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Invest in Rural Communities

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Expand Credit and Lending

Make sure rural small business owners have access to credit so they can grow their businesses, hire workers, and grow the economy.

  • Require the Farm Credit System to place a portion of profits in a community mandate fund for grants and loans to support rural small businesses, mid-tier food system businesses, and young, beginning, or historically underserved farmers and ranchers.
  • Improve access to USDA farm loans by eliminating the cap on the number of times a borrower can receive a direct operating or direct farm ownership loan, increasing the microloan limit from $50,000 to $100,000, and revising the beginning farmer definition to include entities composed of non-related individuals. Require lenders to disclose lending practices for small business loans and credit products to protect the most vulnerable small businesses from predatory lending practices.
  • Support new and growing businesses, especially those in rural areas, with attention to companies owned by women, people of color, and underrepresented entrepreneurs. Strengthen and increase funding for both the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and Minority Business Development Agency. Improve the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to serve our communities better.
    • The Biden Administration expanded the Small Business Lending Company (SBLC) program — the first time in more than 40 years. Each of the three new SBLC license holders will focus on historically underserved markets, including small businesses in Native, rural, and low-income communities. The USDA took significant steps to make farm lending more flexible and accessible in late 2024.
    • Yet the improvements to access to credit are unlikely to have a serious impact due to the Trump Administration’s restructuring and reduction in force at federal agencies like the SBA, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the USDA.
  • Because of health care gaps, many rural people have medical debt, which often snowballs with additional fees. This debt can hurt our credit ratings, making it harder to find housing or jobs, and raising prices on things like phone service and insurance. Relieving medical debt now, and capping health care costs going forward, would provide a boost for millions of working Americans and benefit our entire economy.

Notes

  1. See the Small Business Lending Disclosure Act, which extends federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA). Also see the New Producer Economic Security Act.
  2. These agencies were gutted with an Executive Order in March 2025.
  3. Protect and increase funding for the SBA entrepreneurial development programs and USDA Rural Development Rural Business-Cooperative Service programs that drive economic and small business growth in rural communities. The Coordinated Support for Rural Small Businesses Act improves coordination between the SBA and USDA.
  4. Rural people are more likely to suffer from medical debt and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a rule, but was blocked by a Federal Court, requiring Congressional action. The rule had banned the inclusion of medical bills on credit reports used by lenders and prohibited lenders from using medical information in their lending decisions. The CFPB found that medical debts provide little predictive value to lenders about borrowers’ ability to repay other debts, and consumers frequently report receiving inaccurate bills or being asked to pay bills that should have been covered by insurance or financial assistance programs.