[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6341 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6341

  To establish a loan program to promote energy conservation in rural 
                                 areas.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 29, 2010

  Mr. Holden introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                        Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To establish a loan program to promote energy conservation in rural 
                                 areas.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. GROWING RURAL ENERGY EFFICIENCY NETWORKS.

    The Rural Electrification Act of 1936 (7 U.S.C. 901 et seq.) is 
amended by inserting after section 313A the following:

``SEC. 313B. GROWING RURAL ENERGY EFFICIENCY NETWORKS.

    ``(a) Definition.--In this section the term `eligible borrower' 
means--
            ``(1) an entity that has received a loan or loan guarantee 
        under this Act; or
            ``(2) a cooperative that is eligible to receive a loan or 
        loan guarantee under this Act.
    ``(b) Interest-Free Loans.--The Secretary shall establish an 
initiative to promote energy efficiency by providing interest-free 
loans for the purposes of--
            ``(1) making energy efficiency improvements; and
            ``(2) achieving energy conservation.
    ``(c) Loan Purposes.--To promote the purposes described in 
subsection (b), the Secretary shall make interest-free loans to 
eligible borrowers to encourage such borrowers to--
            ``(1) invest in and facilitate consumer energy efficiency 
        improvements; or
            ``(2) increase energy conservation.
    ``(d) Repayment Terms.--In carrying out this section, the Secretary 
shall establish such reasonable terms and conditions as necessary to 
ensure participation by eligible borrowers.
    ``(e) Funding.--The Secretary shall use the fees collected pursuant 
to section 313A(c) to provide the interest-free loans authorized under 
this section.
    ``(f) Limitations.--In carrying out this section, the Secretary 
shall--
            ``(1) use only those fees required under section 313A(c) 
        that are collected for loans guaranteed under section 313A 
        after the date of the enactment of this section; and
            ``(2) require that the amount of the annual fee paid for 
        the guarantee of a bond or note under section 313A be equal to 
        50 basis points of the amount of the unpaid principal of the 
        bond or note guaranteed under such section, and an additional 
        loan origination fee equal to 50 such basis points shall be 
        paid at the time the guarantee is approved.
    ``(g) Program Level.--The Secretary shall approve $3,000,000 in 
loan guarantees under this section to qualified lenders as described in 
section 313A(b)(3) for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010.
    ``(h) Sunset.--Subsection (f) shall not be effective on or after 
September 30, 2011.''.
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