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This bill renews a federal grant program that helps rural cooperatives get started, grow, and stay strong. These grants support groups that provide training, outreach, education, and technical help to cooperatives in rural areas. The bill also puts more focus on helping socially vulnerable, underserved, and distressed communities, and it requires better reporting on how the program is working.
- It updates the law to define “cooperative development” as outreach, education, training, and technical assistance that support new and existing cooperatives.
- It tells the Agriculture Department to give strong priority in grant scoring to applicants that meet certain service requirements.
- It requires grant recipients to commit to serving socially vulnerable, underserved, or distressed communities.
- It extends the grant program through 2029 and requires regular reports to Congress, including an annual report from the interagency working group and analysis of research data.
Official Summaries
Strengthening Rural Cooperatives and Communities Act
This bill reauthorizes through FY2029 and modifies the Rural Cooperative Development Grant (RCDG) Program. This Department of Agriculture (USDA) program provides grants to nonprofit institutions to help individuals and businesses start, expand, or improve rural cooperatives and other mutually-owned businesses through Rural Cooperative Development Centers.
USDA must give preference to grants that commit to providing technical assistance and other services to socially vulnerable, underserved, or distressed communities. Under current law, USDA must give preference to underserved and economically distressed areas in rural areas.
In addition, USDA may give an additional preference to applications that commit to providing a 25% matching contribution for the center with private funds and in-kind contributions. Specifically, USDA may award the maximum points in application scoring criteria to applicants that satisfy this requirement.
Under the bill, cooperative development includes activities (e.g., outreach, education, training, and technical assistance) to support the startup, expansion, or ongoing sustainability of new and existing cooperatives. Current law does not define cooperative development.
The bill directs the RCDG interagency working group to submit an annual report to Congress on its activities.
Finally, the program currently includes cooperative research program requirements to collect data on the effects of all types of cooperatives on the national economy. Under the bill, USDA must analyze the data resulting from the research and include the data and analysis in the annual report to Congress.
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1951 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1951
To amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to reauthorize
rural cooperative development grants.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 6, 2025
Mr. Riley of New York (for himself and Mr. Valadao) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to reauthorize
rural cooperative development grants.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Strengthening Rural Cooperatives and
Communities Act''.
SEC. 2. REAUTHORIZATION OF RURAL COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT GRANTS.
Section 310B(e) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act
(7 U.S.C. 1932(e)) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (1), by adding at the end the following:
``(C) Cooperative development.--The term
`cooperative development' means activities including
outreach, education, training, and technical
assistance, to support the startup, expansion, or
ongoing sustainability of new and existing
cooperatives.'';
(2) in paragraph (4), by inserting ``, and award maximum
points in scoring criteria to applicants that satisfy the
requirements of paragraph (5)(F),'' before ``if the plan'';
(3) in paragraph (5), by striking subparagraph (D) and
inserting the following:
``(D) commit to providing technical assistance and
other services to socially vulnerable, underserved, or
distressed communities;'';
(4) in paragraph (6)(B), by striking ``If the Secretary
determines it to be in the best interest of the program, the''
and inserting ``The'';
(5) in paragraph (10), by adding at the end the following:
``The Secretary shall analyze the data resulting from the
research, and include the data and the analysis in the annual
report submitted by the interagency working group under
paragraph (12).'';
(6) in paragraph (12), by adding at the end the following:
``Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of
this sentence and annually thereafter, the interagency working
group shall submit to the Congress a report describing the
activities carried out by the working group.''; and
(7) in paragraph (13), by striking ``2014 through 2023''
and inserting ``2025 through 2029''.
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