After 12 years of planning and fundraising, the Bennett County Hospital finally broke ground Friday on a $19-million project in Martin to build a new 14-bed hospital and emergency room and convert an existing building into space for physical therapy and labs.
The Bennett County Hospital had to shut down its money-burning nursing home in 2023 to avoid going out of business completely. But hospital CEO Shandel Anson says the main funder keeping the remote county from falling into total healthcare desert status is what’s left of the federal government:
The project will receive $13.6 million in a USDA loan, with help from Rounds and his staff.
The hospital raised nearly a $1 million locally and an anonymous donor contributed a $5 million gift. The state will contribute $2 million in a Community Block Development Grant. Anson said Rounds and his staff are working on another possible $2.5 million [Rae Yost, “$19 Million Hospital for Bennett County,” KELO-TV, 2025.09.05].
Senator M. Michael Rounds and Representative Dusty Johnson were in Martin Friday to turn shiny shovels. They appear not to have reminded the good people of Bennett County that the USDA loan keeping their hospital alive (as well as an $897K grant that bought them two shiny new ambulances) was approved in 2022 by the Biden Administration and that the new dictatorship they voted for (albeit by one percentage point less than the rest of this red state) wants take a shovel to USDA’s rural development programs:
President Trump’s proposed fiscal 2026 federal budget outline, released on May 2, proposes deep cuts and many outright eliminations for housing and other programs serving rural America.
If adopted by Congress, key U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development and housing programs would be completely eliminated. Major Housing and Urban Development programs that are important in rural areas also would get zero dollars next year, and many social safety net programs would be cut.
…Turning to USDA Rural Development, the document says that the “Budget would also eliminate programs that are duplicative, too small to have macro-economic impact, costly to deliver, in limited demand, available through the private sector, or conceived as temporary. These include rural business programs, single family housing direct loans, self-help housing grants, telecommunications loans, and rural housing vouchers. Rural Development salaries and expenses are reduced commensurately” [Joe Belden, “Analysis: Trump 2026 Budget Slashes Rural Housing and Other Programs,” The Daily Yonder, 2025.05.06].
Spend that loan fast, Bennett County!