Rural Development Policy Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-355).

• Specified that USDA was to develop national goals and strategies for achieving rural development and was to develop a process for gathering regional, state and local information and providing assessments;
• Authorized Under Secretary for Small Community and Rural Development;
• Authorized the increased use of rural development planning funds (under Section 111 of the 1972 Rural Development Act) to pay for specialists to help local governments prepare their requests for Federal grants.

1981-1987
Total real spending on rural programs in all agencies and departments falls nearly 60 percent. Shift from direct grants to direct and guaranteed loans.

1981
Office of Rural Development Policy (ORDP) established which incorporated the planning assistance and rural program coordination responsibilities formerly assigned to the Rural Development Service.

1982
Formerly independent State Rural Development Councils become subcommittees on rural development of the USDA State Coordinating Councils.

1982
National Advisory Council on Rural Development appointed (renewed in 1984).

1983
Strategy report issued, titled Better Country: A Strategy for Rural Development in the 1980's. Focus: rural infrastructure and services, assistance to local governments, housing, and more jobs.

1985
Congress refuses to continue funding ORDP and the office is closed.

1987
Six-Point Rural Regeneration Initiative announced:

• Committed the Extension Service to increase its emphasis on rural education and training;
• Organized Rural Enterprise Teams at the state level to assist communities with business and employment problems;
• Created a Rural Information Center at the National Agricultural Library;
• Increased research on rural development topics, and redirected FmHA Business and Industry Loans toward job creation in communities with high unemployment.

1988
Secretary and Under Secretary issue report of the Department’s revitalization effort, Signs of Progress: A Report on Rural America’s Revitalization Effort, asserting that Federal resources made available to rural areas should "manifest themselves as information, technical assistance, direction and support and where absolutely necessary, dollars from the Federal coffers."

1989
National Advisory Council on Rural Development issued its "Final Report to the Secretary." Council noted the need to emphasize the nonagricultural aspects of rural development, going so far as to suggest the Department of Agriculture be renamed the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. The group still insisted State and local governments should lead in rural development work, but also suggested an increased role for the Extension Service and an effort to make the Department's rural development programs better known on the local level.

1989
Rural Revitalization Task Force appointed by Secretary. Report, A Hard Look at USDA’s Rural Development Programs, subsequently issued. Four themes predominated:

• Clarifying USDA’s commitment to rural development;
• Strengthening the coordination of USDA’s rural programs;
• Enhancing USDA’s capacity for strategic action; and
• Improving USDA’s ability to implement its rural programs.

1. Establish a Presidential Council on Rural America made up of farmers, state and local officials, rural businesses, and high-tech industries to advise on Federal rural development policy;
2. Establish State Rural Development Councils to coordinate current Federal rural development programs;
3. Produce a series of rural demonstration programs from current budget resources;
4. Create a rural development information and technical assistance hotline;
5. Target Federal rural development funding to programs that would provide "maximum net economic benefits"; and
6. Make the Economic Policy Council’s Working Group on Rural Development a standing committee, ready to implement initiatives developed by the President’s Council on Rural America

• The Rural Development Administration to (among other things) have responsibility for developing national strategies for rural development;
• New programs in the Forest Service to assist forestry-dependent rural communities.

1992
State Rural Development Councils expand into 34 states;

Seven RDA Regional Offices announced to serve as liaisons to state governments and to the system of State Rural Development Councils, bringing Federal program administration closer to the local and state government direction these councils were designed to foster.

RDA Strategy Development Staff created to assist rural communities develop strategies for development and to provide new outreach capabilities for RDA financial programs.

1993
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (P.L. 103-66) authorizes rural Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities.

1994
Rural Development Administration Regional Offices close down.

1994
Rural Development Administration and Farmers Home Administration functions merged into Rural Business-Cooperatives Development Service (RBCDS), Rural Housing Service, and Rural Utilities Service. RDA Strategy Development Staff transferred to RBCDS and renamed Community Outreach Staff (COS). EZ/EC Branch created under COS.

1994
"Round I" Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (EZ/EC) designated for 10-year periods.

1996
Office of Community Development formed to administer EZ/EC program and provide leadership and coordination to National and local rural economic and community development efforts.

1996
1996 Farm Bill provides that control of rural development program spending would remain at the Federal level, but created a new program—the Rural Community Advancement Program (RCAP). RCAP gives Rural Development State Directors increased flexibility to move funding but requires them to prepare 5-year strategic plans for doing so. Legislative language insures that priorities get assigned to smallest and poorest communities.

1997
Taxpayer Relief Act (P.L. 105-34) authorizes five new rural Empowerment Zones (Round II).

1998
Round II Empowerment Zones designated, along with 20 new Enterprise Communities authorized by Section 766 of P.L. 105-277.

2000
Round III Empowerment Zones authorized by the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000 (Pub. L. 106-554).