Rural Utilities Service August 3, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents
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Community Connect Broadband Grant Program
The Rural Utilities Service, an agency delivering the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Utilities Program, hereinafter referred to as Rural Development and/or the Agency, is issuing proposed regulations to amend its Community-Oriented Connectivity Broadband Grant Program (Community Connect Broadband Grant Program). The Agency has determined that expanding the resource materials used to determine community eligibility for the program will result in a larger number of eligible communities. In addition, Rural Development has changed the test for economic hardship, allowing the applicant community's median household income to be compared to that of its state, which is also expected to increase the number of eligible applicants. Lastly, the Agency is proposing to amend its regulations to specify operating expenses which are approved for grant funding. This proposed rule is not applicable to Community Connect grant applications filed for funding during fiscal year 2007. In the Rules and Regulations section of this Federal Register, the Agency is publishing this action as a direct final rule without prior proposal because the Agency views this as a non-controversial action and anticipates no adverse comments. If no adverse comments are received in response to the direct final rule, no further action will be taken on this proposed rule and the action will become effective at the time specified in the direct final rule. If the Agency receives adverse comments, a timely document will be published in the Federal Register and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule on this action.
Community Connect Broadband Grant Program
The Rural Utilities Service, an agency delivering the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Utilities Program, hereinafter referred to as Rural Development and/or the Agency, amends its regulations for the Community-Oriented Connectivity Broadband Grant Program (Community Connect Grant Program). Since the inception of the Community Connect Grant Program, the Agency has faced the challenge of identifying eligible rural communities. The Agency has reviewed its method of identifying eligible communities and has determined that modifications to the program regulations are required in order to expand the resource material used to identify eligible communities. The use of additional resources should increase the number of communities eligible for grant funding. Additionally, the Agency has changed the test for economic hardship. The current regulations compare an applicant community's per capita personal income to the national per capita personal income. Because of the varying costs of living among the states, it was determined that a better measure of economic distress would be a comparison of the applicant community's median household income to that of its state. This change is also expected to increase the number of eligible grant applicants. Lastly, this rule amends the current regulations by specifying operating expenses which the Agency has approved for grant funding. These changes have been determined to be non controversial and are being enacted as a direct final rule. This rule is not applicable to Community Connect grant applications filed for funding during fiscal year 2007.
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