The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was an agency of the United
States federal government created on 11 May 1935 through
efforts of the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The REA's task was to promote electrification in rural areas, which in the 1930s rarely were provided with electricity due to the unwillingness of power
companies to serve farmsteads. America lagged significantly behind European countries in rural electrification. Private electric
utilities argued that the government had no right to compete with or regulate private
enterprise, despite many of these utilities having refused to extend their lines to rural areas, claiming lack of
profitability. Since private power companies set rural rates four times as high as city rates made this a self-fulfilling
prophecy.[1] Under the REA program there was no direct government competition to private enterprise. Instead, REA made loans
available to local electrification cooperatives, which operated lines and distributed electricity. By 1939 the REA served 288,000 households, prompting private business to extend service into the countryside and to
lower rates. By the end of the decade, forty percent of rural homes had power, up from around 10% in 1930.
As the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) it is still a federal government
agency of the U.S. government, charged with providing
public utilities (electricity, telephone, water, sewer) to rural areas through public-private partnerships. It is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Coincidently, rus is Latin for "countryside".
Mission
The Rural Utilities
Service (RUS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture plays a key role in improving the quality of life in rural America. It
does this by administering electrification, telecommunications, and water and waste programs in a manner that is forward looking,
financially responsible, and oriented toward customer needs.
Structure
The RUS is one of three agencies (the other two are Rural Business-Cooperative Service and the Rural Housing Service) within
the Rural Development Bureau of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The administrators of these three agencies report to
the undersecretary for rural development. The RUS administrator, who makes the primary policy and program decisions for the
agency, is assisted by a borrower and program support staff that includes a financial services staff, an administrative liaison
staff, and a program accounting services division. Because of the financial nature of the agency's work, the administrator and
associated staff work closely with two other agencies that are not part of the USDA, the Federal Financing Bank (FFB) and the
Rural Telephone Bank (RTB). These banks provide the funds for many of the loan programs administered by the RUS.
The program functions of the RUS are divided among three operating units: water and waste, electric, and telecommunications,
each led by an assistant administrator. The administrator and staff concentrate on the financial details of individual RUS
projects, and these three operating units provide the engineering and technical personnel to plan and execute projects.
Related federal legislation
External links
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