Santa Rosa City Council
July 9, 2024

II
Calendar No. 345
118TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION S. 3891
To amend the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to update and expand Federal economic development investment in the economic recovery, resiliency, and competitiveness of communities, re- gions, and States across the United States, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH 7, 2024
Mr. CARPER (for himself, Mrs. C APITO, Mr. K ELLY, and Mr. C RAMER) intro- duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com- mittee on Environment and Public Works
M
ARCH 12, 2024
Reported by Mr. C ARPER, with an amendment
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] A BILL
To amend the Public Works and Economic Development
Act of 1965 to update and expand Federal economic
development investment in the economic recovery, resil- iency, and competitiveness of communities, regions, and States across the United States, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2 •S 3891 RS
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 2
‘‘Economic Development Reauthorization Act of 2024’’. 3 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 4
this Act is as follows: 5
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

TITLE I—PUBLIC WORKS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Sec. 101. Findings and declarations.

Sec. 102. Definitions.

Sec. 103. Increased coordination.

Sec. 104. Grants for public works and economic development.

Sec. 105. Grants for planning and grants for administrative expenses.

Sec. 106. Cost sharing.

Sec. 107. Regulations on relative needs and allocations.

Sec. 108. Research and technical assistance; university centers.

Sec. 109. Investment priorities.

Sec. 110. Grants for economic adjustment.

Sec. 111. Renewable energy program.

Sec. 112. Workforce training grants.

Sec. 113. Congressional notification requirements.

Sec. 114. Specific flexibilities related to deployment of high-speed broadband.

Sec. 115. Critical supply chain site development grant program.

Sec. 116. Updated distress criteria and grant rates.

Sec. 117. Comprehensive economic development strategies.

Sec. 118. Office of Tribal Economic Development.

Sec. 119. Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience.

Sec. 120. Establishment of technical assistance liaisons.

Sec. 121. Annual report to Congress.

Sec. 122. Modernization of environmental reviews.

Sec. 123. GAO report on economic development programs.

Sec. 124. GAO report on Economic Development Administration regulations and policies.

Sec. 125. GAO study on rural communities.

Sec. 126. General authorization of appropriations.

Sec. 127. Technical correction.

TITLE II—REGIONAL ECONOMIC AND INFRASTRUCTURE

DEVELOPMENT
Sec. 201. Regional commission authorizations.

Sec. 202. Regional commission modifications.

Sec. 203. Transfer of funds among Federal agencies.

Sec. 204. Economic and infrastructure development grants.

Sec. 205. Financial assistance.

Sec. 206. Northern Border Regional Commission area.

Sec. 207. Southwest Border Regional Commission area.

Sec. 208. Great Lakes Authority area.

Sec. 209. Additional regional commission programs.

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Sec. 210. Tribal and colonia participation in southwest border region.

Sec. 211. Establishment of Mid-Atlantic Regional Commission.

Sec. 212. Establishment of Southern New England Regional Commission.

Sec. 213. Denali Commission reauthorization.

Sec. 214. Denali Housing Fund.

Sec. 215. Delta Regional Authority reauthorization.

Sec. 216. Northern Great Plains Regional Authority reauthorization.

TITLE I—PUBLIC WORKS AND 1
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2
SEC. 101. FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS. 3
Section 2 of the Public Works and Economic Devel-4
opment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3121) is amended to read 5 as follows: 6
‘‘SEC.2. FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS. 7
‘‘(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that— 8
‘‘(1) there continue to be areas of the United 9
States— 10
‘‘(A) experiencing chronic high unemploy-11
ment, underemployment, outmigration, and low 12
per capita incomes; and 13
‘‘(B) facing sudden and severe economic 14
dislocations because of structural economic 15
changes, changing trade patterns, certain Fed-16
eral actions (including environmental require-17
ments that result in the removal of economic 18
activities from a locality), impacts from natural 19
disasters, and transitioning industries, including 20
energy generation, steel production, and min-21
ing; 22
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‘‘(2) economic growth in the States, cities, and 1
rural areas of the United States is produced by ex-2
panding economic opportunities, expanding free en-3
terprise through trade, promoting resilience in public 4 infrastructure, creating conditions for job creation, 5 job retention, and business development, and by cap-6
turing the opportunities to lead the industries of the 7 future, including advanced technologies, clean energy 8 production, and advanced manufacturing tech-9
nologies; 10
‘‘(3) the goal of Federal economic development 11
programs is to raise the standard of living for all 12
citizens and increase the wealth and overall rate of 13 growth of the economy by encouraging communities 14
to develop a more competitive and diversified eco-15
nomic base by— 16
‘‘(A) creating an environment that pro-17
motes economic activity by improving and ex-18
panding modern public infrastructure; 19
‘‘(B) promoting job creation, retention, 20
and workforce readiness through increased in-21
novation, productivity, and entrepreneurship; 22
and 23
‘‘(C) empowering local and regional com-24
munities experiencing chronic high unemploy-25
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ment, underemployment, low labor force partici-1
pation, and low per capita income to develop 2
private sector business and attract increased 3
private sector capital investment; 4
‘‘(4) while economic development is an inher-5
ently local process, the Federal Government should 6
work in partnership with public and private State, 7
regional, Tribal, and local organizations to maximize 8 the impact of existing resources and enable regions, 9
communities, and citizens to participate more fully 10
in the American dream and national prosperity; 11
‘‘(5) in order to avoid duplication of effort and 12
achieve meaningful, long-lasting results, Federal, 13
State, Tribal, and local economic development activi-14 ties should have a clear focus, improved coordina-15
tion, a comprehensive approach, and simplified and 16
consistent requirements; 17
‘‘(6) Federal economic development efforts will 18
be more effective if the efforts are coordinated with, 19 and build on, the trade, workforce investment, sci-20
entific research, environmental protection, transpor-21 tation, and technology programs of the United 22
States, including through the consolidation and 23
alignment of plans and strategies to promote effec-24
tive economic development; 25
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‘‘(7) rural communities face unique challenges 1
in addressing infrastructure needs, sometimes lack-2
ing the necessary tax base for required upgrades, 3
and often encounter limited financing options and 4
capacity, which can impede new development and 5
long-term economic growth; and 6
‘‘(8) assisting communities and regions in be-7
coming more resilient to the effects of extreme 8
weather threats and events will promote economic 9
development and job creation. 10
‘‘(b) DECLARATIONS.—In order to promote a strong, 11
growing, resilient, competitive, and secure economy 12
throughout the United States, the opportunity to pursue, 13 and be employed in, high-quality jobs with family-sus-14 taining wages, and to live in communities that enable busi-15 ness creation and wealth, Congress declares that— 16
‘‘(1) assistance under this Act should be made 17
available to both rural- and urban-distressed com-18
munities; 19
‘‘(2) local communities should work in partner-20
ship with neighboring communities, States, Indian 21
tribes, and the Federal Government to increase the 22
capacity of the local communities to develop and im-23
plement comprehensive economic development strate-24
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gies to alleviate economic distress and enhance com-1
petitiveness in the global economy; 2
‘‘(3) whether suffering from long-term distress 3
or a sudden dislocation, distressed communities 4
should be encouraged to support entrepreneurship to 5
take advantage of the development opportunities af-6
forded by technological innovation and expanding 7
newly opened global markets; and 8
‘‘(4) assistance under this Act should be made 9
available to modernize and promote recycling, pro-10
mote the productive reuse of abandoned industrial 11
facilities and the redevelopment of brownfields, and 12 invest in public assets that support travel and tour-13 ism and outdoor recreation.’’. 14
SEC. 102. DEFINITIONS. 15
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3 of the Public Works and 16
Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3122) is 17 amended— 18
(1) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through 19
(12) as paragraphs (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), 20 (12), (13), (14), (16), and (17), respectively; 21
(2) by inserting before paragraph (3) (as so re-22
designated) the following: 23
‘‘(1) BLUE ECONOMY.—The term ‘blue econ-24
omy’ means the sustainable use of marine, lake, or 25
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other aquatic resources in support of economic devel-1
opment objectives. 2
‘‘(2) CAPACITY BUILDING.—The term ‘capacity 3
building’ includes all activities associated with early 4 stage community-based project formation and 5
conceptualization, prior to project predevelopment 6
activity, including grants to local community organi-7
zations for planning participation, community out-8
reach and engagement activities, research, and 9
mentorship support to move projects from formation 10
and conceptualization to project predevelopment.’’; 11
(3) in paragraph (5) (as so redesignated), in 12
subparagraph (A)(i), by striking ‘‘to the extent ap-13
propriate’’ and inserting ‘‘to the extent determined 14 appropriate by the Secretary’’; 15
(4) in paragraph (6) (as so redesignated), in 16
subparagraph (A)— 17
(A) in clause (v), by striking ‘‘or’’ at the 18
end; 19
(B) in clause (vi), by striking the period at 20
end and inserting a semicolon; and 21
(C) by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(vii) an economic development orga-23
nization; or 24
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‘‘(viii) a public-private partnership for 1
public infrastructure.’’; 2
(5) by inserting after paragraph (9) (as so re-3
designated) the following: 4
‘‘(10) OUTDOOR RECREATION.—The term ‘out-5
door recreation’ means all recreational activities, and 6 the economic drivers of those activities, that occur in 7 nature-based environments outdoors. 8
‘‘(11) PROJECT PREDEVELOPMENT.—The term 9
‘project predevelopment’ means a measure required 10
to be completed before the initiation of a project, in-11 cluding— 12
‘‘(A) planning and community asset map-13
ping; 14
‘‘(B) training; 15
‘‘(C) technical assistance and organiza-16
tional development; 17
‘‘(D) feasibility and market studies; 18
‘‘(E) demonstration projects; and 19
‘‘(F) other predevelopment activities deter-20
mined by the Secretary to be appropriate.’’; 21
(6) by striking paragraph (12) (as so redesig-22
nated) and inserting the following: 23
‘‘(12) REGIONAL COMMISSION.—The term ‘Re-24
gional Commission’ means any of the following: 25
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‘‘(A) The Appalachian Regional Commis-1
sion established by section 14301(a) of title 40, 2
United States Code. 3
‘‘(B) The Delta Regional Authority estab-4
lished by section 382B(a)(1) of the Consoli-5
dated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 6
U.S.C. 2009aa–1(a)(1)). 7
‘‘(C) The Denali Commission established 8
by section 303(a) of the Denali Commission Act 9
of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 3121 note; Public Law 10
105–277). 11
‘‘(D) The Great Lakes Authority estab-12
lished by section 15301(a)(4) of title 40, United 13
States Code. 14
‘‘(E) The Mid-Atlantic Regional Commis-15
sion established by section 15301(a)(5) of title 16
40, United States Code. 17
‘‘(F) The Northern Border Regional Com-18
mission established by section 15301(a)(3) of 19
title 40, United States Code. 20
‘‘(G) The Northern Great Plains Regional 21
Authority established by section 383B(a)(1) of 22
the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development 23
Act (7 U.S.C. 2009bb–1(a)(1)). 24
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‘‘(H) The Southeast Crescent Regional 1
Commission established by section 15301(a)(1) 2
of title 40, United States Code. 3
‘‘(I) The Southern New England Regional 4
Commission established by section 15301(a)(6) 5
of title 40, United States Code. 6
‘‘(J) The Southwest Border Regional Com-7
mission established by section 15301(a)(2) of 8
title 40, United States Code.’’; 9
(7) by inserting after paragraph (14) (as so re-10
designated) the following: 11
‘‘(15) TRAVEL AND TOURISM.—The term ‘trav-12
el and tourism’ means any economic activity that 13
primarily serves to encourage recreational or busi-14
ness travel in or to the United States.’’; and 15
(8) in paragraph (17) (as so redesignated), by 16
striking ‘‘established as a University Center for Eco-17 nomic Development under section 207(a)(2)(D)’’ 18
and inserting ‘‘established under section 207(c)(1)’’. 19 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 207(a)(3) 20
of the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 21
1965 (42 U.S.C. 3147(a)(3)) is amended by striking ‘‘sec-22 tion 3(4)(A)(vi)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 3(6)(A)(vi)’’. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 12 •S 3891 RS
SEC. 103. INCREASED COORDINATION. 1
Section 103 of the Public Works and Economic De-2
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3133) is amended by 3
striking subsection (b) and inserting the following: 4
‘‘(b) MEETINGS.— 5
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—To carry out subsection 6
(a), or for any other purpose relating to economic 7
development activities, the Secretary may convene 8
meetings with Federal agencies, State and local gov-9
ernments, economic development districts, Indian 10
tribes, and other appropriate planning and develop-11
ment organizations. 12
‘‘(2) REGIONAL COMMISSIONS.— 13
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In addition to meet-14
ings described in paragraph (1), not later than 15
1 year after the date of enactment of the Eco-16
nomic Development Reauthorization Act of 17
2024, and not less frequently than every 2 18
years thereafter, the Secretary shall convene a 19
meeting with the Regional Commissions in fur-20
therance of subsection (a). 21
‘‘(B) ATTENDEES.—The attendees for a 22
meeting convened under this paragraph shall 23
consist of— 24
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‘‘(i) the Secretary, acting through the 1
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Eco-2
nomic Development, serving as Chair; 3
‘‘(ii) the Federal Cochairpersons of 4
the Regional Commissions, or their des-5
ignees; and 6
‘‘(iii) the State Cochairpersons of the 7
Regional Commissions, or their designees. 8
‘‘(C) PURPOSE.—The purposes of a meet-9
ing convened under this paragraph shall in-10
clude— 11
‘‘(i) to enhance coordination between 12
the Economic Development Administration 13
and the Regional Commissions in carrying 14
out economic development programs; 15
‘‘(ii) to reduce duplication of efforts 16
by the Economic Development Administra-17
tion and the Regional Commissions in car-18
rying out economic development programs; 19
‘‘(iii) to develop best practices and 20
strategies for fostering regional economic 21
development; and 22
‘‘(iv) any other purposes as deter-23
mined appropriate by the Secretary. 24
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‘‘(D) REPORT.—Where applicable and pur-1
suant to subparagraph (C), not later than 1 2
year after a meeting under this paragraph, the 3
Secretary shall prepare and make publicly avail-4
able a report detailing, at a minimum— 5
‘‘(i) the planned actions by the Eco-6
nomic Development Administration and 7
the Regional Commissions to enhance co-8
ordination or reduce duplication of efforts 9
and a timeline for implementing those ac-10
tions; and 11
‘‘(ii) any best practices and strategies 12
developed.’’. 13
SEC. 104. GRANTS FOR PUBLIC WORKS AND ECONOMIC DE-14
VELOPMENT. 15
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 201 of the Public Works 16
and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141) 17 is amended— 18
(1) in subsection (a)— 19
(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘or for 20
the improvement of waste management and re-21
cycling systems’’ after ‘‘development facility’’; 22
and 23
(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘in-24
creasing the resilience’’ after ‘‘expansion,’’; 25
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(2) in subsection (b)(1)— 1
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘suc-2
cessful establishment or expansion’’ and insert-3
ing ‘‘successful establishment, expansion, or re-4
tention,’’; and 5
(B) in subparagraph (C), by inserting 6
‘‘and underemployed’’ after ‘‘unemployed’’; 7
(3) by redesignating subsection (c) as sub-8
section (d); and 9
(4) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol-10
lowing: 11
‘‘(c) ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS.—In awarding 12
grants under subsection (a) and subject to the criteria in 13 subsection (b), the Secretary may also consider the extent 14 to which a project would— 15
‘‘(1) lead to economic diversification in the 16
area, or a part of the area, in which the project is 17 or will be located; 18
‘‘(2) address and mitigate impacts from ex-19
treme weather events, including development of resil-20 ient infrastructure, products, and processes; 21
‘‘(3) benefit highly rural communities without 22
adequate tax revenues to invest in long-term or cost-23 ly infrastructure; 24
‘‘(4) increase access to high-speed broadband; 25
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‘‘(5) support outdoor recreation to spur eco-1
nomic development, with a focus on rural commu-2
nities; 3
‘‘(6) promote job creation or retention relative 4
to the population of the impacted region with out-5
sized significance; 6
‘‘(7) promote travel and tourism; or 7
‘‘(8) promote blue economy activities.’’. 8
SEC. 105. GRANTS FOR PLANNING AND GRANTS FOR AD-9
MINISTRATIVE EXPENSES. 10
Section 203 of the Public Works and Economic De-11
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3143) is amended— 12
(1) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub-13
section (e); 14
(2) by inserting after subsection (c) the fol-15
lowing: 16
‘‘(d) ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—Administrative 17
expenses that may be paid with a grant under this section 18 include— 19
‘‘(1) expenses related to carrying out the plan-20
ning process described in subsection (b); 21
‘‘(2) expenses related to project 22
predevelopment; and 23
‘‘(3) expenses related to hiring professional 24
staff to assist communities in— 25
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‘‘(A) project predevelopment and imple-1
menting projects and priorities included in— 2
‘‘(i) a comprehensive economic devel-3
opment strategy; or 4
‘‘(ii) an economic development plan-5
ning grant; 6
‘‘(B) identifying and using other Federal, 7
State, and Tribal economic development pro-8
grams; 9
‘‘(C) leveraging private and philanthropic 10
investment; 11
‘‘(D) preparing disaster coordination and 12
preparation plans; and 13
‘‘(E) carrying out economic development 14
and predevelopment activities in accordance 15
with professional economic development best 16
practices.’’; and 17
(3) in subsection (e) (as so redesignated), in 18
paragraph (4)— 19
(A) in subparagraph (E), by striking ‘‘; 20
and’’ and inserting ‘‘(including broadband);’’; 21
(B) by redesignating subparagraph (F) as 22
subparagraph (G); and 23
(C) by inserting after subparagraph (E) 24
the following: 25
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‘‘(F) address and mitigate impacts of ex-1
treme weather; and’’. 2
SEC. 106. COST SHARING. 3
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 204 of the Public Works 4
and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3144) 5 is amended— 6
(1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ‘‘50’’ and 7
inserting ‘‘60’’; 8
(2) in subsection (b)— 9
(A) by striking ‘‘In determining’’ and in-10
serting the following: 11
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In determining’’; and 12
(B) by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(2) REGIONAL COMMISSION FUNDS.—Notwith-14
standing any other provision of law, any funds con-15
tributed by a Regional Commission for a project 16
under this title may be considered to be part of the 17 non-Federal share of the costs of the project.’’; and 18 (3) in subsection (c)— 19
(A) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘or can 20
otherwise document that no local matching 21
funds are reasonably obtainable’’ after ‘‘or po-22
litical subdivision’’; 23
(B) in paragraph (3)— 24
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(i) by striking ‘‘section 207’’ and in-1
serting ‘‘section 203 or 207’’; and 2
(ii) by striking ‘‘project if’’ and all 3
that follows through the period at the end 4
and inserting ‘‘project.’’; and 5
(C) by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(4) DISASTER ASSISTANCE.—In the case of a 7
grant provided under section 209 for a project for 8
economic recovery in response to a major disaster or 9
emergency declared under the Robert T. Stafford 10
Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 11
U.S.C. 5121 et seq.), the Secretary may increase the 12 Federal share under paragraph (1) up to 100 per-13
cent of the total cost of the project. 14
‘‘(5) SMALL COMMUNITIES.—In the case of a 15
grant to a political subdivision of a State (as de-16
scribed in section 3(6)(A)(iv)) that has a population 17 of fewer than 10,000 residents and meets 1 or more 18
of the eligibility criteria described in section 301(a), 19 the Secretary may increase the Federal share under 20
paragraph (1) up to 100 percent of the total cost of 21 the project.’’. 22
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 703 of the 23
Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 24 U.S.C. 3233) is amended— 25
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(1) by striking subsection (b); and 1
(2) by striking the section designation and 2
heading and all that follows through ‘‘In addition’’ 3
in subsection (a) and inserting the following: 4
‘‘SEC.703. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR DIS-5
ASTER ECONOMIC RECOVERY ACTIVITIES. 6
‘‘In addition’’. 7
SEC. 107. REGULATIONS ON RELATIVE NEEDS AND ALLOCA-8
TIONS. 9
Section 206 of the Public Works and Economic De-10
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3146) is amended— 11
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking subparagraph 12
(B) and inserting the following: 13
‘‘(B) the per capita income levels, the labor 14
force participation rate, and the extent of 15
underemployment in eligible areas; and’’; and 16
(2) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘and reten-17
tion’’ after ‘‘creation’’. 18
SEC. 108. RESEARCH AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE; UNI-19
VERSITY CENTERS. 20
Section 207 of the Public Works and Economic De-21
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3147) is amended— 22
(1) in subsection (a)(2)(A), by inserting ‘‘, 23
project predevelopment,’’ after ‘‘planning’’; and 24
(2) by adding at the end the following: 25
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‘‘(c) UNIVERSITY CENTERS.— 1
‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—In accordance with 2
subsection (a)(2)(D), the Secretary may make 3
grants to institutions of higher education to serve as 4 university centers. 5
‘‘(2) GEOGRAPHIC COVERAGE.—The Secretary 6
shall ensure that the network of university centers 7
established under this subsection provides services in 8 each State. 9
‘‘(3) DUTIES.—To the maximum extent prac-10
ticable, a university center established under this 11
subsection shall— 12
‘‘(A) collaborate with other university cen-13
ters; 14
‘‘(B) collaborate with economic develop-15
ment districts and other relevant Federal eco-16
nomic development technical assistance and 17
service providers to provide expertise and tech-18
nical assistance to develop, implement, and sup-19
port comprehensive economic development strat-20
egies and other economic development planning 21
at the local, regional, and State levels, with a 22
focus on innovation, entrepreneurship, work-23
force development, and regional economic devel-24
opment; 25
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‘‘(C) provide technical assistance, business 1
development, and technology transfer services 2
to businesses in the area served by the univer-3
sity center; 4
‘‘(D) establish partnerships with 1 or more 5
commercialization intermediaries that are public 6
or nonprofit technology transfer organizations 7
eligible to receive a grant under section 602 of 8
the American Innovation and Competitiveness 9
Act (42 U.S.C. 1862s–9); 10
‘‘(E) promote local and regional capacity 11
building; and 12
‘‘(F) provide to communities and regions 13
assistance relating to data collection and anal-14
ysis and other research relating to economic 15
conditions and vulnerabilities that can inform 16
economic development and adjustment strate-17
gies. 18
‘‘(4) CONSIDERATION.—In making grants 19
under this subsection, the Secretary shall consider 20
the significant role of regional public universities in 21 supporting economic development in distressed com-22
munities through the planning and the implementa-23
tion of economic development projects and initia-24
tives.’’. 25
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SEC. 109. INVESTMENT PRIORITIES. 1
Title II of the Public Works and Economic Develop-2
ment Act of 1965 is amended by inserting after section 3 207 (42 U.S.C. 3147) the following: 4
‘‘SEC.208. INVESTMENT PRIORITIES. 5
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subsection (b), for a 6
project to be eligible for assistance under this title, the 7 project shall be consistent with 1 or more of the following 8 investment priorities: 9
‘‘(1) CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE.—Economic 10
development planning or implementation projects 11
that support development of public facilities, includ-12 ing basic public infrastructure, transportation infra-13 structure, or telecommunications infrastructure. 14
‘‘(2) WORKFORCE.—Economic development 15
planning or implementation projects that— 16
‘‘(A) support job skills training to meet the 17
hiring needs of the area in which the project is 18
to be carried out and that result in well-paying 19
jobs; or 20
‘‘(B) otherwise promote labor force partici-21
pation. 22
‘‘(3) INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP.— 23
Economic development planning or implementation 24
projects that— 25
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‘‘(A) support the development of innova-1
tion and entrepreneurship-related infrastruc-2
ture; 3
‘‘(B) promote business development and 4
lending; or 5
‘‘(C) foster the commercialization of new 6
technologies that are creating technology-driven 7
businesses and high-skilled, well-paying jobs of 8
the future. 9
‘‘(4) ECONOMIC RECOVERY RESILIENCE.—Eco-10
nomic development planning or implementation 11
projects that enhance the ability of an area to with-12 stand and recover from adverse short-term or long- 13
term changes in economic conditions, including ef-14
fects from industry contractions or impacts from 15
natural disasters. 16
‘‘(5) MANUFACTURING.—Economic development 17
planning or implementation projects that encourage 18
job creation, business expansion, technology and 19
capital upgrades, and productivity growth in manu-20
facturing, including efforts that contribute to the 21
competitiveness and growth of domestic suppliers or 22
the domestic production of innovative, high-value 23
products and production technologies. 24
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‘‘(b) CONDITIONS.—If the Secretary plans to use an 1
investment priority that is not described in subsection (a), 2 the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Environ-3 ment and Public Works of the Senate and the Committee 4 on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of 5
Representatives a written notification that explains the 6 basis for using that investment priority. 7
‘‘(c) SAVINGS CLAUSE.—Nothing in this section 8
waives any other requirement of this Act.’’. 9
SEC. 110. GRANTS FOR ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT. 10
Section 209 of the Public Works and Economic De-11
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3149) is amended— 12
(1) in subsection (c)— 13
(A) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘or’’ at 14
the end; 15
(B) in paragraph (5)— 16
(i) by inserting ‘‘, travel and tourism, 17
natural resource-based, blue economy, or 18
agricultural’’ after ‘‘manufacturing’’; and 19
(ii) by striking the period at the end 20
and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 21
(C) by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(6) economic dislocation in the steel industry 23
due to the closure of a steel plant, primary steel 24
economy contraction events (including temporary 25
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layoffs and shifts to part-time work), or job losses 1
in the steel industry or associated with the departure 2 or contraction of the steel industry, for help in eco-3 nomic restructuring of the communities.’’; 4
(2) by redesignating subsections (d) and (e) as 5
subsections (f) and (g), respectively; and 6
(3) by inserting after section (c) the following: 7
‘‘(d) ASSISTANCE TO COAL COMMUNITIES.— 8
‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 9
‘‘(A) COAL ECONOMY.—The term ‘coal 10
economy’ means the complete supply chain of 11
coal-reliant industries, including— 12
‘‘(i) coal mining; 13
‘‘(ii) coal-fired power plants; 14
‘‘(iii) transportation or logistics; and 15
‘‘(iv) manufacturing. 16
‘‘(B) CONTRACTION EVENT.—The term 17
‘contraction event’ means the closure of a facil-18
ity or a reduction in activity relating to a coal- 19
reliant industry, including an industry described 20
in any of clauses (i) through (iv) of subpara-21
graph (A). 22
‘‘(2) AUTHORIZATION.—On the application of 23
an eligible recipient, the Secretary may make grants 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 27 •S 3891 RS
for projects in areas adversely impacted by a con-1
traction event in the coal economy. 2
‘‘(3) ELIGIBILITY.— 3
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out this 4
subsection, the Secretary shall determine the 5
eligibility of an area based on whether the eligi-6
ble recipient can reasonably demonstrate that 7
the area— 8
‘‘(i) has been adversely impacted by a 9
contraction event in the coal economy with-10
in the previous 25 years; or 11
‘‘(ii) will be adversely impacted by a 12
contraction event in the coal economy. 13
‘‘(B) PROHIBITION.—No regulation or 14
other policy of the Secretary may limit the eligi-15
bility of an eligible recipient for a grant under 16
this subsection based on the date of a contrac-17
tion event except as provided in subparagraph 18
(A)(i). 19
‘‘(C) DEMONSTRATING ADVERSE IM-20
PACT.—For the purposes of this paragraph, an 21
eligible recipient may demonstrate an adverse 22
impact by demonstrating— 23
‘‘(i) a loss in employment; 24
‘‘(ii) a reduction in tax revenue; or 25
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‘‘(iii) any other factor, as determined 1
to be appropriate by the Secretary. 2
‘‘(e) ASSISTANCE TO NUCLEAR HOST COMMU-3
NITIES.— 4
‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 5
‘‘(A) COMMISSION.—The term ‘Commis-6
sion’ means the Nuclear Regulatory Commis-7
sion. 8
‘‘(B) COMMUNITY ADVISORY BOARD.—The 9
term ‘community advisory board’ means a com-10
munity committee or other advisory organiza-11
tion that aims to foster communication and in-12
formation exchange between a licensee planning 13
for and involved in decommissioning activities 14
and members of the community that decommis-15
sioning activities may affect. 16
‘‘(C) DECOMMISSION.—The term ‘decom-17
mission’ has the meaning given the term in sec-18
tion 50.2 of title 10, Code of Federal Regula-19
tions (or successor regulations). 20
‘‘(D) LICENSEE.—The term ‘licensee’ has 21
the meaning given the term in section 50.2 of 22
title 10, Code of Federal Regulations (or suc-23
cessor regulations). 24
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‘‘(E) NUCLEAR HOST COMMUNITY.—The 1
term ‘nuclear host community’ means an eligi-2
ble recipient that has been impacted, or reason-3
ably demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Sec-4
retary that it will be impacted, by a nuclear 5
power plant licensed by the Commission that— 6
‘‘(i) is not co-located with an oper-7
ating nuclear power plant; 8
‘‘(ii) is at a site with spent nuclear 9
fuel; and 10
‘‘(iii) as of the date of enactment of 11
the Economic Development Reauthoriza-12
tion Act of 2024— 13
‘‘(I) has ceased operations; or 14
‘‘(II) has provided a written noti-15
fication to the Commission that it will 16
cease operations. 17
‘‘(2) AUTHORIZATION.—On the application of 18
an eligible recipient, the Secretary may make 19
grants— 20
‘‘(A) to assist with economic development 21
in nuclear host communities; and 22
‘‘(B) to fund community advisory boards 23
in nuclear host communities. 24
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‘‘(3) REQUIREMENT.—In carrying out this sub-1
section, to the maximum extent practicable, the Sec-2
retary shall implement the recommendations de-3
scribed in the report submitted to Congress under 4
section 108 of the Nuclear Energy Innovation and 5
Modernization Act (Public Law 115–439; 132 Stat. 6
5577) entitled ‘Best Practices for Establishment and 7
Operation of Local Community Advisory Boards As-8
sociated with Decommissioning Activities at Nuclear 9
Power Plants’. 10
‘‘(4) DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.—The Secretary 11
shall establish a methodology to ensure, to the max-12
imum extent practicable, geographic diversity among 13
grant recipients under this subsection.’’. 14
SEC. 111. RENEWABLE ENERGY PROGRAM. 15
Section 218 of the Public Works and Economic De-16
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3154d) is amended— 17
(1) in the section heading, by striking 18
‘‘BRIGHTFIELDS DEMONSTRATION’’ and insert-19
ing ‘‘RENEWABLE ENERGY’’; 20
(2) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the 21
following: 22
‘‘(a) DEFINITION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SITE.— 23
In this section, the term ‘renewable energy site’ means a 24 brownfield site that is redeveloped through the incorpora-25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00030 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 31 •S 3891 RS
tion of 1 or more renewable energy technologies, including 1 solar, wind, geothermal, ocean, and emerging, but proven, 2 renewable energy technologies.’’; 3
(3) in subsection (b)— 4
(A) in the subsection heading, by striking 5
‘‘DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM’’ and inserting 6
‘‘ESTABLISHMENT’’; 7
(B) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 8
by striking ‘‘brightfield’’ and inserting ‘‘renew-9
able energy’’; and 10
(C) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘solar 11
energy technologies’’ and inserting ‘‘renewable 12
energy technologies described in subsection 13
(a),’’; and 14
(4) by striking subsection (d). 15
SEC. 112. WORKFORCE TRAINING GRANTS. 16
Title II of the Public Works and Economic Develop-17
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141 et seq.) is amended 18 by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘SEC.219. WORKFORCE TRAINING GRANTS. 20
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—On the application of an eligible 21
recipient, the Secretary may make grants to support the 22 development and expansion of innovative workforce train-23 ing programs through sectoral partnerships leading to 24 quality jobs and the acquisition of equipment or construc-25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00031 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 32 •S 3891 RS
tion of facilities to support workforce development activi-1 ties. 2
‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE USES.—Funds from a grant under 3
this section may be used for— 4
‘‘(1) acquisition or development of land and im-5
provements to house workforce training activities; 6
‘‘(2) acquisition, design and engineering, con-7
struction, rehabilitation, alteration, expansion, or im-8 provement of such a facility, including related equip-9 ment and machinery; 10
‘‘(3) acquisition of machinery or equipment to 11
support workforce training activities; 12
‘‘(4) planning, technical assistance, and train-13
ing; 14
‘‘(5) sector partnerships development, program 15
design, and program implementation; and 16
‘‘(6) in the case of an eligible recipient that is 17
a State, subject to subsection (c), a State program 18
to award career scholarships to train individuals for 19 employment in critical industries with high demand 20
and vacancies necessary for further economic devel-21
opment of the applicable State that— 22
‘‘(A) requires significant post-secondary 23
training; but 24
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‘‘(B) does not require a post-secondary de-1
gree. 2
‘‘(c) CAREER SCHOLARSHIPS STATE GRANT PRO-3
GRAM.— 4
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may award 5
grants to States for the purpose described in sub-6
section (b)(6). 7
‘‘(2) APPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a 8
grant under this subsection, the Chief Executive of 9
a State shall submit to the Secretary an application 10 at such time, in such manner, and containing such 11
information as the Secretary may require, which 12
shall include, at a minimum, the following: 13
‘‘(A) A method for identifying critical in-14
dustry sectors driving in-State economic growth 15
that face staffing challenges for in-demand jobs 16
and careers. 17
‘‘(B) A governance structure for the imple-18
mentation of the program established by the 19
State, including defined roles for the consortia 20
of agencies of such State, at a minimum, to in-21
clude the State departments of economic devel-22
opment, labor, and education, or the State de-23
partments or agencies with jurisdiction over 24
those matters. 25
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‘‘(C) A strategy for recruiting participants 1
from at least 1 community that meets 1 or 2
more of the criteria described in section 301(a). 3
‘‘(D) A plan for how the State will develop 4
a tracking system for eligible programs, partici-5
pant enrollment, participant outcomes, and an 6
application portal for individual participants. 7
‘‘(3) SELECTION.—The Secretary shall award 8
not more than 1 grant under this subsection to any 9
State. 10
‘‘(4) ELIGIBLE USES.—A grant under this sub-11
section may be used for— 12
‘‘(A) necessary costs to carry out the mat-13
ters described in this subsection, including tui-14
tion and stipends for individuals that receive a 15
career scholarship grant, subject to the require-16
ments described in paragraph (6); and 17
‘‘(B) program implementation, planning, 18
technical assistance, or training. 19
‘‘(5) FEDERAL SHARE.—Notwithstanding sec-20
tion 204, the Federal share of the cost of any award 21 carried out with a grant made under this subsection 22
shall not exceed 70 percent. 23
‘‘(6) PARTICIPANT AMOUNTS.—A State shall 24
ensure that grant funds provided under this sub-25
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section to each individual that receives a career 1
scholarship grant under the program established by 2
the applicable State is the lesser of the following 3
amounts: 4
‘‘(A) In a case in which the individual is 5
also eligible for a Federal Pell Grant under sec-6
tion 401 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 7
(20 U.S.C. 1070a) for enrollment at the appli-8
cable training program for any award year of 9
the training program, $11,000 minus the 10
amount of the awarded Federal Pell Grant. 11
‘‘(B) For an individual not described in 12
paragraph (1), the lesser of— 13
‘‘(i) $11,000; and 14
‘‘(ii) the total cost of the training pro-15
gram in which the individual is enrolled, 16
including tuition, fees, career navigation 17
services, textbook costs, expenses related to 18
assessments and exams for certification or 19
licensure, equipment costs, and wage sti-20
pends (in the case of a training program 21
that is an earn-and-learn program). 22
‘‘(d) COORDINATION.—The Secretary shall coordi-23
nate the development of new workforce development mod-24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00035 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 36 •S 3891 RS
els with the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Edu-1 cation.’’. 2
SEC. 113. CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS. 3
Title II of the Public Works and Economic Develop-4
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141 et seq.) (as amended 5 by section 112) is amended by adding at the end the fol-6 lowing: 7
‘‘SEC. 220. CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION REQUIRE-8
MENTS. 9
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—In the case of a project described 10 in subsection (b), the Secretary shall provide to the Com-11 mittee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate 12 and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 13 of the House of Representatives notice, in accordance with 14 subsection (c), of the award of a grant for the project not 15 less than 3 business days before notifying an eligible re-16 cipient of their selection for that award. 17
‘‘(b) PROJECTS DESCRIBED.—A project referred to 18
in subsection (a) is a project that the Secretary has se-19 lected to receive a grant administered by the Economic 20 Development Administration in an amount not less than 21 $100,000. 22
‘‘(c) REQUIREMENTS.—A notification under sub-23
section (a) shall include— 24
‘‘(1) the name of the project; 25
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‘‘(2) the name of the applicant; 1
‘‘(3) the region in which the project is to be 2
carried out; 3
‘‘(4) the State in which the project is to be car-4
ried out; 5
‘‘(5) the amount of the grant awarded; 6
‘‘(6) a description of the project; and 7
‘‘(7) any additional information, as determined 8
to be appropriate by the Secretary. 9
‘‘(d) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The Secretary shall 10
make a notification under subsection (a) publicly available 11 not later than 60 days after the date on which the Sec-12 retary provides the notice.’’. 13
SEC. 114. SPECIFIC FLEXIBILITIES RELATED TO DEPLOY-14
MENT OF HIGH-SPEED BROADBAND. 15
Title II of the Public Works and Economic Develop-16
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141 et seq.) (as amended 17 by section 113) is amended by adding at the end the fol-18 lowing: 19
‘‘SEC.221. HIGH-SPEED BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT INITIA-20
TIVE. 21
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 22
‘‘(1) BROADBAND PROJECT.—The term 23
‘broadband project’ means, for the purposes of pro-24
viding, extending, expanding, or improving high- 25
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speed broadband service to further the goals of this 1
Act— 2
‘‘(A) planning, technical assistance, or 3
training; 4
‘‘(B) the acquisition or development of 5
land; or 6
‘‘(C) the acquisition, design and engineer-7
ing, construction, rehabilitation, alteration, ex-8
pansion, or improvement of facilities, including 9
related machinery, equipment, contractual 10
rights, and intangible property. 11
‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE RECIPIENT.—The term ‘eligible 12
recipient’ includes— 13
‘‘(A) a public-private partnership; and 14
‘‘(B) a consortium formed for the purpose 15
of providing, extending, expanding, or improv-16
ing high-speed broadband service between 1 or 17
more eligible recipients and 1 or more for-profit 18
organizations. 19
‘‘(3) HIGH-SPEED BROADBAND.—The term 20
‘high-speed broadband’ means the provision of 2-way 21
data transmission with sufficient downstream and 22
upstream speeds to end users to permit effective 23
participation in the economy and to support eco-24
nomic growth, as determined by the Secretary. 25
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‘‘(b) BROADBAND PROJECTS.— 1
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—On the application of an el-2
igible recipient, the Secretary may make grants 3
under this title for broadband projects, which shall 4
be subject to the provisions of this section. 5
‘‘(2) CONSIDERATIONS.—In reviewing applica-6
tions submitted under paragraph (1), the Secretary 7
shall take into consideration geographic diversity of 8 grants provided, including consideration of under-9
served markets, in addition to data requested in 10
paragraph (3). 11
‘‘(3) DATA REQUESTED.—In reviewing an ap-12
plication submitted under paragraph (1), the Sec-13
retary shall request from the Federal Communica-14
tions Commission, the Administrator of the National 15
Telecommunications and Information Administra-16
tion, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Appa-17
lachian Regional Commission data on— 18
‘‘(A) the level and extent of broadband 19
service that exists in the area proposed to be 20
served; and 21
‘‘(B) the level and extent of broadband 22
service that will be deployed in the area pro-23
posed to be served pursuant to another Federal 24
program. 25
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‘‘(4) INTEREST IN REAL OR PERSONAL PROP-1
ERTY.—For any broadband project carried out by an 2
eligible recipient that is a public-private partnership 3 or consortium, the Secretary shall require that title 4 to any real or personal property acquired or im-5
proved with grant funds, or if the recipient will not 6 acquire title, another possessory interest acceptable 7 to the Secretary, be vested in a public partner or eli-8 gible nonprofit organization or association for the 9
useful life of the project, after which title may be 10 transferred to any member of the public-private 11
partnership or consortium in accordance with regu-12
lations promulgated by the Secretary. 13
‘‘(5) PROCUREMENT.—Notwithstanding any 14
other provision of law, no person or entity shall be 15 disqualified from competing to provide goods or serv-16 ices related to a broadband project on the basis that 17 the person or entity participated in the development 18 of the broadband project or in the drafting of speci-19 fications, requirements, statements of work, or simi-20 lar documents related to the goods or services to be 21 provided. 22
‘‘(6) BROADBAND PROJECT PROPERTY.— 23
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may 24
permit a recipient of a grant for a broadband 25
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project to grant an option to acquire real or 1
personal property (including contractual rights 2
and intangible property) related to that project 3
to a third party on such terms as the Secretary 4
determines to be appropriate, subject to the 5
condition that the option may only be exercised 6
after the Secretary releases the Federal interest 7
in the property. 8
‘‘(B) TREATMENT.—The grant or exercise 9
of an option described in subparagraph (A) 10
shall not constitute a redistribution of grant 11
funds under section 217. 12
‘‘(c) NON-FEDERAL SHARE.—In determining the 13
amount of the non-Federal share of the cost of a 14
broadband project, the Secretary may provide credit to-15 ward the non-Federal share for the present value of allow-16 able contributions over the useful life of the broadband 17 project, subject to the condition that the Secretary may 18 require such assurances of the value of the rights and of 19 the commitment of the rights as the Secretary determines 20 to be appropriate.’’. 21
SEC. 115. CRITICAL SUPPLY CHAIN SITE DEVELOPMENT 22
GRANT PROGRAM. 23
Title II of the Public Works and Economic Develop-24
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141 et seq.) (as amended 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00041 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 42 •S 3891 RS
by section 114) is amended by adding at the end the fol-1 lowing: 2
‘‘SEC.222. CRITICAL SUPPLY CHAIN SITE DEVELOPMENT 3
GRANT PROGRAM. 4
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—On the application of an eligible 5
recipient, the Secretary may make grants under the ‘Crit-6 ical Supply Chain Site Development grant program’ (re-7 ferred to in this section as the ‘grant program’) to carry 8 out site development or expansion projects for the purpose 9 of making the site ready for manufacturing projects. 10 ‘‘(b) CONSIDERATIONS.—In providing a grant to an 11
eligible recipient under the grant program, the Secretary 12 may consider whether— 13
‘‘(1) the proposed improvements to the site will 14
improve economic conditions for rural areas, Tribal 15
communities, or areas that meet 1 or more of the 16
criteria described in section 301(a); 17
‘‘(2) the project is consistent with regional eco-18
nomic development plans, which may include a com-19
prehensive economic development strategy; 20
‘‘(3) the eligible recipient has initiatives to 21
prioritize job training and workforce development; 22
and 23
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‘‘(4) the project supports industries determined 1
by the Secretary to be of strategic importance to the 2 national or economic security of the United States. 3
‘‘(c) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants to eligible re-4
cipients under the grant program, the Secretary shall give 5 priority to eligible recipients that propose to carry out a 6 project that— 7
‘‘(1) has State, local, private, or nonprofit 8
funds being contributed to assist with site develop-9
ment efforts; and 10
‘‘(2) if the site development or expansion 11
project is carried out, will result in a demonstrated 12 interest in the site by commercial entities or other 13 entities. 14
‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.—A grant provided under the 15
grant program may be used for the following activities re-16 lating to the development or expansion of a site: 17
‘‘(1) Investments in site utility readiness, in-18
cluding— 19
‘‘(A) construction of on-site utility infra-20
structure; 21
‘‘(B) construction of last-mile infrastruc-22
ture, including road infrastructure, water infra-23
structure, power infrastructure, broadband in-24
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frastructure, and other physical last-mile infra-1
structure; 2
‘‘(C) site grading; and 3
‘‘(D) other activities to extend public utili-4
ties or services to a site, as determined appro-5
priate by the Secretary. 6
‘‘(2) Investments in site readiness, including— 7
‘‘(A) land assembly; 8
‘‘(B) environmental reviews; 9
‘‘(C) zoning; 10
‘‘(D) design; 11
‘‘(E) engineering; and 12
‘‘(F) permitting. 13
‘‘(3) Investments in workforce development and 14
sustainability programs, including job training and 15
retraining programs. 16
‘‘(4) Investments to ensure that disadvantaged 17
communities have access to on-site jobs. 18
‘‘(e) PROHIBITION.—In awarding grants under the 19
grant program, the Secretary shall not require an eligible 20 recipient to demonstrate that a private company or invest-21 ment has selected the site for development or expansion.’’. 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00044 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 45 •S 3891 RS
SEC. 116. UPDATED DISTRESS CRITERIA AND GRANT 1
RATES. 2
Section 301(a) of the Public Works and Economic 3
Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3161(a)) is amended 4 by striking paragraph (3) and inserting the following: 5 ‘‘(3) UNEMPLOYMENT, UNDEREMPLOYMENT, OR 6
ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT PROBLEMS.—The area is 7
an area that the Secretary determines has experi-8
enced or is about to experience a special need arising 9 from actual or threatened severe unemployment, 10
underemployment, or economic adjustment problems 11
resulting from severe short-term or long-term 12
changes in economic conditions. 13
‘‘(4) LOW MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME.—The 14
area has a median household income of 80 percent 15
or less of the national average. 16
‘‘(5) WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION.—The area 17
has— 18
‘‘(A) a labor force participation rate of 90 19
percent or less of the national average; or 20
‘‘(B) a prime-age employment gap of 5 21
percent or more. 22
‘‘(6) EXPECTED ECONOMIC DISLOCATION AND 23
DISTRESS FROM ENERGY INDUSTRY TRANSITIONS.— 24
The area is an area that is expected to experience 25
actual or threatened severe unemployment or eco-26
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nomic adjustment problems resulting from severe 1
short-term or long-term changes in economic condi-2
tions from energy industries that are experiencing 3
accelerated contraction.’’. 4
SEC. 117. COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 5
STRATEGIES. 6
Section 302 of the Public Works and Economic De-7
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3162) is amended— 8
(1) in subsection (a)(3)(A), by inserting ‘‘in-9
cluding to mitigate and adapt to extreme weather,’’ 10
after ‘‘enhances and protects the environment,’’; and 11 (2) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(d) EXCEPTION.—This section shall not apply to 13
grants awarded under section 207 or grants awarded 14
under section 209(c)(2) that are regional in scope.’’. 15 SEC. 118. OFFICE OF TRIBAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. 16
Title V of the Public Works and Economic Develop-17
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3191 et seq.) is amended 18 by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘SEC.508. OFFICE OF TRIBAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. 20
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established within 21
the Economic Development Administration an Office of 22 Tribal Economic Development (referred to in this section 23 as the ‘Office’). 24
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‘‘(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of the Office shall 1
be— 2
‘‘(1) to coordinate all Tribal economic develop-3
ment activities carried out by the Secretary; 4
‘‘(2) to help Tribal communities access eco-5
nomic development assistance programs, including 6
the assistance provided under this Act; 7
‘‘(3) to coordinate Tribal economic development 8
strategies and efforts with other Federal agencies; 9
and 10
‘‘(4) to be a participant in any negotiated 11
rulemakings or consultations relating to, or having 12
an impact on, projects, programs, or funding that 13
benefit Tribal communities. 14
‘‘(c) TRIBAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRAT-15
EGY.— 16
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 17
the date of enactment of the Economic Development 18
Reauthorization Act of 2024, the Office shall initiate 19 a Tribal consultation process to develop, and not less 20 frequently than every 3 years thereafter, update, a 21
strategic plan for Tribal economic development for 22
the Economic Development Administration. 23
‘‘(2) SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.—Not later 24
than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Eco-25
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nomic Development Reauthorization Act of 2024 1
and not less frequently than every 3 years there-2
after, the Office shall submit to Congress the stra-3
tegic plan for Tribal economic development devel-4
oped under paragraph (1). 5
‘‘(d) OUTREACH.—The Secretary shall establish a 6
publicly facing website to help provide a comprehensive, 7 single source of information for Indian tribes, Tribal lead-8 ers, Tribal businesses, and citizens in Tribal communities 9 to better understand and access programs that support 10 economic development in Tribal communities, including 11 the economic development programs administered by Fed-12 eral agencies or departments other than the Department. 13 ‘‘(e) DEDICATED STAFF.—The Secretary shall en-14
sure that the Office has sufficient staff to carry out all 15 outreach activities under this section.’’. 16
SEC. 119. OFFICE OF DISASTER RECOVERY AND RESIL-17
IENCE. 18
Title V of the Public Works and Economic Develop-19
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3191 et seq.) (as amended 20 by section 118) is amended by adding at the end the fol-21 lowing: 22
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‘‘SEC.509. OFFICE OF DISASTER RECOVERY AND RESIL-1
IENCE. 2
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall estab-3
lish an Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience— 4
‘‘(1) to direct and implement the post-disaster 5
economic recovery responsibilities of the Economic 6
Development Administration pursuant to subsections 7
(c)(2) and (e) of section 209 and section 703; 8
‘‘(2) to direct and implement economic recovery 9
and enhanced resilience support function activities 10
as directed under the National Disaster Recovery 11
Framework; and 12
‘‘(3) support long-term economic recovery in 13
communities in which a major disaster or emergency 14
has been declared under the Robert T. Stafford Dis-15
aster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 16
U.S.C. 5121 et seq.), or otherwise impacted by an 17
event of national significance, as determined by the 18 Secretary, through— 19
‘‘(A) convening and deploying an economic 20
development assessment team; 21
‘‘(B) hosting or attending convenings re-22
lated to identification of additional Federal, 23
State, local, and philanthropic entities and re-24
sources; 25
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‘‘(C) exploring potential flexibilities related 1
to existing awards; 2
‘‘(D) provision of technical assistance 3
through staff or contractual resources; and 4
‘‘(E) other activities determined by the 5
Secretary to be appropriate. 6
‘‘(b) APPOINTMENT AND COMPENSATION AUTHORI-7
TIES.— 8
‘‘(1) APPOINTMENT.—The Secretary is author-9
ized to appoint such temporary personnel as may be 10
necessary to carry out the responsibilities of the Of-11 fice of Disaster Recovery and Resilience, without re-12 gard to the provisions of subchapter I of chapter 33 13 of title 5, United States Code, governing appoint-14
ments in the competitive service and compensation 15
of personnel. 16
‘‘(2) CONVERSION OF EMPLOYEES.—Notwith-17
standing chapter 33 of title 5, United States Code, 18
or any other provision of law relating to the exam-19
ination, certification, and appointment of individuals 20 in the competitive service, the Secretary is author-21
ized to convert a temporary employee appointed 22
under this subsection to a permanent appointment 23
in the competitive service in the Economic Develop-24
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ment Administration under merit promotion proce-1
dures if— 2
‘‘(A) the employee has served continuously 3
for at least 2 years under 1 or more appoint-4
ments under this subsection; and 5
‘‘(B) the employee’s performance has been 6
at an acceptable level of performance through-7
out the period or periods referred to in sub-8
paragraph (A). 9
‘‘(3) COMPENSATION.—An individual converted 10
under this subsection shall become a career-condi-11
tional employee, unless the employee has already 12
completed the service requirements for career ten-13
ure. 14
‘‘(c) DISASTER TEAM.— 15
‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—As soon as practicable 16
after the date of enactment of this section, the Sec-17 retary shall establish a disaster team (referred to in 18 this section as the ‘disaster team’) for the deploy-19
ment of individuals to carry out responsibilities of 20 the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience after 21 a major disaster or emergency has been declared 22
under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and 23
Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.) 24
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and the Department has been activated by the Fed-1
eral Emergency Management Agency. 2
‘‘(2) MEMBERSHIP.— 3
‘‘(A) DESIGNATION OF STAFF.—As soon 4
as practicable after the date of enactment of 5
this section, the Secretary shall designate to 6
serve on the disaster team— 7
‘‘(i) employees of the Office of Dis-8
aster Recovery and Resilience; 9
‘‘(ii) employees of the Department 10
who are not employees of the Economic 11
Development Administration; and 12
‘‘(iii) in consultation with the heads of 13
other Federal agencies, employees of those 14
agencies, as appropriate. 15
‘‘(B) CAPABILITIES.—In designating indi-16
viduals under subparagraph (A), the Secretary 17
shall ensure that the disaster team includes a 18
sufficient quantity of— 19
‘‘(i) individuals who are capable of de-20
ploying rapidly and efficiently to respond 21
to major disasters and emergencies; and 22
‘‘(ii) highly trained full-time employ-23
ees who will lead and manage the disaster 24
team. 25
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‘‘(3) TRAINING.—The Secretary shall ensure 1
that appropriate and ongoing training is provided to 2
members of the disaster team to ensure that the 3
members are adequately trained regarding the pro-4
grams and policies of the Economic Development 5
Administration relating to post-disaster economic re-6
covery efforts. 7
‘‘(4) EXPENSES.—In carrying out this section, 8
the Secretary may— 9
‘‘(A) use, with or without reimbursement, 10
any service, equipment, personnel, or facility of 11
any Federal agency with the explicit support of 12
that agency, to the extent such use does not im-13
pair or conflict with the authority of the Presi-14
dent or the Administrator of the Federal Emer-15
gency Management Agency under the Robert T. 16
Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assist-17
ance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.) to direct 18
Federal agencies in any major disaster or emer-19
gency declared under that Act; and 20
‘‘(B) provide members of the disaster team 21
with travel expenses, including per diem in lieu 22
of subsistence, at rates authorized for an em-23
ployee of an agency under subchapter I of chap-24
ter 57 of title 5, United States Code, while 25
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away from the home or regular place of busi-1
ness of the member in the performance of serv-2
ices for, or relating to, the disaster team.’’. 3
SEC. 120. ESTABLISHMENT OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE LI-4
AISONS. 5
Title V of the Public Works and Economic Develop-6
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3191 et seq.) (as amended 7 by section 119) is amended by adding at the end the fol-8 lowing: 9
‘‘SEC.510. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE LIAISONS. 10
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—A Regional Director of a re-11
gional office of the Economic Development Administration 12 may designate a staff member to act as a ‘Technical As-13 sistance Liaison’ for any State served by the regional of-14 fice. 15
‘‘(b) ROLE.—A Technical Assistance Liaison shall— 16
‘‘(1) work in coordination with an Economic 17
Development Representative to provide technical as-18
sistance, in addition to technical assistance under 19
section 207, to eligible recipients that are 20
underresourced communities, as determined by the 21
Technical Assistance Liaison, that submit applica-22
tions for assistance under title II; and 23
‘‘(2) at the request of an eligible recipient that 24
submitted an application for assistance under title 25
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II, provide technical feedback on unsuccessful grant 1
applications. 2
‘‘(c) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary may 3
enter into a contract or cooperative agreement with an eli-4 gible recipient for the purpose of providing technical as-5 sistance to eligible recipients that are underresourced com-6 munities that have submitted or may submit an applica-7 tion for assistance under this Act.’’. 8
SEC. 121. ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS. 9
Section 603(b) of the Public Works and Economic 10
Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3213(b)) is amend-11 ed— 12
(1) in paragraph (2)— 13
(A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 14
‘‘areas’’ after ‘‘rural’’; and 15
(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking 16
‘‘and’’ at the end; 17
(2) in paragraph (3), by striking the period at 18
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 19
(3) by adding at the end the following: 20
‘‘(4)(A) include a list of all of the grants pro-21
vided by the Economic Development Administration 22
for projects located in, or that primarily benefit, 23
rural areas; 24
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‘‘(B) an explanation of the process used to de-1
termine how each project referred to in subpara-2
graph (A) would benefit a rural area; and 3
‘‘(C) a certification that each project referred to 4
in subparagraph (A)— 5
‘‘(i) is located in a rural area; or 6
‘‘(ii) will primarily benefit a rural area.’’. 7
SEC. 122. MODERNIZATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS. 8
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 9
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Commerce 10 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall sub-11 mit to the Committee on Environment and Public Works 12 of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and 13 Infrastructure of the House of Representatives a report 14 on the efforts of the Secretary to facilitate efficient, time-15 ly, and predictable environmental reviews of projects fund-16 ed by the Public Works and Economic Development Act 17
of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3121 et seq.), including through ex-18 panded use of categorical exclusions, environmental as-19 sessments, or programmatic environmental impact state-20 ments. 21
(b) REQUIREMENTS.—In completing the report under 22
subsection (a), the Secretary shall— 23
(1) describe the actions the Secretary will take 24
to implement the amendments to the National Envi-25
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ronmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et 1
seq.) made by section 321 of the Fiscal Responsi-2
bility Act of 2023 (Public Law 118–5; 137 Stat. 3
38); 4
(2) describe the existing categorical exclusions 5
most frequently used by the Secretary to streamline 6
the environmental review of projects funded by the 7
Public Works and Economic Development Act of 8
1965 (42 U.S.C. 3121 et seq.); and 9
(3) consider— 10
(A) the adoption of additional categorical 11
exclusions, including those used by other Fed-12
eral agencies, that would facilitate the environ-13
mental review of projects funded by the Public 14
Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 15
(42 U.S.C. 3121 et seq.); 16
(B) the adoption of new programmatic en-17
vironmental impact statements that would fa-18
cilitate the environmental review of projects 19
funded by the Public Works and Economic De-20
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3121 et 21
seq.); and 22
(C) agreements with other Federal agen-23
cies that would facilitate a more efficient proc-24
ess for the environmental review of projects 25
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funded by the Public Works and Economic De-1
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3121 et 2
seq.). 3
(c) RULEMAKING.—Not later than 2 years after the 4
submission of the report under subsection (a), the Sec-5 retary shall promulgate a final rule implementing, to the 6 maximum extent practicable, measures considered by the 7 Secretary under subsection (b) that are necessary to 8
streamline the environmental review of projects funded by 9 the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 10 (42 U.S.C. 3121 et seq.). 11
SEC. 123. GAO REPORT ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PRO-12
GRAMS. 13
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 14
(1) COMPTROLLER GENERAL.—The term 15
‘‘Comptroller General’’ means the Comptroller Gen-16
eral of the United States. 17
(2) REGIONAL COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Re-18
gional Commission’’ has the meaning given the term 19
in section 3 of the Public Works and Economic De-20
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3122). 21
(b) REPORT.—Not later than September 30, 2026, 22
the Comptroller General shall submit to the Committee 23 on Environment and Public Works of the Senate and the 24 Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00058 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 59 •S 3891 RS
House of Representatives a report that evaluates economic 1 development programs administered by the Economic De-2
velopment Administration and the Regional Commissions. 3 (c) CONTENTS.—In carrying out the report under 4
subsection (b), the Comptroller General shall— 5
(1) evaluate the impact of programs described 6
in that subsection on economic outcomes, including 7
job creation and retention, the rate of unemployment 8
and underemployment, labor force participation, and 9
private investment leveraged; 10
(2) describe efforts by the Economic Develop-11
ment Administration and the Regional Commissions 12
to document the impact of programs described in 13
that subsection on economic outcomes described in 14
paragraph (1); 15
(3) describe efforts by the Economic Develop-16
ment Administration and the Regional Commissions 17
to carry out coordination activities described in sec-18 tion 103 of the Public Works and Economic Devel-19
opment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3133); 20
(4) consider other factors, as determined to be 21
appropriate by the Comptroller General of the 22
United States, to assess the effectiveness of pro-23
grams described in subsection (b); and 24
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(5) make legislative recommendations for im-1
provements to programs described in subsection (b) 2
as applicable. 3
SEC. 124. GAO REPORT ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AD-4
MINISTRATION REGULATIONS AND POLICIES. 5
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 6
(1) COMPTROLLER GENERAL.—The term 7
‘‘Comptroller General’’ means the Comptroller Gen-8
eral of the United States. 9
(2) SMALL COMMUNITY.—The term ‘‘small 10
community’’ means a community of less than 10,000 11
year-round residents. 12
(b) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 13
of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall 14 submit to the Committee on Environment and Public 15
Works of the Senate and the Committee on Transpor-16
tation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives 17 a report that evaluates economic development regulations 18 and policies administered by the Economic Development 19 Administration that have hindered the ability of commu-20 nities to apply for and administer Economic Development 21 Administration grants. 22
(c) CONTENTS.—In carrying out the report under 23
subsection (b), the Comptroller General shall— 24
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(1) review regulations and grant application 1
processes promulgated by the Assistant Secretary of 2
Commerce for Economic Development; 3
(2) evaluate the technical capacity of eligible re-4
cipients (as defined in section 3 of the Public Works 5 and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 6
3122)) to apply for Economic Development Adminis-7
tration grants; 8
(3) identify barriers to small communities ap-9
plying for Economic Development Administration 10
grants, in consultation with— 11
(A) State economic development represent-12
atives; 13
(B) secretaries of State departments of 14
economic development; 15
(C) representatives for small communities 16
that have received Economic Development Ad-17
ministration grants; and 18
(D) representatives for small communities 19
that have never applied for Economic Develop-20
ment Administration grants; and 21
(4) provide recommendations for simplifying 22
and easing the ability for grant applicants to navi-23
gate the Economic Development Administration 24
grant application process, including through a review 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00061 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 62 •S 3891 RS
of regulations, including environmental regulations, 1
not in the jurisdiction of the Economic Development 2
Administration to identify possible grant application 3 process improvements. 4
SEC. 125. GAO STUDY ON RURAL COMMUNITIES. 5
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 6
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 7 of the United States (referred to in this section as the 8 ‘‘Comptroller General’’) shall conduct a study to evaluate 9 the impacts of funding provided by the Economic Develop-10 ment Administration to distressed communities (as de-11 scribed in section 301(a) of the Public Works and Eco-12 nomic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3161(a))) lo-13 cated in rural areas. 14
(b) CONTENTS.—In carrying out the study under 15
subsection (a), the Comptroller General shall— 16
(1) identify not less than 5 geographically di-17
verse distressed communities in rural areas; and 18
(2) for each distressed community identified 19
under paragraph (1), examine the impacts of fund-20
ing provided by the Economic Development Adminis-21
tration on— 22
(A) the local jobs and unemployment of the 23
community; and 24
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(B) the availability of affordable housing in 1
the community. 2
(c) REPORT.—On completion of the study under sub-3
section (a), the Comptroller General shall submit to the 4 Committee on Environment and Public Works of the Sen-5
ate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastruc-6 ture of the House of Representatives a report on the find-7 ings of the study and any recommendations that result 8 from the study. 9
SEC. 126. GENERAL AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 10
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 701 of the Public Works 11
and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3231) 12 is amended— 13
(1) by redesignating subsection (b) as sub-14
section (k); and 15
(2) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the 16
following: 17
‘‘(a) GRANTS FOR PUBLIC WORKS AND ECONOMIC 18
DEVELOPMENT.—There are authorized to be appropriated 19 to carry out section 201, to remain available until ex-20 pended— 21
‘‘(1) $170,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; 22
‘‘(2) $195,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; 23
‘‘(3) $220,000,000 for fiscal year 2027; 24
‘‘(4) $245,000,000 for fiscal year 2028; and 25
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‘‘(5) $270,000,000 for fiscal year 2029. 1
‘‘(b) GRANTS FOR PLANNING AND GRANTS FOR AD-2
MINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—There are authorized to be 3
appropriated to carry out section 203, to remain available 4 until expended— 5
‘‘(1) $90,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; 6
‘‘(2) $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; 7
‘‘(3) $110,000,000 for fiscal year 2027; 8
‘‘(4) $120,000,000 for fiscal year 2028; and 9
‘‘(5) $130,000,000 for fiscal year 2029. 10
‘‘(c) GRANTS FOR TRAINING, RESEARCH, AND TECH-11
NICAL ASSISTANCE.—There are authorized to be appro-12
priated to carry out section 207, to remain available until 13 expended— 14
‘‘(1) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; 15
‘‘(2) $30,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; 16
‘‘(3) $35,000,000 for fiscal year 2027; 17
‘‘(4) $40,000,000 for fiscal year 2028; and 18
‘‘(5) $45,000,000 for fiscal year 2029. 19
‘‘(d) GRANTS FOR ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT.—There 20
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out section 209 21 (other than subsections (d) and (e)), to remain available 22 until expended— 23
‘‘(1) $65,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; 24
‘‘(2) $75,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; 25
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‘‘(3) $85,000,000 for fiscal year 2027; 1
‘‘(4) $95,000,000 for fiscal year 2028; and 2
‘‘(5) $105,000,000 for fiscal year 2029. 3
‘‘(e) ASSISTANCE TO COAL COMMUNITIES.—There is 4
authorized to be appropriated to carry out section 209(d) 5 $75,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029, 6 to remain available until expended. 7
‘‘(f) ASSISTANCE TO NUCLEAR HOST COMMU-8
NITIES.—There are authorized to be appropriated to carry 9 out section 209(e), to remain available until expended— 10 ‘‘(1) to carry out paragraph (2)(A), 11
$35,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 12
2029; and 13
‘‘(2) to carry out paragraph (2)(B), $5,000,000 14
for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2027. 15
‘‘(g) RENEWABLE ENERGY PROGRAM.—There is au-16
thorized to be appropriated to carry out section 218 17 $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029, 18 to remain available until expended. 19
‘‘(h) WORKFORCE TRAINING GRANTS.—There is au-20
thorized to be appropriated to carry out section 219 21 $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029, 22 to remain available until expended, of which $10,000,000 23 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029 shall be used 24 to carry out subsection (c) of that section. 25
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‘‘(i) CRITICAL SUPPLY CHAIN SITE DEVELOPMENT 1
GRANT PROGRAM.—There is authorized to be appro-2
priated to carry out section 222 $20,000,000 for each of 3 fiscal years 2025 through 2029, to remain available until 4 expended. 5
‘‘(j) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE LIAISONS.—There is 6
authorized to be appropriated to carry out section 510 7 $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029, 8 to remain available until expended.’’. 9
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Title VII of the 10
Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 11 U.S.C. 3231 et seq.) is amended by striking section 704. 12 SEC. 127. TECHNICAL CORRECTION. 13
Section 1 of the Public Works and Economic Devel-14
opment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3121 note; Public Law 15
89–136) is amended by striking subsection (b) and insert-16 ing the following: 17
‘‘(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents 18
for this Act is as follows: 19
‘‘Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
‘‘Sec. 2. Findings and declarations.
‘‘Sec. 3. Definitions.
‘‘TITLE I—ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS

COOPERATION AND COORDINATION
‘‘Sec. 101. Establishment of economic development partnerships. ‘‘Sec. 102. Cooperation of Federal agencies.
‘‘Sec. 103. Coordination.
‘‘TITLE II—GRANTS FOR PUBLIC WORKS AND ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT
‘‘Sec. 201. Grants for public works and economic development.

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‘‘Sec. 202. Base closings and realignments.
‘‘Sec. 203. Grants for planning and grants for administrative expenses. ‘‘Sec. 204. Cost sharing.
‘‘Sec. 205. Supplementary grants.
‘‘Sec. 206. Regulations on relative needs and allocations. ‘‘Sec. 207. Research and technical assistance; university centers. ‘‘Sec. 208. Investment priorities.
‘‘Sec. 209. Grants for economic adjustment.
‘‘Sec. 210. Changed project circumstances.
‘‘Sec. 211. Use of funds in projects constructed under projected cost. ‘‘Sec. 212. Reports by recipients.
‘‘Sec. 213. Prohibition on use of funds for attorney’s and consultant’s fees. ‘‘Sec. 214. Special impact areas.
‘‘Sec. 215. Performance awards.
‘‘Sec. 216. Planning performance awards.
‘‘Sec. 217. Direct expenditure or redistribution by recipient. ‘‘Sec. 218. Renewable energy program.
‘‘Sec. 219. Workforce training grants.
‘‘Sec. 220. Congressional notification requirements.
‘‘Sec. 221. High-Speed Broadband Deployment Initiative. ‘‘Sec. 222. Critical supply chain site development grant program. ‘‘TITLE III—ELIGIBILITY; COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
‘‘Sec. 301. Eligibility of areas.
‘‘Sec. 302. Comprehensive economic development strategies. ‘‘TITLE IV—ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DISTRICTS
‘‘Sec. 401. Designation of economic development districts. ‘‘Sec. 402. Termination or modification of economic development districts. ‘‘Sec. 404. Provision of comprehensive economic development strategies to Re- gional Commissions.
‘‘Sec. 405. Assistance to parts of economic development districts not in eligible areas.
‘‘TITLE V—ADMINISTRATION
‘‘Sec. 501. Assistant Secretary for Economic Development. ‘‘Sec. 502. Economic development information clearinghouse. ‘‘Sec. 503. Consultation with other persons and agencies. ‘‘Sec. 504. Administration, operation, and maintenance. ‘‘Sec. 506. Performance evaluations of grant recipients. ‘‘Sec. 507. Notification of reorganization.
‘‘Sec. 508. Office of Tribal Economic Development.
‘‘Sec. 509. Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience. ‘‘Sec. 510. Technical Assistance Liaisons.
‘‘TITLE VI—MISCELLANEOUS
‘‘Sec. 601. Powers of Secretary.
‘‘Sec. 602. Maintenance of standards.
‘‘Sec. 603. Annual report to Congress.
‘‘Sec. 604. Delegation of functions and transfer of funds among Federal agen- cies.
‘‘Sec. 605. Penalties.

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‘‘Sec. 606. Employment of expediters and administrative employees. ‘‘Sec. 607. Maintenance and public inspection of list of approved applications for financial assistance.
‘‘Sec. 608. Records and audits.
‘‘Sec. 609. Relationship to assistance under other law. ‘‘Sec. 610. Acceptance of certifications by applicants. ‘‘Sec. 611. Brownfields redevelopment reports.
‘‘Sec. 612. Savings clause.
‘‘TITLE VII—FUNDING
‘‘Sec. 701. General authorization of appropriations.
‘‘Sec. 702. Authorization of appropriations for defense conversation activities. ‘‘Sec. 703. Authorization of appropriations for disaster economic recovery ac- tivities.’’.

TITLE II—REGIONAL ECONOMIC 1
AND INFRASTRUCTURE DE-2
VELOPMENT 3
SEC. 201. REGIONAL COMMISSION AUTHORIZATIONS. 4
Section 15751 of title 40, United States Code, is 5
amended by striking subsection (a) and inserting the fol-6 lowing: 7
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be appro-8
priated to each Commission to carry out this subtitle 9 $40,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029.’’. 10 SEC. 202. REGIONAL COMMISSION MODIFICATIONS. 11
(a) MEMBERSHIP OF COMMISSIONS.—Section 15301 12
of title 40, United States Code, is amended— 13
(1) in subsection (b)(2)(C)— 14
(A) by striking ‘‘An alternate member’’ 15
and inserting the following: 16
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—An alternate 17
member’’; and 18
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(B) by adding at the end the following: 1
‘‘(ii) STATE ALTERNATES.—If the al-2
ternate State member is unable to vote in 3
accordance with clause (i), the alternate 4
State member may delegate voting author-5
ity to a designee, subject to the condition 6
that the executive director shall be notified, 7
in writing, of the designation not less than 8
1 week before the applicable vote is to take 9
place.’’; and 10
(2) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘a Federal em-11
ployee’’ and inserting ‘‘an employee’’. 12
(b) DECISIONS OF COMMISSIONS.—Section 15302 of 13
title 40, United States Code, is amended— 14
(1) in subsection (a), by inserting ‘‘or alternate 15
State members, including designees’’ after ‘‘State 16
members’’; and 17
(2) by striking subsection (c) and inserting the 18
following: 19
‘‘(c) QUORUMS.— 20
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), a 21
Commission shall determine what constitutes a 22
quorum for meetings of the Commission. 23
‘‘(2) REQUIREMENTS.—Any quorum for meet-24
ings of a Commission shall include— 25
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‘‘(A) the Federal Cochairperson or the al-1
ternate Federal Cochairperson; and 2
‘‘(B) a majority of State members or alter-3
nate State members, including designees (exclu-4
sive of members representing States delinquent 5
under section 15304(c)(3)(C)).’’. 6
(c) ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS AND EXPENSES OF 7
COMMISSIONS.—Section 15304(a) of title 40, United 8
States Code, is amended— 9
(1) in paragraph (5), by inserting ‘‘, which may 10
be done without a requirement for the Commission 11
to reimburse the agency or local government’’ after 12
‘‘status’’; 13
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (8) and (9) as 14
paragraphs (9) and (10), respectively; 15
(3) by inserting after paragraph (7) the fol-16
lowing: 17
‘‘(8) collect fees for services provided and retain 18
and expend such fees;’’; 19
(4) in paragraph (9) (as so redesignated), by 20
inserting ‘‘leases (including the lease of office space 21 for any term),’’ after ‘‘cooperative agreements,’’; and 22 (5) in paragraph (10) (as so redesignated), by 23
striking ‘‘maintain a government relations office in 24 the District of Columbia and’’. 25
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(d) MEETINGS OF COMMISSIONS.—Section 15305(b) 1
of title 40, United States Code, is amended by striking 2 ‘‘with the Federal Cochairperson’’ and all that follows 3 through the period at the end and inserting the following: 4 ‘‘with— 5
‘‘(1) the Federal Cochairperson; and 6
‘‘(2) at least a majority of the State members 7
or alternate State members (including designees) 8
present in-person or via electronic means.’’. 9
(e) ANNUAL REPORTS.—Section 15308(a) of title 40, 10
United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘90’’ and in-11 serting ‘‘180’’. 12
SEC. 203. TRANSFER OF FUNDS AMONG FEDERAL AGEN-13
CIES. 14
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 153 of subtitle V of title 15
40, United States Code, is amended— 16
(1) by redesignating section 15308 as section 17
15309; and 18
(2) by inserting after section 15307 the fol-19
lowing: 20
‘‘§15308. Transfer of funds among Federal agencies 21
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subsection (c), for 22
purposes of this subtitle, each Commission may transfer 23 funds to and accept transfers of funds from other Federal 24 agencies. 25
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‘‘(b) TRANSFER OF FUNDS TO OTHER FEDERAL 1
AGENCIES.—Funds made available to a Commission may 2
be transferred to other Federal agencies if the funds are 3 used consistently with the purposes for which the funds 4 were specifically authorized and appropriated. 5
‘‘(c) TRANSFER OF FUNDS FROM OTHER FEDERAL 6
AGENCIES.—Funds may be transferred to any Commis-7
sion under this section if— 8
‘‘(1) the statutory authority for the funds pro-9
vided by the Federal agency does not expressly pro-10
hibit use of funds for authorities being carried out 11 by a Commission; and 12
‘‘(2) the Federal agency that provides the funds 13
determines that the activities for which the funds 14
are to be used are otherwise eligible for funding 15
under such a statutory authority.’’. 16
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for chap-17
ter 153 of subtitle V of title 40, United States Code, is 18 amended by striking the item relating to section 15308 19 and inserting the following: 20
‘‘15308. Transfer of funds among Federal agencies.
‘‘15309. Annual reports.’’.

SEC. 204. ECONOMIC AND INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOP-21
MENT GRANTS. 22
Section 15501 of title 40, United States Code, is 23
amended— 24
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(1) in subsection (a)— 1
(A) by redesignating paragraphs (4) 2
through (9) as paragraphs (6) through (11), re-3
spectively; and 4
(B) by inserting after paragraph (3) the 5
following: 6
‘‘(4) in coordination with relevant Federal agen-7
cies, to design, build, implement, or update infra-8
structure to support resilience to extreme weather 9
events; 10
‘‘(5) to promote the production of housing to 11
meet economic development and workforce needs;’’; 12
and 13
(2) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘(7)’’ and in-14
serting ‘‘(9)’’. 15
SEC. 205. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE. 16
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 155 of subtitle V of title 17
40, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end 18 the following: 19
‘‘§15507. Payment of non-Federal share for certain 20
Federal grant programs 21
‘‘Amounts made available to carry out this subtitle 22
shall be available for the payment of the non-Federal 23 share for any project carried out under another Federal 24 grant program— 25
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‘‘(1) for which a Commission is not the sole or 1
primary funding source; and 2
‘‘(2) that is consistent with the authorities of 3
the applicable Commission.’’. 4
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for chap-5
ter 155 of subtitle V of title 40, United States Code, is 6 amended by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘15507. Payment of non-Federal share for certain Federal grant programs.’’.

SEC. 206. NORTHERN BORDER REGIONAL COMMISSION 8
AREA. 9
Section 15733 of title 40, United States Code, is 10
amended— 11
(1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘Lincoln,’’ 12
after ‘‘Knox,’’; 13
(2) in paragraph (2), by inserting 14
‘‘Merrimack,’’ after ‘‘Grafton,’’; and 15
(3) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘Wyoming,’’ 16
after ‘‘Wayne,’’. 17
SEC. 207. SOUTHWEST BORDER REGIONAL COMMISSION 18
AREA. 19
Section 15732 of title 40, United States Code, is 20
amended— 21
(1) in paragraph (3)— 22
(A) by inserting ‘‘Bernalillo,’’ before 23
‘‘Catron,’’; 24
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(B) by inserting ‘‘Cibola, Curry, De Baca,’’ 1
after ‘‘Chaves,’’; 2
(C) by inserting ‘‘Guadalupe,’’ after 3
‘‘Grant,’’; 4
(D) by inserting ‘‘Roosevelt,’’ after 5
‘‘Otero,’’; and 6
(E) by striking ‘‘and Socorro’’ and insert-7
ing ‘‘Socorro, Torrance, and Valencia’’; and 8
(2) in paragraph (4)— 9
(A) by inserting ‘‘Guadalupe,’’ after 10
‘‘Glasscock,’’; and 11
(B) by striking ‘‘Tom Green Upton,’’ and 12
inserting ‘‘Tom Green, Upton,’’. 13
SEC. 208. GREAT LAKES AUTHORITY AREA. 14
Section 15734 of title 40, United States Code, is 15
amended, in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by in-16 serting ‘‘the counties which contain, in part or in whole, 17 the’’ after ‘‘consist of’’. 18
SEC. 209. ADDITIONAL REGIONAL COMMISSION PROGRAMS. 19
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle V of title 40, United 20
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-21 lowing: 22
‘‘CHAPTER159—ADDITIONAL REGIONAL 23
COMMISSION PROGRAMS 24
‘‘Sec.
‘‘15901. State capacity building grant program.
‘‘15902. Demonstration health projects.

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‘‘§15901. State capacity building grant program 1
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 2
‘‘(1) COMMISSION STATE.—The term ‘Commis-3
sion State’ means a State that contains 1 or more 4
eligible counties. 5
‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE COUNTY.—The term ‘eligible 6
county’ means a county described in subchapter II 7
of chapter 157. 8
‘‘(3) PROGRAM.—The term ‘program’ means a 9
State capacity building grant program established by 10 a Commission under subsection (b). 11
‘‘(b) ESTABLISHMENT.—Each Commission shall es-12
tablish a State capacity building grant program to provide 13 grants to Commission States in the area served by the 14 Commission for the purposes described in subsection (c). 15 ‘‘(c) PURPOSES.—The purposes of a program are to 16
support the efforts of the Commission— 17
‘‘(1) to better support business retention and 18
expansion in eligible counties; 19
‘‘(2) to create programs to encourage job cre-20
ation and workforce development in eligible counties; 21 ‘‘(3) to partner with universities in distressed 22
counties (as designated under section 23
15702(a)(1))— 24
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‘‘(A) to strengthen the capacity to train 1
new professionals in fields for which there is a 2
shortage of workers; 3
‘‘(B) to increase local capacity for project 4
management, project execution, and financial 5
management; and 6
‘‘(C) to leverage funding sources; 7
‘‘(4) to prepare economic and infrastructure 8
plans for eligible counties; 9
‘‘(5) to expand access to high-speed broadband 10
in eligible counties; 11
‘‘(6) to provide technical assistance that results 12
in Commission investments in transportation, water, 13
wastewater, and other critical infrastructure; 14
‘‘(7) to promote workforce development to sup-15
port resilient infrastructure projects; 16
‘‘(8) to develop initiatives to increase the effec-17
tiveness of local development districts in eligible 18
counties; 19
‘‘(9) to implement new or innovative economic 20
development practices that will better position eligi-21 ble counties to compete in the global economy; and 22
‘‘(10) to identify and address important re-23
gional impediments to prosperity and to leverage 24
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unique regional advantages to create economic op-1
portunities for the region served by the Commission. 2
‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.— 3
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Funds from a grant under 4
a program may be used to support a project, pro-5
gram, or related expense of the Commission State in 6
an eligible county. 7
‘‘(2) LIMITATION.—Funds from a grant under 8
a program shall not be used for— 9
‘‘(A) the purchase of furniture, fixtures, or 10
equipment; 11
‘‘(B) the compensation of— 12
‘‘(i) any State member of the Com-13
mission (as described in section 14
15301(b)(1)(B)); or 15
‘‘(ii) any State alternate member of 16
the Commission (as described in section 17
15301(b)(2)(B)); or 18
‘‘(C) the cost of supplanting existing State 19
programs. 20
‘‘(e) ANNUAL WORK PLAN.— 21
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For each fiscal year, before 22
providing a grant under a program, each Commis-23
sion State shall provide to the Commission an an-24
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nual work plan that includes the proposed use of the 1
grant. 2
‘‘(2) APPROVAL.—No grant under a program 3
shall be provided to a Commission State unless the 4
Commission has approved the annual work plan of 5
the State. 6
‘‘(f) AMOUNT OF GRANT.— 7
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The amount of a grant 8
provided to a Commission State under a program 9
for a fiscal year shall be based on the proportion 10
that— 11
‘‘(A) the amount paid by the Commission 12
State (including any amounts paid on behalf of 13
the Commission State by a nonprofit organiza-14
tion) for administrative expenses for the appli-15
cable fiscal year (as determined under section 16
15304(c)); bears to 17
‘‘(B) the amount paid by all Commission 18
States served by the Commission (including any 19
amounts paid on behalf of a Commission State 20
by a nonprofit organization) for administrative 21
expenses for that fiscal year (as determined 22
under that section). 23
‘‘(2) REQUIREMENT.—To be eligible to receive 24
a grant under a program for a fiscal year, a Com-25
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mission State (or a nonprofit organization on behalf 1
of the Commission State) shall pay the amount of 2
administrative expenses of the Commission State for 3
the applicable fiscal year (as determined under sec-4
tion 15304(c)). 5
‘‘(3) APPROVAL.—For each fiscal year, a grant 6
provided under a program shall be approved and 7
made available as part of the approval of the annual 8
budget of the Commission. 9
‘‘(g) GRANT AVAILABILITY.—Funds from a grant 10
under a program shall be available only during the fiscal 11 year for which the grant is provided. 12
‘‘(h) REPORT.—Each fiscal year, each Commission 13
State shall submit to the relevant Commission and make 14 publicly available a report that describes the use of the 15 grant funds and the impact of the program in the Com-16 mission State. 17
‘‘(i) CONTINUATION OF PROGRAM AUTHORITY FOR 18
NORTHERN BORDER REGIONAL COMMISSION.—With re-19
spect to the Northern Border Regional Commission, the 20 program shall be a continuation of the program under sec-21 tion 6304(c) of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 22 (40 U.S.C. 15501 note; Public Law 115–334) (as in effect 23 on the day before the date of enactment of this section). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00080 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 81 •S 3891 RS
‘‘§15902. Demonstration health projects 1
‘‘(a) PURPOSE.—To demonstrate the value of ade-2
quate health facilities and services to the economic devel-3 opment of the region, a Commission may make grants for 4 the planning, construction, equipment, and operation of 5 demonstration health, nutrition, and child care projects 6 (referred to in this section as a ‘demonstration health 7 project’), including hospitals, regional health diagnostic 8 and treatment centers, and other facilities and services 9 necessary for the purposes of this section. 10
‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—An entity eligible to re-11
ceive a grant under this section is— 12
‘‘(1) an entity described in section 15501(a); 13
‘‘(2) an institution of higher education (as de-14
fined in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act 15
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a))); 16
‘‘(3) a hospital (as defined in section 1861 of 17
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x)); or 18
‘‘(4) a critical access hospital (as defined in 19
that section). 20
‘‘(c) PLANNING GRANTS.— 21
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A Commission may make 22
grants for planning expenses necessary for the devel-23 opment and operation of demonstration health 24
projects for the region served by the Commission. 25
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‘‘(2) MAXIMUM COMMISSION CONTRIBUTION.— 1
The maximum Commission contribution for a dem-2
onstration health project that receives a grant under 3 paragraph (1) shall be made in accordance with sec-4
tion 15501(d). 5
‘‘(3) SOURCES OF ASSISTANCE.—A grant under 6
paragraph (1) may be provided entirely from 7
amounts made available to carry out this section or 8
in combination with amounts provided under other 9
Federal grant programs. 10
‘‘(4) FEDERAL SHARE FOR GRANTS UNDER 11
OTHER FEDERAL GRANT PROGRAMS.—Notwith-12
standing any provision of law limiting the Federal 13
share in other Federal grant programs, amounts 14
made available to carry out this subsection may be 15
used to increase the Federal share of another Fed-16
eral grant up to the maximum contribution de-17
scribed in paragraph (2). 18
‘‘(d) CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPMENT GRANTS.— 19
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A grant under this section 20
for construction or equipment of a demonstration 21
health project may be used for— 22
‘‘(A) costs of construction; 23
‘‘(B) the acquisition of privately owned fa-24
cilities— 25
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‘‘(i) not operated for profit; or 1
‘‘(ii) previously operated for profit if 2
the Commission finds that health services 3
would not otherwise be provided in the 4
area served by the facility if the acquisition 5
is not made; and 6
‘‘(C) the acquisition of initial equipment. 7
‘‘(2) STANDARDS FOR MAKING GRANTS.—A 8
grant under paragraph (1)— 9
‘‘(A) shall be approved in accordance with 10
section 15503; and 11
‘‘(B) shall not be incompatible with the ap-12
plicable provisions of title VI of the Public 13
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 291 et seq.), the 14
Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill 15
of Rights Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 15001 et 16
seq.), and other laws authorizing grants for the 17
construction of health-related facilities, without 18
regard to any provisions in those laws relating 19
to appropriation authorization ceilings or to al-20
lotments among the States. 21
‘‘(3) MAXIMUM COMMISSION CONTRIBUTION.— 22
The maximum Commission contribution for a dem-23
onstration health project that receives a grant under 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00083 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 84 •S 3891 RS
paragraph (1) shall be made in accordance with sec-1
tion 15501(d). 2
‘‘(4) SOURCES OF ASSISTANCE.—A grant under 3
paragraph (1) may be provided entirely from 4
amounts made available to carry out this section or 5
in combination with amounts provided under other 6
Federal grant programs. 7
‘‘(5) CONTRIBUTION TO INCREASED FEDERAL 8
SHARE FOR OTHER FEDERAL GRANTS.—Notwith-9
standing any provision of law limiting the Federal 10
share in another Federal grant program for the con-11
struction or equipment of a demonstration health 12
project, amounts made available to carry out this 13
subsection may be used to increase Federal grants 14
for component facilities of a demonstration health 15
project to a maximum of 90 percent of the cost of 16
the facilities. 17
‘‘(e) OPERATION GRANTS.— 18
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A grant under this section 19
for the operation of a demonstration health project 20
may be used for— 21
‘‘(A) the costs of operation of the facility; 22
and 23
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‘‘(B) initial operating costs, including the 1
costs of attracting, training, and retaining 2
qualified personnel. 3
‘‘(2) STANDARDS FOR MAKING GRANTS.—A 4
grant for the operation of a demonstration health 5
project shall not be made unless the facility funded 6
by the grant is— 7
‘‘(A) publicly owned; 8
‘‘(B) owned by a public or private non-9
profit organization; 10
‘‘(C) a private hospital described in section 11
501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 12
and exempt from taxation under section 501(a) 13
of that Code; or 14
‘‘(D) a private hospital that provides a cer-15
tain amount of uncompensated care, as deter-16
mined by the Commission, and applies for the 17
grant in partnership with a State, local govern-18
ment, or Indian Tribe. 19
‘‘(3) MAXIMUM COMMISSION CONTRIBUTION.— 20
The maximum Commission contribution for a dem-21
onstration health project that receives a grant under 22 paragraph (1) shall be made in accordance with sec-23
tion 15501(d). 24
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‘‘(4) SOURCES OF ASSISTANCE.—A grant under 1
paragraph (1) may be provided entirely from 2
amounts made available to carry out this section or 3
in combination with amounts provided under other 4
Federal grant programs for the operation of health- 5
related facilities or the provision of health and child 6 development services, including parts A and B of 7
title IV and title XX of the Social Security Act (42 8
U.S.C. 601 et seq., 621 et seq., 1397 et seq.). 9
‘‘(5) FEDERAL SHARE.—Notwithstanding any 10
provision of law limiting the Federal share in the 11
other Federal programs described in paragraph (4), 12
amounts made available to carry out this subsection 13
may be used to increase the Federal share of a grant 14 under those programs up to the maximum contribu-15
tion described in paragraph (3). 16
‘‘(f) PRIORITY HEALTH PROGRAMS.—If a Commis-17
sion elects to make grants under this section, the Commis-18 sion shall establish specific regional health priorities for 19 such grants that address— 20
‘‘(1) addiction treatment and access to re-21
sources helping individuals in recovery; 22
‘‘(2) workforce shortages in the healthcare in-23
dustry; or 24
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‘‘(3) access to services for screening and diag-1
nosing chronic health issues.’’. 2
(b) REPEAL.—Section 6304(c) of the Agriculture Im-3
provement Act of 2018 (40 U.S.C. 15501 note; Public 4
Law 115–334) is repealed. 5
(c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of chapters 6
for subtitle V of title 40, United States Code, is amended 7 by inserting after the item relating to chapter 157 the fol-8 lowing: 9
‘‘159. Additional Regional Commission Programs ................................. 15901’’.

SEC. 210. TRIBAL AND COLONIA PARTICIPATION IN SOUTH-10
WEST BORDER REGION. 11
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 155 of subtitle V of title 12
40, United States Code (as amended by section 205(a)), 13 is amended by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘§15508. Waiver of matching requirement for Indian 15
tribes and colonias in Southwest Border 16
Regional Commission programs 17
‘‘(a) DEFINITION OF COLONIA.— 18
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In this section, the term 19
‘colonia’ means a community— 20
‘‘(A) that is located— 21
‘‘(i) in the State of Arizona, Cali-22
fornia, New Mexico, or Texas; 23
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‘‘(ii) not more than 150 miles from 1
the border between the United States and 2
Mexico; and 3
‘‘(iii) outside a standard metropolitan 4
statistical area that has a population ex-5
ceeding 1,000,000; 6
‘‘(B) that— 7
‘‘(i) lacks a potable water supply; 8
‘‘(ii) lacks an adequate sewage sys-9
tem; or 10
‘‘(iii) lacks decent, safe, and sanitary 11
housing; and 12
‘‘(C) that has been treated or designated 13
as a colonia by a Federal or State program. 14
‘‘(b) WAIVER.—Notwithstanding any other provision 15
of law, in the case of assistance provided to a colonia or 16 an Indian tribe under this subtitle by the Southwest Bor-17 der Regional Commission, the Federal share of the cost 18 of the project carried out with that assistance may be up 19 to 100 percent, as determined by the selection official, the 20 State Cochairperson (or an alternate), and the Federal 21 Cochairperson (or an alternate).’’. 22
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for chap-23
ter 155 of subtitle V of title 40, United States Code (as 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00088 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 89 •S 3891 RS
amended by section 205(b)), is amended by inserting after 1 the item relating to section 15507 the following: 2
‘‘15508. Waiver of matching requirement for Indian tribes and colonias in Southwest Border Regional Commission programs.’’.

SEC. 211. ESTABLISHMENT OF MID-ATLANTIC REGIONAL 3
COMMISSION. 4
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Section 15301(a) of title 40, 5
United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 6 following: 7
‘‘(5) The Mid-Atlantic Regional Commission.’’. 8
(b) DESIGNATION OF REGION.— 9
(1) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 10
157 of title 40, United States Code, is amended by 11
adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘§15735. Mid-Atlantic Regional Commission. 13
‘‘The region of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Commis-14
sion shall include the following counties: 15
‘‘(1) DELAWARE.—Each county in the State of 16
Delaware. 17
‘‘(2) MARYLAND.—Each county in the State of 18
Maryland that is not already served by the Appa-19
lachian Regional Commission. 20
‘‘(3) PENNSYLVANIA.—Each county in the 21
State of Pennsylvania that is not already served by 22
the Appalachian Regional Commission.’’. 23
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(2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for 1
subchapter II of chapter 157 of title 40, United 2
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 3
following: 4
‘‘15735. Mid-Atlantic Regional Commission.’’.
(c) APPLICATION.—Section 15702(c) of title 40, 5
United States Code, is amended— 6
(1) by redesignating paragraph (3) as para-7
graph (4); and 8
(2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-9
lowing: 10
‘‘(3) APPLICATION.—Paragraph (2) shall not 11
apply to a county described in paragraph (2) or (3) 12
of section 15735.’’. 13
SEC. 212. ESTABLISHMENT OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND 14
REGIONAL COMMISSION. 15
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Section 15301(a) of title 40, 16
United States Code (as amended by section 211(a)), is 17 amended by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(6) The Southern New England Regional 19
Commission.’’. 20
(b) DESIGNATION OF REGION.— 21
(1) IN GENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 22
157 of title 40, United States Code (as amended by 23
section 211(b)(1)), is amended by adding at the end 24
the following: 25
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‘‘§15736. Southern New England Regional Commis-1
sion 2
‘‘The region of the Southern New England Regional 3
Commission shall include the following counties: 4
‘‘(1) RHODE ISLAND.—Each county in the 5
State of Rhode Island. 6
‘‘(2) CONNECTICUT.—The counties of Hartford, 7
Middlesex, New Haven, New London, Tolland, and 8
Windham in the State of Connecticut. 9
‘‘(3) MASSACHUSETTS.—The counties of 10
Barnstable, Bristol, Essex, Hampden, Plymouth, 11
and Worcester in the State of Massachusetts.’’. 12
(2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for 13
subchapter II of chapter 157 of title 40, United 14
States Code (as amended by section 211(b)(2)), is 15
amended by adding at the end the following: 16
‘‘15736. Southern New England Regional Commission.’’.
(c) APPLICATION.—Section 15702(c)(3) of title 40, 17
United States Code (as amended by section 211(c)), is 18 amended— 19
(1) by striking the period at the end and insert-20
ing ‘‘; or’’; 21
(2) by striking ‘‘to a county’’ and inserting the 22
following: ‘‘to— 23
‘‘(A) a county’’; and 24
(3) by adding at the end the following: 25
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‘‘(B) the Southern New England Regional 1
Commission.’’. 2
SEC. 213. DENALI COMMISSION REAUTHORIZATION. 3
(a) REAUTHORIZATION.—Section 312(a) of the 4
Denali Commission Act of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 3121 note; 5
Public Law 105–277) is amended by striking 6
‘‘$15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2017 through 2021’’ 7 and inserting ‘‘$35,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 8 through 2029’’. 9
(b) ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMISSION.—Section 303 10
of the Denali Commission Act of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 3121 11 note; Public Law 105–277) is amended— 12
(1) in subsection (b)— 13
(A) in paragraph (1)— 14
(i) in the matter preceding subpara-15
graph (A), by striking ‘‘who shall be ap-16
pointed by the Secretary of Commerce (re-17
ferred to in this title as the ‘Secretary’),’’; 18
and 19
(ii) in subparagraph (G), by striking 20
‘‘who shall be selected in accordance with 21
the requirements of paragraph (2)’’ and in-22
serting ‘‘appointed by the President, by 23
and with the advice and consent of the 24
Senate’’; 25
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(B) by striking paragraph (2); and 1
(C) by redesignating paragraph (4) as 2
paragraph (2); 3
(2) by striking subsection (c); and 4
(3) by redesignating subsections (d) through (g) 5
as subsections (c) through (f), respectively. 6
(c) DUTIES OF THE COMMISSION.—Section 304 of 7
the Denali Commission Act of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 3121 note; 8 Public Law 105–277) is amended— 9
(1) in subsection (a)(3), by striking ‘‘to the 10
Secretary, the Federal Cochairperson, and the Di-11
rector of the Office of Management and Budget,’’ 12
and inserting ‘‘to the Federal Cochairperson and the 13 Director of the Office of Management and Budget’’; 14
and 15
(2) in subsection (b)— 16
(A) by striking ‘‘the Secretary, acting 17
through the Federal Cochairperson,’’ each place 18
it appears and inserting ‘‘the Federal Cochair-19
person’’; and 20
(B) in paragraph (3), in the matter pre-21
ceding subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘the Sec-22
retary acting through the Federal Cochair-23
person,’’ and inserting ‘‘the Federal Cochair-24
person’’. 25
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(d) POWERS OF THE COMMISSION.—Section 305 of 1
the Denali Commission Act of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 3121 note; 2 Public Law 105–277) is amended— 3
(1) in subsection (d), in the first sentence, by 4
inserting ‘‘enter into leases (including the lease of 5 office space for any term),’’ after ‘‘award grants,’’; 6 and 7
(2) by adding at the end the following: 8
‘‘(e) COST SHARE.—The Federal share of the cost 9
of a construction project carried out with amounts pro-10 vided by the Commission shall be 80 percent. 11
‘‘(f) USE OF FUNDS TOWARD NON-FEDERAL SHARE 12
OF CERTAIN PROJECTS.—Notwithstanding any other pro-13
vision of law regarding payment of a non-Federal share 14 in connection with a grant-in-aid program, the Commis-15 sion may use amounts made available to the Commission 16 for the payment of such a non-Federal share for programs 17 undertaken to carry out the purposes of the Commis-18
sion.’’. 19
(e) SPECIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE COMMISSION.—Sec-20
tion 307 of the Denali Commission Act of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 21 4321 note; Public Law 105–277) is amended— 22
(1) by striking subsection (a); 23
(2) by redesignating subsections (b) through (e) 24
as subsections (a) through (d), respectively; and 25
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(3) in subsection (c) (as so redesignated), by in-1
serting ‘‘, including interagency transfers,’’ after 2
‘‘payments’’. 3
(f) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 309(c)(1) 4
of the Denali Commission Act of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 4321 5
note; Public Law 105–277) is amended by inserting ‘‘of 6 Transportation’’ after ‘‘Secretary’’. 7
SEC. 214. DENALI HOUSING FUND. 8
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 9
(1) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti-10
ty’’ means— 11
(A) a nonprofit organization; 12
(B) a limited dividend organization; 13
(C) a cooperative organization; 14
(D) an Indian Tribe (as defined in section 15
4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu-16
cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304)); and 17
(E) a public entity, such as a municipality, 18
county, district, authority, or other political 19
subdivision of a State. 20
(2) FEDERAL COCHAIR.—The term ‘‘Federal 21
Cochair’’ means the Federal Cochairperson of the 22
Denali Commission. 23
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(3) FUND.—The term ‘‘Fund’’ means the 1
Denali Housing Fund established under subsection 2
(b)(1). 3
(4) LOW-INCOME.—The term ‘‘low-income’’, 4
with respect to a household means that the house-5
hold income is less than 150 percent of the Federal 6
poverty level for the State of Alaska. 7
(5) MODERATE-INCOME.—The term ‘‘moderate- 8
income’’, with respect to a household, means that 9
the household income is less than 250 percent of the 10 Federal poverty level for the State of Alaska. 11
(6) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 12
the Secretary of Agriculture. 13
(b) DENALI HOUSING FUND.— 14
(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—There shall be estab-15
lished in the Treasury of the United States the 16
Denali Housing Fund, to be administered by the 17
Federal Cochair. 18
(2) SOURCE AND USE OF AMOUNTS IN FUND.— 19
(A) IN GENERAL.—Amounts allocated to 20
the Federal Cochair for the purpose of carrying 21
out this section shall be deposited in the Fund. 22
(B) USES.—The Federal Cochair shall use 23
the Fund as a revolving fund to carry out the 24
purposes of this section. 25
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(C) INVESTMENT.—The Federal Cochair 1
may invest amounts in the Fund that are not 2
necessary for operational expenses in bonds or 3
other obligations, the principal and interest of 4
which are guaranteed by the Federal Govern-5
ment. 6
(D) GENERAL EXPENSES.—The Federal 7
Cochair may charge the general expenses of 8
carrying out this section to the Fund. 9
(3) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 10
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Fund 11
$5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 12
2029. 13
(c) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this section are— 14
(1) to encourage and facilitate the construction 15
or rehabilitation of housing to meet the needs of low- 16 income households and moderate-income households; 17
and 18
(2) to provide housing for public employees. 19
(d) LOANS AND GRANTS.— 20
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Federal Cochair may 21
provide grants and loans from the Fund to eligible 22
entities under such terms and conditions the Federal 23 Cochair may prescribe. 24
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(2) PURPOSE.—The purpose of a grant or loan 1
under paragraph (1) shall be for planning and ob-2
taining federally insured mortgage financing or 3
other financial assistance for housing construction or 4 rehabilitation projects for low-income and moderate- 5
income households in rural Alaska villages. 6
(e) PROVIDING AMOUNTS TO STATES FOR GRANTS 7
AND LOANS.—The Federal Cochair may provide amounts 8
to the State of Alaska, or political subdivisions thereof, 9 for making the grants and loans described in subsection 10 (d). 11
(f) LOANS.— 12
(1) LIMITATION ON AVAILABLE AMOUNTS.—A 13
loan under subsection (d) for the cost of planning 14
and obtaining financing (including the cost of pre-15
liminary surveys and analyses of market needs, pre-16
liminary site engineering and architectural fees, site 17 options, application and mortgage commitment fees, 18
legal fees, and construction loan fees and discounts) 19 of a project described in that subsection may be for 20 not more than 90 percent of that cost. 21
(2) INTEREST.—A loan under subsection (d) 22
shall be made without interest, except that a loan 23
made to an eligible entity established for profit shall 24 bear interest at the prevailing market rate author-25
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ized for an insured or guaranteed loan for that type 1
of project. 2
(3) PAYMENT.— 3
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Federal Cochair 4
shall require payment of a loan made under this 5
section under terms and conditions the Sec-6
retary may require by not later than the date 7
of completion of the project. 8
(B) CANCELLATION.—For a loan other 9
than a loan to an eligible entity established for 10
profit, the Secretary may cancel any part of the 11
debt with respect to a loan made under sub-12
section (d) if the Secretary determines that a 13
permanent loan to finance the project cannot be 14
obtained in an amount adequate for repayment 15
of a loan made under subsection (d). 16
(g) GRANTS.— 17
(1) IN GENERAL.—A grant under this section 18
for expenses incidental to planning and obtaining fi-19 nancing for a project described in this section that 20 the Federal Cochair considers unrecoverable from 21
the proceeds of a permanent loan made to finance 22
the project— 23
(A) may not be made to an eligible entity 24
established for profit; and 25
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•S 3891 RS
(B) may not exceed 90 percent of those ex-1
penses. 2
(2) SITE DEVELOPMENT COSTS AND OFFSITE 3
IMPROVEMENTS.— 4
(A) IN GENERAL.—The Federal Cochair 5
may make grants and commitments for grants 6
under terms and conditions the Federal Cochair 7
may require to eligible entities for reasonable 8
site development costs and necessary offsite im-9
provements, such as sewer and water line exten-10
sions, if the grant or commitment— 11
(i) is essential to ensuring that hous-12
ing is constructed on the site in the future; 13
and 14
(ii) otherwise meets the requirements 15
for assistance under this section. 16
(B) MAXIMUM AMOUNTS.—The amount of 17
a grant under this paragraph may not— 18
(i) with respect to the construction of 19
housing, exceed 40 percent of the cost of 20
the construction; and 21
(ii) with respect to the rehabilitation 22
of housing, exceed 10 percent of the rea-23
sonable value of the rehabilitation, as de-24
termined by the Federal Cochair. 25
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(h) INFORMATION, ADVICE, AND TECHNICAL ASSIST-1
ANCE.—The Federal Cochair may provide, or contract 2
with public or private organizations to provide, informa-3 tion, advice, and technical assistance with respect to the 4 construction, rehabilitation, and operation by nonprofit or-5 ganizations of housing for low-income or moderate-income 6 households, or for public employees, in rural Alaska vil-7 lages under this section. 8
SEC. 215. DELTA REGIONAL AUTHORITY REAUTHORIZA-9
TION. 10
(a) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 11
382M(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Develop-12
ment Act (7 U.S.C. 2009aa–12(a)) is amended by striking 13 ‘‘$30,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2019 through 2023’’ 14 and inserting ‘‘$40,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 15 through 2029’’. 16
(b) TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY.—Section 382N of 17
the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 18
U.S.C. 2009aa–13) is repealed. 19
(c) FEES.—Section 382B(e) of the Consolidated 20
Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 2009aa–1(e)) 21 is amended— 22
(1) in paragraph (9)(C), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 23
the end; 24
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•S 3891 RS
(2) in paragraph (10), by striking the period at 1
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 2
(3) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(11) collect fees for the Delta Doctors pro-4
gram of the Authority and retain and expend those 5
fees.’’. 6
(d) SUCCESSION.—Section 382B(h)(5)(B) of the 7
Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 8 2009aa–1(h)(5)(B)) is amended— 9
(1) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 10
(2) by redesignating clause (iii) as clause (iv); 11
and 12
(3) by inserting after clause (ii) the following: 13
‘‘(iii) assuming the duties of the Fed-14
eral cochairperson and the alternate Fed-15
eral cochairperson for purposes of continu-16
ation of normal operations in the event 17
that both positions are vacant; and’’. 18
(e) INDIAN TRIBES.—Section 382C(a) of the Consoli-19
dated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 20
2009aa–2(a)) is amended— 21
(1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 22
inserting ‘‘, Indian Tribes,’’ after ‘‘States’’; and 23 (2) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘, Tribal,’’ 24
after ‘‘State’’. 25
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SEC. 216. NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS REGIONAL AUTHOR-1
ITY REAUTHORIZATION. 2
(a) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 3
383N(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Develop-4
ment Act (7 U.S.C. 2009bb–12(a)) is amended by striking 5 ‘‘$30,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2018’’ 6 and inserting ‘‘$40,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 7 through 2029’’. 8
(b) TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY.—Section 383O of 9
the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 10
U.S.C. 2009bb–13) is repealed. 11
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 12
(a) S HORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 13
‘‘Economic Development Reauthorization Act of 2024’’. 14 (b) T ABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 15
this Act is as follows: 16
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

TITLE I—PUBLIC WORKS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Sec. 101. Findings and declarations.

Sec. 102. Definitions.

Sec. 103. Increased coordination.

Sec. 104. Grants for public works and economic development.

Sec. 105. Grants for planning and grants for administrative expenses.

Sec. 106. Cost sharing.

Sec. 107. Regulations on relative needs and allocations.

Sec. 108. Research and technical assistance; university centers.

Sec. 109. Investment priorities.

Sec. 110. Grants for economic adjustment.

Sec. 111. Renewable energy program.

Sec. 112. Workforce training grants.

Sec. 113. Congressional notification requirements.

Sec. 114. Specific flexibilities related to deployment of high-speed broadband.

Sec. 115. Critical supply chain site development grant program.

Sec. 116. Updated distress criteria and grant rates.

Sec. 117. Comprehensive economic development strategies.

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Sec. 118. Office of Tribal Economic Development.

Sec. 119. Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience.

Sec. 120. Establishment of technical assistance liaisons.

Sec. 121. Annual report to Congress.

Sec. 122. Modernization of environmental reviews.

Sec. 123. GAO report on economic development programs.

Sec. 124. GAO report on Economic Development Administration regulations and policies.

Sec. 125. GAO study on rural communities.

Sec. 126. General authorization of appropriations.

Sec. 127. Technical correction.

TITLE II—REGIONAL ECONOMIC AND INFRASTRUCTURE

DEVELOPMENT
Sec. 201. Regional commission authorizations.

Sec. 202. Regional commission modifications.

Sec. 203. Transfer of funds among Federal agencies.

Sec. 204. Economic and infrastructure development grants.

Sec. 205. Financial assistance.

Sec. 206. Northern Border Regional Commission area.

Sec. 207. Southwest Border Regional Commission area.

Sec. 208. Great Lakes Authority area.

Sec. 209. Additional regional commission programs.

Sec. 210. Tribal and colonia participation in southwest border region.

Sec. 211. Establishment of Mid-Atlantic Regional Commission.

Sec. 212. Establishment of Southern New England Regional Commission.

Sec. 213. Denali Commission reauthorization.

Sec. 214. Denali Housing Fund.

Sec. 215. Delta Regional Authority reauthorization.

Sec. 216. Northern Great Plains Regional Authority reauthorization.

TITLE I—PUBLIC WORKS AND 1
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 2
SEC. 101. FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS. 3
Section 2 of the Public Works and Economic Develop-4
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3121) is amended to read as 5 follows: 6
‘‘SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS. 7
‘‘(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that— 8
‘‘(1) there continue to be areas of the United 9
States— 10
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‘‘(A) experiencing chronic high unemploy-1
ment, underemployment, outmigration, and low 2
per capita incomes; and 3
‘‘(B) facing sudden and severe economic dis-4
locations because of structural economic changes, 5
changing trade patterns, certain Federal actions 6
(including environmental requirements that re-7
sult in the removal of economic activities from a 8
locality), impacts from natural disasters, and 9
transitioning industries, including energy gen-10
eration, steel production, and mining; 11
‘‘(2) economic growth in the States, cities, and 12
rural areas of the United States is produced by ex-13
panding economic opportunities, expanding free en-14
terprise through trade, promoting resilience in public 15 infrastructure, creating conditions for job creation, 16 job retention, and business development, and by cap-17
turing the opportunities to lead the industries of the 18 future, including advanced technologies, clean energy 19 production, and advanced manufacturing tech-20
nologies; 21
‘‘(3) the goal of Federal economic development 22
programs is to raise the standard of living for all 23
citizens and increase the wealth and overall rate of 24 growth of the economy by encouraging communities to 25
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develop a more competitive and diversified economic 1
base by— 2
‘‘(A) creating an environment that promotes 3
economic activity by improving and expanding 4
modern public infrastructure; 5
‘‘(B) promoting job creation, retention, and 6
workforce readiness through increased innova-7
tion, productivity, and entrepreneurship; and 8
‘‘(C) empowering local and regional com-9
munities experiencing chronic high unemploy-10
ment, underemployment, low labor force partici-11
pation, and low per capita income to develop 12
private sector business and attract increased pri-13
vate sector capital investment; 14
‘‘(4) while economic development is an inher-15
ently local process, the Federal Government should 16
work in partnership with public and private State, 17
regional, Tribal, and local organizations to maximize 18 the impact of existing resources and enable regions, 19 communities, and citizens to participate more fully 20
in the American dream and national prosperity; 21
‘‘(5) in order to avoid duplication of effort and 22
achieve meaningful, long-lasting results, Federal, 23
State, Tribal, and local economic development activi-24 ties should have a clear focus, improved coordination, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00106 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 107
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a comprehensive approach, and simplified and con-1
sistent requirements; 2
‘‘(6) Federal economic development efforts will be 3
more effective if the efforts are coordinated with, and 4 build on, the trade, workforce investment, scientific 5 research, environmental protection, transportation, 6
and technology programs of the United States, includ-7
ing through the consolidation and alignment of plans 8
and strategies to promote effective economic develop-9
ment; 10
‘‘(7) rural communities face unique challenges in 11
addressing infrastructure needs, sometimes lacking the 12 necessary tax base for required upgrades, and often 13
encounter limited financing options and capacity, 14
which can impede new development and long-term 15
economic growth; and 16
‘‘(8) assisting communities and regions in be-17
coming more resilient to the effects of extreme weather 18 threats and events will promote economic development 19 and job creation. 20
‘‘(b) D ECLARATIONS.—In order to promote a strong, 21
growing, resilient, competitive, and secure economy 22
throughout the United States, the opportunity to pursue, 23 and be employed in, high-quality jobs with family-sus-24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00107 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 108
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taining wages, and to live in communities that enable busi-1 ness creation and wealth, Congress declares that— 2
‘‘(1) assistance under this Act should be made 3
available to both rural- and urban-distressed commu-4
nities; 5
‘‘(2) local communities should work in partner-6
ship with neighboring communities, States, Indian 7
tribes, and the Federal Government to increase the ca-8 pacity of the local communities to develop and imple-9
ment comprehensive economic development strategies 10
to alleviate economic distress and enhance competi-11
tiveness in the global economy; 12
‘‘(3) whether suffering from long-term distress or 13
a sudden dislocation, distressed communities should 14
be encouraged to support entrepreneurship to take ad-15 vantage of the development opportunities afforded by 16 technological innovation and expanding newly opened 17
global markets; and 18
‘‘(4) assistance under this Act should be made 19
available to modernize and promote recycling, pro-20
mote the productive reuse of abandoned industrial fa-21 cilities and the redevelopment of brownfields, and in-22 vest in public assets that support travel and tourism 23 and outdoor recreation.’’. 24
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SEC. 102. DEFINITIONS. 1
(a) I N GENERAL.—Section 3 of the Public Works and 2
Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3122) is 3
amended— 4
(1) by redesignating paragraphs (1) through (12) 5
as paragraphs (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (12), 6 (13), (14), (16), and (17), respectively; 7
(2) by inserting before paragraph (3) (as so re-8
designated) the following: 9
‘‘(1) B LUE ECONOMY .—The term ‘blue economy’ 10
means the sustainable use of marine, lake, or other 11
aquatic resources in support of economic development 12 objectives. 13
‘‘(2) C APACITY BUILDING .—The term ‘capacity 14
building’ includes all activities associated with early 15 stage community-based project formation and 16
conceptualization, prior to project predevelopment ac-17 tivity, including grants to local community organiza-18 tions for planning participation, community outreach 19 and engagement activities, research, and mentorship 20
support to move projects from formation and 21
conceptualization to project predevelopment.’’; 22
(3) in paragraph (5) (as so redesignated), in 23
subparagraph (A)(i), by striking ‘‘to the extent appro-24 priate’’ and inserting ‘‘to the extent determined ap-25 propriate by the Secretary’’; 26
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(4) in paragraph (6) (as so redesignated), in 1
subparagraph (A)— 2
(A) in clause (v), by striking ‘‘or’’ at the 3
end; 4
(B) in clause (vi), by striking the period at 5
end and inserting a semicolon; and 6
(C) by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(vii) an economic development orga-8
nization; or 9
‘‘(viii) a public-private partnership for 10
public infrastructure.’’; 11
(5) by inserting after paragraph (9) (as so redes-12
ignated) the following: 13
‘‘(10) O UTDOOR RECREATION .—The term ‘out-14
door recreation’ means all recreational activities, and 15 the economic drivers of those activities, that occur in 16 nature-based environments outdoors. 17
‘‘(11) P ROJECT PREDEVELOPMENT .—The term 18
‘project predevelopment’ means a measure required to 19 be completed before the initiation of a project, includ-20 ing— 21
‘‘(A) planning and community asset map-22
ping; 23
‘‘(B) training; 24
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‘‘(C) technical assistance and organiza-1
tional development; 2
‘‘(D) feasibility and market studies; 3
‘‘(E) demonstration projects; and 4
‘‘(F) other predevelopment activities deter-5
mined by the Secretary to be appropriate.’’; 6
(6) by striking paragraph (12) (as so redesig-7
nated) and inserting the following: 8
‘‘(12) R EGIONAL COMMISSION .—The term ‘Re-9
gional Commission’ means any of the following: 10
‘‘(A) The Appalachian Regional Commis-11
sion established by section 14301(a) of title 40, 12
United States Code. 13
‘‘(B) The Delta Regional Authority estab-14
lished by section 382B(a)(1) of the Consolidated 15
Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 16
2009aa–1(a)(1)). 17
‘‘(C) The Denali Commission established by 18
section 303(a) of the Denali Commission Act of 19
1998 (42 U.S.C. 3121 note; Public Law 105– 20
277). 21
‘‘(D) The Great Lakes Authority established 22
by section 15301(a)(4) of title 40, United States 23
Code. 24
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‘‘(E) The Mid-Atlantic Regional Commis-1
sion established by section 15301(a)(5) of title 2
40, United States Code. 3
‘‘(F) The Northern Border Regional Com-4
mission established by section 15301(a)(3) of 5
title 40, United States Code. 6
‘‘(G) The Northern Great Plains Regional 7
Authority established by section 383B(a)(1) of 8
the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development 9
Act (7 U.S.C. 2009bb–1(a)(1)). 10
‘‘(H) The Southeast Crescent Regional Com-11
mission established by section 15301(a)(1) of 12
title 40, United States Code. 13
‘‘(I) The Southern New England Regional 14
Commission established by section 15301(a)(6) of 15
title 40, United States Code. 16
‘‘(J) The Southwest Border Regional Com-17
mission established by section 15301(a)(2) of 18
title 40, United States Code.’’; 19
(7) by inserting after paragraph (14) (as so re-20
designated) the following: 21
‘‘(15) T RAVEL AND TOURISM .—The term ‘travel 22
and tourism’ means any economic activity that pri-23
marily serves to encourage recreational or business 24
travel in or to the United States.’’; and 25
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(8) in paragraph (17) (as so redesignated), by 1
striking ‘‘established as a University Center for Eco-2 nomic Development under section 207(a)(2)(D)’’ and 3
inserting ‘‘established under section 207(c)(1)’’. 4
(b) C ONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 207(a)(3) of 5
the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 6 (42 U.S.C. 3147(a)(3)) is amended by striking ‘‘section 7 3(4)(A)(vi)’’ and inserting ‘‘section 3(6)(A)(vi)’’. 8
SEC. 103. INCREASED COORDINATION. 9
Section 103 of the Public Works and Economic Devel-10
opment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3133) is amended by strik-11 ing subsection (b) and inserting the following: 12
‘‘(b) MEETINGS.— 13
‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—To carry out subsection (a), 14
or for any other purpose relating to economic develop-15 ment activities, the Secretary may convene meetings 16
with Federal agencies, State and local governments, 17
economic development districts, Indian tribes, and 18
other appropriate planning and development organi-19
zations. 20
‘‘(2) REGIONAL COMMISSIONS .— 21
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL .—In addition to meetings 22
described in paragraph (1), not later than 1 year 23
after the date of enactment of the Economic De-24
velopment Reauthorization Act of 2024, and not 25
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less frequently than every 2 years thereafter, the 1
Secretary shall convene a meeting with the Re-2
gional Commissions in furtherance of subsection 3
(a). 4
‘‘(B) A TTENDEES.—The attendees for a 5
meeting convened under this paragraph shall 6
consist of— 7
‘‘(i) the Secretary, acting through the 8
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Eco-9
nomic Development, serving as Chair; 10
‘‘(ii) the Federal Cochairpersons of the 11
Regional Commissions, or their designees; 12
and 13
‘‘(iii) the State Cochairpersons of the 14
Regional Commissions, or their designees. 15
‘‘(C) P URPOSE.—The purposes of a meeting 16
convened under this paragraph shall include— 17
‘‘(i) to enhance coordination between 18
the Economic Development Administration 19
and the Regional Commissions in carrying 20
out economic development programs; 21
‘‘(ii) to reduce duplication of efforts by 22
the Economic Development Administration 23
and the Regional Commissions in carrying 24
out economic development programs; 25
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‘‘(iii) to develop best practices and 1
strategies for fostering regional economic de-2
velopment; and 3
‘‘(iv) any other purposes as determined 4
appropriate by the Secretary. 5
‘‘(D) R EPORT.—Where applicable and pur-6
suant to subparagraph (C), not later than 1 year 7
after a meeting under this paragraph, the Sec-8
retary shall prepare and make publicly available 9
a report detailing, at a minimum— 10
‘‘(i) the planned actions by the Eco-11
nomic Development Administration and the 12
Regional Commissions to enhance coordina-13
tion or reduce duplication of efforts and a 14
timeline for implementing those actions; 15
and 16
‘‘(ii) any best practices and strategies 17
developed.’’. 18
SEC. 104. GRANTS FOR PUBLIC WORKS AND ECONOMIC DE-19
VELOPMENT. 20
(a) I N GENERAL.—Section 201 of the Public Works 21
and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141) 22 is amended— 23
(1) in subsection (a)— 24
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(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘or for 1
the improvement of waste management and recy-2
cling systems’’ after ‘‘development facility’’; and 3
(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘in-4
creasing the resilience’’ after ‘‘expansion,’’; 5
(2) in subsection (b)(1)— 6
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘suc-7
cessful establishment or expansion’’ and inserting 8
‘‘successful establishment, expansion, or reten-9
tion,’’; and 10
(B) in subparagraph (C), by inserting ‘‘and 11
underemployed’’ after ‘‘unemployed’’; 12
(3) by redesignating subsection (c) as subsection 13
(d); and 14
(4) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol-15
lowing: 16
‘‘(c) A DDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS.—In awarding 17
grants under subsection (a) and subject to the criteria in 18 subsection (b), the Secretary may also consider the extent 19 to which a project would— 20
‘‘(1) lead to economic diversification in the area, 21
or a part of the area, in which the project is or will 22 be located; 23
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‘‘(2) address and mitigate impacts from extreme 1
weather events, including development of resilient in-2 frastructure, products, and processes; 3
‘‘(3) benefit highly rural communities without 4
adequate tax revenues to invest in long-term or costly 5 infrastructure; 6
‘‘(4) increase access to high-speed broadband; 7
‘‘(5) support outdoor recreation to spur economic 8
development, with a focus on rural communities; 9
‘‘(6) promote job creation or retention relative to 10
the population of the impacted region with outsized 11
significance; 12
‘‘(7) promote travel and tourism; or 13
‘‘(8) promote blue economy activities.’’. 14
SEC. 105. GRANTS FOR PLANNING AND GRANTS FOR ADMIN-15
ISTRATIVE EXPENSES. 16
Section 203 of the Public Works and Economic Devel-17
opment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3143) is amended— 18
(1) by redesignating subsection (d) as subsection 19
(e); 20
(2) by inserting after subsection (c) the fol-21
lowing: 22
‘‘(d) A DMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—Administrative 23
expenses that may be paid with a grant under this section 24 include— 25
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‘‘(1) expenses related to carrying out the plan-1
ning process described in subsection (b); 2
‘‘(2) expenses related to project predevelopment; 3
‘‘(3) expenses related to updating economic devel-4
opment plans to align with other applicable State, re-5 gional, or local planning efforts; and 6
‘‘(4) expenses related to hiring professional staff 7
to assist communities in— 8
‘‘(A) project predevelopment and imple-9
menting projects and priorities included in— 10
‘‘(i) a comprehensive economic develop-11
ment strategy; or 12
‘‘(ii) an economic development plan-13
ning grant; 14
‘‘(B) identifying and using other Federal, 15
State, and Tribal economic development pro-16
grams; 17
‘‘(C) leveraging private and philanthropic 18
investment; 19
‘‘(D) preparing disaster coordination and 20
preparation plans; and 21
‘‘(E) carrying out economic development 22
and predevelopment activities in accordance 23
with professional economic development best 24
practices.’’; and 25
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(3) in subsection (e) (as so redesignated), in 1
paragraph (4)— 2
(A) in subparagraph (E), by striking ‘‘; 3
and’’ and inserting ‘‘(including broadband);’’; 4
(B) by redesignating subparagraph (F) as 5
subparagraph (G); and 6
(C) by inserting after subparagraph (E) the 7
following: 8
‘‘(F) address and mitigate impacts of ex-9
treme weather; and’’. 10
SEC. 106. COST SHARING. 11
(a) I N GENERAL.—Section 204 of the Public Works 12
and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3144) 13 is amended— 14
(1) in subsection (a)(1), by striking ‘‘50’’ and in-15
serting ‘‘60’’; 16
(2) in subsection (b)— 17
(A) by striking ‘‘In determining’’ and in-18
serting the following: 19
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL .—In determining’’; and 20
(B) by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(2) R EGIONAL COMMISSION FUNDS .—Notwith-22
standing any other provision of law, any funds con-23
tributed by a Regional Commission for a project 24
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under this title may be considered to be part of the 1
non-Federal share of the costs of the project.’’; and 2 (3) in subsection (c)— 3
(A) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘or can 4
otherwise document that no local matching funds 5
are reasonably obtainable’’ after ‘‘or political 6
subdivision’’; 7
(B) in paragraph (3)— 8
(i) by striking ‘‘section 207’’ and in-9
serting ‘‘section 203 or 207’’; and 10
(ii) by striking ‘‘project if’’ and all 11
that follows through the period at the end 12
and inserting ‘‘project.’’; and 13
(C) by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(4) D ISASTER ASSISTANCE .—In the case of a 15
grant provided under section 209 for a project for eco-16 nomic recovery in response to a major disaster or 17
emergency declared under the Robert T. Stafford Dis-18
aster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 19 5121 et seq.), the Secretary may increase the Federal 20 share under paragraph (1) up to 100 percent of the 21
total cost of the project. 22
‘‘(5) S MALL COMMUNITIES .—In the case of a 23
grant to a political subdivision of a State (as de-24
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of fewer than 10,000 residents and meets 1 or more 1
of the eligibility criteria described in section 301(a), 2 the Secretary may increase the Federal share under 3
paragraph (1) up to 100 percent of the total cost of 4
the project.’’. 5
(b) C ONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 703 of the 6
Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 7 U.S.C. 3233) is amended— 8
(1) by striking subsection (b); and 9
(2) by striking the section designation and head-10
ing and all that follows through ‘‘In addition’’ in sub-11 section (a) and inserting the following: 12
‘‘SEC. 703. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR DIS-13
ASTER ECONOMIC RECOVERY ACTIVITIES. 14
‘‘In addition’’. 15
SEC. 107. REGULATIONS ON RELATIVE NEEDS AND ALLOCA-16
TIONS. 17
Section 206 of the Public Works and Economic Devel-18
opment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3146) is amended— 19
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking subparagraph 20
(B) and inserting the following: 21
‘‘(B) the per capita income levels, the labor 22
force participation rate, and the extent of under-23
employment in eligible areas; and’’; and 24
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(2) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘and reten-1
tion’’ after ‘‘creation’’. 2
SEC. 108. RESEARCH AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE; UNI-3
VERSITY CENTERS. 4
Section 207 of the Public Works and Economic Devel-5
opment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3147) is amended— 6
(1) in subsection (a)(2)(A), by inserting ‘‘, 7
project predevelopment,’’ after ‘‘planning’’; and 8
(2) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(c) UNIVERSITY CENTERS.— 10
‘‘(1) E STABLISHMENT.—In accordance with sub-11
section (a)(2)(D), the Secretary may make grants to 12
institutions of higher education to serve as university 13 centers. 14
‘‘(2) G EOGRAPHIC COVERAGE .—The Secretary 15
shall ensure that the network of university centers es-16 tablished under this subsection provides services in 17 each State. 18
‘‘(3) D UTIES.—To the maximum extent prac-19
ticable, a university center established under this sub-20 section shall— 21
‘‘(A) collaborate with other university cen-22
ters; 23
‘‘(B) collaborate with economic development 24
districts and other relevant Federal economic de-25
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velopment technical assistance and service pro-1
viders to provide expertise and technical assist-2
ance to develop, implement, and support com-3
prehensive economic development strategies and 4
other economic development planning at the 5
local, regional, and State levels, with a focus on 6
innovation, entrepreneurship, workforce develop-7
ment, and regional economic development; 8
‘‘(C) provide technical assistance, business 9
development, and technology transfer services to 10
businesses in the area served by the university 11
center; 12
‘‘(D) establish partnerships with 1 or more 13
commercialization intermediaries that are public 14
or nonprofit technology transfer organizations el-15
igible to receive a grant under section 602 of the 16
American Innovation and Competitiveness Act 17
(42 U.S.C. 1862s–9); 18
‘‘(E) promote local and regional capacity 19
building; and 20
‘‘(F) provide to communities and regions 21
assistance relating to data collection and anal-22
ysis and other research relating to economic con-23
ditions and vulnerabilities that can inform eco-24
nomic development and adjustment strategies. 25
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‘‘(4) C ONSIDERATION.—In making grants under 1
this subsection, the Secretary shall consider the sig-2 nificant role of regional public universities in sup-3
porting economic development in distressed commu-4
nities through the planning and the implementation 5
of economic development projects and initiatives.’’. 6
SEC. 109. INVESTMENT PRIORITIES. 7
Title II of the Public Works and Economic Develop-8
ment Act of 1965 is amended by inserting after section 207 9 (42 U.S.C. 3147) the following: 10
‘‘SEC. 208. INVESTMENT PRIORITIES. 11
‘‘(a) I N GENERAL.—Subject to subsection (b), for a 12
project to be eligible for assistance under this title, the 13 project shall be consistent with 1 or more of the following 14 investment priorities: 15
‘‘(1) C RITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE .—Economic de-16
velopment planning or implementation projects that 17
support development of public facilities, including 18
basic public infrastructure, transportation infrastruc-19 ture, or telecommunications infrastructure. 20
‘‘(2) WORKFORCE.—Economic development plan-21
ning or implementation projects that— 22
‘‘(A) support job skills training to meet the 23
hiring needs of the area in which the project is 24
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to be carried out and that result in well-paying 1
jobs; or 2
‘‘(B) otherwise promote labor force partici-3
pation. 4
‘‘(3) I NNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP .— 5
Economic development planning or implementation 6
projects that— 7
‘‘(A) support the development of innovation 8
and entrepreneurship-related infrastructure; 9
‘‘(B) promote business development and 10
lending; or 11
‘‘(C) foster the commercialization of new 12
technologies that are creating technology-driven 13
businesses and high-skilled, well-paying jobs of 14
the future. 15
‘‘(4) E CONOMIC RECOVERY RESILIENCE .—Eco-16
nomic development planning or implementation 17
projects that enhance the ability of an area to with-18 stand and recover from adverse short-term or long- 19
term changes in economic conditions, including effects 20 from industry contractions or impacts from natural 21
disasters. 22
‘‘(5) M ANUFACTURING.—Economic development 23
planning or implementation projects that encourage 24
job creation, business expansion, technology and cap-25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00125 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 126
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ital upgrades, and productivity growth in manufac-1
turing, including efforts that contribute to the com-2
petitiveness and growth of domestic suppliers or the 3
domestic production of innovative, high-value prod-4
ucts and production technologies. 5
‘‘(b) C ONDITIONS.—If the Secretary plans to use an 6
investment priority that is not described in subsection (a), 7 the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Environ-8 ment and Public Works of the Senate and the Committee 9 on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Rep-10 resentatives a written notification that explains the basis 11 for using that investment priority. 12
‘‘(c) SAVINGS CLAUSE.—Nothing in this section waives 13 any other requirement of this Act.’’. 14
SEC. 110. GRANTS FOR ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT. 15
Section 209 of the Public Works and Economic Devel-16
opment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3149) is amended— 17
(1) in subsection (c)— 18
(A) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘or’’ at 19
the end; 20
(B) in paragraph (5)— 21
(i) by inserting ‘‘, travel and tourism, 22
natural resource-based, blue economy, or ag-23
ricultural’’ after ‘‘manufacturing’’; and 24
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(ii) by striking the period at the end 1
and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 2
(C) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(6) economic dislocation in the steel industry 4
due to the closure of a steel plant, primary steel econ-5 omy contraction events (including temporary layoffs 6
and shifts to part-time work), or job losses in the steel 7 industry or associated with the departure or contrac-8
tion of the steel industry, for help in economic re-9
structuring of the communities.’’; 10
(2) by redesignating subsections (d) and (e) as 11
subsections (f) and (g), respectively; and 12
(3) by inserting after section (c) the following: 13
‘‘(d) ASSISTANCE TO COAL COMMUNITIES.— 14
‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 15
‘‘(A) C OAL ECONOMY .—The term ‘coal econ-16
omy’ means the complete supply chain of coal- 17
reliant industries, including— 18
‘‘(i) coal mining; 19
‘‘(ii) coal-fired power plants; 20
‘‘(iii) transportation or logistics; and 21
‘‘(iv) manufacturing. 22
‘‘(B) C ONTRACTION EVENT .—The term ‘con-23
traction event’ means the closure of a facility or 24
a reduction in activity relating to a coal-reliant 25
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industry, including an industry described in any 1
of clauses (i) through (iv) of subparagraph (A). 2
‘‘(2) AUTHORIZATION.—On the application of an 3
eligible recipient, the Secretary may make grants for 4 projects in areas adversely impacted by a contraction 5 event in the coal economy. 6
‘‘(3) ELIGIBILITY.— 7
‘‘(A) I N GENERAL .—In carrying out this 8
subsection, the Secretary shall determine the eli-9
gibility of an area based on whether the eligible 10
recipient can reasonably demonstrate that the 11
area— 12
‘‘(i) has been adversely impacted by a 13
contraction event in the coal economy with-14
in the previous 25 years; or 15
‘‘(ii) will be adversely impacted by a 16
contraction event in the coal economy. 17
‘‘(B) P ROHIBITION.—No regulation or other 18
policy of the Secretary may limit the eligibility 19
of an eligible recipient for a grant under this 20
subsection based on the date of a contraction 21
event except as provided in subparagraph (A)(i). 22
‘‘(C) D EMONSTRATING ADVERSE IMPACT .— 23
For the purposes of this paragraph, an eligible 24
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recipient may demonstrate an adverse impact by 1
demonstrating— 2
‘‘(i) a loss in employment; 3
‘‘(ii) a reduction in tax revenue; or 4
‘‘(iii) any other factor, as determined 5
to be appropriate by the Secretary. 6
‘‘(e) ASSISTANCE TO NUCLEAR HOST COMMUNITIES.— 7
‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 8
‘‘(A) C OMMISSION.—The term ‘Commission’ 9
means the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 10
‘‘(B) C OMMUNITY ADVISORY BOARD .—The 11
term ‘community advisory board’ means a com-12
munity committee or other advisory organization 13
that aims to foster communication and informa-14
tion exchange between a licensee planning for 15
and involved in decommissioning activities and 16
members of the community that decommissioning 17
activities may affect. 18
‘‘(C) DECOMMISSION.—The term ‘decommis-19
sion’ has the meaning given the term in section 20

50.2 of title 10, Code of Federal Regulations (or 21
successor regulations). 22
‘‘(D) L ICENSEE.—The term ‘licensee’ has 23
the meaning given the term in section 50.2 of 24
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title 10, Code of Federal Regulations (or suc-1
cessor regulations). 2
‘‘(E) N UCLEAR HOST COMMUNITY .—The 3
term ‘nuclear host community’ means an eligible 4
recipient that has been impacted, or reasonably 5
demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Secretary 6
that it will be impacted, by a nuclear power 7
plant licensed by the Commission that— 8
‘‘(i) is not co-located with an operating 9
nuclear power plant; 10
‘‘(ii) is at a site with spent nuclear 11
fuel; and 12
‘‘(iii) as of the date of enactment of the 13
Economic Development Reauthorization Act 14
of 2024— 15
‘‘(I) has ceased operations; or 16
‘‘(II) has provided a written noti-17
fication to the Commission that it will 18
cease operations. 19
‘‘(2) AUTHORIZATION.—On the application of an 20
eligible recipient, the Secretary may make grants— 21
‘‘(A) to assist with economic development in 22
nuclear host communities; and 23
‘‘(B) to fund community advisory boards in 24
nuclear host communities. 25
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‘‘(3) R EQUIREMENT.—In carrying out this sub-1
section, to the maximum extent practicable, the Sec-2
retary shall implement the recommendations described 3
in the report submitted to Congress under section 108 4 of the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization 5
Act (Public Law 115–439; 132 Stat. 5577) entitled 6
‘Best Practices for Establishment and Operation of 7
Local Community Advisory Boards Associated with 8
Decommissioning Activities at Nuclear Power Plants’. 9
‘‘(4) D ISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS .—The Secretary 10
shall establish a methodology to ensure, to the max-11
imum extent practicable, geographic diversity among 12
grant recipients under this subsection.’’. 13
SEC. 111. RENEWABLE ENERGY PROGRAM. 14
Section 218 of the Public Works and Economic Devel-15
opment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3154d) is amended— 16
(1) in the section heading, by striking 17
‘‘BRIGHTFIELDS DEMONSTRATION ’’ and inserting 18
‘‘RENEWABLE ENERGY ’’; 19
(2) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the 20
following: 21
‘‘(a) D EFINITION OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SITE.—In 22
this section, the term ‘renewable energy site’ means a 23 brownfield site that is redeveloped through the incorpora-24 tion of 1 or more renewable energy technologies, including 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00131 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 132
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solar, wind, geothermal, ocean, and emerging, but proven, 1 renewable energy technologies.’’; 2
(3) in subsection (b)— 3
(A) in the subsection heading, by striking 4
‘‘DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM’’ and inserting 5
‘‘ESTABLISHMENT’’; 6
(B) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 7
by striking ‘‘brightfield’’ and inserting ‘‘renew-8
able energy’’; and 9
(C) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘solar en-10
ergy technologies’’ and inserting ‘‘renewable en-11
ergy technologies described in subsection (a),’’; 12
and 13
(4) by striking subsection (d). 14
SEC. 112. WORKFORCE TRAINING GRANTS. 15
Title II of the Public Works and Economic Develop-16
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141 et seq.) is amended by 17 adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘SEC. 219. WORKFORCE TRAINING GRANTS. 19
‘‘(a) I N GENERAL.—On the application of an eligible 20 recipient, the Secretary may make grants to support the 21 development and expansion of innovative workforce train-22 ing programs through sectoral partnerships leading to qual-23 ity jobs and the acquisition of equipment or construction 24 of facilities to support workforce development activities. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00132 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 133
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‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE USES.—Funds from a grant under this 1
section may be used for— 2
‘‘(1) acquisition or development of land and im-3
provements to house workforce training activities; 4
‘‘(2) acquisition, design and engineering, con-5
struction, rehabilitation, alteration, expansion, or im-6 provement of such a facility, including related equip-7 ment and machinery; 8
‘‘(3) acquisition of machinery or equipment to 9
support workforce training activities; 10
‘‘(4) planning, technical assistance, and train-11
ing; 12
‘‘(5) sector partnerships development, program 13
design, and program implementation; and 14
‘‘(6) in the case of an eligible recipient that is 15
a State, subject to subsection (c), a State program to 16 award career scholarships to train individuals for 17
employment in critical industries with high demand 18
and vacancies necessary for further economic develop-19 ment of the applicable State that— 20
‘‘(A) requires significant post-secondary 21
training; but 22
‘‘(B) does not require a post-secondary de-23
gree. 24
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‘‘(c) C AREER SCHOLARSHIPS STATE GRANT PRO-1
GRAM.— 2
‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—The Secretary may award 3
grants to States for the purpose described in sub-4
section (b)(6). 5
‘‘(2) A PPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a 6
grant under this subsection, the Chief Executive of a 7 State shall submit to the Secretary an application at 8 such time, in such manner, and containing such in-9
formation as the Secretary may require, which shall 10
include, at a minimum, the following: 11
‘‘(A) A method for identifying critical in-12
dustry sectors driving in-State economic growth 13
that face staffing challenges for in-demand jobs 14
and careers. 15
‘‘(B) A governance structure for the imple-16
mentation of the program established by the 17
State, including defined roles for the consortia of 18
agencies of such State, at a minimum, to include 19
the State departments of economic development, 20
labor, and education, or the State departments 21
or agencies with jurisdiction over those matters. 22
‘‘(C) A strategy for recruiting participants 23
from at least 1 community that meets 1 or more 24
of the criteria described in section 301(a). 25
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‘‘(D) A plan for how the State will develop 1
a tracking system for eligible programs, partici-2
pant enrollment, participant outcomes, and an 3
application portal for individual participants. 4
‘‘(3) S ELECTION.—The Secretary shall award 5
not more than 1 grant under this subsection to any 6
State. 7
‘‘(4) E LIGIBLE USES .—A grant under this sub-8
section may be used for— 9
‘‘(A) necessary costs to carry out the mat-10
ters described in this subsection, including tui-11
tion and stipends for individuals that receive a 12
career scholarship grant, subject to the require-13
ments described in paragraph (6); and 14
‘‘(B) program implementation, planning, 15
technical assistance, or training. 16
‘‘(5) F EDERAL SHARE .—Notwithstanding section 17
204, the Federal share of the cost of any award car-18
ried out with a grant made under this subsection 19
shall not exceed 70 percent. 20
‘‘(6) P ARTICIPANT AMOUNTS .—A State shall en-21
sure that grant funds provided under this subsection 22 to each individual that receives a career scholarship 23 grant under the program established by the applicable 24 State is the lesser of the following amounts: 25
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‘‘(A) In a case in which the individual is 1
also eligible for a Federal Pell Grant under sec-2
tion 401 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 3
(20 U.S.C. 1070a) for enrollment at the applica-4
ble training program for any award year of the 5
training program, $11,000 minus the amount of 6
the awarded Federal Pell Grant. 7
‘‘(B) For an individual not described in 8
paragraph (1), the lesser of— 9
‘‘(i) $11,000; and 10
‘‘(ii) the total cost of the training pro-11
gram in which the individual is enrolled, 12
including tuition, fees, career navigation 13
services, textbook costs, expenses related to 14
assessments and exams for certification or 15
licensure, equipment costs, and wage sti-16
pends (in the case of a training program 17
that is an earn-and-learn program). 18
‘‘(d) C OORDINATION.—The Secretary shall coordinate 19
the development of new workforce development models with 20 the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Education.’’. 21 SEC. 113. CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS. 22
Title II of the Public Works and Economic Develop-23
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141 et seq.) (as amended by 24 section 112) is amended by adding at the end the following: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00136 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 137
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‘‘SEC. 220. CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION REQUIRE-1
MENTS. 2
‘‘(a) I N GENERAL.—In the case of a project described 3 in subsection (b), the Secretary shall provide to the Com-4 mittee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate and 5 the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the 6 House of Representatives notice, in accordance with sub-7 section (c), of the award of a grant for the project not less 8 than 3 business days before notifying an eligible recipient 9 of their selection for that award. 10
‘‘(b) P ROJECTS DESCRIBED.—A project referred to in 11
subsection (a) is a project that the Secretary has selected 12 to receive a grant administered by the Economic Develop-13 ment Administration in an amount not less than $100,000. 14 ‘‘(c) REQUIREMENTS.—A notification under subsection 15
(a) shall include— 16
‘‘(1) the name of the project; 17
‘‘(2) the name of the applicant; 18
‘‘(3) the region in which the project is to be car-19
ried out; 20
‘‘(4) the State in which the project is to be car-21
ried out; 22
‘‘(5) the amount of the grant awarded; 23
‘‘(6) a description of the project; and 24
‘‘(7) any additional information, as determined 25
to be appropriate by the Secretary. 26
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‘‘(d) P UBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The Secretary shall 1
make a notification under subsection (a) publicly available 2 not later than 60 days after the date on which the Secretary 3 provides the notice.’’. 4
SEC. 114. SPECIFIC FLEXIBILITIES RELATED TO DEPLOY-5
MENT OF HIGH-SPEED BROADBAND. 6
Title II of the Public Works and Economic Develop-7
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141 et seq.) (as amended by 8 section 113) is amended by adding at the end the following: 9 ‘‘SEC. 221. HIGH-SPEED BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT INITIA-10
TIVE. 11
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 12
‘‘(1) B ROADBAND PROJECT .—The term 13
‘broadband project’ means, for the purposes of pro-14
viding, extending, expanding, or improving high- 15
speed broadband service to further the goals of this 16 Act— 17
‘‘(A) planning, technical assistance, or 18
training; 19
‘‘(B) the acquisition or development of land; 20
or 21
‘‘(C) the acquisition, design and engineer-22
ing, construction, rehabilitation, alteration, ex-23
pansion, or improvement of facilities, including 24
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related machinery, equipment, contractual 1
rights, and intangible property. 2
‘‘(2) E LIGIBLE RECIPIENT .—The term ‘eligible 3
recipient’ includes— 4
‘‘(A) a public-private partnership; and 5
‘‘(B) a consortium formed for the purpose of 6
providing, extending, expanding, or improving 7
high-speed broadband service between 1 or more 8
eligible recipients and 1 or more for-profit orga-9
nizations. 10
‘‘(3) H IGH-SPEED BROADBAND .—The term ‘high- 11
speed broadband’ means the provision of 2-way data 12
transmission with sufficient downstream and up-13
stream speeds to end users to permit effective partici-14 pation in the economy and to support economic 15
growth, as determined by the Secretary. 16
‘‘(b) BROADBAND PROJECTS.— 17
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL .—On the application of an eli-18
gible recipient, the Secretary may make grants under 19 this title for broadband projects, which shall be subject 20 to the provisions of this section. 21
‘‘(2) C ONSIDERATIONS.—In reviewing applica-22
tions submitted under paragraph (1), the Secretary 23
shall take into consideration geographic diversity of 24 grants provided, including consideration of under-25
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served markets, in addition to data requested in para-1 graph (3). 2
‘‘(3) DATA REQUESTED .—In reviewing an appli-3
cation submitted under paragraph (1), the Secretary 4
shall request from the Federal Communications Com-5
mission, the Administrator of the National Tele-6
communications and Information Administration, the 7
Secretary of Agriculture, and the Appalachian Re-8
gional Commission data on— 9
‘‘(A) the level and extent of broadband serv-10
ice that exists in the area proposed to be served; 11
and 12
‘‘(B) the level and extent of broadband serv-13
ice that will be deployed in the area proposed to 14
be served pursuant to another Federal program. 15
‘‘(4) I NTEREST IN REAL OR PERSONAL PROP -16
ERTY.—For any broadband project carried out by an 17
eligible recipient that is a public-private partnership 18 or consortium, the Secretary shall require that title to 19 any real or personal property acquired or improved 20
with grant funds, or if the recipient will not acquire 21 title, another possessory interest acceptable to the Sec-22 retary, be vested in a public partner or eligible non-23 profit organization or association for the useful life of 24 the project, after which title may be transferred to 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00140 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 141
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any member of the public-private partnership or con-1
sortium in accordance with regulations promulgated 2
by the Secretary. 3
‘‘(5) P ROCUREMENT.—Notwithstanding any 4
other provision of law, no person or entity shall be 5
disqualified from competing to provide goods or serv-6
ices related to a broadband project on the basis that 7 the person or entity participated in the development 8
of the broadband project or in the drafting of speci-9
fications, requirements, statements of work, or similar 10 documents related to the goods or services to be pro-11 vided. 12
‘‘(6) BROADBAND PROJECT PROPERTY .— 13
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL .—The Secretary may per-14
mit a recipient of a grant for a broadband 15
project to grant an option to acquire real or per-16
sonal property (including contractual rights and 17
intangible property) related to that project to a 18
third party on such terms as the Secretary deter-19
mines to be appropriate, subject to the condition 20
that the option may only be exercised after the 21
Secretary releases the Federal interest in the 22
property. 23
‘‘(B) T REATMENT.—The grant or exercise of 24
an option described in subparagraph (A) shall 25
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not constitute a redistribution of grant funds 1
under section 217. 2
‘‘(c) N ON-FEDERAL SHARE.—In determining the 3
amount of the non-Federal share of the cost of a broadband 4 project, the Secretary may provide credit toward the non- 5 Federal share for the present value of allowable contribu-6 tions over the useful life of the broadband project, subject 7 to the condition that the Secretary may require such assur-8 ances of the value of the rights and of the commitment of 9 the rights as the Secretary determines to be appropriate.’’. 10 SEC. 115. CRITICAL SUPPLY CHAIN SITE DEVELOPMENT 11
GRANT PROGRAM. 12
Title II of the Public Works and Economic Develop-13
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141 et seq.) (as amended by 14 section 114) is amended by adding at the end the following: 15 ‘‘SEC. 222. CRITICAL SUPPLY CHAIN SITE DEVELOPMENT 16
GRANT PROGRAM. 17
‘‘(a) I N GENERAL.—On the application of an eligible 18 recipient, the Secretary may make grants under the ‘Crit-19 ical Supply Chain Site Development grant program’ (re-20 ferred to in this section as the ‘grant program’) to carry 21 out site development or expansion projects for the purpose 22 of making the site ready for manufacturing projects. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00142 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 143
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‘‘(b) C ONSIDERATIONS.—In providing a grant to an 1
eligible recipient under the grant program, the Secretary 2 may consider whether— 3
‘‘(1) the proposed improvements to the site will 4
improve economic conditions for rural areas, Tribal 5
communities, or areas that meet 1 or more of the cri-6
teria described in section 301(a); 7
‘‘(2) the project is consistent with regional eco-8
nomic development plans, which may include a com-9
prehensive economic development strategy; 10
‘‘(3) the eligible recipient has initiatives to 11
prioritize job training and workforce development; 12
and 13
‘‘(4) the project supports industries determined 14
by the Secretary to be of strategic importance to the 15 national or economic security of the United States. 16
‘‘(c) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants to eligible recipi-17 ents under the grant program, the Secretary shall give pri-18 ority to eligible recipients that propose to carry out a 19 project that— 20
‘‘(1) has State, local, private, or nonprofit funds 21
being contributed to assist with site development ef-22 forts; and 23
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‘‘(2) if the site development or expansion project 1
is carried out, will result in a demonstrated interest 2 in the site by commercial entities or other entities. 3 ‘‘(d) U SE OF FUNDS.—A grant provided under the 4
grant program may be used for the following activities re-5 lating to the development or expansion of a site: 6
‘‘(1) Investments in site utility readiness, includ-7
ing— 8
‘‘(A) construction of on-site utility infra-9
structure; 10
‘‘(B) construction of last-mile infrastruc-11
ture, including road infrastructure, water infra-12
structure, power infrastructure, broadband infra-13
structure, and other physical last-mile infra-14
structure; 15
‘‘(C) site grading; and 16
‘‘(D) other activities to extend public utili-17
ties or services to a site, as determined appro-18
priate by the Secretary. 19
‘‘(2) Investments in site readiness, including— 20
‘‘(A) land assembly; 21
‘‘(B) environmental reviews; 22
‘‘(C) zoning; 23
‘‘(D) design; 24
‘‘(E) engineering; and 25
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‘‘(F) permitting. 1
‘‘(3) Investments in workforce development and 2
sustainability programs, including job training and 3
retraining programs. 4
‘‘(4) Investments to ensure that disadvantaged 5
communities have access to on-site jobs. 6
‘‘(e) P ROHIBITION.—In awarding grants under the 7
grant program, the Secretary shall not require an eligible 8 recipient to demonstrate that a private company or invest-9 ment has selected the site for development or expansion.’’. 10 SEC. 116. UPDATED DISTRESS CRITERIA AND GRANT RATES. 11 Section 301(a) of the Public Works and Economic De-12
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3161(a)) is amended by 13 striking paragraph (3) and inserting the following: 14
‘‘(3) U NEMPLOYMENT, UNDEREMPLOYMENT, OR 15
ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT PROBLEMS .—The area is an 16
area that the Secretary determines has experienced or 17 is about to experience a special need arising from ac-18 tual or threatened severe unemployment, under-19
employment, or economic adjustment problems result-20
ing from severe short-term or long-term changes in 21
economic conditions. 22
‘‘(4) L OW MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME .—The 23
area has a median household income of 80 percent or 24
less of the national average. 25
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‘‘(5) W ORKFORCE PARTICIPATION .—The area 1
has— 2
‘‘(A) a labor force participation rate of 90 3
percent or less of the national average; or 4
‘‘(B) a prime-age employment gap of 5 per-5
cent or more. 6
‘‘(6) E XPECTED ECONOMIC DISLOCATION AND 7
DISTRESS FROM ENERGY INDUSTRY TRANSITIONS .— 8
The area is an area that is expected to experience ac-9 tual or threatened severe unemployment or economic 10
adjustment problems resulting from severe short-term 11 or long-term changes in economic conditions from en-12
ergy industries that are experiencing accelerated con-13 traction.’’. 14
SEC. 117. COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 15
STRATEGIES. 16
Section 302 of the Public Works and Economic Devel-17
opment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3162) is amended— 18
(1) in subsection (a)(3)(A), by inserting ‘‘includ-19
ing to mitigate and adapt to extreme weather,’’ after 20 ‘‘enhances and protects the environment,’’; and 21
(2) by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(d) E XCEPTION.—This section shall not apply to 23
grants awarded under section 207 or grants awarded under 24 section 209(c)(2) that are regional in scope.’’. 25
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SEC. 118. OFFICE OF TRIBAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. 1
Title V of the Public Works and Economic Develop-2
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3191 et seq.) is amended by 3 adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘SEC. 508. OFFICE OF TRIBAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. 5
‘‘(a) E STABLISHMENT.—There is established within 6
the Economic Development Administration an Office of 7
Tribal Economic Development (referred to in this section 8 as the ‘Office’). 9
‘‘(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of the Office shall be— 10 ‘‘(1) to coordinate all Tribal economic develop-11
ment activities carried out by the Secretary; 12
‘‘(2) to help Tribal communities access economic 13
development assistance programs, including the as-14
sistance provided under this Act; 15
‘‘(3) to coordinate Tribal economic development 16
strategies and efforts with other Federal agencies; and 17 ‘‘(4) to be a participant in any negotiated 18
rulemakings or consultations relating to, or having 19
an impact on, projects, programs, or funding that 20
benefit Tribal communities. 21
‘‘(c) T RIBAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY.— 22
‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—Not later than 1 year after 23
the date of enactment of the Economic Development 24
Reauthorization Act of 2024, the Office shall initiate 25 a Tribal consultation process to develop, and not less 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00147 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 148
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frequently than every 3 years thereafter, update, a 1
strategic plan for Tribal economic development for the 2 Economic Development Administration. 3
‘‘(2) S UBMISSION TO CONGRESS .—Not later than 4
1 year after the date of enactment of the Economic 5
Development Reauthorization Act of 2024 and not 6
less frequently than every 3 years thereafter, the Office 7 shall submit to Congress the strategic plan for Tribal 8 economic development developed under paragraph (1). 9
‘‘(d) OUTREACH.—The Secretary shall establish a pub-10
licly facing website to help provide a comprehensive, single 11 source of information for Indian tribes, Tribal leaders, 12 Tribal businesses, and citizens in Tribal communities to 13 better understand and access programs that support eco-14 nomic development in Tribal communities, including the 15 economic development programs administered by Federal 16 agencies or departments other than the Department. 17
‘‘(e) D EDICATED STAFF.—The Secretary shall ensure 18
that the Office has sufficient staff to carry out all outreach 19 activities under this section.’’. 20
SEC. 119. OFFICE OF DISASTER RECOVERY AND RESIL-21
IENCE. 22
Title V of the Public Works and Economic Develop-23
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3191 et seq.) (as amended by 24 section 118) is amended by adding at the end the following: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00148 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 149
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‘‘SEC. 509. OFFICE OF DISASTER RECOVERY AND RESIL-1
IENCE. 2
‘‘(a) E STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall establish 3
an Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience— 4
‘‘(1) to direct and implement the post-disaster 5
economic recovery responsibilities of the Economic 6
Development Administration pursuant to subsections 7
(c)(2) and (e) of section 209 and section 703; 8
‘‘(2) to direct and implement economic recovery 9
and enhanced resilience support function activities as 10 directed under the National Disaster Recovery Frame-11
work; and 12
‘‘(3) support long-term economic recovery in 13
communities in which a major disaster or emergency 14
has been declared under the Robert T. Stafford Dis-15
aster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 16 5121 et seq.), or otherwise impacted by an event of 17
national significance, as determined by the Secretary, 18 through— 19
‘‘(A) convening and deploying an economic 20
development assessment team; 21
‘‘(B) hosting or attending convenings re-22
lated to identification of additional Federal, 23
State, local, and philanthropic entities and re-24
sources; 25
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‘‘(C) exploring potential flexibilities related 1
to existing awards; 2
‘‘(D) provision of technical assistance 3
through staff or contractual resources; and 4
‘‘(E) other activities determined by the Sec-5
retary to be appropriate. 6
‘‘(b) A PPOINTMENT AND COMPENSATION AUTHORI-7
TIES.— 8
‘‘(1) A PPOINTMENT.—The Secretary is author-9
ized to appoint such temporary personnel as may be 10
necessary to carry out the responsibilities of the Office 11 of Disaster Recovery and Resilience, without regard 12
to the provisions of subchapter I of chapter 33 of title 13 5, United States Code, governing appointments in the 14 competitive service and compensation of personnel. 15
‘‘(2) C ONVERSION OF EMPLOYEES .—Notwith-16
standing chapter 33 of title 5, United States Code, or 17 any other provision of law relating to the examina-18
tion, certification, and appointment of individuals in 19 the competitive service, the Secretary is authorized to 20 convert a temporary employee appointed under this 21
subsection to a permanent appointment in the com-22
petitive service in the Economic Development Admin-23
istration under merit promotion procedures if— 24
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‘‘(A) the employee has served continuously 1
for at least 2 years under 1 or more appoint-2
ments under this subsection; and 3
‘‘(B) the employee’s performance has been at 4
an acceptable level of performance throughout the 5
period or periods referred to in subparagraph 6
(A). 7
‘‘(3) C OMPENSATION.—An individual converted 8
under this subsection shall become a career-condi-9
tional employee, unless the employee has already com-10 pleted the service requirements for career tenure. 11
‘‘(c) DISASTER TEAM.— 12
‘‘(1) E STABLISHMENT.—As soon as practicable 13
after the date of enactment of this section, the Sec-14 retary shall establish a disaster team (referred to in 15 this section as the ‘disaster team’) for the deployment 16 of individuals to carry out responsibilities of the Of-17 fice of Disaster Recovery and Resilience after a major 18 disaster or emergency has been declared under the 19
Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency As-20
sistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.) and the Depart-21 ment has been activated by the Federal Emergency 22
Management Agency. 23
‘‘(2) MEMBERSHIP.— 24
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‘‘(A) D ESIGNATION OF STAFF .—As soon as 1
practicable after the date of enactment of this 2
section, the Secretary shall designate to serve on 3
the disaster team— 4
‘‘(i) employees of the Office of Disaster 5
Recovery and Resilience; 6
‘‘(ii) employees of the Department who 7
are not employees of the Economic Develop-8
ment Administration; and 9
‘‘(iii) in consultation with the heads of 10
other Federal agencies, employees of those 11
agencies, as appropriate. 12
‘‘(B) C APABILITIES.—In designating indi-13
viduals under subparagraph (A), the Secretary 14
shall ensure that the disaster team includes a 15
sufficient quantity of— 16
‘‘(i) individuals who are capable of de-17
ploying rapidly and efficiently to respond 18
to major disasters and emergencies; and 19
‘‘(ii) highly trained full-time employees 20
who will lead and manage the disaster 21
team. 22
‘‘(3) T RAINING.—The Secretary shall ensure that 23
appropriate and ongoing training is provided to 24
members of the disaster team to ensure that the mem-25
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bers are adequately trained regarding the programs 1
and policies of the Economic Development Adminis-2
tration relating to post-disaster economic recovery ef-3 forts. 4
‘‘(4) E XPENSES.—In carrying out this section, 5
the Secretary may— 6
‘‘(A) use, with or without reimbursement, 7
any service, equipment, personnel, or facility of 8
any Federal agency with the explicit support of 9
that agency, to the extent such use does not im-10
pair or conflict with the authority of the Presi-11
dent or the Administrator of the Federal Emer-12
gency Management Agency under the Robert T. 13
Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assist-14
ance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.) to direct Fed-15
eral agencies in any major disaster or emergency 16
declared under that Act; and 17
‘‘(B) provide members of the disaster team 18
with travel expenses, including per diem in lieu 19
of subsistence, at rates authorized for an em-20
ployee of an agency under subchapter I of chap-21
ter 57 of title 5, United States Code, while away 22
from the home or regular place of business of the 23
member in the performance of services for, or re-24
lating to, the disaster team.’’. 25
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SEC. 120. ESTABLISHMENT OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE LI-1
AISONS. 2
Title V of the Public Works and Economic Develop-3
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3191 et seq.) (as amended by 4 section 119) is amended by adding at the end the following: 5 ‘‘SEC. 510. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE LIAISONS. 6
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—A Regional Director of a regional 7
office of the Economic Development Administration may 8 designate a staff member to act as a ‘Technical Assistance 9 Liaison’ for any State served by the regional office. 10 ‘‘(b) R OLE.—A Technical Assistance Liaison shall— 11
‘‘(1) work in coordination with an Economic De-12
velopment Representative to provide technical assist-13 ance, in addition to technical assistance under section 14 207, to eligible recipients that are underresourced 15
communities, as determined by the Technical Assist-16
ance Liaison, that submit applications for assistance 17 under title II; and 18
‘‘(2) at the request of an eligible recipient that 19
submitted an application for assistance under title II, 20 provide technical feedback on unsuccessful grant ap-21
plications. 22
‘‘(c) T ECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary may 23
enter into a contract or cooperative agreement with an eli-24 gible recipient for the purpose of providing technical assist-25 ance to eligible recipients that are underresourced commu-26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00154 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 155
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nities that have submitted or may submit an application 1 for assistance under this Act.’’. 2
SEC. 121. ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS. 3
Section 603(b) of the Public Works and Economic De-4
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3213(b)) is amended— 5 (1) in paragraph (2)— 6
(A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 7
‘‘areas’’ after ‘‘rural’’; and 8
(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘and’’ 9
at the end; 10
(2) in paragraph (3), by striking the period at 11
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 12
(3) by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(4)(A) include a list of all of the grants pro-14
vided by the Economic Development Administration 15
for projects located in, or that primarily benefit, 16
rural areas; 17
‘‘(B) an explanation of the process used to deter-18
mine how each project referred to in subparagraph 19
(A) would benefit a rural area; and 20
‘‘(C) a certification that each project referred to 21
in subparagraph (A)— 22
‘‘(i) is located in a rural area; or 23
‘‘(ii) will primarily benefit a rural area.’’. 24
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SEC. 122. MODERNIZATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS. 1
(a) I N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 2
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Commerce 3 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall submit 4 to the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the 5 Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infra-6
structure of the House of Representatives a report on the 7 efforts of the Secretary to facilitate efficient, timely, and 8 predictable environmental reviews of projects funded by the 9 Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 10 U.S.C. 3121 et seq.), including through expanded use of cat-11 egorical exclusions, environmental assessments, or pro-12 grammatic environmental impact statements. 13
(b) R EQUIREMENTS.—In completing the report under 14
subsection (a), the Secretary shall— 15
(1) describe the actions the Secretary will take to 16
implement the amendments to the National Environ-17
mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) 18
made by section 321 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 19 of 2023 (Public Law 118–5; 137 Stat. 38); 20
(2) describe the existing categorical exclusions 21
most frequently used by the Secretary to streamline 22
the environmental review of projects funded by the 23
Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 24
(42 U.S.C. 3121 et seq.); and 25
(3) consider— 26
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(A) the adoption of additional categorical 1
exclusions, including those used by other Federal 2
agencies, that would facilitate the environmental 3
review of projects funded by the Public Works 4
and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 5
U.S.C. 3121 et seq.); 6
(B) the adoption of new programmatic en-7
vironmental impact statements that would facili-8
tate the environmental review of projects funded 9
by the Public Works and Economic Development 10
Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3121 et seq.); and 11
(C) agreements with other Federal agencies 12
that would facilitate a more efficient process for 13
the environmental review of projects funded by 14
the Public Works and Economic Development 15
Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3121 et seq.). 16
(c) R ULEMAKING.—Not later than 2 years after the 17
submission of the report under subsection (a), the Secretary 18 shall promulgate a final rule implementing, to the max-19 imum extent practicable, measures considered by the Sec-20 retary under subsection (b) that are necessary to streamline 21 the environmental review of projects funded by the Public 22 Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 23 3121 et seq.). 24
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SEC. 123. GAO REPORT ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PRO-1
GRAMS. 2
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) C OMPTROLLER GENERAL .—The term ‘‘Comp-4
troller General’’ means the Comptroller General of the 5 United States. 6
(2) R EGIONAL COMMISSION .—The term ‘‘Re-7
gional Commission’’ has the meaning given the term 8
in section 3 of the Public Works and Economic Devel-9
opment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3122). 10
(b) R EPORT.—Not later than September 30, 2026, the 11
Comptroller General shall submit to the Committee on En-12 vironment and Public Works of the Senate and the Com-13 mittee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House 14 of Representatives a report that evaluates economic develop-15 ment programs administered by the Economic Development 16 Administration and the Regional Commissions. 17
(c) CONTENTS.—In carrying out the report under sub-18
section (b), the Comptroller General shall— 19
(1) evaluate the impact of programs described in 20
that subsection on economic outcomes, including job 21
creation and retention, the rate of unemployment and 22 underemployment, labor force participation, and pri-23
vate investment leveraged; 24
(2) describe efforts by the Economic Development 25
Administration and the Regional Commissions to 26
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document the impact of programs described in that 1
subsection on economic outcomes described in para-2
graph (1); 3
(3) describe efforts by the Economic Development 4
Administration and the Regional Commissions to 5
carry out coordination activities described in section 6 103 of the Public Works and Economic Development 7
Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3133); 8
(4) consider other factors, as determined to be 9
appropriate by the Comptroller General of the United 10 States, to assess the effectiveness of programs de-11
scribed in subsection (b); and 12
(5) make legislative recommendations for im-13
provements to programs described in subsection (b) as 14 applicable. 15
SEC. 124. GAO REPORT ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AD-16
MINISTRATION REGULATIONS AND POLICIES. 17
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 18
(1) C OMPTROLLER GENERAL .—The term ‘‘Comp-19
troller General’’ means the Comptroller General of the 20 United States. 21
(2) S MALL COMMUNITY .—The term ‘‘small com-22
munity’’ means a community of less than 10,000 23
year-round residents. 24
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(b) R EPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 1
of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall sub-2 mit to the Committee on Environment and Public Works 3
of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and 4 Infrastructure of the House of Representatives a report that 5 evaluates economic development regulations and policies 6 administered by the Economic Development Administration 7 that have hindered the ability of communities to apply for 8 and administer Economic Development Administration 9
grants. 10
(c) CONTENTS.—In carrying out the report under sub-11
section (b), the Comptroller General shall— 12
(1) review regulations and grant application 13
processes promulgated by the Assistant Secretary of 14
Commerce for Economic Development; 15
(2) evaluate the technical capacity of eligible re-16
cipients (as defined in section 3 of the Public Works 17 and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 18
3122)) to apply for Economic Development Adminis-19
tration grants; 20
(3) provide recommendations for improving the 21
administration and timely disbursement of grants 22
awarded by the Economic Development Administra-23
tion, including for improving the communication 24
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with grantees regarding timelines for disbursement of 1 funds; 2
(4) identify barriers to small communities ap-3
plying for Economic Development Administration 4
grants, in consultation with— 5
(A) State economic development representa-6
tives; 7
(B) secretaries of State departments of eco-8
nomic development; 9
(C) representatives for small communities 10
that have received Economic Development Ad-11
ministration grants; and 12
(D) representatives for small communities 13
that have never applied for Economic Develop-14
ment Administration grants; and 15
(5) provide recommendations for simplifying 16
and easing the ability for grant applicants to navi-17
gate the Economic Development Administration grant 18
application process, including through a review of 19
regulations, including environmental regulations, not 20 in the jurisdiction of the Economic Development Ad-21
ministration to identify possible grant application 22
process improvements. 23
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SEC. 125. GAO STUDY ON RURAL COMMUNITIES. 1
(a) I N GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 2
date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of 3 the United States (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Comp-4 troller General’’) shall conduct a study to evaluate the im-5 pacts of funding provided by the Economic Development 6 Administration to distressed communities (as described in 7 section 301(a) of the Public Works and Economic Develop-8 ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3161(a))) located in rural 9 areas. 10
(b) CONTENTS.—In carrying out the study under sub-11
section (a), the Comptroller General shall— 12
(1) identify not less than 5 geographically di-13
verse distressed communities in rural areas; and 14
(2) for each distressed community identified 15
under paragraph (1), examine the impacts of funding 16
provided by the Economic Development Administra-17
tion on— 18
(A) the local jobs and unemployment of the 19
community; and 20
(B) the availability of affordable housing in 21
the community. 22
(c) R EPORT.—On completion of the study under sub-23
section (a), the Comptroller General shall submit to the 24 Committee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate 25 and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00162 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 163
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of the House of Representatives a report on the findings 1 of the study and any recommendations that result from the 2 study. 3
SEC. 126. GENERAL AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 4
(a) I N GENERAL.—Section 701 of the Public Works 5
and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3231) 6 is amended— 7
(1) by redesignating subsection (b) as subsection 8
(k); and 9
(2) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the 10
following: 11
‘‘(a) GRANTS FOR PUBLIC WORKS AND ECONOMIC DE-12
VELOPMENT.—There are authorized to be appropriated to 13 carry out section 201, to remain available until expended— 14 ‘‘(1) $170,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; 15
‘‘(2) $195,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; 16
‘‘(3) $220,000,000 for fiscal year 2027; 17
‘‘(4) $245,000,000 for fiscal year 2028; and 18
‘‘(5) $270,000,000 for fiscal year 2029. 19
‘‘(b) GRANTS FOR PLANNING AND GRANTS FOR ADMIN-20
ISTRATIVE EXPENSES.—There are authorized to be appro-21 priated to carry out section 203, to remain available until 22 expended— 23
‘‘(1) $90,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; 24
‘‘(2) $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; 25
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‘‘(3) $110,000,000 for fiscal year 2027; 1
‘‘(4) $120,000,000 for fiscal year 2028; and 2
‘‘(5) $130,000,000 for fiscal year 2029. 3
‘‘(c) G RANTS FOR TRAINING, R ESEARCH, AND TECH-4
NICAL ASSISTANCE.—There are authorized to be appro-5
priated to carry out section 207, to remain available until 6 expended— 7
‘‘(1) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; 8
‘‘(2) $30,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; 9
‘‘(3) $35,000,000 for fiscal year 2027; 10
‘‘(4) $40,000,000 for fiscal year 2028; and 11
‘‘(5) $45,000,000 for fiscal year 2029. 12
‘‘(d) G RANTS FOR ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT.—There 13
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out section 209 14 (other than subsections (d) and (e)), to remain available 15 until expended— 16
‘‘(1) $65,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; 17
‘‘(2) $75,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; 18
‘‘(3) $85,000,000 for fiscal year 2027; 19
‘‘(4) $95,000,000 for fiscal year 2028; and 20
‘‘(5) $105,000,000 for fiscal year 2029. 21
‘‘(e) A SSISTANCE TO COAL COMMUNITIES.—There is 22
authorized to be appropriated to carry out section 209(d) 23 $75,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029, to 24 remain available until expended. 25
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‘‘(f) ASSISTANCE TO NUCLEAR HOST COMMUNITIES.— 1
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out section 2 209(e), to remain available until expended— 3
‘‘(1) to carry out paragraph (2)(A), $35,000,000 4
for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029; and 5
‘‘(2) to carry out paragraph (2)(B), $5,000,000 6
for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2027. 7
‘‘(g) R ENEWABLE ENERGY PROGRAM.—There is au-8
thorized to be appropriated to carry out section 218 9
$5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029, to 10 remain available until expended. 11
‘‘(h) W ORKFORCE TRAINING GRANTS.—There is au-12
thorized to be appropriated to carry out section 219 13 $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029, to 14 remain available until expended, of which $10,000,000 for 15 each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029 shall be used to carry 16 out subsection (c) of that section. 17
‘‘(i) C RITICAL SUPPLY CHAIN SITE DEVELOPMENT 18
GRANT PROGRAM.—There is authorized to be appropriated 19 to carry out section 222 $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 20 2025 through 2029, to remain available until expended. 21 ‘‘(j) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE LIAISONS.—There is au-22
thorized to be appropriated to carry out section 510 23 $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029, to 24 remain available until expended.’’. 25
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(b) C ONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Title VII of the Pub-1
lic Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 2
U.S.C. 3231 et seq.) is amended by striking section 704. 3 SEC. 127. TECHNICAL CORRECTION. 4
Section 1 of the Public Works and Economic Develop-5
ment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3121 note; Public Law 89– 6 136) is amended by striking subsection (b) and inserting 7 the following: 8
‘‘(b) T ABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 9
this Act is as follows: 10
‘‘Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
‘‘Sec. 2. Findings and declarations.
‘‘Sec. 3. Definitions.
‘‘TITLE I—ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS COOPERATION

AND COORDINATION
‘‘Sec. 101. Establishment of economic development partnerships. ‘‘Sec. 102. Cooperation of Federal agencies.
‘‘Sec. 103. Coordination.
‘‘TITLE II—GRANTS FOR PUBLIC WORKS AND ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT
‘‘Sec. 201. Grants for public works and economic development. ‘‘Sec. 202. Base closings and realignments.
‘‘Sec. 203. Grants for planning and grants for administrative expenses. ‘‘Sec. 204. Cost sharing.
‘‘Sec. 205. Supplementary grants.
‘‘Sec. 206. Regulations on relative needs and allocations. ‘‘Sec. 207. Research and technical assistance; university centers. ‘‘Sec. 208. Investment priorities.
‘‘Sec. 209. Grants for economic adjustment.
‘‘Sec. 210. Changed project circumstances.
‘‘Sec. 211. Use of funds in projects constructed under projected cost. ‘‘Sec. 212. Reports by recipients.
‘‘Sec. 213. Prohibition on use of funds for attorney’s and consultant’s fees. ‘‘Sec. 214. Special impact areas.
‘‘Sec. 215. Performance awards.
‘‘Sec. 216. Planning performance awards.
‘‘Sec. 217. Direct expenditure or redistribution by recipient. ‘‘Sec. 218. Renewable energy program.
‘‘Sec. 219. Workforce training grants.
‘‘Sec. 220. Congressional notification requirements.

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‘‘Sec. 221. High-Speed Broadband Deployment Initiative. ‘‘Sec. 222. Critical supply chain site development grant program. ‘‘TITLE III—ELIGIBILITY; COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
‘‘Sec. 301. Eligibility of areas.
‘‘Sec. 302. Comprehensive economic development strategies. ‘‘TITLE IV—ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DISTRICTS
‘‘Sec. 401. Designation of economic development districts. ‘‘Sec. 402. Termination or modification of economic development districts. ‘‘Sec. 404. Provision of comprehensive economic development strategies to Re- gional Commissions.
‘‘Sec. 405. Assistance to parts of economic development districts not in eligible areas.
‘‘TITLE V—ADMINISTRATION
‘‘Sec. 501. Assistant Secretary for Economic Development. ‘‘Sec. 502. Economic development information clearinghouse. ‘‘Sec. 503. Consultation with other persons and agencies. ‘‘Sec. 504. Administration, operation, and maintenance. ‘‘Sec. 506. Performance evaluations of grant recipients. ‘‘Sec. 507. Notification of reorganization.
‘‘Sec. 508. Office of Tribal Economic Development.
‘‘Sec. 509. Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience. ‘‘Sec. 510. Technical Assistance Liaisons.
‘‘TITLE VI—MISCELLANEOUS
‘‘Sec. 601. Powers of Secretary.
‘‘Sec. 602. Maintenance of standards.
‘‘Sec. 603. Annual report to Congress.
‘‘Sec. 604. Delegation of functions and transfer of funds among Federal agencies. ‘‘Sec. 605. Penalties.
‘‘Sec. 606. Employment of expediters and administrative employees. ‘‘Sec. 607. Maintenance and public inspection of list of approved applications for financial assistance.
‘‘Sec. 608. Records and audits.
‘‘Sec. 609. Relationship to assistance under other law. ‘‘Sec. 610. Acceptance of certifications by applicants. ‘‘Sec. 611. Brownfields redevelopment reports.
‘‘Sec. 612. Savings clause.
‘‘TITLE VII—FUNDING
‘‘Sec. 701. General authorization of appropriations.
‘‘Sec. 702. Authorization of appropriations for defense conversation activities. ‘‘Sec. 703. Authorization of appropriations for disaster economic recovery activi- ties.’’.

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TITLE II—REGIONAL ECONOMIC 1
AND INFRASTRUCTURE DE-2
VELOPMENT 3
SEC. 201. REGIONAL COMMISSION AUTHORIZATIONS. 4
Section 15751 of title 40, United States Code, is 5
amended by striking subsection (a) and inserting the fol-6 lowing: 7
‘‘(a) I N GENERAL.—There is authorized to be appro-8
priated to each Commission to carry out this subtitle 9 $40,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029.’’. 10 SEC. 202. REGIONAL COMMISSION MODIFICATIONS. 11
(a) MEMBERSHIP OF COMMISSIONS.—Section 15301 of 12
title 40, United States Code, is amended— 13
(1) in subsection (b)(2)(C)— 14
(A) by striking ‘‘An alternate member’’ and 15
inserting the following: 16
‘‘(i) I N GENERAL .—An alternate mem-17
ber’’; and 18
(B) by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(ii) S TATE ALTERNATES .—If the al-20
ternate State member is unable to vote in 21
accordance with clause (i), the alternate 22
State member may delegate voting author-23
ity to a designee, subject to the condition 24
that the executive director shall be notified, 25
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in writing, of the designation not less than 1
1 week before the applicable vote is to take 2
place.’’; and 3
(2) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘a Federal em-4
ployee’’ and inserting ‘‘an employee’’. 5
(b) D ECISIONS OF COMMISSIONS.—Section 15302 of 6
title 40, United States Code, is amended— 7
(1) in subsection (a), by inserting ‘‘or alternate 8
State members, including designees’’ after ‘‘State 9
members’’; and 10
(2) by striking subsection (c) and inserting the 11
following: 12
‘‘(c) QUORUMS.— 13
‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—Subject to paragraph (2), a 14
Commission shall determine what constitutes a 15
quorum for meetings of the Commission. 16
‘‘(2) REQUIREMENTS.—Any quorum for meetings 17
of a Commission shall include— 18
‘‘(A) the Federal Cochairperson or the alter-19
nate Federal Cochairperson; and 20
‘‘(B) a majority of State members or alter-21
nate State members, including designees (exclu-22
sive of members representing States delinquent 23
under section 15304(c)(3)(C)).’’. 24
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(c) ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS AND EXPENSES OF COM-1
MISSIONS.—Section 15304(a) of title 40, United States 2 Code, is amended— 3
(1) in paragraph (5), by inserting ‘‘, which may 4
be done without a requirement for the Commission to 5
reimburse the agency or local government’’ after ‘‘sta-6 tus’’; 7
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (8) and (9) as 8
paragraphs (9) and (10), respectively; 9
(3) by inserting after paragraph (7) the fol-10
lowing: 11
‘‘(8) collect fees for services provided and retain 12
and expend such fees;’’; 13
(4) in paragraph (9) (as so redesignated), by in-14
serting ‘‘leases (including the lease of office space for 15 any term),’’ after ‘‘cooperative agreements,’’; and 16
(5) in paragraph (10) (as so redesignated), by 17
striking ‘‘maintain a government relations office in 18 the District of Columbia and’’. 19
(d) MEETINGS OF COMMISSIONS.—Section 15305(b) of 20
title 40, United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘with 21 the Federal Cochairperson’’ and all that follows through the 22 period at the end and inserting the following: ‘‘with— 23 ‘‘(1) the Federal Cochairperson; and 24
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‘‘(2) at least a majority of the State members or 1
alternate State members (including designees) present 2 in-person or via electronic means.’’. 3
(e) A NNUAL REPORTS.—Section 15308(a) of title 40, 4
United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘90’’ and in-5 serting ‘‘180’’. 6
SEC. 203. TRANSFER OF FUNDS AMONG FEDERAL AGEN-7
CIES. 8
(a) I N GENERAL.—Chapter 153 of subtitle V of title 9
40, United States Code, is amended— 10
(1) by redesignating section 15308 as section 11
15309; and 12
(2) by inserting after section 15307 the fol-13
lowing: 14
‘‘§ 15308. Transfer of funds among Federal agencies 15
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subsection (c), for pur-16 poses of this subtitle, each Commission may transfer funds 17 to and accept transfers of funds from other Federal agencies. 18 ‘‘(b) TRANSFER OF FUNDS TO OTHER FEDERAL AGEN-19
CIES.—Funds made available to a Commission may be 20
transferred to other Federal agencies if the funds are used 21 consistently with the purposes for which the funds were spe-22 cifically authorized and appropriated. 23
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‘‘(c) T RANSFER OF FUNDS FROM OTHER FEDERAL 1
AGENCIES.—Funds may be transferred to any Commission 2
under this section if— 3
‘‘(1) the statutory authority for the funds pro-4
vided by the Federal agency does not expressly pro-5
hibit use of funds for authorities being carried out by 6 a Commission; and 7
‘‘(2) the Federal agency that provides the funds 8
determines that the activities for which the funds are 9 to be used are otherwise eligible for funding under 10
such a statutory authority.’’. 11
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for chapter 12
153 of subtitle V of title 40, United States Code, is amended 13 by striking the item relating to section 15308 and inserting 14 the following: 15
‘‘15308. Transfer of funds among Federal agencies.
‘‘15309. Annual reports.’’.

SEC. 204. ECONOMIC AND INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOP-16
MENT GRANTS. 17
Section 15501 of title 40, United States Code, is 18
amended— 19
(1) in subsection (a)— 20
(A) by redesignating paragraphs (4) 21
through (9) as paragraphs (6) through (11), re-22
spectively; and 23
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(B) by inserting after paragraph (3) the fol-1
lowing: 2
‘‘(4) in coordination with relevant Federal agen-3
cies, to design, build, implement, or update infra-4
structure to support resilience to extreme weather 5
events; 6
‘‘(5) to promote the production of housing to 7
meet economic development and workforce needs;’’; 8
and 9
(2) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘(7)’’ and in-10
serting ‘‘(9)’’. 11
SEC. 205. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE. 12
(a) I N GENERAL.—Chapter 155 of subtitle V of title 13
40, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end 14 the following: 15
‘‘§ 15507. Payment of non-Federal share for certain 16
Federal grant programs 17
‘‘Amounts made available to carry out this subtitle 18
shall be available for the payment of the non-Federal share 19 for any project carried out under another Federal grant 20 program— 21
‘‘(1) for which a Commission is not the sole or 22
primary funding source; and 23
‘‘(2) that is consistent with the authorities of the 24 applicable Commission.’’. 25
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(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for chapter 1
155 of subtitle V of title 40, United States Code, is amended 2 by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘15507. Payment of non-Federal share for certain Federal grant programs.’’.

SEC. 206. NORTHERN BORDER REGIONAL COMMISSION 4
AREA. 5
Section 15733 of title 40, United States Code, is 6
amended— 7
(1) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘Lincoln,’’ 8
after ‘‘Knox,’’; 9
(2) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘Merrimack,’’ 10
after ‘‘Grafton,’’; and 11
(3) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘Wyoming,’’ 12
after ‘‘Wayne,’’. 13
SEC. 207. SOUTHWEST BORDER REGIONAL COMMISSION 14
AREA. 15
Section 15732 of title 40, United States Code, is 16
amended— 17
(1) in paragraph (3)— 18
(A) by inserting ‘‘Bernalillo,’’ before 19
‘‘Catron,’’; 20
(B) by inserting ‘‘Cibola, Curry, De Baca,’’ 21
after ‘‘Chaves,’’; 22
(C) by inserting ‘‘Guadalupe,’’ after 23
‘‘Grant,’’; 24
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(D) by inserting ‘‘Roosevelt,’’ after ‘‘Otero,’’; 1
and 2
(E) by striking ‘‘and Socorro’’ and insert-3
ing ‘‘Socorro, Torrance, and Valencia’’; and 4
(2) in paragraph (4)— 5
(A) by inserting ‘‘Guadalupe,’’ after 6
‘‘Glasscock,’’; and 7
(B) by striking ‘‘Tom Green Upton,’’ and 8
inserting ‘‘Tom Green, Upton,’’. 9
SEC. 208. GREAT LAKES AUTHORITY AREA. 10
Section 15734 of title 40, United States Code, is 11
amended, in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by insert-12 ing ‘‘the counties which contain, in part or in whole, the’’ 13 after ‘‘consist of’’. 14
SEC. 209. ADDITIONAL REGIONAL COMMISSION PROGRAMS. 15
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle V of title 40, United States 16 Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 17 ‘‘CHAPTER 159—ADDITIONAL REGIONAL 18
COMMISSION PROGRAMS 19
‘‘Sec.
‘‘15901. State capacity building grant program.
‘‘15902. Demonstration health projects.
‘‘§ 15901. State capacity building grant program 20
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 21
‘‘(1) C OMMISSION STATE .—The term ‘Commis-22
sion State’ means a State that contains 1 or more eli-23 gible counties. 24
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‘‘(2) E LIGIBLE COUNTY .—The term ‘eligible 1
county’ means a county described in subchapter II of 2
chapter 157. 3
‘‘(3) P ROGRAM.—The term ‘program’ means a 4
State capacity building grant program established by 5
a Commission under subsection (b). 6
‘‘(b) ESTABLISHMENT.—Each Commission shall estab-7
lish a State capacity building grant program to provide 8 grants to Commission States in the area served by the Com-9 mission for the purposes described in subsection (c). 10 ‘‘(c) P URPOSES.—The purposes of a program are to 11
support the efforts of the Commission— 12
‘‘(1) to better support business retention and ex-13
pansion in eligible counties; 14
‘‘(2) to create programs to encourage job creation 15
and workforce development in eligible counties, in-16
cluding projects and activities, in coordination with 17 other relevant Federal agencies, to strengthen the 18
water sector workforce and facilitate the sharing of 19 best practices; 20
‘‘(3) to partner with universities in distressed 21
counties (as designated under section 15702(a)(1))— 22
‘‘(A) to strengthen the capacity to train new 23
professionals in fields for which there is a short-24
age of workers; 25
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‘‘(B) to increase local capacity for project 1
management, project execution, and financial 2
management; and 3
‘‘(C) to leverage funding sources; 4
‘‘(4) to prepare economic and infrastructure 5
plans for eligible counties; 6
‘‘(5) to expand access to high-speed broadband in 7
eligible counties; 8
‘‘(6) to provide technical assistance that results 9
in Commission investments in transportation, water, 10
wastewater, and other critical infrastructure; 11
‘‘(7) to promote workforce development to sup-12
port resilient infrastructure projects; 13
‘‘(8) to develop initiatives to increase the effec-14
tiveness of local development districts in eligible coun-15 ties; 16
‘‘(9) to implement new or innovative economic 17
development practices that will better position eligible 18 counties to compete in the global economy; and 19
‘‘(10) to identify and address important regional 20
impediments to prosperity and to leverage unique re-21
gional advantages to create economic opportunities 22
for the region served by the Commission. 23
‘‘(d) USE OF FUNDS.— 24
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‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—Funds from a grant under a 1
program may be used to support a project, program, 2
or related expense of the Commission State in an eli-3
gible county. 4
‘‘(2) L IMITATION.—Funds from a grant under a 5
program shall not be used for— 6
‘‘(A) the purchase of furniture, fixtures, or 7
equipment; 8
‘‘(B) the compensation of— 9
‘‘(i) any State member of the Commis-10
sion (as described in section 11
15301(b)(1)(B)); or 12
‘‘(ii) any State alternate member of the 13
Commission (as described in section 14
15301(b)(2)(B)); or 15
‘‘(C) the cost of supplanting existing State 16
programs. 17
‘‘(e) ANNUAL WORK PLAN.— 18
‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—For each fiscal year, before 19
providing a grant under a program, each Commis-20
sion State shall provide to the Commission an annual 21 work plan that includes the proposed use of the grant. 22 ‘‘(2) A PPROVAL.—No grant under a program 23
shall be provided to a Commission State unless the 24
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Commission has approved the annual work plan of 1
the State. 2
‘‘(f) AMOUNT OF GRANT.— 3
‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—The amount of a grant pro-4
vided to a Commission State under a program for a 5
fiscal year shall be based on the proportion that— 6
‘‘(A) the amount paid by the Commission 7
State (including any amounts paid on behalf of 8
the Commission State by a nonprofit organiza-9
tion) for administrative expenses for the applica-10
ble fiscal year (as determined under section 11
15304(c)); bears to 12
‘‘(B) the amount paid by all Commission 13
States served by the Commission (including any 14
amounts paid on behalf of a Commission State 15
by a nonprofit organization) for administrative 16
expenses for that fiscal year (as determined 17
under that section). 18
‘‘(2) R EQUIREMENT.—To be eligible to receive a 19
grant under a program for a fiscal year, a Commis-20
sion State (or a nonprofit organization on behalf of 21 the Commission State) shall pay the amount of ad-22
ministrative expenses of the Commission State for the 23 applicable fiscal year (as determined under section 24
15304(c)). 25
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‘‘(3) A PPROVAL.—For each fiscal year, a grant 1
provided under a program shall be approved and 2
made available as part of the approval of the annual 3
budget of the Commission. 4
‘‘(g) G RANT AVAILABILITY.—Funds from a grant 5
under a program shall be available only during the fiscal 6 year for which the grant is provided. 7
‘‘(h) R EPORT.—Each fiscal year, each Commission 8
State shall submit to the relevant Commission and make 9 publicly available a report that describes the use of the 10 grant funds and the impact of the program in the Commis-11 sion State. 12
‘‘(i) C ONTINUATION OF PROGRAM AUTHORITY FOR 13
NORTHERN BORDER REGIONAL COMMISSION.—With re-14
spect to the Northern Border Regional Commission, the pro-15 gram shall be a continuation of the program under section 16 6304(c) of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (40 17 U.S.C. 15501 note; Public Law 115–334) (as in effect on 18 the day before the date of enactment of this section). 19 ‘‘§ 15902. Demonstration health projects 20
‘‘(a) PURPOSE.—To demonstrate the value of adequate 21
health facilities and services to the economic development 22 of the region, a Commission may make grants for the plan-23 ning, construction, equipment, and operation of demonstra-24 tion health, nutrition, and child care projects (referred to 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00180 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 181
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in this section as a ‘demonstration health project’), includ-1 ing hospitals, regional health diagnostic and treatment cen-2 ters, and other facilities and services necessary for the pur-3 poses of this section. 4
‘‘(b) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—An entity eligible to receive 5 a grant under this section is— 6
‘‘(1) an entity described in section 15501(a); 7
‘‘(2) an institution of higher education (as de-8
fined in section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act 9
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a))); 10
‘‘(3) a hospital (as defined in section 1861 of the 11
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x)); or 12
‘‘(4) a critical access hospital (as defined in that 13 section). 14
‘‘(c) PLANNING GRANTS.— 15
‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—A Commission may make 16
grants for planning expenses necessary for the devel-17 opment and operation of demonstration health 18
projects for the region served by the Commission. 19
‘‘(2) M AXIMUM COMMISSION CONTRIBUTION .— 20
The maximum Commission contribution for a dem-21
onstration health project that receives a grant under 22 paragraph (1) shall be made in accordance with sec-23
tion 15501(d). 24
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‘‘(3) S OURCES OF ASSISTANCE .—A grant under 1
paragraph (1) may be provided entirely from 2
amounts made available to carry out this section or 3
in combination with amounts provided under other 4
Federal grant programs. 5
‘‘(4) F EDERAL SHARE FOR GRANTS UNDER 6
OTHER FEDERAL GRANT PROGRAMS .—Notwith-7
standing any provision of law limiting the Federal 8
share in other Federal grant programs, amounts 9
made available to carry out this subsection may be 10
used to increase the Federal share of another Federal 11 grant up to the maximum contribution described in 12
paragraph (2). 13
‘‘(d) CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPMENT GRANTS.— 14
‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—A grant under this section 15
for construction or equipment of a demonstration 16
health project may be used for— 17
‘‘(A) costs of construction; 18
‘‘(B) the acquisition of privately owned fa-19
cilities— 20
‘‘(i) not operated for profit; or 21
‘‘(ii) previously operated for profit if 22
the Commission finds that health services 23
would not otherwise be provided in the area 24
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served by the facility if the acquisition is 1
not made; and 2
‘‘(C) the acquisition of initial equipment. 3
‘‘(2) STANDARDS FOR MAKING GRANTS .—A grant 4
under paragraph (1)— 5
‘‘(A) shall be approved in accordance with 6
section 15503; and 7
‘‘(B) shall not be incompatible with the ap-8
plicable provisions of title VI of the Public 9
Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 291 et seq.), the 10
Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of 11
Rights Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 15001 et seq.), 12
and other laws authorizing grants for the con-13
struction of health-related facilities, without re-14
gard to any provisions in those laws relating to 15
appropriation authorization ceilings or to allot-16
ments among the States. 17
‘‘(3) M AXIMUM COMMISSION CONTRIBUTION .— 18
The maximum Commission contribution for a dem-19
onstration health project that receives a grant under 20 paragraph (1) shall be made in accordance with sec-21
tion 15501(d). 22
‘‘(4) S OURCES OF ASSISTANCE .—A grant under 23
paragraph (1) may be provided entirely from 24
amounts made available to carry out this section or 25
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in combination with amounts provided under other 1
Federal grant programs. 2
‘‘(5) C ONTRIBUTION TO INCREASED FEDERAL 3
SHARE FOR OTHER FEDERAL GRANTS .—Notwith-4
standing any provision of law limiting the Federal 5
share in another Federal grant program for the con-6
struction or equipment of a demonstration health 7
project, amounts made available to carry out this sub-8 section may be used to increase Federal grants for 9
component facilities of a demonstration health project 10 to a maximum of 90 percent of the cost of the facili-11 ties. 12
‘‘(e) OPERATION GRANTS.— 13
‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—A grant under this section 14
for the operation of a demonstration health project 15
may be used for— 16
‘‘(A) the costs of operation of the facility; 17
and 18
‘‘(B) initial operating costs, including the 19
costs of attracting, training, and retaining 20
qualified personnel. 21
‘‘(2) STANDARDS FOR MAKING GRANTS .—A grant 22
for the operation of a demonstration health project 23
shall not be made unless the facility funded by the 24
grant is— 25
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‘‘(A) publicly owned; 1
‘‘(B) owned by a public or private nonprofit 2
organization; 3
‘‘(C) a private hospital described in section 4
501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 5
and exempt from taxation under section 501(a) 6
of that Code; or 7
‘‘(D) a private hospital that provides a cer-8
tain amount of uncompensated care, as deter-9
mined by the Commission, and applies for the 10
grant in partnership with a State, local govern-11
ment, or Indian Tribe. 12
‘‘(3) M AXIMUM COMMISSION CONTRIBUTION .— 13
The maximum Commission contribution for a dem-14
onstration health project that receives a grant under 15 paragraph (1) shall be made in accordance with sec-16
tion 15501(d). 17
‘‘(4) S OURCES OF ASSISTANCE .—A grant under 18
paragraph (1) may be provided entirely from 19
amounts made available to carry out this section or 20
in combination with amounts provided under other 21
Federal grant programs for the operation of health-re-22 lated facilities or the provision of health and child de-23 velopment services, including parts A and B of title 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00185 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 186
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IV and title XX of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1 601 et seq., 621 et seq., 1397 et seq.). 2
‘‘(5) F EDERAL SHARE .—Notwithstanding any 3
provision of law limiting the Federal share in the 4
other Federal programs described in paragraph (4), 5
amounts made available to carry out this subsection 6
may be used to increase the Federal share of a grant 7
under those programs up to the maximum contribu-8
tion described in paragraph (3). 9
‘‘(f) PRIORITY HEALTH PROGRAMS.—If a Commission 10
elects to make grants under this section, the Commission 11 shall establish specific regional health priorities for such 12 grants that address— 13
‘‘(1) addiction treatment and access to resources 14
helping individuals in recovery; 15
‘‘(2) workforce shortages in the healthcare indus-16
try; or 17
‘‘(3) access to services for screening and diag-18
nosing chronic health issues.’’. 19
(b) R EPEAL.—Section 6304(c) of the Agriculture Im-20
provement Act of 2018 (40 U.S.C. 15501 note; Public Law 21 115–334) is repealed. 22
(c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of chapters for 23
subtitle V of title 40, United States Code, is amended by 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00186 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 187
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inserting after the item relating to chapter 157 the fol-1 lowing: 2
‘‘159. Additional Regional Commission Programs ..................................... 15901’’.

SEC. 210. TRIBAL AND COLONIA PARTICIPATION IN SOUTH-3
WEST BORDER REGION. 4
(a) I N GENERAL.—Chapter 155 of subtitle V of title 5
40, United States Code (as amended by section 205(a)), is 6 amended by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘§ 15508. Waiver of matching requirement for Indian 8
tribes and colonias in Southwest Border 9
Regional Commission programs 10
‘‘(a) DEFINITION OF COLONIA.— 11
‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—In this section, the term 12
‘colonia’ means a community— 13
‘‘(A) that is located— 14
‘‘(i) in the State of Arizona, Cali-15
fornia, New Mexico, or Texas; 16
‘‘(ii) not more than 150 miles from the 17
border between the United States and Mex-18
ico; and 19
‘‘(iii) outside a standard metropolitan 20
statistical area that has a population ex-21
ceeding 1,000,000; 22
‘‘(B) that— 23
‘‘(i) lacks a potable water supply; 24
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‘‘(ii) lacks an adequate sewage system; 1
or 2
‘‘(iii) lacks decent, safe, and sanitary 3
housing; and 4
‘‘(C) that has been treated or designated as 5
a colonia by a Federal or State program. 6
‘‘(b) W AIVER.—Notwithstanding any other provision 7
of law, in the case of assistance provided to a colonia or 8 an Indian tribe under this subtitle by the Southwest Border 9 Regional Commission, the Federal share of the cost of the 10 project carried out with that assistance may be up to 100 11 percent, as determined by the selection official, the State 12 Cochairperson (or an alternate), and the Federal Cochair-13 person (or an alternate).’’. 14
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for chapter 15
155 of subtitle V of title 40, United States Code (as amended 16 by section 205(b)), is amended by inserting after the item 17 relating to section 15507 the following: 18
‘‘15508. Waiver of matching requirement for Indian tribes and colonias in South- west Border Regional Commission programs.’’.

SEC. 211. ESTABLISHMENT OF MID-ATLANTIC REGIONAL 19
COMMISSION. 20
(a) E STABLISHMENT.—Section 15301(a) of title 40, 21
United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 22 following: 23
‘‘(5) The Mid-Atlantic Regional Commission.’’. 24
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(b) DESIGNATION OF REGION.— 1
(1) I N GENERAL .—Subchapter II of chapter 157 2
of title 40, United States Code, is amended by adding 3 at the end the following: 4
‘‘§ 15735. Mid-Atlantic Regional Commission. 5
‘‘The region of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Commission 6
shall include the following counties: 7
‘‘(1) D ELAWARE.—Each county in the State of 8
Delaware. 9
‘‘(2) M ARYLAND.—Each county in the State of 10
Maryland that is not already served by the Appa-11
lachian Regional Commission. 12
‘‘(3) P ENNSYLVANIA.—Each county in the Com-13
monwealth of Pennsylvania that is not already served 14 by the Appalachian Regional Commission.’’. 15
(2) C LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The analysis for 16
subchapter II of chapter 157 of title 40, United States 17 Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 18 ‘‘15735. Mid-Atlantic Regional Commission.’’.
(c) APPLICATION.—Section 15702(c) of title 40, United 19 States Code, is amended— 20
(1) by redesignating paragraph (3) as para-21
graph (4); and 22
(2) by inserting after paragraph (2) the fol-23
lowing: 24
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‘‘(3) A PPLICATION.—Paragraph (2) shall not 1
apply to a county described in paragraph (2) or (3) 2
of section 15735.’’. 3
SEC. 212. ESTABLISHMENT OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND 4
REGIONAL COMMISSION. 5
(a) E STABLISHMENT.—Section 15301(a) of title 40, 6
United States Code (as amended by section 211(a)), is 7 amended by adding at the end the following: 8
‘‘(6) The Southern New England Regional Com-9
mission.’’. 10
(b) DESIGNATION OF REGION.— 11
(1) I N GENERAL .—Subchapter II of chapter 157 12
of title 40, United States Code (as amended by section 13 211(b)(1)), is amended by adding at the end the fol-14
lowing: 15
‘‘§ 15736. Southern New England Regional Commis-16
sion 17
‘‘The region of the Southern New England Regional 18
Commission shall include the following counties: 19
‘‘(1) R HODE ISLAND .—Each county in the State 20
of Rhode Island. 21
‘‘(2) C ONNECTICUT.—The counties of Hartford, 22
Middlesex, New Haven, New London, Tolland, and 23
Windham in the State of Connecticut. 24
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‘‘(3) M ASSACHUSETTS.—Each county in the 1
Commonwealth of Massachusetts.’’. 2
(2) C LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The analysis for 3
subchapter II of chapter 157 of title 40, United States 4 Code (as amended by section 211(b)(2)), is amended 5
by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘15736. Southern New England Regional Commission.’’.
(c) A PPLICATION.—Section 15702(c)(3) of title 40, 7
United States Code (as amended by section 211(c)), is 8 amended— 9
(1) by striking the period at the end and insert-10
ing ‘‘; or’’; 11
(2) by striking ‘‘to a county’’ and inserting the 12
following: ‘‘to— 13
‘‘(A) a county’’; and 14
(3) by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘(B) the Southern New England Regional 16
Commission.’’. 17
SEC. 213. DENALI COMMISSION REAUTHORIZATION. 18
(a) REAUTHORIZATION.—Section 312(a) of the Denali 19
Commission Act of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 3121 note; Public Law 20 105–277) is amended by striking ‘‘$15,000,000 for each of 21 fiscal years 2017 through 2021’’ and inserting ‘‘$35,000,000 22 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029’’. 23
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(b) POWERS OF THE COMMISSION.—Section 305 of the 1
Denali Commission Act of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 3121 note; Pub-2 lic Law 105–277) is amended— 3
(1) in subsection (d), in the first sentence, by in-4
serting ‘‘enter into leases (including the lease of office 5 space for any term),’’ after ‘‘award grants,’’; and 6
(2) by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(e) U SE OF FUNDS TOWARD NON-FEDERAL SHARE 8
OF CERTAIN PROJECTS.—Notwithstanding any other provi-9
sion of law regarding payment of a non-Federal share in 10 connection with a grant-in-aid program, the Commission 11 may use amounts made available to the Commission for the 12 payment of such a non-Federal share for programs under-13 taken to carry out the purposes of the Commission.’’. 14 (c) S PECIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE COMMISSION.—Sec-15
tion 307 of the Denali Commission Act of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 16 4321 note; Public Law 105–277) is amended— 17
(1) by striking subsection (a); 18
(2) by redesignating subsections (b) through (e) 19
as subsections (a) through (d), respectively; and 20
(3) in subsection (c) (as so redesignated), by in-21
serting ‘‘, including interagency transfers,’’ after 22 ‘‘payments’’. 23
(d) C ONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 309(c)(1) of 24
the Denali Commission Act of 1998 (42 U.S.C. 4321 note; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00192 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 193
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Public Law 105–277) is amended by inserting ‘‘of Trans-1 portation’’ after ‘‘Secretary’’. 2
SEC. 214. DENALI HOUSING FUND. 3
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 4
(1) E LIGIBLE ENTITY .—The term ‘‘eligible enti-5
ty’’ means— 6
(A) a nonprofit organization; 7
(B) a limited dividend organization; 8
(C) a cooperative organization; 9
(D) an Indian Tribe (as defined in section 10
4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu-11
cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304)); and 12
(E) a public entity, such as a municipality, 13
county, district, authority, or other political sub-14
division of a State. 15
(2) F EDERAL COCHAIR .—The term ‘‘Federal Co-16
chair’’ means the Federal Cochairperson of the Denali 17 Commission. 18
(3) F UND.—The term ‘‘Fund’’ means the Denali 19
Housing Fund established under subsection (b)(1). 20
(4) L OW-INCOME.—The term ‘‘low-income’’, with 21
respect to a household means that the household in-22
come is less than 150 percent of the Federal poverty 23 level for the State of Alaska. 24
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(5) M ODERATE-INCOME.—The term ‘‘moderate- 1
income’’, with respect to a household, means that the 2 household income is less than 250 percent of the Fed-3
eral poverty level for the State of Alaska. 4
(6) S ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 5
the Secretary of Agriculture. 6
(b) DENALI HOUSING FUND.— 7
(1) E STABLISHMENT.—There shall be established 8
in the Treasury of the United States the Denali Hous-9
ing Fund, to be administered by the Federal Cochair. 10 (2) S OURCE AND USE OF AMOUNTS IN FUND .— 11
(A) I N GENERAL .—Amounts allocated to the 12
Federal Cochair for the purpose of carrying out 13
this section shall be deposited in the Fund. 14
(B) U SES.—The Federal Cochair shall use 15
the Fund as a revolving fund to carry out the 16
purposes of this section. 17
(C) I NVESTMENT.—The Federal Cochair 18
may invest amounts in the Fund that are not 19
necessary for operational expenses in bonds or 20
other obligations, the principal and interest of 21
which are guaranteed by the Federal Govern-22
ment. 23
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(D) G ENERAL EXPENSES .—The Federal Co-1
chair may charge the general expenses of car-2
rying out this section to the Fund. 3
(3) A UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 4
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Fund 5
$5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029. 6 (c) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this section are— 7
(1) to encourage and facilitate the construction 8
or rehabilitation of housing to meet the needs of low- 9 income households and moderate-income households; 10
and 11
(2) to provide housing for public employees. 12
(d) LOANS AND GRANTS.— 13
(1) I N GENERAL .—The Federal Cochair may 14
provide grants and loans from the Fund to eligible 15
entities under such terms and conditions the Federal 16 Cochair may prescribe. 17
(2) P URPOSE.—The purpose of a grant or loan 18
under paragraph (1) shall be for planning and ob-19
taining federally insured mortgage financing or other 20 financial assistance for housing construction or reha-21 bilitation projects for low-income and moderate-in-22
come households in rural Alaska villages. 23
(e) PROVIDING AMOUNTS TO STATES FOR GRANTS AND 24
LOANS.—The Federal Cochair may provide amounts to the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00195 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 196
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State of Alaska, or political subdivisions thereof, for making 1 the grants and loans described in subsection (d). 2
(f) LOANS.— 3
(1) L IMITATION ON AVAILABLE AMOUNTS .—A 4
loan under subsection (d) for the cost of planning and 5 obtaining financing (including the cost of prelimi-6
nary surveys and analyses of market needs, prelimi-7
nary site engineering and architectural fees, site op-8 tions, application and mortgage commitment fees, 9
legal fees, and construction loan fees and discounts) 10 of a project described in that subsection may be for 11 not more than 90 percent of that cost. 12
(2) I NTEREST.—A loan under subsection (d) 13
shall be made without interest, except that a loan 14
made to an eligible entity established for profit shall 15 bear interest at the prevailing market rate authorized 16 for an insured or guaranteed loan for that type of 17
project. 18
(3) PAYMENT.— 19
(A) I N GENERAL .—The Federal Cochair 20
shall require payment of a loan made under this 21
section under terms and conditions the Secretary 22
may require by not later than the date of com-23
pletion of the project. 24
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(B) C ANCELLATION.—For a loan other than 1
a loan to an eligible entity established for profit, 2
the Secretary may cancel any part of the debt 3
with respect to a loan made under subsection (d) 4
if the Secretary determines that a permanent 5
loan to finance the project cannot be obtained in 6
an amount adequate for repayment of a loan 7
made under subsection (d). 8
(g) GRANTS.— 9
(1) I N GENERAL .—A grant under this section for 10
expenses incidental to planning and obtaining financ-11 ing for a project described in this section that the 12 Federal Cochair considers unrecoverable from the pro-13 ceeds of a permanent loan made to finance the 14
project— 15
(A) may not be made to an eligible entity 16
established for profit; and 17
(B) may not exceed 90 percent of those ex-18
penses. 19
(2) S ITE DEVELOPMENT COSTS AND OFFSITE IM -20
PROVEMENTS.— 21
(A) I N GENERAL .—The Federal Cochair 22
may make grants and commitments for grants 23
under terms and conditions the Federal Cochair 24
may require to eligible entities for reasonable site 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:55 Mar 13, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00197 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3891.RS S3891ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 198
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development costs and necessary offsite improve-1
ments, such as sewer and water line extensions, 2
if the grant or commitment— 3
(i) is essential to ensuring that housing 4
is constructed on the site in the future; and 5
(ii) otherwise meets the requirements 6
for assistance under this section. 7
(B) M AXIMUM AMOUNTS .—The amount of a 8
grant under this paragraph may not— 9
(i) with respect to the construction of 10
housing, exceed 40 percent of the cost of the 11
construction; and 12
(ii) with respect to the rehabilitation of 13
housing, exceed 10 percent of the reasonable 14
value of the rehabilitation, as determined by 15
the Federal Cochair. 16
(h) I NFORMATION, A DVICE, AND TECHNICAL ASSIST-17
ANCE.—The Federal Cochair may provide, or contract with 18 public or private organizations to provide, information, ad-19 vice, and technical assistance with respect to the construc-20 tion, rehabilitation, and operation by nonprofit organiza-21 tions of housing for low-income or moderate-income house-22 holds, or for public employees, in rural Alaska villages 23 under this section. 24
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SEC. 215. DELTA REGIONAL AUTHORITY REAUTHORIZA-1
TION. 2
(a) A UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 3
382M(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development 4 Act (7 U.S.C. 2009aa–12(a)) is amended by striking 5
‘‘$30,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2019 through 2023’’ 6 and inserting ‘‘$40,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 7 through 2029’’. 8
(b) T ERMINATION OF AUTHORITY.—Section 382N of 9
the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 10
U.S.C. 2009aa–13) is repealed. 11
(c) FEES.—Section 382B(e) of the Consolidated Farm 12
and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 2009aa–1(e)) is 13
amended— 14
(1) in paragraph (9)(C), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 15
the end; 16
(2) in paragraph (10), by striking the period at 17
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 18
(3) by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(11) collect fees for the Delta Doctors program 20
of the Authority and retain and expend those fees.’’. 21 (d) S UCCESSION.—Section 382B(h)(5)(B) of the Con-22
solidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 23
2009aa–1(h)(5)(B)) is amended— 24
(1) in clause (ii), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 25
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(2) by redesignating clause (iii) as clause (iv); 1
and 2
(3) by inserting after clause (ii) the following: 3
‘‘(iii) assuming the duties of the Fed-4
eral cochairperson and the alternate Federal 5
cochairperson for purposes of continuation 6
of normal operations in the event that both 7
positions are vacant; and’’. 8
(e) I NDIAN TRIBES.—Section 382C(a) of the Consoli-9
dated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 2009aa– 10 2(a)) is amended— 11
(1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 12
inserting ‘‘, Indian Tribes,’’ after ‘‘States’’; and 13 (2) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘, Tribal,’’ 14
after ‘‘State’’. 15
SEC. 216. NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS REGIONAL AUTHORITY 16
REAUTHORIZATION. 17
(a) A UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 18
383N(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development 19 Act (7 U.S.C. 2009bb–12(a)) is amended by striking 20
‘‘$30,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2018’’ 21 and inserting ‘‘$40,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 22 through 2029’’. 23
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(b) T ERMINATION OF AUTHORITY.—Section 383O of 1
the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 2
U.S.C. 2009bb–13) is repealed. 3
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118THCONGRESS
2DSESSION S. 3891
A BILL
To amend the Public Works and Economic Devel-
opment Act of 1965 to update and expand Fed-
eral economic development investment in the eco-
nomic recovery, resiliency, and competitiveness of
communities, regions, and States across the
United States, and for other purposes.

MARCH12, 2024
Reported with an amendment
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