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From concerns about health care and the foreclosure crisis to student loan debt and high speed internet access, U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes, D-NH, in Washington, fielded calls last night from three of the Granite State’s rural counties in a wide-ranging telephone town hall forum.

Residents from Coos, Grafton and Sullivan Counties quizzed Hodes on the national concerns of the recession, as it touches their lives. He sought to assure them over the course of the hour-long forum that he’s working on securing stability for the region, especially the North Country.

"New Hampshire families, especially in the North Country, are struggling," he said. "They have lost industries that were once centerpieces of the community that has economically devastated the region."

In his opening remarks, Hodes said creation of the Northern Border Regional Commission last year will provide an investment of $30 million per year for economic development in economically distressed areas of northern New Hampshire, as well as New York, Vermont and Maine.

"We’re working on bringing that funding to start jobs," he said.

Two women, one from Berlin and the other from Claremont, asked Hodes about student loans the debt new graduates carry when they get out of college.

Hodes told the Berlin woman, who is seeking an online degree, that the recently passed economic stimulus package will provide "more help for college loans." To the woman in Claremont, he agreed that the debt is "an unreasonable burden," and said congress has expanded the federal Pell grant program and is looking at ways to ease the burden through public service programs that would exchange tuition for some form of community or military service.

A Goshen woman explained how her town has no cable, no DSL and limited access to mobile broadband. Hodes said that $7.2 billion has been targeted to expand broadband to rural neighborhoods across the country.

"That is essential for bringing jobs to the North Country," he said. "Broadband is the new super highway – it’s as essential as highways are."

A woman in Twin Mountain facing foreclosure in fallout from what she said was a "predatory lender" told Hodes "I don’t know where to turn" as she struggles with trying to save her home.

Hodes said there is a $75 million program designed to help prevent foreclosures and another $200 billion is going to "guarantee institutions for foreclosure relief," but agreed that "we have not seen much to help people deal with foreclosures" or prevent them.

"Hang in there," he said. "We’re doing everything we can to help you."