Texas entered the 20th century as an agrarian state and exited the century as an urban one.

In the early 1900s, more than 90 percent of our state’s population was living on farms or in small communities. By 2001, that number had dwindled to 20 percent, with one percent living on farms and 19 percent living in rural areas.

To ensure that rural Texans do not become forgotten Texans, during the time between sessions, the Senate Committee on International Relations and Trade is reviewing state and local policies relating to development and growth in rural and unincorporated regions of the state.

While much of the committee’s work will focus on rural communities along the Texas-Mexico border, many of the challenges faced by border area communities are the same as those confronting rural areas all across Texas, such as the need for healthcare professionals.

The International Relations and Trade Committee, working with the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, will make recommendations to the Legislature when it convenes in January 2009 on ways to recruit primary care providers and long-term care professionals in the border region.

The committee also will review other states’ programs for rural areas to determine if Texas should enact any of their initiatives, such as those that have increased the competitiveness of rural communities, engendered critical development, provided affordable housing and created regional jobs.

Although I do not serve on the International Relations and Trade Committee, I do serve on the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has asked that committee to work with the International Relations and Trade Committee to study and make recommendations to stem the tide of illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and human smuggling, and to reduce the criminal activities within the border region.

As a longtime advocate for the right of counties to regulate rural subdivisions, I am vitally interested in another of the committee’s charges.

The lieutenant governor asked the committee to work with housing advocates, county organizations and appropriate officials to assess the proliferation of substandard housing in rural and unincorporated areas.

The vast majority of rural subdivisions, some of which seemingly spring up overnight, provide homebuyers with good roads, drainage and water and sewer access. Some projects, however, fail to meet even reasonable standards.

Although I have authored and sponsored legislation that strengthens the powers of county commissioners’ courts to regulate rural subdivisions, more needs to be done. I will be interested in monitoring this committee’s work to see whether the committee finds ways to ensure that rural subdivisions along the border meet reasonable standards.

If so, those of us who are intent on protecting rural Texans could work together to pass legislation that would impact rural subdivisions not just in the border area, but in the Texas Hill Country and all across the state.

Texas State Sen. Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio) represents District 25, which includes part of Bexar County.