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.