II 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1455 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for new markets tax credit investments in the Rural Jobs Zone. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 4, 2023 Mr. WICKER (for himself, Mr. WARNER, Mr. MORAN, and Mr. BRAUN) intro- duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com- mittee on Finance 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 THE 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 04:20 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1455.IS S1455 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 2 •S 1455 IS ‘‘(4) ALLOCATIONS FOR THE RURAL JOBS 1 ZONE.— 2 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In addition to any 3 new markets tax credit limitation under para- 4 graph (1), there are the following amounts of 5 new markets tax credit limitation which shall be 6 allocated by the Secretary only to Rural Jobs 7 Zone development entities for making Rural 8 Jobs Zone equity investments: 9 ‘‘(i) $500,000,000 for 2023. 10 ‘‘(ii) $500,000,000 for 2024. 11 ‘‘(B) RURAL JOBS ZONE DEVELOPMENT 12 ENTITY.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 13 term ‘Rural Jobs Zone development entity’ 14 means any qualified community development 15 entity a significant mission of which is the eco- 16 nomic development of, and the creation and re- 17 tention of jobs in, the Rural Jobs Zone. 18 ‘‘(C) RURAL JOBS ZONE EQUITY INVEST- 19 MENT.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 20 term ‘Rural Jobs Zone equity investment’ 21 means any equity investment which would be a 22 qualified equity investment if the only low-in- 23 come community was the Rural Jobs Zone. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:20 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1455.IS S1455 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 3 •S 1455 IS ‘‘(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 04:20 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1455.IS S1455 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 4 •S 1455 IS more of its population living in poverty 1 over the past 30 years, as measured by the 2 1990 and 2000 decennial censuses and the 3 most recent Small Area Income and Pov- 4 erty Estimates. 5 ‘‘(F) APPLICATION OF CARRYOVER.—Para- 6 graph (3) shall be applied separately with re- 7 spect to the amounts specified in subparagraph 8 (A).’’. 9 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 10 this section shall apply to allocations made after the date 11 of the enactment of this Act. 12 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:20 May 13, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1455.IS S1455 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB