[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1916 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 1916

To amend the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act 
 to provide for an application process for interested parties to apply 
 for a county to be designated as a rural area, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 14, 2014

Mr. McConnell (for himself and Mr. Paul) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, 
                           and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act 
 to provide for an application process for interested parties to apply 
 for a county to be designated as a rural area, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Helping Expand Lending Practices in 
Rural Communities Act of 2014'' or the ``HELP Rural Communities Act of 
2014''.

SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF COUNTY AS A RURAL AREA.

    Section 1022 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer 
Protection Act (12 U.S.C. 5512) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new subsection:
    ``(e) Designation of County as a Rural Area.--
            ``(1) Application.--Not later than 90 days after the date 
        of the enactment of this subsection, the Bureau shall establish 
        an application process under which a person who lives or does 
        business in a State may, with respect to a county in such State 
        that has not been designated by the Bureau as a rural area for 
        purposes of a Federal consumer financial law, apply for such 
        county to be so designated.
            ``(2) Evaluation criteria.--When evaluating an application 
        submitted under paragraph (1), the Bureau shall take into 
        consideration the following factors:
                    ``(A) Criteria used by the Director of the Bureau 
                of the Census for classifying geographical areas as 
                rural or urban.
                    ``(B) Criteria used by the Director of the Office 
                of Management and Budget to designate counties as 
                metropolitan or micropolitan or neither.
                    ``(C) Criteria used by the Secretary of Agriculture 
                to determine property eligibility for rural development 
                programs.
                    ``(D) The Department of Agriculture rural-urban 
                commuting area codes.
                    ``(E) A written opinion provided by the State's 
                banking regulator.
                    ``(F) Population density.
            ``(3) Public comment period.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Not later than 60 days after 
                receiving an application submitted under paragraph (1), 
                the Bureau shall--
                            ``(i) publish such application in the 
                        Federal Register; and
                            ``(ii) make such application available for 
                        public comment for not fewer than 90 days.
                    ``(B)  Limitation on additional applications.--
                Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to 
                require the Bureau, during the public comment period 
                with respect to an application submitted under 
                paragraph (1), to accept an additional application with 
                respect to the county that is the subject of the 
                initial application.
            ``(4) Information required to be published.--The Bureau 
        shall enter each application submitted under paragraph (1) in a 
        sortable, downloadable database that is publicly accessible 
        through the Web site of the Bureau.
            ``(5) Decision on designation.--Not later than 90 days 
        after the end of the public comment period under paragraph 
        (3)(A) for an application, the Bureau shall--
                    ``(A) grant or deny such application; and
                    ``(B) publish such grant or denial in the Federal 
                Register, along with an explanation of what factors the 
                Bureau relied on in making such determination.
            ``(6) Subsequent applications.--A decision by the Bureau 
        under paragraph (5) to deny an application for a county to be 
        designated as a rural area shall not preclude the Bureau from 
        accepting a subsequent application submitted under paragraph 
        (1) for such county to be so designated, so long as such 
        subsequent application is made after the end of the 90-day 
        period beginning on the date that the Bureau denies the 
        application under paragraph (5).''.
                                 <all>