COLUMBUS, Ohio – Sec. of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said President Joe Biden's $5.8 trillion proposed budget makes critical investments in the American people, particularly in rural communities.

“The president’s budget provides USDA with the tools needed to support a vibrant, revitalized and prosperous rural America. It contains transformational investments that will help rural communities build resilience to the climate crisis, increase landscape resiliency to the impacts of climate change, create more and better markets for our hardworking producers, bolster access to healthy and affordable nutrition for families, help connect all Americans to high-speed, affordable, and reliable internet, strengthen USDA’s efforts to build equitable systems and programming, and position the United States to be a leader in Agricultural Research," Vilsack said in a release.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would receive $111 billion. According to the USDA, SNAP benefits 43.5 million Americans each month.

"Well, the No. 1 thing that people should remember about the U.S. Department of Agriculture is that its top priority is always food and nutrition assistance programs," agriculture expert Andy Vance said.

Vance said Ohioans would be sure to see benefits from the budget, if passed.

"In Ohio, farmers could absolutely be part of that budget. It also invests $5.5 billion into the Forest Service to reduce the risk of wildfire. We might not think about that as being an issue as much in Ohio, but I can tell you there were several times over the last two weeks where I got fire alerts on the various weather apps on my phone," Vance said.