I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3538 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for new markets 

tax credit investments in the Rural Jobs Zone. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 27, 2019 

Ms. SEWELL of Alabama (for herself and Mr. SMITH of Missouri) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide 

for new markets tax credit investments in the Rural 

Jobs Zone. 

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rural Jobs Act’’. 

5 SEC. 2. ALLOCATIONS OF NEW MARKETS TAX CREDIT LIMI6 TATION FOR RURAL JOBS ZONE. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 45D(f) of the Internal 

8 Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end 

9 the following new paragraph: 


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1 ‘‘(4) ALLOCATIONS FOR THE RURAL JOBS

2 ZONE.— 

3 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In addition to any 

4 new markets tax credit limitation under para5 graph (1), there are the following amounts of 

6 new markets tax credit limitation which shall be 

7 allocated by the Secretary only to Rural Jobs 

8 Zone development entities for making Rural 

9 Jobs Zone equity investments: 

10 ‘‘(i) $500,000,000 for 2019. 

11 ‘‘(ii) $500,000,000 for 2020. 

12 ‘‘(B) RURAL JOBS ZONE DEVELOPMENT

13 ENTITY.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 

14 term ‘Rural Jobs Zone development entity’ 

15 means any qualified community development 

16 entity a significant mission of which is the eco17 nomic development of, and the creation and re18 tention of jobs in, the Rural Jobs Zone. 

19 ‘‘(C) RURAL JOBS ZONE EQUITY INVEST20 MENT.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 

21 term ‘Rural Jobs Zone equity investment’ 

22 means any equity investment which would be a 

23 qualified equity investment if the only low-in24 come community was the Rural Jobs Zone. 


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1 ‘‘(D) RURAL JOBS ZONE.—For purposes of 

2 this paragraph, the term ‘Rural Jobs Zone’ 

3 means the area comprised of low-income com4 munities which are a portion of neither— 

5 ‘‘(i) a city or town that has a popu6 lation of greater than 50,000 inhabitants, 

7 nor 

8 ‘‘(ii) any urbanized area contiguous 

9 and adjacent to such a city or town. 

10 ‘‘(E) MINIMUM INVESTMENT IN PER11 SISTENT POVERTY COUNTIES AND HIGH MIGRA12 TION RURAL COUNTIES.— 

13 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary 

14 shall prescribe regulations or other guid15 ance pursuant to which not less than 25 

16 percent of the Rural Jobs Zone equity in17 vestments made pursuant to allocations 

18 made under this paragraph are invested in 

19 areas which are persistent poverty coun20 ties, high migration rural counties (as de21 fined in subsection (e)(5)(B)), or both. 

22 ‘‘(ii) PERSISTENT POVERTY COUN23 TIES.—For purposes of this subparagraph, 

24 the term ‘persistent poverty county’ means 

25 any county that has had 20 percent or 


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1 more of its population living in poverty 

2 over the past 30 years, as measured by the 

3 1990 and 2000 decennial censuses and the 

4 most recent Small Area Income and Pov5 erty Estimates. 

6 ‘‘(F) APPLICATION OF CARRYOVER.—Para7 graph (3) shall be applied separately with re8 spect to the amounts specified in subparagraph 

9 (A).’’. 

10 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

11 this section shall apply to allocations made after the date 

12 of the enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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