Rural Housing Service September 14, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Rural Development, a mission area within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proposing a unified guaranteed loan platform for enhanced delivery of four existing Rural Development guaranteed loan programsCommunity Facility; Water and Waste Disposal; Business and Industry; and Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvement Projects. This proposed rule would eliminate the existing loan guarantee regulations for these four programs and consolidate them under a new, single part. In addition to consolidating these four programs, the proposed rulemaking incorporates provisions that will enable the Agency to better manage the risk associated with making and servicing guaranteed loans and that will reduce the cost of operating the guaranteed loan programs. Such provisions include incorporating specific project eligibility criteria, revisions to the requirements for lenders to participate in the programs, allowing approved lenders to become preferred lenders, and allowing guaranteed loan applications to be submitted with less documentation accompanying the application under certain conditions.