IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEPHONE PROGRAM.

SEC. 2357. IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEPHONE PROGRAM. Title II (7 U.S.C. 922 et seq.) is amended by adding after the sections added by sections 2355 and 2356 of this Act the following new section: “SEC. 206. GENERAL DUTIES AND PROHIBITIONS. “(a) Duties.— The Administrator and the Governor of the telephone bank shall— “(1) notwithstanding section 553(a)(2) of title 5, United States Code, cause to be published in the Federal Register, in accordance with subsections (b) through (e) of section 553 of such title, all rules, regulations, bulletins, and other written policy standards governing the operations of the telephone loan and loan guarantee programs administered under this Act other than those relating to agency management and personnel; “(2) in evaluating the feasibility of a telephone loan to be made to a borrower for telephone services, use— “(A) with respect to items for which the regulatory authority with jurisdiction over the provision of such services has approved the depreciation rates used by the borrower, such approved rates; and “(B) with respect to other items, the average of the depreciation rates used by borrowers of telephone loans made under this Act; “(3) annually determine and publish the average described in paragraph (2)(B); and “(4) make loans for all purposes for which telephone loans are authorized under section 201 or 408, to the extent of qualifying applications therefor. “(b) Prohibitions.— The Administrator and the Governor of the telephone bank shall not— 104 STAT. 4041 “(1) rescind an insured telephone loan, or a Rural Telephone Bank loan, made under this Act without the consent of the borrower, unless all of the purposes for which telephone loans have been made to the borrower under this Act have been accomplished with funds provided under this Act; “(2) regulate the order or sequence of advances of funds under telephone loans made under this Act to any borrower who has received any combination of telephone loans from the Rural Electrification Administration, the Rural Telephone Bank, or the Federal Financing Bank; or “(3) deny a loan or advance to, or take any other adverse action against, an applicant for, or a borrower of, a telephone loan under this Act for any reason that is not based on a rule, regulation, bulletin, or other written policy standard that has not been published pursuant to section 553 of title 5, United States Code.”.