Six Years BEHING THE CURVE FROM 2018 FARM BILL. RURAL DEVELOPMENT MODERNIZATION ACT

 RURAL DEVELOPMENT MODERNIZATION ACT

The Rural Development Modernization Act builds upon efforts in the 2018 Farm Bill to expand opportunities for rural communities to access vital federal development programs. The COVID-19 pandemic led to population shifts across the United States, with many Americans moving to seek the benefits offered by living in small towns and rural communities.

Since 1950, the population of the United States has more than doubled, increasing by more than 120 percent, according to United States Census Bureau estimates. Eligibility for many federal rural development programs has not changed to recognize this growth, which occurs in rural and urban areas alike. Such rural communities still struggle to qualify and have access to basic resources such as clean drinking water and affordable housing, yet despite being rural, these communities are excluded from assistance due to outdated federal definitions. This bill addresses such barriers by increasing population thresholds for the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Development programs, ranging from rural broadband to rural water to rural housing.

The Rural Development Modernization Act does the following:

Broadband, Telemedicine, and Distance Learning

•Increases population thresholds for USDA’s rural broadband, telemedicine, and distance learning programs to 50,000 residents. This would exclude prisoners and on-base military personnel and their dependents.

•Adjusts the base population for the ratio determining federal funding allocations under programs authorized under Rural Electrification Act of 2,500 to 10,000 residents.

•Increases the Population threshold for USDA’s telephone service loan program from 5,000 to 50,000 residents.

Water, Wastewater, and Essential Community Facilities Loans

•Adjusts the set-aside for loans under the USDA’s water, wastewater, and essential community facilities from 20,000 to 30,000.

•Increases population thresholds for USDA’s Emergency and Imminent Community Water assistance grants from 10,000 to 50,000 residents.

•Adjusts the set-aside for small communities from 3,000 to 10,000, which is the baseline for other USDA Rural Development Programs.

Rural Housing

•Adjusts the set-asides for USDA’s rural housing programs to align with adjusted population baselines increases.

•Updates the population threshold to 50,000 for USDA’s rural housing program, excluding prisoners and on-base military personnel and their dependents. Additionally removes the 1,500 resident cap.

Rural Water Supply Projects

•Updates population threshold to 50,000 for USDA’s water, wastewater, and essential community facilities to make it consistent with all USDA rural development programs, excluding prisoners and on-base military personnel and their dependents.

•Requires USDA to exclude prisoners and on-base military personnel and their dependents when making determinations about whether a community is “rural in character.”

•Excludes prisoners and on-base military personnel and their dependents form the population threshold for rural water supply projects, to make it consistent with the exclusion under all USDA rural development programs.

•Clarifying amendments adding all rural water and rural water supply projects authorized under subsequent federal laws.

Energy Programs

•Updates the population threshold for U.S. Department of Energy rural community programs to make it consistent with the 50,000 threshold for all USDA rural development programs, excluding prisoners and on-base military personnel and their dependents.

Clarifying Qualification for United States Territories and Freely Associated States and technical corrections

•Emphasizes and clarifies qualification of programs for United States Territories and Freely Associated States for:

oUSDA’s rural broadband, telemedicine, and distance learning programs 

oUSDA’s community connect grants

oIncludes Northern Mariana Island eligibility for USDA’s rural Cooperative development grants. All other U.S. territories are eligible under current law.

•Removes antiquated references to pre-statehood Alaska and Hawaii (1959) and to the former United Nations’ Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which has not existed since 1994