Sponsors (4)
The bill broadens and modernizes the definition of 'rural' and expands eligibility so many more small towns, territories, and tribal communities can access broadband, water, electrification, and housing programs — at the trade‑off of spreading limited federal funds thinner, raising program costs, and creating transitional and ongoing administrative complexity and eligibility uncertainty.
Millions of residents of small towns (communities up to 25,000 people) will become newly eligible for multiple federal programs — broadband/telemedicine, water/wastewater, electrification, and certain housing programs — increasing the pool of places that can receive infrastructure investment.
Tribes, U.S. territories, and Freely Associated States (Compact partners) get explicit or clarified eligibility for federal rural programs (broadband, housing, Reclamation/tribal water projects), improving access to funds and program participation for island, tribal, and compacted communities.
Counties/communities adjacent to military bases or large correctional facilities can exclude those nonresident populations from census counts used for program eligibility, preserving program access for nearby civilian populations.
Making many more communities eligible for the same pool of federal grants and loans risks diluting limited program funds, reducing per-project awards or the total number of projects that can be funded.
Broader eligibility is likely to increase overall federal program demand and costs, which could raise taxpayer burden or require higher appropriations to meet expanded need.
New and clarified coverage for territories, tribal projects, and Freely Associated States — plus cross‑statute inclusions — will create administrative complexity and transition costs for agencies (revised guidance, forms, compliance systems) and for applicants adapting to changed rules.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Raises many statutory "rural" population cutoffs to 25,000, excludes prison and military base populations from rural counts, updates territorial coverage, and requires annual threshold reviews.
Introduced February 20, 2026 by Jim Costa · Last progress February 20, 2026
Raises the population limits that define which places count as "rural" for many USDA and housing programs to 25,000 people, and tells agencies to ignore people living in prisons and on military bases when deciding if an area is rural in character. It also updates program rules to explicitly include U.S. territories and some Freely Associated States, clarifies coverage for certain federally authorized rural water projects, makes many technical edits to statutes, and requires the Agriculture Secretary to review and adjust the numeric rural threshold each year using Census, OMB, and ERS data.