Rural Grants Transparency Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 9101 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 9101 To improve transparency, accessibility, and accountability in the administration of rural development grant programs at the Department of Agriculture, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 2, 2026 Ms. Letlow introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To improve transparency, accessibility, and accountability in the administration of rural development grant programs at the Department of Agriculture, and for other purposes. 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 ``Rural Grants Transparency Act''. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. The Congress finds the following: (1) Rural communities often lack staff capacity and technical expertise to navigate complex Federal grant programs. (2) Applicants routinely report difficulty understanding eligibility for, application steps for, timelines under, evaluation criteria under, and reasons for rejection from rural development programs. (3) Providing clear, consistent, and centralized information improves access to such programs for small towns, rural nonprofits, cooperatives, and persistent-poverty counties and parishes. (4) Increasing transparency in Federal grant processes can be achieved without additional appropriations. SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. In this Act: (1) Covered program.--The term ``covered program'' means any grant program administered by the Secretary of Agriculture through Rural Development, including programs administered by-- (A) the Rural Utilities Service; (B) the Rural Housing Service; or (C) the Rural Business-Cooperative Service. (2) Qua