HR 1038119th CongressIn Committee

Combating Rural Inflation Act

Introduced: Feb 5, 2025

Standard Summary

Comprehensive overview in 1-2 paragraphs

The Combating Rural Inflation Act would require the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to create and publish a new monthly index called the Consumer Price Index for Rural Consumers (CPI for Rural Consumers). Beginning with January 2026, this index would track how expenditures for goods and services typical for individuals living in rural communities change over time. In short, it adds a rural-specific inflation measure to the federal statistical system, separate from existing CPI series that cover broader urban areas. The bill was introduced in the House on February 5, 2025 (sponsored by Mr. Vasquez, with Mr. Fitzpatrick as a co-sponsor) and referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce.

Key Points

1Creates a new monthly index to measure inflation specifically for rural consumers, named the Consumer Price Index for Rural Consumers.
2The index would be published starting with January 2026 and updated each calendar month.
3Administered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a part of the U.S. Department of Labor.
4The index is defined as reflecting changes over time in expenditures typical for rural individuals, implying a separate basket of goods and services and weighting from other CPI series.
5Short title of the bill is the “Combating Rural Inflation Act”; the bill is in the introducer stage and referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce.

Impact Areas

Primary group/area affected: Rural residents and households, who would have a dedicated inflation measure that reflects their spending patterns.Secondary group/area affected: Federal policymakers, economists, and program planners who use CPI data to inform policy, budgeting, and cost-of-living adjustments; potential influence on programs that rely on inflation indexing.Additional impacts: Possible implications for government benefit programs, wage and contract indexing, and rural economic analysis. The bill does not specify methodology details (e.g., basket composition or update frequency beyond monthly publication), so questions may arise about how the rural basket will be defined and how it will be kept up to date relative to other CPI series.

Generated by gpt-5-nano on Nov 18, 2025