WASHINGTON, March 25, 1999 - Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today announced proposed changes for the 1999 Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Loan and Grant Program, making it more user friendly. The changes in the program will separate the application for the loan, loan and grant combination, and the grant-only parts of DLT assistance. DLT is the Federal program that provides loans and grants to rural areas to use new technology for improving educational and medical services.

"The proposed changes improve the DLT loan and grant program by targeting three types of assistance, enabling the program to be more responsive to the needs of education and health care providers in rural areas," said Glickman. "The ability of rural communities to access these funds to improve the quality of education and health care is key to the development of rural America."

"The 1999 DLT program will make available $150 million in loans and $12.5 million in grants to rural education systems and health care providers," said Jill Long Thompson, Under Secretary for Rural Development, whose mission administers the program. "The Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program, a major Administration initiative, has helped rural America be a part of the Information Revolution."

The changes will remove some of the previously required steps in the application process for loans and will expand the uses of loan funds. Applications for grants will go through the competitive process and poverty levels will be used for scoring purposes instead of grant eligibility. Applications for loans may be accepted now through USDA Rural Development State offices or through the Rural Utilities Service national office in Washington, D.C.

The DLT program complements the discount rate program, called the E-rate, that was developed in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to ensure rural schools, libraries, and health care providers would be able to connect to the Internet at a reasonable cost.

Since the DLT program was started in 1993, it has funded 252 projects in 43 states and two US territories for a total of $68 million. The funding has helped more than 1,000 schools and learning centers provide increased educational opportunities to rural students and residents. It has improved health care at more than 725 hospitals and rural health care clinics.

The proposed changes are published in the March 25 Federal Register. A PDF form of the regulation is available at http://www.usda.gov/rus/dlt/dltregs.htm. Detailed information on the DLT program can be obtained from visiting the Rural Utilities Service website at http://www.usda.gov/rus/telecom/dlt/dlt.htm.