II

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1127

To establish a rural community service program, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JUNE 17 (legislative day, JUNE 15), 1993

Mr. MCCONNELL introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

referred to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources

A BILL

To establish a rural community service program, and for

other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. RURAL COMMUNITY SERVICE.

4 Title XI of the of the Higher Education Act of 1965

5 (20 U.S.C. 1136 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end

6 the following new part:

7 ‘‘PART C—RURAL COMMUNITY SERVICE

8 ‘‘SEC. 1171. FINDINGS; PURPOSE.

9 ‘‘(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—

10 ‘‘(1) the Nation’s rural centers are facing in11 creasingly pressing problems and needs in the areas
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1 of economic development, community infrastructure

2 and service, social policy, public health, housing,

3 crime, education, environmental concerns, planning

4 and work force preparation;

5 ‘‘(2) there are, in the Nation’s rural institu6 tions, people with underutilized skills, knowledge,

7 and experience who are capable of providing a vast

8 range of services towards the amelioration of the

9 problems described in paragraph (1);

10 ‘‘(3) the skills, knowledge, and experience in

11 these rural institutions, if applied in a systematic

12 and sustained manner, can make a significant con13 tribution to the solution of such problems; and

14 ‘‘(4) the application of such skills, knowledge,

15 and experience is hindered by the limited funds

16 available to redirect attention to solutions to such

17 rural problems.

18 ‘‘(b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this part to pro19 vide incentives to rural academic institutions to enable

20 such institutions to work with private and civic organiza21 tions to devise and implement solutions to pressing and

22 severe problems in their communities.

23 ‘‘SEC. 1172. PROGRAM.

24 ‘‘The Secretary is authorized to carry out a program

25 of providing assistance to eligible institutions to enable
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1 such institutions to carry out the authorized activities de2 scribed in section 1174 in accordance with the provisions

3 of this part.

4 ‘‘SEC. 1173. APPLICATIONS FOR RURAL COMMUNITY SERV5 ICE GRANTS.

6 ‘‘(a) APPLICATION.—

7 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each eligible institution de8 siring a grant under this part shall submit to the

9 Secretary an application at such time, in such form,

10 and containing or accompanied by such information

11 and assurances, as the Secretary may require by

12 regulation.

13 ‘‘(2) CONTENTS.—Each application submitted

14 pursuant to paragraph (1) shall—

15 ‘‘(A) describe the activities and services for

16 which assistance is sought; and

17 ‘‘(B) contain assurances that the eligible

18 institution will enter into a consortium to carry

19 out the provisions of this part that includes, in

20 addition to the eligible institution, one or more

21 of the following entities:

22 ‘‘(i) A community college.

23 ‘‘(ii) A rural local educational agency.

24 ‘‘(iii) A local government.

25 ‘‘(iv) A business or other employer.
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1 ‘‘(v) A nonprofit institution.

2 ‘‘(3) WAIVER.—The Secretary may waive the

3 consortium requirements described in paragraph (2)

4 for any applicant who can demonstrate to the satis5 faction of the Secretary that the applicant has de6 vised an integrated and coordinated plan which

7 meets the purpose of this part.

8 ‘‘(b) PRIORITY IN SELECTION OF APPLICATIONS.—

9 The Secretary shall give priority to applications that pro10 pose to conduct joint projects supported by other local,

11 State, and Federal programs.

12 ‘‘(c) SELECTION PROCEDURES.—The Secretary, by

13 regulation, shall develop a formal procedure for the sub14 mission of applications under this part and shall publish

15 in the Federal Register an announcement of that proce16 dure and the availability of funds under this part.

17 ‘‘SEC. 1174. AUTHORIZED ACTIVITIES.

18 ‘‘Grant funds made available under this part shall be

19 used to support planning, applied research, training, re20 source exchanges or technology transfers, the delivery of

21 services, or other activities the purpose of which is to de22 sign and implement programs to assist rural communities

23 to meet and address their pressing and severe problems,

24 such as any of the following:

25 ‘‘(1) Work force preparation.
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1 ‘‘(2) Rural poverty and the alleviation of such

2 poverty.

3 ‘‘(3) Health care, including health care delivery

4 and access as well as health education, prevention

5 and wellness.

6 ‘‘(4) Underperforming school systems and stu7 dents.

8 ‘‘(5) Problems faced by the elderly and individ9 uals with disabilities in rural settings.

10 ‘‘(6) Problems faced by families and children.

11 ‘‘(7) Campus and community crime prevention,

12 including enhanced security and safety awareness

13 measures as well as coordinated programs address14 ing the root causes of crime.

15 ‘‘(8) Rural housing.

16 ‘‘(9) Rural infrastructure.

17 ‘‘(10) Economic development.

18 ‘‘(11) Rural farming and environmental con19 cerns.

20 ‘‘(12) Other problem areas which participants

21 in the consortium described in section 1173(a)(2)(B)

22 concur are of high priority in rural areas.

23 ‘‘(13)(A) Problems faced by individuals with

24 disabilities and economically disadvantaged individ25 uals regarding accessibility to institutions of higher
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1 education and other public and private community

2 facilities.

3 ‘‘(B) Amelioration of existing attitudinal bar4 riers that prevent full inclusion of individuals with

5 disabilities in their community.

6 ‘‘SEC. 1175. PEER REVIEW.

7 ‘‘The Secretary shall designate a peer review panel

8 to review applications submitted under this part and make

9 recommendations for funding to the Secretary. In select10 ing the peer review panel, the Secretary may consult with

11 other appropriate Cabinet-level Federal officials and with

12 non-Federal organizations, to ensure that the panel will

13 be geographically balanced and be composed of representa14 tives from public and private institutions of higher edu15 cation, labor, business, and State and local government,

16 who have expertise in rural community service or in edu17 cation.

18 ‘‘SEC. 1176. DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS.

19 ‘‘(a) MULTIYEAR AVAILABILITY.—Subject to the

20 availability of appropriations, grants under this part may

21 be made on a multiyear basis, except that no institution,

22 individually or as a participant in a consortium, may re23 ceive a grant for more than 5 years.

24 ‘‘(b) EQUITABLE GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION.—The

25 Secretary shall award grants under this part in a manner
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1 that achieves equitable geographic distribution of such

2 grants.

3 ‘‘(c) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.—An applicant under

4 this part and the local governments associated with its ap5 plication shall contribute to the conduct of the program

6 supported by the grant an amount from non-Federal funds

7 equal to at least one-fourth of the amount grant, which

8 contribution may be in cash or in kind, fairly evaluated.

9 ‘‘SEC. 1177. DESIGNATION OF RURAL GRANT INSTITUTIONS.

10 ‘‘The Secretary shall publish a list of eligible institu11 tions under this part and shall designate such institutions

12 of higher education as ‘Rural Grant Institutions’. The

13 Secretary shall establish a national network of Rural

14 Grant Institutions so that the results of individual projects

15 achieved in 1 rural area can be generalized, disseminated,

16 replicated and applied throughout the Nation.

17 ‘‘SEC. 1178. DEFINITIONS.

18 ‘‘As used in this part:

19 ‘‘(1) RURAL AREA.—The term ‘rural area’

20 means any area that is—

21 ‘‘(A) outside an urbanized area, as such

22 term is defined by the Bureau of the Census;

23 and

24 ‘‘(B) outside any place that—
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1 ‘‘(i) is incorporated or Bureau of the

2 Census designated; and

3 ‘‘(ii) has a population of 75,000 or

4 more.

5 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE INSTITUTION.—The term ‘eligi6 ble institution’ means an institution of higher edu7 cation, or a consortium of such institutions any one

8 of which meets all the requirements of this para9 graph, which—

10 ‘‘(A) is located in a rural area;

11 ‘‘(B) draws a substantial portion of its un12 dergraduate students from the rural area in

13 which such institution is located, or from con14 tiguous areas;

15 ‘‘(C) carries out programs to make post16 secondary educational opportunities more acces17 sible to residents of such rural areas, or contig18 uous areas;

19 ‘‘(D) has the present capacity to provide

20 resources responsive to the needs and priorities

21 of such rural areas and contiguous areas;

22 ‘‘(E) offers a range of professional, tech23 nical, or graduate programs sufficient to sus24 tain the capacity of such institution to provide

25 such resources; and
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1 ‘‘(F) has demonstrated and sustained a

2 sense of responsibility to such rural area and

3 contiguous areas and the people of such areas.

4 ‘‘SEC. 1179. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS; FUND5 ING RULE.

6 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be ap7 propriated such sums as may be necessary in each fiscal

8 year to carry out the provisions of this part.

9 ‘‘(b) FUNDING RULE.—If in any fiscal year the

10 amount appropriated pursuant to the authority of sub11 section (a) is less than 50 percent of the funds appro12 priated to carry out part A in such year, then the Sec13 retary shall make available in such year from funds appro14 priated to carry out part A an amount equal to the dif15 ference between 50 percent of the funds appropriated to

16 carry out part A and the amount appropriated pursuant

17 to the authority of subsection (a).’’.

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