House Agriculture Committee Skeptical on RUS' Ability to Manage Funds

Members of Congress on Thursday questioned the efficacy of the grant criteria set out last week by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Rural Utilities Service. During a hearing before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development, Biotechnology, Specialty Crops, and Foreign Agriculture, representatives expressed skepticism over ill-defined criteria in the joint Notice of Funds Availability the agencies released last week. Mark Seifert, Senior Advisor to NTIA administrator Lawrence Strickling, said the NOFA "set up a fairly stringent system" for determining which areas are most in need, but will be flexible in allowing applications to be made efficiently and give all stakeholders a fair shake. NTIA and RUS will simultaneously evaluate applications in order that there will be "no lag-time," he said. And if an applicant doesn't meet the criteria for one agency's program, Seifert said that would not exclude an applicant from the other program if judged more appropriate. The unique process of creating a joint NOFA has allowed NTIA and RUS to "leverage our collective experience," he said. And RUS Deputy Undersecretary Cheryl Cook said the effort has been a "significant interagency work." Cook and RUS assistant administrator David Villano assured the committee — specifically Ranking Member Michael Conaway, R-Texas — that RUS was up to the task of distributing between $7 and $9 billion in loans this year, compared to RUS' previous budget of $1.2 billion. And while Villano remained confident of RUS' ability, Conaway sharply reminded him that "every nickel of this stimulus money is borrowed."