Title: Expanded SUTA Act of 2018
Policy area: Agriculture and Food

Summary:
Expanded SUTA Act of 2018
This bill amends the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to expand the Department Agriculture (USDA) Substantially Underserved Trust Area (SUTA) authority to: (1) include all programs administered by the USDA rural development mission area, and (2) specify that USDA may use the authority for certain communities within former Indian reservations.
(Under current law, the SUTA authority is limited to certain programs administered by the USDA Rural Utilities Service. The authority permits USDA to modify or waive certain requirements and procedures for loans and grants in order to improve the availability of programs in communities on trust land [e.g., land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans] that have a high need for the benefits of an eligible program.)

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3104 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3104

To amend the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to expand substantially 
 underserved trust area authority to all rural development programs of 
                     the Department of Agriculture.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 21, 2018

  Mr. Tester (for himself and Ms. Heitkamp) introduced the following 
      bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                  Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to expand substantially 
 underserved trust area authority to all rural development programs of 
                     the Department of Agriculture.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Expanded SUTA Act of 2018''.

SEC. 2. EXPANSION AND CLARIFICATION OF EXISTING AUTHORITY.

    Section 306F of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 (7 U.S.C. 
936f) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``Rural Utilities 
                Service'' in the matter preceding subparagraph (A) and 
                all that follows through the period at the end of 
                subparagraph (B) and inserting ``rural development 
                mission area.''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ``, including a 
                community within any former Indian reservation,'' 
                before ``with respect to which''; and
            (2) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``Rural Utilities 
                Service to qualified utilities or applicants'' and 
                inserting ``rural development mission area to qualified 
                applicants''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``Rural Utilities 
                Service to facilitate the construction, acquisition, or 
                improvement of infrastructure'' and inserting ``rural 
                development mission area''.
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