The Economic Development Administration
The EDA was established under the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3121), as amended, to generate jobs, help retain existing jobs, and stimulate industrial and commercial growth in economically distressed areas of the United States. EDA assistance is available to rural and urban areas of the Nation experiencing high unemployment, low income, or other severe economic distress.
In fulfilling its mission, EDA is guided by the basic principle that distressed communities must be empowered to develop and implement their own economic development and revitalization strategies. Based on these locally-and regionally-developed priorities, EDA works in partnership with state and local governments, regional economic development districts, public and private nonprofit organizations, and Indian tribes. EDA helps distressed communities address problems associated with long-term economic distress, as well as sudden and severe economic dislocations including recovering from the economic impacts of natural disasters, the closure of military installations and other Federal facilities, changing trade patterns, and the depletion of natural resources.
Investment Programs
Public Works:
The Public Works Program empowers distressed communities to revitalize, expand, and upgrade their physical infrastructure to attract new industry, encourage business expansion, diversify local economies, and generate or retain long-term, private sector jobs and investment.
Economic Adjustment Assistance Program:
The Economic Adjustment Program assists state and local interests to design and implement strategies to adjust or bring about change to an economy. The program focuses on areas that have experienced or are under threat of serious structural damage to the underlying economic base.
Research and National Technical Assistance:
The Research and Technical Assistance Program supports research of leading edge, world class economic development practices as well as funds information dissemination efforts.
Local Technical Assistance:
The Technical Assistance Program helps fill the knowledge and information gaps that may prevent leaders in the public and nonprofit sectors in distressed areas from making optimal decisions on local economic development issues.
Partnership Planning:
EDA’s Partnership Planning programs help support local organizations (Economic Development Districts, Indian Tribes, and other eligible areas) with their long-term planning efforts and their outreach to the economic development community on EDA’s programs and policies.
University Center:
The University Center Program is a partnership of federal government and academia that makes the varied and vast resources of universities available to the economic development community.
Trade Adjustment Assistance:
EDA uses a national network of twelve Trade Adjustment Assistance Centers to help manufacturers and producers affected by increased imports prepare and implement strategies to guide their economic recovery.
EDA requires a Pre-Application and is used to make preliminary eligibility and grant rate determination, and to evaluate the competitiveness of the proposed project. The pre-application allows communities to obtain a preliminary review by EDA before undertaking the development of full application. Please contact us and we will be glad to assist you with the application process.