Strengthening Rural Cooperatives and Communities Act
The Strengthening Rural Cooperatives and Communities Act would reauthorize and expand the rural cooperative development grants program under the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act. It broadens the scope of “cooperative development” to explicitly include outreach, education, training, and technical assistance aimed at starting new cooperatives, expanding existing ones, or ensuring their ongoing sustainability. The bill also strengthens commitments to serve socially vulnerable, underserved, or distressed communities and introduces additional reporting and data analysis requirements to improve oversight and accountability. Key administrative changes include adjustments to grant scoring to reward applicants meeting certain criteria, a clarified program provision, and a new set of interagency reporting duties. The authorization period for the program would be extended to cover 2025 through 2029. Overall, the bill seeks to deepen federal support for rural co-ops and ensure a more data-driven, transparent approach to grant funding and cooperative development.
Key Points
- 1Defines cooperative development as outreach, education, training, and technical assistance to support the startup, expansion, or ongoing sustainability of new and existing cooperatives.
- 2Adds a scoring preference: grant applications that meet the requirements of a specified paragraph (5)(F) can earn maximum points.
- 3Requires recipients to commit to providing technical assistance and other services to socially vulnerable, underserved, or distressed communities.
- 4Clarifies program language in the 6(B) provision, removing ambiguity about discretionary language and making the text more direct.
- 5Requires the Secretary to analyze data from related research and include that data and analysis in the annual report of the interagency working group (under paragraph 12).
- 6Establishes a new reporting obligation: the interagency working group must report to Congress not later than 180 days after enactment and annually thereafter describing its activities.
- 7Extends the reauthorization window from 2014–2023 to 2025–2029.