1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Act of 2018 . 2. Findings Congress finds that— (1) the Department of Agriculture is the primary Federal agency dedicated to improving the economy and quality of life in rural areas of the United States; (2) the Department of Agriculture provides significant financial resources and technical assistance to rural communities, including loans, loan guarantees, and grants to help support economic development in rural areas of the United States; (3) the United States has a substantial interest in ensuring that the nearly 45,000,000 individuals in the United States living in rural communities have access to critical infrastructure, broadband, telecommunications connectivity, capital, health care, and other essential resources; and (4) renaming the Department of Agriculture the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development would— (A) further establish the importance of rural development to the mission of the Department