Rural Jobs Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3538 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for new markets tax credit investments in the Rural Jobs Zone. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 27, 2019 Ms. SEWELL of Alabama (for herself and Mr. SMITH of Missouri) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means A BILL To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for new markets tax credit investments in the Rural Jobs Zone. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rural Jobs Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. ALLOCATIONS OF NEW MARKETS TAX CREDIT LIMI- 5 TATION FOR RURAL JOBS ZONE. 6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 45D(f) of the Internal 7 Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end 8 the following new paragraph: 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:30 Jul 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3538.IH H3538 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 3538 IH ‘‘(4) ALLOCATIONS FOR THE RURAL JOBS 1 ZONE.— 2 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In addition to any 3 new markets tax credit limitation under para- 4 graph (1), there are the following amounts of 5 new markets tax credit limitation which shall be 6 allocated by the Secretary only to Rural Jobs 7 Zone development entities for making Rural 8 Jobs Zone equity investments: 9 ‘‘(i) $500,000,000 for 2019. 10 ‘‘(ii) $500,000,000 for 2020. 11 ‘‘(B) RURAL JOBS ZONE DEVELOPMENT 12 ENTITY.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 13 term ‘Rural Jobs Zone development entity’ 14 means any qualified community development 15 entity a significant mission of which is the eco- 16 nomic development of, and the creation and re- 17 tention of jobs in, the Rural Jobs Zone. 18 ‘‘(C) RURAL JOBS ZONE EQUITY INVEST- 19 MENT.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 20 term ‘Rural Jobs Zone equity investment’ 21 means any equity investment which would be a 22 qualified equity investment if the only low-in- 23 come community was the Rural Jobs Zone. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:30 Jul 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3538.IH H3538 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 3538 IH ‘‘(D) RURAL JOBS ZONE.—For purposes of 1 this paragraph, the term ‘Rural Jobs Zone’ 2 means the area comprised of low-income com- 3 munities which are a portion of neither— 4 ‘‘(i) a city or town that has a popu- 5 lation of greater than 50,000 inhabitants, 6 nor 7 ‘‘(ii) any urbanized area contiguous 8 and adjacent to such a city or town. 9 ‘‘(E) MINIMUM INVESTMENT IN PER- 10 SISTENT POVERTY COUNTIES AND HIGH MIGRA- 11 TION RURAL COUNTIES.— 12 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary 13 shall prescribe regulations or other guid- 14 ance pursuant to which not less than 25 15 percent of the Rural Jobs Zone equity in- 16 vestments made pursuant to allocations 17 made under this paragraph are invested in 18 areas which are persistent poverty coun- 19 ties, high migration rural counties (as de- 20 fined in subsection (e)(5)(B)), or both. 21 ‘‘(ii) PERSISTENT POVERTY COUN- 22 TIES.—For purposes of this subparagraph, 23 the term ‘persistent poverty county’ means 24 any county that has had 20 percent or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:30 Jul 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3538.IH H3538 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 3538 IH more of its population living in poverty 1 over the past 30 years, as measured by the 2 1990 and 2000 decennial censuses and the 3 most recent Small Area Income and Pov- 4 erty Estimates. 5 ‘‘(F) APPLICATION OF CARRYOVER.—Para- 6 graph (3) shall be applied separately with re- 7 spect to the amounts specified in subparagraph 8 (A).’’. 9 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 10 this section shall apply to allocations made after the date 11 of the enactment of this Act. 12 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:30 Jul 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3538.IH H3538 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS