Rural Housing Service – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document corrects technical errors in the direct final rule that appeared in the Federal Register on February 24, 2015, entitled ``Rural Development RegulationsUpdate to FmHA References and to Census Regulations.''

This Interim Final Rule is needed to ensure that the Agency will have a regulation in place to meet the Congressional mandate established in Congress in the Agricultural Act of 2014 (2014 Farm Bill). This mandate requires the Agency to establish a new program called the Rural Business Development Grant Program which combines the former Rural Business Enterprise Grant and Rural Business Opportunity Grant programs. The Agency has made no substantive changes to either the Rural Business Enterprise Grant or Rural Business Opportunity Grant programs when combining these regulations into the Rural Business Development Grant program. Rural Development, Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) is establishing a new regulation for the Rural Business Development Grant (RBDG) program. The program was established by the 2014 Farm Bill. The RBDG Program will combine the Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG) and the Rural Business Opportunity Grant (RBOG) programs. There are no substantive programmatic changes to RBEG and RBOG with this consolidation.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in fiscal year (FY) 2006 established the demonstration Rural Development Voucher Program (RDVP), as authorized under Section 542 of the Housing Act of 1949 as amended (42 U.S.C. 1490R) (without regard to Section 542(b)). This Notice informs the public of the general policies and procedures for the RDVP for FY 2015. Rural Development Vouchers are only available to low-income tenants of Rural Development (RD)-financed multi-family properties where the Rural Rental Housing loan (Section 515) has been prepaid (either through prepayment or foreclosure action), prior to the loan's maturity date.

Rural Development (RD) is amending its regulations by updating references to the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) and clarifying and updating references to the census data. These actions will provide consistency in terminology between program regulations. In addition, clarifying and updating references to census data is needed to account for changes to the decennial Census, which, starting with the 2010 decennial Census is no longer reporting income and unemployment data. Additional revisions are being implemented to show the regulations that do not apply to the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and to remove outdated or unnecessary language.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Rural Housing Service (RHS), intention to request an extension for a currently approved information collection in support of compliance with Civil Rights laws.

As part of the implementation of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (commonly referred to as the 2014 Farm Bill), USDA Rural Development is hosting a listening session to receive public input about ways USDA can help community colleges form partnerships and get funding for local economic development. The 2014 Farm Bill directs USDA to work with community and technical colleges on a strategy to help them better serve the needs of local rural communities. The listening session will provide an opportunity for stakeholders to voice their comments, concerns or requests regarding this strategy. Instructions to register for and attend the listening session are in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this notice.

USDA Rural Development, which administers the programs of the Rural Housing Service (Agency), announces the availability of $20 million in budget authority and the timeframe to submit applications to participate in a demonstration program to preserve and revitalize existing Rural Rental Housing (RRH) projects under Section 515, Section 514, and Section 516 of the Housing Act of 1949, as amended. Under the demonstration program, existing Section 515 Multi-Family Housing (MFH) loans and Sections 514/516 Off-Farm Labor Housing (FLH) loans will be restructured to ensure that sufficient resources are available to preserve the ability of rental projects to provide safe and affordable housing for very low-, low-, or moderate-income residents. Projects participating in this program will be expected to be revitalized to extend their affordable use without displacing tenants because of increased rents. No additional Agency Rental Assistance (RA) units will be made available under this program.

Rural Development (RD) is amending the regulations so that an obligation date for all guaranteed loans, direct loans, and grants will no longer be 6 working days from the date of request for reservation of authority. This action is necessary as the 6-day reservation period will be permanently removed from the Commercial Loan Servicing System (CLSS), Guaranteed Loan System (GLS), and Program Loan Accounting System (PLAS). The effect of this action will reduce system or manual intervention when legislative mandates direct cutoff for obligations and/or funding; eliminate program waivers on obligation date; increase consistency with other RD programs; reduce risks with new system implementations, such as the Financial Modernization Management Initiative; and eliminate numerous reconciliation issues between processed obligations and actual obligations for internal RD reports and USDA reporting requirements.

On December 9, 2013, the Rural Housing Service (RHS) published an interim final rule concerning the streamlining and reengineering its Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program. The effective date was listed as September 1, 2014 and is being deferred to December 1, 2014.

Through this action, the Rural Housing Service (RHS) is proposing to amend its regulation to change the requirements of the Reserve Account for the Section 515 Rural Rental Housing (RRH) program. The intended effect of this action is to address the reserve account requirement of an Agency countersignature with the borrower when a Section 538 guaranteed loan is involved, and to also clarify that reserve account funds cannot be used to pay for fees associated with the Section 538 guaranteed loan program.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the above-named Agencies to request an extension for the currently approved information collection in support of the servicing of Community and Direct Business Programs Loans and Grants.

This Notice announces the timeframe to submit pre-applications for Section 514 Farm Labor Housing (FLH) loans and Section 516 FLH grants for the construction of new off-farm FLH units and related facilities for domestic farm laborers and for the purchase and substantial rehabilitation of an existing non-FLH property. The intended purpose of these loans and grants is to increase the number of available housing units for domestic farm laborers. This Notice describes the method used to distribute funds, the application process, and submission requirements.

This Notice announces that the Rural Housing Service (``RHS'') is soliciting competitive applications under its Housing Preservation Grant (HPG) program pursuant to 7 CFR part 1944, subpart N, for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014, Public Law 113-76 (January 17, 2014) appropriated funding in FY 2014 for grants made by RHS for low- and very low-income housing repair and rural housing preservation, as authorized by 42 U.S.C. 1474, and 1490m. The commitment of program dollars will be made in the order qualified applications are ranked under this notice.

The Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) proposes to amend its regulations for the Intermediary Relending Program (IRP). This action is needed to address several items based on an Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit: Removing part of the definition of revolved funds to eliminate public confusion on its applicability; providing stronger guidance on items that should be taken into consideration when approving subsequent loans; defining what is meant by promptly relending collections from loans made from the revolving loan fund account; and providing clarification when prior Agency concurrence is needed to make loans. Finally, the Agency is removing provisions for Rural Development Loan Fund (RDLF) servicing as there are no longer any active RDLF.

The Rural Housing Service is amending its regulations for the section 502 direct single family housing loans program by reinstating language pertaining to payment assistance method 1 that was inadvertently changed or omitted when the payment subsidy regulation was revised on December 27, 2007. This action will make clear to the public that under this method, the amount of subsidy granted is the difference between the installment due on the promissory note and the greater of the payment amortized at the equivalent interest rate or the payment calculated based on the required floor payment.

This notice announces a series of teleconference and/or web conference meetings regarding the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Section 538 Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program, which are scheduled to occur during the months of March, July, and November of 2014. This notice also outlines suggested discussion topics for the meetings and is intended to notify the general public of their opportunity to participate in the teleconference and/or web conference meetings.

The Rural Business-Cooperative Service (RBS) is proposing to amend its regulations found in 7 CFR part 1940, subpart L for allocating program funds to its State Offices. RBS is proposing to amend 7 CFR part 1940, subpart L to add three programsthe Rural Energy for America Program, the Value-Added Producer Grant program, and the Intermediary Relending Program. In addition, RBS is proposing revisions to its state allocation formulae for existing programs within 7 CFR part 1940, subpart L to account for changes in data reported by the U.S. Bureau of the Census' decennial Census. RBS is also proposing to make various other changes including: revising the weight percentages associated with each of the allocation criteria; providing flexibility in determining when not to make state allocations for a program; restricting the use of the transition formula and changing the limitations on how much program funds can change when the transition formula is used; adding provisions for making state allocation for other RBS programs, including new ones; and providing consistency, where necessary, in the allocation of RBS program funds to State Offices.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this Notice announces the Rural Housing Service's intention to request an extension for a currently approved information collection in support of the program for the Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing program.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Rural Housing Service's (RHS's) intention to request an extension for a currently approved information collection in support of 7 CFR 3560, Direct Multi-Family Housing Loans and Grants.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the intention of the above-named Agency to request an extension for a currently approved information collection in support of the Community Facilities Grant Program.

On September 23, 2013, the Rural Housing Service (RHS) Single Family Housing Direct Program published a Notice in the Federal Register, ''Notice of Intent To Review Online Homeownership Education Courses for Nationwide Use in the Single Family Housing Section 502 Direct Loan Program'' (78 FR 58272). Through this action, RHS is extending the submission deadline of online homeownership education course packages for National Office approval to December 31, 2013.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Rural Housing Service's intention to request an extension for a currently approved information collection in support of the Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI) grant program.

Effective on May 7, 2007, first-time homebuyers financed under the direct loan program must successfully complete an approved homeownership education course prior to loan closing. 7 CFR Part 3550.11 outlines the order of preference given to courses. First preference is given to classroom, one-on-one counseling, or interactive video conference. These formats are generally extensive and require a significant time and participation commitment from the Agency applicants. Second preference is given to interactive home-study or interactive telephone counseling of at least four hours duration. These formats may only be used if the formats under the first preference are not reasonably available. Third preference, which can only be used if all other formats are not reasonably available, is given to online counseling. It also outlines the requirements an education provider and their course must meet in order to be approved for use by Agency applicants. While approval is generally made by the Agency at the state level, there is currently one nationally approved online education provider. To expand the Agency applicants' access to and options of approved education providers, the Agency will consider approving other online education providers on a national level. Approval will be subject to meeting course criteria, a recommendation by the Agency-selected panel of housing partners, and signoff by the Administrator. Approval will be given as a third preference format unless the education provider is able to demonstrate and document how their online course along with a required supplemented service provides the same level of training and individualized attention as a first or second preference. A notice of education providers approved through this process will be issued via a memorandum to the Rural Development (RD) state offices. The memorandum will list the format preference assigned to each provider. A copy of the memorandum will be simultaneously emailed to all education providers who applied through this notice. Approvals are not subject to expiration. However, an approval may be revoked for justifiable cause.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35, as amended), the Rural Housing Service (RHS) invites comments on this information collection for which approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be requested. The intention is to request a revision for a currently approved information collection in support of the program for 7 CFR Part 1927-B, Real Estate Title Clearance and Loan Closing.

The Rural Housing Service is correcting a notice published on August 14, 2013, (78 FR 49460-49467). This action is taken to correct two ``submission deadline'' dates.