Title 7 › CHAPTER 31 — RURAL ELECTRIFICATION AND TELEPHONE SERVICE › SUBCHAPTER III — RURAL ELECTRIC AND TELEPHONE DIRECT LOAN PROGRAMS › § 935
The Secretary can make insured loans from the program’s fund, up to the money available and any yearly loan limits set by Congress. Congress may also let extra cash be moved to the Treasury. Loans made here are treated separately from the normal federal budget and are not counted against general spending limits. When a lender buys one of these loans, the Secretary will insure it. Insured loans are those the Secretary makes, services, and sells, and the Secretary must sell and insure them without undue delay. There are special rules for electric and telephone loans. For electric loans, the Secretary must offer loans at 5 percent per year for “hardship” cases when the borrower’s average revenue per kilowatt-hour (overall and residential) is at least 120 percent of the state average and the customers’ average income or median household income is below the state average. The Secretary can also give 5 percent loans for severe hardship at the Secretary’s discretion. Loans generally can’t be used to serve urban consumers if the system has more than 17 consumers per mile, but any applicant whose residential rate is over 15.0 cents per kilowatt-hour must be offered a 5 percent loan, and projects outside urbanized areas are not subject to the 120 percent or the 17-consumers-per-mile limits. The Secretary also must offer “municipal rate” loans that use current municipal bond yields for the interest rate (with a possible extra amount if the borrower wants the right to prepay), subject to a 7 percent cap in certain low-density or high-rate/low-income situations. Borrowers choose the loan term and may renew, but no chosen term can extend more than 35 years from the start, and the Secretary can limit terms that exceed the useful life of the financed assets. The Secretary cannot force eligible hardship electric applicants to get other loans first. For telephone loans, the Secretary must offer 5 percent “hardship” loans to qualifying rural applicants who meet subscriber-density and financial coverage tests, and who are part of an approved state telecommunications modernization plan. The Secretary may waive some tests in emergencies. The Secretary may also make cost-of-money telephone loans at a rate equal to the government’s cost of money (but not over 7 percent) for qualifying projects. If funds are short, eligible applicants may be considered for alternate loan programs or loan guarantees. States must have approved modernization plans within one year of final regulations; those plans must meet basic goals like ending party lines, improving services for business/education/health, boosting rural computer networks, providing conference calling, video, and data at 1,000,000 bits per second over phone lines, and ensuring fair deployment schedules. Approved plans can’t later be disapproved.
Full Legal Text
Agriculture, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
7 U.S.C. § 935
Title 7, Agriculture
Last Updated
Sep 23, 2026
Release point: 119-110