Making a Case for EDA Recovery Assistance Funding

The federal CARES Act allocated $1.5 billion to the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) to support economic recovery in communities impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. As of May 7, applications are open for the EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance, a flexible, competitive funding source that can help local governments, downtown organizations, nonprofit institutions, and others plan for recovery and make important investments in small business, infrastructure, and economic development projects.

What is this new source of funds?

EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance is being administered through the EDA’s flexible Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) program. EDA expects to make 3,000 awards, compared with the approximately 100 it has historically made each year. Awards will range up to $30 million, much larger than EAA’s historic $150,000- $1 million.

Who is eligible to apply?

Every community in the country is eligible for these funds. Eligible applicants include district organizations, states, local governments, Indian Tribes, institutions of higher education and non-profit organizations working with local governments. Funds will be distributed through regional offices, with availability by region illustrated in the map below.

What can funds be used for?

These funds are flexible. Possible uses included but are not limited to:

• Revolving loan funds for small businesses (Examples and other resources pertaining to the EDA Revolving Loan Fund Program can be viewed here).
• Strategy Grants to support the development, updating, or refinement of Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies (CEDS).
• Implementation Grants to execute activities identified in previous CEDS or equivalent EDA-accepted economic development strategies, such as infrastructure improvements, site acquisition, site preparation, construction, and equipping of facilities.
• Planning and technical assistance grants for economic recovery planning and resilience strategies, including economic impact analyses, industry diversification efforts, and tourism-related marketing campaigns.
• Innovation grants to support technology that will help communities prevent, prepare for, and respond to the pandemic.

HR&A is working with governments and stakeholders to assess how this important and flexible funding source can support local recovery efforts, and how they can best position themselves for funding. For more information, contact HR&A Partners Phillip Kash and Jeff Hebert.