REA

= **Rural Electrification Administration **  or also known as **REA** = = =

The __Rural Electrification Administration__ provided federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems for rural areas in the United States. The funding was sent through electric power companies. These member-owned cooperatives purchased power on a wholesale basis and distributed it using their own network of transmission and distribution lines. It was proposed by Representative John E. Rankin and Senator George William Norris. Presidential Executive Order 7037 created the Rural Electrification Administration, or REA, on May 11, 1935. With passage of the Norris-Rayburn Act the following year, Congress authorized $410 million in appropriations for a ten-year program to electrify American farms. The REA is considered one of the most immediate and profound successes in the history of federal policy-making for the national economy. The REA was essentially a government-financing agency providing subsidized loans to private companies, public agencies, or cooperatives for the construction of electrical supply infrastructure in rural regions. The loans were guaranteed by the federal government and had an attractive interest rate and a generous repayment schedule of twenty-five years. This Program had a huge impact on Americans of this time because before this act people living in rural areas had no way to provide electricity to their homes and had to light everything by candles and had no way to preserve food. Even though this program doesn't exist today it still has a lasting impact on the united States because without this program many of the places in American may still not have power to this day, and all of us know that life without power would be awful. Just think about how much we rely on it today... you can think the REA.

 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Rural Electrification Act with John E. Rankin and George W. Norris 

Poster Stamp

 Men Working on installing power lines in rural areas.

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In 1930 90% of all urban cities had had electricity, while only 10% of rural had electricity. In 1939 the REA had gotten nearly 417 rural electric cooperatives, which served 288,000 households. By the time of 1939 electricity in a rural household had risen by 25 percent. Many poeple and groups opposed the involvement in developing and distributing electric power, the main group that didnt want the electircity company was the utility companies, who believed that the government was unfairly competing with private enterprise, other people said the farmers didnt have the smarts to run and manage the electric companies Rural electrification was to make affordable electricity(lighting and power) this would later improve the standard of living and the economic competitiveness of the family farm. By the 1970's About 98% of all farms in america had electricity, which means that the REA was a success. The adimistration was abolished in 1994 and its functions assumed by the Rural Utilites Service

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