EDA Reauthorization Would Support Tech-based ED Initiatives

Congress begins consideration of the Economic Development Administration (EDA) reauthorization legislation, which continues to include several initiatives to promote tech-based economic development. With the current authorization due to expire on September 30, 2003, the new legislation would authorize EDA's operations for five more years, beginning in FY 2004 and extending to FY 2008. The Administration's proposal includes $331.03 million for assistance programs and planning grants.

Generally, EDA stresses coordination, flexibility and performance as three areas of reform in its reauthorization bill. In terms of flexibility, the bill contains mechanisms to help EDA administer the 38-year-old program and to reward performance by emphasizing job growth. The bill also seeks to ensure that federal agencies are working together on common areas. For example, EDA would be made aware of the Department of Labor's workforce development efforts in an area.

The proposed legislation also provides "authority to establish an incentive program to reward grantees that perform the best in terms of creating jobs in distressed areas of the country. In addition, the Department proposes new special impact area authority to cover those unusual circumstances that arise from time to time and result in special appropriations to meet unanticipated economic development problems."

The legislation would authorize:

• $232.1 million for the Public Works Program, which helps generate or retain high-skill, high-wage jobs and investments in distressed communities.
• $54.7 million for the Economic Adjustment Program, which provides grants to help communities respond to economic change resulting from "industrial or corporate restructuring, natural disaster, reduction in defense expenditures, depletion of natural resources, or other factors."
• $22.3 million for Partnership Planning grants. These grants are designed to "enhance economic development planning capability, support the formulation of development policies, and assist in building local institutional capacity." And,
• $8.9 million for EDA's Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP), University Center Program and the Research and National Technical Assistance Program (RNTAP). LTAP provides funding for public and nonprofit sector leaders in distressed areas to carry out projects such as feasibility studies on potential economic development impact of programs. A federal-academic partnership, the University Center Program allows members of the economic development community access to resources at colleges and universities. RNTAP is designed to give economic development practitioners more information on important issues and to measure programs' effectiveness.

The EDA reauthorization bill will be considered by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Hearings in the House on EDA reauthorization have already begun and Assistant Secretary of Commerce David Sampson is slated to testify about the bill before the House in the next few weeks.

EDA serves as a venture capital resource to meet the economic development needs of distressed communities throughout the U.S. and currently supports production and free dissemination of the SSTI Weekly Digest. More information on EDA is available at: http://www.doc.gov/eda.