Chad Rupe is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) new Rural Utilities Service (RUS) administrator, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced today.
Rupe had been the Acting Administrator for the RUS since April 30. Before stepping into that role, he was the USDA Rural Development State Director of Wyoming, serving from 2017 to 2019. During his tenure there, Rupe was a leader for rural broadband, serving on the Rural Development State Directors’ Broadband Working Group and assisting state government with efforts to deploy broadband in rural Wyoming. Rupe has also championed rural water utility projects and financing for sustainable electric infrastructure investments.
Prior to being appointed as state director, Rupe worked in Rural Development’s Community Programs in Wyoming. During his time with the program, Rupe worked to underwrite and manage more than $13 million in Water and Environmental Program direct loans and $4.75 million in grants. Prior to joining USDA, Rupe spent more than 13 years in the banking industry, specializing in commercial lending in Wyoming. Rupe began his service to our country in the United States Army. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and earned his MBA from the University of Phoenix. He is married with three children.
“Chad served us well as Rural Development State Director in Wyoming for the past two years, and we are excited for him to join the team here in Washington, D.C. With more than 15 years of experience in commercial and community banking, Chad brings much-needed expertise and knowledge to the Rural Utilities Service. I know Chad is committed to helping rural Americans prosper and thrive,” Perdue said in a prepared statement.
Having spent some 50 years in the construction of Coax/Copper/Fiber networking systems, I think USDA funds to build Rural America is being wasted. To get to the rural area's, most of the time, you have to invade a local cable MSO territory. Why not just have that local Cable MSO build out to the rural regions. If your going to utilize Rural funds…construction should only be in rural regions, not going through existing fiber systems. I see this all the time and would estimate at least 40-50% of the fiber being placed is in an area already with fiber in place.