House Subcommittee Presses USDA for Definition of ‘Rural’
Democrats and Republicans on the House Subcommittee on Rural Development pressed Agriculture Department officials to publish a study on how they're defining “rural” for the purposes of their grants and loans programs, including the broadband loan program. “This report was due two years after enactment of the Farm Bill, yet we still have not received the report,” subcommittee Chairman Tim Johnson, R-Ill., said at a hearing Tuesday. The bill was enacted May 22, 2008. “I hope that USDA can provide an explanation this morning for why this report is still not finished and how long it is expected to be delayed,” Johnson said.
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Ranking Democrat Jim Costa of California said residents in his district don’t qualify for loans and grants because of confusion over definitions. Testifying for Agriculture were Rural Utilities Services Administrator Jonathan Adelstein, Rural Business and Cooperative Services Administrator Judith Canales and Rural Housing Services Administrator Tammye Trevino.
All three agencies use different definitions, and “a draft” of the mandated report is circulating, Canales said. She couldn’t offer a date certain. Costa said “your response was nice. But it was filled with bureaucratese.”
Johnson, who has scheduled a field hearing on broadband loans in his home state later this month, said it was frustrating, but gave Agriculture until the end of the week to come up with a delivery date for the report. “This is a linchpin to a lot of programs,” he said.
Much of the hearing was spent on the broadband loans programs. Adelstein fielded questions from Democrats and Republicans. Rep Austin Scott, R-Ga., for instance, said he was worried about “overbuilding” -- providing loans to companies for areas that already have broadband access. Adelstein acknowledged that there may be “overlap,” because “broadband doesn’t follow a neat line.”
Adelstein said the program has been “streamlined” and is working well. “Our goal is to get broadband to the most rural, remote areas,” he said: It’s being done “at no cost to the taxpayer because they pay us back and our default rate is very low."
Rural Cellular Association CEO Steve Berry said he was gratified to hear that Congress was pressing the question of what’s rural. The definition of rural is “important” because it “could determine what types of technologies, wireline or wireless, can access the funds,” he told us. “Until we understand the RUS definition and how they intend to implement it, it will be very difficult to predict its impact. Whatever definition they use, I hope it’s forward looking and will ensure the funds could be accessible by wireless technology.”