On October 4th, the Senate Finance Committee approved a tax title to the Farm bill, called the "Heartland, Habitat, Harvest and Horticulture Act of 2007." This bill will be added to the Senate Agriculture Committee's farm bill, once approved by the Committee.
The farm bill tax title does not contain an extension and expansion of the Clean Renewable Energy Bond (CREB) program. However, it does contain a provision to create a new category of tax credit bonds, called "Rural Renaissance Bonds."
The Rural Renaissance Bond provision defines rural electric coops and "governmental bodies" as qualified issuers of the tax credit bonds. Qualified projects include utilities, broadband access and rural telephone programs. The program has a cap of $400 million and the bonds must be issued by December 31, 2008.