Treasury Rate Direct Loan Program

In fiscal year 2001, Congress provided funding to establish a Treasury rate direct loan program to address the backlog of qualified loan applications for insured municipal rate electric loans from RUS. RUS administered the Treasury rate loan program in a manner substantially the same as it administered the municipal rate program under a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) published in the Federal Register at 65 FR 80830 on December 22, 2000. Title III of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2002 authorizes a direct Treasury rate electric loan program of $750 million for FY 2002. RUS is proposing to amend its regulations to establish rules and regulations to administer the Treasury rate direct loan program. In the final rule section of this Federal Register, RUS is publishing this action as a direct final rule without prior proposal because RUS views this as a non-controversial action and anticipates no adverse comments. If no adverse comments are received in response to the direct final rule, no further action will be taken on this proposed rule and the action will become effective at the time specified in the direct final rule. If RUS receives adverse comments, a document will be published withdrawing the direct final rule and all public comments received will be addressed in a subsequent final rule. Any parties interested in commenting on this proposed action should do so at this time.