenda to improve rural people’s lives and deliver lower costs, higher wages, and the freedom to make choices about our own lives. To reshape the government for working people, the report highlights 26 policy priorities, organized into four pillars.
- Rein in corporate greed and support workers, small businesses, and farmers
- Invest in foundational infrastructure for thriving communities
- Everyone gets a fair deal – no one should be discriminated against or excluded from the benefits of pillars 1 and 2
- Steward our land and natural resources for a prosperous and sustainable future
Policy Menu
Use the report as a menu of policy priorities to explore many of the most popular federal policy solutions. It’s a valuable resource for elected leaders, groups, and donors to learn about a variety of pressing topics that impact rural people. The report reflects the engagement of many diverse partners, and the hopes, needs, and challenges facing their communities.
The Rural Policy Action Report helps show how daily economic concerns are connected to rural folks having the power to make decisions that impact their lives.
Project History
First published in 2021, the Rural Policy Action Report identified key policies at the state and federal level designed to support rural people in the places where we live. The following year, through a partnership with the State Innovation Exchange, the 2022 Blueprint for Policy Action in the States was released, focusing on policies that benefit our communities at the state level. The momentum continued into 2023 with the release of another report, which highlighted policy successes and helped define the trajectory for further policy advancements that have benefitted our rural areas and small cities. Building on the success of implementing many policies from the 2023 report, we convened a third Rural Policy Action Summit summit in 2025, leading to new guidance to combat emerging threats to rural people. The latest report came out amid a debilitating government shutdown in October 2025.
Meeting the Moment
The report emerged out of the 2025 Rural Policy Action Summit. Set in Des Moines, Iowa, the summit brought together rural leaders from across the country. Together, we envisioned a rural future full of opportunities for hardworking people. Summit participants highlighted the threats to hardworking Americans — skyrocketing health care costs, farmers facing dangerous market instability, and the federal government diverting billions from public schools to private schools. In contrast to the crises, the Rural Policy Action Report offers a practical agenda. The 2025 report is a powerful tool to amplify the timely issues important to our rural communities. Our federal policy analysis was quoted in The Hill, CBS News, The New Republic, Politico, Daily Yonder, and hundreds of radio stations. Our editorials were published in over 50 rural-serving outlets, helping elevate timely issues.
Policy Scorecard
Since the first Rural Policy Action Report debuted in 2021, we’ve helped enact major policy initiatives. Government policy is an important component to make sure hardworking rural people have the tools and resources to improve our communities. Our numerous policy successes over the years have demonstrated the impact of our collective organizing to make change.
But more recently, we’ve seen many of those successful policies reversed and impeded by new policies that hinder community involvement. The Policy Scorecard describes the policy landscape, including a detailed accounting of our priorities we’ve championed in past efforts.
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Tools & Resources
Heartland Fund provides tools and original research to better understand and improve rural communities.
Rural Map and Dashboard
Rural classifications to the country’s census tracts, counties, congressional districts, and states.
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Rural Voter Polling
The polls explore rural attitudes and point toward ways to engage rural communities.
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What Works in Rural America
Guidelines for effective messaging, engagement, and communications.
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