| 1 | 1 | | I |
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| 2 | 2 | | 119THCONGRESS |
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| 3 | 3 | | 1 |
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| 4 | 4 | | STSESSION H. R. 1951 |
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| 5 | 5 | | To amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to reauthorize |
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| 6 | 6 | | rural cooperative development grants. |
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| 7 | 7 | | IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
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| 8 | 8 | | MARCH6, 2025 |
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| 9 | 9 | | Mr. R |
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| 10 | 10 | | ILEYof New York (for himself and Mr. VALADAO) introduced the |
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| 11 | 11 | | following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture |
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| 12 | 12 | | A BILL |
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| 13 | 13 | | To amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development |
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| 14 | 14 | | Act to reauthorize rural cooperative development grants. |
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| 15 | 15 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 |
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| 16 | 16 | | tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 |
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| 17 | 17 | | SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 |
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| 18 | 18 | | This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strengthening Rural 4 |
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| 19 | 19 | | Cooperatives and Communities Act’’. 5 |
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| 20 | 20 | | SEC. 2. REAUTHORIZATION OF RURAL COOPERATIVE DE-6 |
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| 21 | 21 | | VELOPMENT GRANTS. 7 |
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| 22 | 22 | | Section 310B(e) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural 8 |
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| 23 | 23 | | Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1932(e)) is amended— 9 |
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| 24 | 24 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:10 Mar 21, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1951.IH H1951 |
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| 25 | 25 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 |
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| 26 | 26 | | •HR 1951 IH |
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| 27 | 27 | | (1) in paragraph (1), by adding at the end the 1 |
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| 28 | 28 | | following: 2 |
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| 29 | 29 | | ‘‘(C) C |
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| 30 | 30 | | OOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT .—The 3 |
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| 31 | 31 | | term ‘cooperative development’ means activities 4 |
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| 32 | 32 | | including outreach, education, training, and 5 |
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| 33 | 33 | | technical assistance, to support the startup, ex-6 |
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| 34 | 34 | | pansion, or ongoing sustainability of new and 7 |
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| 35 | 35 | | existing cooperatives.’’; 8 |
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| 36 | 36 | | (2) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘, and award 9 |
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| 37 | 37 | | maximum points in scoring criteria to applicants 10 |
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| 38 | 38 | | that satisfy the requirements of paragraph (5)(F),’’ 11 |
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| 39 | 39 | | before ‘‘if the plan’’; 12 |
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| 40 | 40 | | (3) in paragraph (5), by striking subparagraph 13 |
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| 41 | 41 | | (D) and inserting the following: 14 |
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| 42 | 42 | | ‘‘(D) commit to providing technical assist-15 |
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| 43 | 43 | | ance and other services to socially vulnerable, 16 |
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| 44 | 44 | | underserved, or distressed communities;’’; 17 |
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| 45 | 45 | | (4) in paragraph (6)(B), by striking ‘‘If the 18 |
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| 46 | 46 | | Secretary determines it to be in the best interest of 19 |
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| 47 | 47 | | the program, the’’ and inserting ‘‘The’’; 20 |
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| 48 | 48 | | (5) in paragraph (10), by adding at the end the 21 |
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| 49 | 49 | | following: ‘‘The Secretary shall analyze the data re-22 |
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| 50 | 50 | | sulting from the research, and include the data and 23 |
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| 51 | 51 | | the analysis in the annual report submitted by the 24 |
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| 52 | 52 | | interagency working group under paragraph (12).’’; 25 |
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| 53 | 53 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:10 Mar 21, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1951.IH H1951 |
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| 54 | 54 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 |
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| 55 | 55 | | •HR 1951 IH |
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| 56 | 56 | | (6) in paragraph (12), by adding at the end the 1 |
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| 57 | 57 | | following: ‘‘Not later than 180 days after the date 2 |
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| 58 | 58 | | of the enactment of this sentence and annually 3 |
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| 59 | 59 | | thereafter, the interagency working group shall sub-4 |
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| 60 | 60 | | mit to the Congress a report describing the activities 5 |
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| 61 | 61 | | carried out by the working group.’’; and 6 |
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| 62 | 62 | | (7) in paragraph (13), by striking ‘‘2014 7 |
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| 63 | 63 | | through 2023’’ and inserting ‘‘2025 through 2029’’. 8 |
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| 64 | 64 | | Æ |
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| 65 | 65 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:10 Mar 21, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1951.IH H1951 |
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| 66 | 66 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB |
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