Congresswoman for Iowa’s Third District Cindy Axne (D) recently introduced a bipartisan bill to help rural entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Axne, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, and five of her colleagues introduced the Expanding Access to Capital for Rural Job Creators Act. This bill would expand the focus areas of the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation to include rural-area small businesses. The Advocate identifies and provides an annual report on the problems rural entrepreneurs face.

Axne says the voice of rural America is often left out of the conversation when it comes to accessing capital funds, “We need to make sure that our rural entrepreneurs have the opportunity because when they have challenges in accessing capital it hinders job growth in rural areas, it forces young people to leave these communities due to lack of job opportunities. And so this is an opportunity for us to expand that access to capital and help rural entrepreneurs access more of it so that we can grow our economy in our district and across Iowa.”

A companion version of this bill has also been introduced in the Senate.