(a) Definitions. For the purposes of this part:

Agency means the Rural Utilities Service and any United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) employee acting on behalf of the Rural Utilities Service in accordance with appropriate delegations of authority.

Agency identified target areas means an identified area in the State strategic plan or other plans developed by the Rural Development State Director.

Approval official means the USDA official at the State level who has been delegated the authority to approve loans or grants.

Equivalent Dwelling Unit (EDU) means the level of service provided to a typical rural residential dwelling.

Parity bonds means bonds which have equal standing with other bonds of the same Issuer.

Poverty line means the level of income for a family of four, as defined in section 673(2) of the Community Services Block Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)).

Processing office means the office designated by the State program official to accept and process applications for water and waste disposal assistance.

Project means all activity that an applicant is currently undertaking to be financed in whole or part with RUS assistance.

Protective advances are payments made by a lender for items such as insurance or taxes in order to preserve and protect the security or the lien or priority of the lien securing the loan.

Rural and rural areas means any area not in a city or town with a population in excess of 10,000 inhabitants. The population figure is obtained from the most recent decennial Census of the United States (decennial Census). If the applicable population figure cannot be obtained from the most recent decennial Census, RD will determine the applicable population figure based on available population data.

Rural Development means the mission area of the Under Secretary for Rural Development. Rural Development State and local offices will administer this water and waste program on behalf of the Rural Utilities Service.

RUS means the Rural Utilities Service, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture established pursuant to section 232 of the Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 103-354, 108 Stat. 3178), successor to the Farmer's Home Administration and the Rural Development Administration with respect to certain water and waste disposal loan and grant programs.

Service area means the area reasonably expected to be served by the project.

Servicing office means the office designated by the State program official to service water and waste disposal loans and grants.

Similar system cost means the average annual EDU user cost of a system within a community having similar economic conditions and being served by the same type of established system. Similar system cost shall include all charges, taxes, and assessments attributable to the system including debt service, reserves and operation and maintenance costs.

Simplified acquisition threshold means the dollar amount below which an applicant or owner may purchase property or services using small purchase methods as defined further at 2 CFR 200.88.

State program official means the USDA official at the State level who has been delegated the responsibility of administering the water and waste disposal programs under this regulation for a particular State or States.

Statewide nonmetropolitan median household income means the median household income of the State's nonmetropolitan counties and portions of metropolitan counties outside of cities, towns or places of 50,000 or more population.

(b) Rules of grammatical construction. Unless the context otherwise indicates, “includes” and “including” are not limiting, and “or” is not exclusive. The terms defined in paragraph (a) of this section include the plural as well as the singular, and the singular as well as the plural.

[62 FR 33478, June 19, 1997, as amended at 69 FR 65519, Nov. 15, 2004; 80 FR 9863, Feb. 24, 2015; 81 FR 7697, Feb. 16, 2016]