Rural Housing Service February 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Rural Housing Service is delaying implementation of selected sections of the interim final rule published on November 26, 2004 (69 FR 69032-69176). The interim final rule contains requirements regarding citizenship eligibility about which the Agency received several comments. The comments suggested that Agency procedures unnecessarily imposed more requirements than those required under the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) procedures for similar programs. As a result the Agency has decided to delay implementation of the sections listed below in order to harmonize its procedures with HUD under 42 U.S.C. 1436a.

The Rural Housing Service (RHS) is correcting a notice published October 27, 2004 (69 FR 62639-62648). This action is taken to correct the program requirement and eligibility criteria for the location of the low-income rural community office that will be receiving the financial and technical assistance. This correction provides clarification to applicants on how to determine 80 percent of the median household income for a low-income community location. This correction also extends the application deadline date from January 25, 2005, to February 25, 2005. Accordingly, the notice published October 27, 2004 (69 FR 62639- 62648), is corrected as follows: On page 62640, in the second column, under the heading Program Requirements, number 1 should read: ``1. The recipient and beneficiary, but not the intermediary must be located in an eligible rural area. The location of the low-income rural community office that will be receiving the financial and technical assistance must be in a community with a median household income at or below, 80 percent of the State or national median household income. The applicable Rural Development State Office can assist in determining the eligibility of an area. A listing of Rural Development State Offices is included in this Notice.'' On page 62640, in the third column, under the heading Program Requirements, number 3 should read: ``3. Documentation must be submitted to verify recipient eligibility. Acceptable documentation varies depending on the type of recipient: Private nonprofit community- based housing and development organizations must provide a letter confirming its tax-exempt status from the IRS, a certificate of incorporation and good standing from the Secretary of State, or other similar and valid documentation of nonprofit status; for low-income rural community recipients, the Agency requires: (a) evidence the entity is a public body, and (b) census data verifying that the median household income of the community where the office receiving the financial and technical assistance is located is at, or below, 80 percent of the State or national median household income; for federally recognized tribes, the Agency needs the page listing their name from the current Federal Register list of tribal entities recognized and eligible for funding services (see the definition of federally recognized tribes for details on this list).'' On page 62639, in the second column, under the heading Dates paragraph should read: ``The deadline for receipt of an application is 4 p.m. eastern time February 25, 2005. The application date and time are firm. The Agency will not consider any application received after the deadline.'' On page 62642, in the third column, under the heading Submission Dates and Times the second paragraph should read: ``The deadline for receipt of an application is 4 p.m. eastern time on February 25, 2005. The application deadline date and hour are firm and apply to submission of the original application to the National Office in Washington, DC. The Agency will not consider any application received after the deadline. A listing of Rural Development State Offices, their addresses, telephone numbers, and person to contact is provided elsewhere in this Notice.''