The creation of CFC was the realization of an idea first proposed in 1958 by David Hamil, head of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). Within a few years, electric cooperative leaders—through their nationwide service arm, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)—recognized that affordable financing alternatives to REA were needed and began to study financing options.
In January 1969, four years after formally endorsing exploring private-sector financing, the NRECA Board of Directors moved forward with making the promise of a member-owned financing cooperative a reality. Electric cooperative delegates officially ratified the plan on March 17 at the 27th NRECA Annual Meeting in Atlantic City, New Jersey. On April 10, 1969, CFC was incorporated in the District of Columbia.
We chronicle this history from NRECA’s creation of the Long-Range Study Committee in 1967 to present day.