Rural Grants Transparency Act
Take action
Record your position on this measure.
Create an account to take a stance, submit a written position, or contact your legislator.
Progress
Where this bill stands in the legislative process.
- Introduced
- Passed House
- Passed Senate
- To President
- Became Law
Overview
The Rural Grants Transparency Act aims to improve how the Department of Agriculture distributes grant money to rural communities. It requires the Secretary of Agriculture to create and maintain a publicly accessible roadmap for each covered grant program, outlining application requirements, evaluation criteria, and common reasons for denial. The bill also mandates standardized notifications to applicants regarding their application status and provides for a searchable database of grant awards, promoting greater transparency and accountability in the grant process.
Key provisions
- Development and publication of a ‘Rural Grant Transparency Roadmap’ for each covered program.
- Provision of standardized notifications to applicants regarding application status.
- Creation of a publicly accessible database of grant awards.
- Publication of scoring criteria for competitive grant programs.
- Annual training for State and local USDA offices on grant transparency procedures.
- Requirement for plain-language explanations of evaluation criteria and reasons for denial.
- Quarterly updates to the Roadmap and grant award database.
- Use of existing Department of Agriculture systems for notifications and database maintenance.
Who is affected
- Rural communities
- Small towns and rural nonprofits
- Cooperatives
- Persistent-poverty counties and parishes
- Applicants for Department of Agriculture grant programs
Bill text
Read the latest version inline or switch to a previous version.
Text extraction is in progress. View the official source.
Sponsors
Official sponsors from legislative records.
2 on record
Primary sponsor
Cosponsor
Arguments
Reasons offered for and against this legislation.
Arguments in favor
No arguments in favor have been submitted.
Submit yoursArguments opposed
No arguments opposed have been submitted.
Submit yours