USDA has proposed changes in the 1999 distance learning and telemedicine loan and grant program.  The program provides loans and grants to rural areas for new technology to improve educational and medical services.

The program will make available $150 million in loans and $12.5 million in grants to rural education systems and health care providers.  The proposed changes would remove required steps in the application process for loans and expand the use of loan funds.

Grant applications would undergo a competitive process with poverty levels used to score the loan rather than use grant eligibility standards.

Since the program was started in 1993, 252 projects in 43 states and two U.S. territories have been funded at a total of $68 million.