[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 7, Volume 11]
[Revised as of January 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 7CFR1780.3]

[Page 1032-1033]
 
                          TITLE 7--AGRICULTURE
 
    CHAPTER XVII--RURAL UTILITIES SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 
PART 1780--WATER AND WASTE LOANS AND GRANTS--Table of Contents
 
              Subpart A--General Policies and Requirements
 
Sec. 1780.3  Definitions and grammatical rules of construction.

    (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.

[[Page 1033]]

    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, according to the latest 
decennial census of the United States.
    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.
    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 all rural areas of a state.
    (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.