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Congressman Troy Carter Introduces Bill to Expand Grants for Public Works and Economic Development Act

March 15, 2022

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Troy A. Carter Sr. introduced legislation in the U.S. House that would create grants for eligible recipients to use for pre-development projects funded by the Public Works and Economic Development Act, commonly known as EDA.

Pre-development projects are tasks that need to be completed before construction in order to clear the way for infrastructure projects to move forward.

 

The bill amends the Public Works and Economic Development Act to create predevelopment grants for eligible recipients for:

  • planning and community asset mapping; 
  • training; 
  • technical assistance and organizational development; 
  • feasibility and market studies; 
  • demonstration projects; 
  • organizational capacity building; 
  • organizing and facilitating convenings; and
  • other predevelopment activities determined by the Secretary to be appropriate. 

“The Public Works and Economic Development is a powerful law that has long helped communities boost their economic development and help struggling businesses make it through hard times,” said Congressman Troy Carter. “Many good ideas never move forward because they face barriers in the pre-development stage. The bill I introduced today will help these same communities jumpstart their projects by covering the costs of important pre-development activities such as inclusive community engagement and feasibility studies.”

The Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 established the Economic Development Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce to provide grants to economically distressed communities to support employment and industrial and commercial growth and requires reauthorization by Congress.

“With a huge influx of infrastructure projects on the way thanks to funding from the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, this legislation is designed to help more economic development projects efficiently get off the drawing board and become reality,” said Congressman Carter.

This bill to support pre-development projects will be under the jurisdiction of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The full text of the bill can be found here.

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