H.R. 9101 — Rural Grants Transparency Act

This section states congressional findings that rural communities often lack staff capacity and technical expertise to navigate federal grant programs, that applicants face difficulties understanding eligibility, application steps, timelines, evaluation criteria, and rejection reasons for rural development programs, that clear and centralized information improves access for small towns, rural nonprofits, cooperatives, and persistent-poverty counties, and that greater transparency in grant processes can occur without additional appropriations.

This section defines terms for the Act. "Covered program" means any grant program administered by the Secretary of Agriculture through Rural Development, including those run by the Rural Utilities Service, Rural Housing Service, or Rural Business–Cooperative Service. "Quarterly" means not less frequently than once every 90 days. "Roadmap" means the Rural Grant Transparency Roadmap developed for a covered program. "Rural development State office contact information" means the appropriate division or program contact within each State rural development office. "Secretary" means the Secretary of Agriculture.

This section requires the Secretary to develop, publish, and maintain a publicly accessible Rural Grant Transparency Roadmap for each covered rural development program. The Roadmap must appear on a single consolidated webpage in plain language and accessible formats, and must include a program description, step-by-step application instructions, a materials checklist, evaluation criteria for competitive programs, common reasons for ineligibility or rejection, links to forms and guidance, relevant state office contacts, and a quarterly-updated list of open and upcoming funding opportunities.

This section requires the Secretary to provide standardized notifications to each applicant for a covered program, including confirmation of receipt, notice of completeness or deficiency, advancement to review, award or denial, and reapplication eligibility if denied. Denials must include a plain-language summary of the most determinative evaluation criteria and guidance on strengthening future submissions, using existing electronic or administrative systems.

This section establishes a publicly accessible, searchable database of awards under covered rural grant programs, updated quarterly, that includes the recipient name, project county or parish, award amount, program name, and project description. It prohibits disclosure of personally identifiable or confidential business information and requires use of existing Department of Agriculture resources.

This section requires the Secretary to publish all scoring factors, the weight assigned to each factor, tie-breaker rules, and any statutory or regulatory priority areas for each competitive covered program. It prohibits interpreting the Act to authorize new scoring factors or modification of existing statutory requirements.

This section directs the Secretary of Agriculture to ensure that State, parish, and county rural development offices receive annual training on the Rural Grant Transparency Roadmap for each covered program, common challenges faced by applicants, and procedures for providing accurate information to rural applicants, using existing Department personnel.