TRADE 

ADJUSTMENT 

ASSISTANCE

One-Time Grants 

Awarded to TradeImpacted 

Communities; Results 

Will Not Be Known 

until after 2013

Report to Congressional Committees

September 2012

GAO-12-993

United States Government Accountability Office

GAO
United States Government Accountability Office

Highlights of GAO-12-993, a report to 

Congressional Committees 

September 2012

TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE 

One-Time Grants Awarded to Trade-Impacted 

Communities; Results Will Not Be Known until after 

2013

Why GAO Did This Study

Congress established the CTAA

program in February 2009 through the 

Trade and Globalization Adjustment 

Assistance Act (TGAAA), passed as

part of the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act. The CTAA program 

was designed to supplement other 

Trade Adjustment Assistance 

programs by providing assistance 

through grants to trade-impacted 

communities to help them become 

more competitive in the global 

economy. In 2010, EDA awarded 

$36.8 million in CTAA grants to 36 

communities. The administration 

proposed to discontinue the program, 

contending that EDA could provide 

similar assistance to communities at a 

lower cost through its EAA program. 

Congress responded by repealing the 

CTAA program in 2012.

TGAAA mandated that GAO review the 

operation and effectiveness of Trade 

Adjustment Assistance programs. This 

is one of several reports responding to 

that mandate. For this report, GAO 

determined (1) how EDA made grant 

award decisions, (2) what mechanisms 

EDA established to monitor the grants 

and evaluate their effectiveness, and 

(3) how the CTAA program compared 

with other EDA community grant 

programs. GAO reviewed agency 

documents, conducted a file review, 

and interviewed EDA officials.

What GAO Recommends

GAO is not making recommendations 

in this report. Commerce concurred 

with GAO’s findings and provided 

additional information on grantee 

performance reports and planned 

improvements to performance 

measures.

What GAO Found

The Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) 

used its standard grant award process to announce, receive, and review 

applications for the Community Trade Adjustment Assistance (CTAA) program, 

with modifications related to program eligibility. To comply with legislative 

requirements, EDA reached out to eligible communities by identifying those with 

workers or firms already certified as trade impacted by other trade adjustment 

assistance programs. EDA awarded the grants in accordance with the review 

and selection process outlined in the CTAA federal funding opportunity—the 

program’s grant application announcement. More than half of the grants were for 

construction projects, such as building roads and installing broadband fiber for 

industrial parks. Although EDA was able to adapt standard procedures already in 

place for its other grant programs, EDA officials cited some CTAA-specific 

challenges: first, the effort required to set up the new program for CTAA grants; 

second, a relatively limited time for the outreach and application process; and 

third, the development of a list of eligible communities for outreach, which proved 

to be a complex undertaking. 

EDA regional staff said that they monitor the grants using tools such as periodic 

progress and financial reports. GAO’s review of a nonprobability sample of 12 of 

the 36 CTAA grant files found no gaps in the regional offices’ collection of 

required reports. Many of the projects will not be completed until after 2013, but 

grantees with construction projects are required to report on certain EDA 

performance measures 3, 6, and 9 years after the award. Thus, in 2013, those 

grantees will be required to report measures relating to jobs created, jobs 

retained, and level of new private investment. The grantees will submit final nineyear project reports in 2019 that will help the agency determine whether the 

projects met their goals.

GAO’s review of how the CTAA program compared with other EDA grant 

programs shows that although the CTAA grants targeted trade-impacted 

communities, some grantees might have been eligible for other EDA grant 

programs. EDA officials identified two other programs that target economically 

distressed communities—EDA’s Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) and 

Public Works programs—that may have been able to provide assistance to 

CTAA communities. GAO found that, through CTAA grants, EDA assisted some 

trade-impacted communities that may not have qualified for EDA’s other 

community grant programs due to differences in eligibility and cost-share 

requirements. However, EDA officials provided some specific examples of CTAA 

grantees that may have qualified for the EAA or Public Works programs. 

Although officials credited the CTAA program with providing additional funding to 

assist more communities, some officials suggested that funding for tradeimpacted communities could have been designated within, and similar services 

could have been delivered through, EDA’s existing programs.

View GAO-12-993. For more information, 

contact J. Alfredo Gomez at (202) 512-4101 or 

gomezj@gao.gov. 
Page i GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

Letter 1 

Background 3

EDA Awarded CTAA Grants Using Its Standard Grant Process but 

Reported Some Program-Specific Challenges 8

EDA Continues to Monitor Grants but Will Not Be Able to Assess 

Effectiveness until after 2013 13

CTAA Targeted Trade-Impacted Communities; Some May Not Have 

Qualified for Other EDA Programs, and Some May Have 18

Agency Comments 22

Appendix I Scope and Methodology 23

Appendix II CTAA Grant Awards: Grantees, Amounts, and Grant Purpose 25

Appendix III TAA Programs at a Glance: Responsible Agencies, Service Structures, 

Types of Assistance, Number Assisted 27

Appendix IV Comments from the Economic Development Administration 28

Appendix V GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments 31

Tables

Table 1: Numbers of CTAA Grants by Type, with Examples and 

Ranges of Award Amounts 6

Table 2: EDA’s Award Criteria 11

Table 3: EDA’s CTAA, Economic Adjustment Assistance, and 

Public Works Programs 19

Table 4: Funding in Fiscal Years 2010 to 2012 for the CTAA, EAA, 

and Public Works Programs 21

Contents
Page ii GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

Figures

Figure 1: Locations of Fiscal Year 2010 CTAA Grantees by EDA 

Region 5

Figure 2: Amount of CTAA Funding Allocated to Each EDA Region 7

Figure 3: EDA Used Its Standard Process to Award CTAA Grants 10

Figure 4: EDA Uses a Standard Process to Disburse CTAA 

Payments and Monitor Grants 14

Figure 5: CTAA Grant Project Timelines: Most Are Still Being 

Implemented as of August 2012 16

Abbreviations

CTAA Community Trade Adjustment Assistance

EAA Economic Adjustment Assistance 

EDA Economic Development Administration 

TAA Trade Adjustment Assistance

TGAAA Trade and Globalization Adjustment Assistance Act of 2009

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Page 1 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

United States Government Accountability Office 

Washington, DC 20548

September 26, 2012

The Honorable Max Baucus

Chairman

The Honorable Orrin G. Hatch

Ranking Member

Committee on Finance

United States Senate

The Honorable Dave Camp

Chairman

The Honorable Sander Levin

Ranking Member

Committee on Ways and Means

House of Representatives

From 2001 to 2011, U.S. imports of goods and services almost doubled 

from $1.4 trillion to $2.7 trillion. During the same period, the United States 

entered into free trade agreements with 14 partner countries, and the World 

Trade Organization admitted 13 members. The increase in imports and the 

ongoing trade liberalization have resulted in the loss of certain U.S. jobs, as 

companies that cannot compete with lower priced imports have closed or 

relocated to lower wage countries. The federal government has recognized 

that, although the benefits of free trade are widely dispersed across the 

economy, worker dislocation can have an adverse effect on communities. 

The Trade and Globalization Adjustment Assistance Act of 2009 (TGAAA), 

passed as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act in 

February 2009,1 reauthorized and amended trade adjustment assistance 

(TAA) programs that assist trade-impacted workers, farmers and 

fishermen, firms, community colleges, and communities.2

 

1

Pub. L. No. 111-5, February 17, 2009.

The TGAAA 

2

A community is defined as a city, county, or other political subdivision of a state or a 

consortium of political subdivisions of a state. 13 C.F.R. §313.2.

 
 

Page 2 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

reestablished the TAA for Communities programs,3 including the 

Community Trade Adjustment Assistance (CTAA) program and two other 

programs.4 In late June 2009, Congress appropriated $40 million in funding 

for the CTAA program.5 For fiscal year 2010, the Department of 

Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) awarded $36.8 

million in CTAA grants to 36 communities to develop a strategic plan to 

help the community adjust to trade impacts and to promote economic 

diversification or to implement programs and projects as part of a strategic 

plan. The administration proposed to discontinue the program, contending 

that EDA could provide similar assistance to communities at a lower cost 

through its Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) program.6

TGAAA mandated that we report on the operation and effectiveness of 

the amended TAA programs. In response to your interest in a report on 

the repealed CTAA program and, more specifically, on how EDA awarded 

the CTAA grants and how those grants fit in with other EDA grant 

programs, we examined the CTAA program to determine (1) how EDA 

made grant award decisions, (2) what mechanisms EDA established to 

monitor the grants and evaluate their effectiveness, and (3) how the 

CTAA program compared with other EDA community grant programs.

Congress 

responded by repealing the CTAA program in 2012.

 

3

The Trade Act of 1974, as originally enacted, authorized TAA for Communities and 

established a sunset date, terminating the program on September 30, 1982. This program 

was reestablished in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. We 

previously reported on a different TAA program targeting communities in GAO, 

Experiences of Six Trade-Impacted Communities, GAO-01-838 (Washington, D.C.: Aug. 

24, 2001) and in Trade Adjustment Assistance: Opportunities to Improve the Community 

Adjustment and Investment Program, GAO/NSIAD-00-229 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 29, 

2000). That program, administered by an interagency committee chaired by the 

Department of the Treasury, provided loan guarantees, loans, and grants to businesses in 

eligible counties to help stimulate private sector employment and growth and recover from 

trade impacts related to the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. 

4

The two other programs are Community College and Career Training Grants and the 

Industry or Sector Partnership Grants, both administered by the Department of Labor. 

5

Pub. L. No. 111–32, Title II, June 24, 2009. The appropriated funds were to be used 

jointly with the TAA for Firms program, which is also administered by EDA.

6

EDA operates a number of economic development assistance programs and provides 

grants, loans, and other types of assistance to many different types of organizations 

throughout the United States.
 

Page 3 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

To determine how EDA made grant award decisions, we reviewed 

relevant laws, guidance, and regulations. We also reviewed a 

nonprobability sample of 12 grant files, selected to provide a variety of 

grant awards on the basis of region, grant amount, and grant type (i.e., 

whether the purpose of the grant was to help a community develop a

strategic plan or implement part of an existing strategic plan). As part of 

our file review, we developed an instrument to determine whether EDA’s 

process met the requirements outlined in the CTAA federal funding 

opportunity—the program’s grant application announcement. We 

interviewed EDA officials at headquarters in Washington, D.C., and in the 

six regional offices, and we conducted a site visit to the Philadelphia 

Regional Office to gain an understanding of its CTAA grant solicitation 

and selection processes. To identify the mechanisms that EDA 

established to monitor the grants and evaluate their effectiveness, we 

reviewed program information, agency documentation, and data on the 

status of the grants. We also interviewed EDA regional officials regarding 

their grant monitoring practices and how they plan to evaluate the 

effectiveness of the program. To determine how the CTAA program 

compared with other EDA community grant programs, we obtained 

agency information on the goals, eligibility criteria, activities, and targeted 

recipients of the CTAA program and other EDA community grant 

programs and interviewed agency officials. (See app. I for a more detailed 

description of our scope and methodology.)

We conducted this review from March 2012 through September 2012 in 

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 

Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain 

sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our 

findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that 

the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and 

conclusions based on our audit objectives.

CTAA is one of three programs under TAA for Communities. EDA 

administered the CTAA program and currently administers several other 

grant programs that promote economic growth throughout the United 

States, helping communities and regions prepare for growth and success 

in the global economy. The Department of Labor administers the other 

two TAA for Communities programs—the Community College and Career 

Training Grants and the Industry or Sector Partnership Grants. The 

Community College and Career Training Grants are ongoing. Congress 

did not appropriate funds for the Industry or Sector Partnership Grants 

and repealed the program in fiscal year 2012.

Background
 

Page 4 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

CTAA grants were aimed at helping small and medium-sized 

communities develop long-term strategic plans to address economic 

development challenges in regions experiencing the loss of firms and jobs 

due to competition from imports or to implement the projects in such 

plans.7 The CTAA program was designed to supplement other TAA 

programs by providing assistance specifically to trade-impacted 

communities. EDA awarded CTAA grants to 36 communities throughout 

the United States (see fig. 1). The grants, which totaled $36.8 million, are 

administered by EDA’s six regional offices located in Atlanta, Austin, 

Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, and Seattle.8

 

7

EDA defined small and medium-sized communities as communities with populations of 

less than 100,000. To determine the severity of trade impact for a community, EDA 

primarily used the number of workers in the community that were impacted in connection 

with a TAA certification.

8

The regional offices also administer EDA’s other grant programs, including the ones 

discussed in this report.
 

Page 5 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

Figure 1: Locations of Fiscal Year 2010 CTAA Grantees by EDA Region

a

The Philadelphia Regional Office also covers Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. 

b

The Seattle Regional Office covers Alaska and Hawaii along with American Samoa, Guam, Marshall 

Islands, Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands, and the Republic of Palau. 

c

The Denver Regional Office covers all counties in Iowa except Muscatine and Scott; those two 

counties apply to the Chicago Regional Office. 

EDA awarded two types of CTAA grants—(1) grants to develop a 

strategic plan to help the community adjust to trade impacts and to 

promote economic diversification and (2) grants to implement projects or 

programs in an existing strategic plan. (See table 1 for examples of these 
 

Page 6 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

grants.9

Table 1: Numbers of CTAA Grants by Type, with Examples and Ranges of Award Amounts

) About 20 percent of the 36 CTAA grants were strategic planning 

grants and 80 percent were implementation grants.

Type of grant

Number of 

grants 

Range of award 

amount Examples

Strategic planning 7 $53,194-$170,000 $75,000 awarded to the Northwest Pennsylvania Regional Planning 

and Development Commission of Oil City, Pennsylvania, to develop a 

trade strategy to assist Crawford County’s tooling and machining 

industry.

Implementation:

Nonconstruction

8 $155,689-

$1,499,000

$200,000 awarded to the Upper Explorerland Regional Planning 

Commission of Postville, Iowa, to implement a 27-county, three-state 

regional action plan.

$155,689 awarded to Lane County, Oregon, to implement economic 

gardening, business development, instructional technical assistance, 

and workforce training programs.

Implementation:

Construction

21 $301,000-

$3,500,000

$3 million awarded to the City of Danville, Illinois, to construct a 

roadway and rail overpass to support the city’s industrial area.

$750,000 awarded to McMinn County and the McMinn County 

Economic Development Authority, Tennessee, to install broadband 

fiber in three county industrial parks.

Source: GAO analysis of Department Commerce data.

EDA allocated a little more than half of the CTAA funding to grantees in 

the Chicago and Atlanta regions (see fig. 2). According to EDA officials 

and the federal funding opportunity, EDA considered two factors in 

allocating CTAA funding: the share of workers receiving funding under the 

Department of Labor’s TAA for Workers program and the share of 

workers affected within firms served by the TAA for Firms program in 

each region.

 

9

See appendix II for a list of the 36 awarded CTAA grants, including grantees, amounts, 

and descriptions. 
 

Page 7 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

Figure 2: Amount of CTAA Funding Allocated to Each EDA Region

As required by TGAAA, communities were eligible for CTAA funding if 

they had been certified as trade impacted by one other TAA program and 

if EDA determined that the community was significantly impacted by 

trade. The other TAA programs are

• the Department of Labor’s TAA for Workers,

• the Department of Commerce’s TAA for Firms, and

• the Department of Agriculture’s TAA for Farmers (which also covers 

fishermen).

However, there were no certifications under the TAA for Farmers program 

from January 1, 2007, through January 31, 2010, and certifications under 

this program therefore were not a factor in identifying trade-impacted 

communities. According to the CTAA federal funding opportunity, EDA 

deemed communities significantly impacted by trade if they had at least 

8.25 workers per 1,000 workers impacted by TAA program certifications.
 

Page 8 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

We found that EDA announced and reviewed CTAA grant applications 

using the standard process it uses for awarding other grants, with 

modifications related to CTAA program eligibility. EDA officials in each 

regional office conducted a merit review using six award criteria. Our file 

review and interviews with EDA regional offices show that EDA awarded 

the grants using the process outlined in the CTAA federal funding 

opportunity—the grant application announcement. While they followed a 

process that was standard for the agency, EDA officials reported several 

challenges in administering the program. First, officials highlighted the 

upfront effort required to set up the new program. Second, officials said 

they had a relatively short amount of time to conduct outreach to potential 

applicants and receive applications. Third, officials said they experienced 

problems in creating and maintaining an accurate list of counties that 

would be eligible for the program on the basis of TAA for Workers 

certifications.

EDA outlined its process for awarding the CTAA grants in its federal 

funding opportunity and program regulations. EDA officials said that this 

process was similar to the standard process they use to administer other 

EDA grant programs, but with some modifications to address the unique 

aspects of the CTAA program. In our sample of 12 of the 36 CTAA 

grants, we found that EDA followed the process outlined in the federal 

funding opportunity to announce, review, and award CTAA grants.

After Congress established the CTAA program in February 2009, EDA 

took steps to start up the program and provide guidance to EDA regional 

office staff and applicants. EDA developed new regulations and designed 

the CTAA federal funding opportunity, which incorporated the key 

eligibility requirement that communities must be significantly impacted by 

trade. The agency issued program implementation regulations in August 

2009 and announced the CTAA federal funding opportunity in January 

2010. EDA regional office staff said that EDA headquarters officials 

provided guidance on program implementation by holding conference 

calls and providing training on how to assess the merits of the 

applications. In addition, EDA issued responses to a list of frequently 

asked questions to provide additional guidance to regional office staff and 

applicants.

EDA Awarded CTAA 

Grants Using Its 

Standard Grant 

Process but Reported 

Some ProgramSpecific Challenges

EDA Used Its Standard 

Process to Announce, 

Review, and Award Grants
 

Page 9 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

To help coordinate assistance to communities through the implementation 

of the CTAA program, the TGAAA required EDA to establish and 

participate in an Interagency Community Assistance Working Group.10

The working group consisted of participants from EDA’s Trade 

Adjustment Assistance Division, the Department of Labor’s TAA for 

Workers Program, and the Department of Agriculture’s TAA for Farmers 

program. The working group held periodic discussions on CTAA 

implementation in 2010, with much of the focus on coordinating the 

process for certifying communities as eligible to apply for CTAA funding. 

Each agency also provided updates and shared best practices on 

implementation of the newly reauthorized TAA programs. EDA officials 

said that even though the program was repealed, they plan to continue to 

work closely and regularly with the TAA for Workers program, sharing 

information related to TAA for Firms and TAA for Workers certifications 

and providing referrals across programs to ensure that agency officials 

are aware of the benefits of each program.11

We have previously reported on steps that agencies should take to 

improve oversight and internal controls in the grant management process, 

including steps within the preaward, award, implementation, and closeout 

stages.12

 

10For more information about the TAA programs, see appendix III.

EDA’s grant management process is very similar to the grant 

management process described in our previous report. EDA regional 

office staff described the steps they took and provided documents that 

showed they followed their standard grant award process as outlined in 

the CTAA federal funding opportunity to administer the program. Each 

regional office reported having conducted outreach, provided technical 

assistance, received grant applications, and reviewed the applications in 

their respective states (see fig. 3).

11The Interagency Communities Working Group was disbanded at the end of 2010 

because of the lapse in TAA program authorizations.

12GAO, Federal Grants: Improvement Needed in Oversight and Accountability Processes, 

GAO-11-773T (Washington, D.C.: June 23, 2011).
 

Page 10 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

Figure 3: EDA Used Its Standard Process to Award CTAA Grants

• Outreach and technical assistance. Because the eligibility 

requirements were different for the CTAA program than for EDA’s 

other grants programs, EDA headquarters officials developed a list of 

counties that were eligible for the program and notified elected state 

officials of the existence of the list. EDA regional staff also said that 

they conducted outreach through their network of Economic 

Development Districts.13

 

13An Economic Development District is both a geographical area and the EDA-designated 

planning organization that is responsible for maintaining and implementing a 

comprehensive economic development strategy for the area. Each Economic 

Development District is governed by a board composed of representatives from state, 

local or Indian tribal governments, the private sector, and other economic development 

groups. 

Some regional officials said that they also 

reached out directly to communities they knew were negatively 

affected by trade. EDA regional staff said that they provided technical 

assistance to applicants as needed.
 

Page 11 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

• Receipt of applications and technical review. EDA regional offices 

received more than 130 CTAA applications. Applicants were required 

to submit full applications by April 20, 2010.14

• Merit review. According to EDA regional staff and training documents, 

EDA staff and other federal employees conducted a merit review of 

applications that passed the technical review and scored the 

applications on the basis of EDA’s award criteria (see table 2). 

According to EDA documentation of the final rankings that we 

reviewed, EDA used the scores to rank the applications within one of 

the following categories: below average, average, good, or excellent.

In our review of 12 grant 

files, we found that the applicants submitted their applications prior to 

this date. EDA regional staff said that they conducted a technical 

review of each application, verifying, among other things, the eligibility 

of the applicant as outlined in the federal funding opportunity. EDA 

regional staff said applications that did not pass the technical review 

did not move forward to the next stage, the merit review.

Table 2: EDA’s Award Criteria 

Criteria description Weight of criteria

Activities support small and medium-sized communities (communities with populations of less than 100,000). 20 percent

Investment is targeted to the most severely trade-impacted communities as measured by the number of 

persons receiving Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers.

20 percent

Activities will result in a high return on investment as measured by jobs created or retained, private and public 

sector funds leveraged, and the use of best practices in the management of the project.

20 percent

Activities will support regionalism, innovation, and entrepreneurship through the implementation of regional 

cluster strategies and the adaptation of technology for commercial usage.

20 percent

Project supports global trade and competitiveness by supporting companies that have significant export 

potential.

15 percent

Activities will promote the green economy through the use of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green 

building technology.

5 percent

Source: Department of Commerce.

 

14Communities that received their most recent TAA certifications on or after January 1, 

2007, and before August 1, 2009, were required to submit information to EDA for its 

affirmative determination by February 1, 2010, to preserve their eligibility under the 

program.
 

Page 12 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

• Grant award. EDA officials said that they awarded the CTAA grants in 

accordance with the review panel and selection process outlined in 

the federal funding opportunity. The Investment Review Committee at 

each regional office, consisting of the office’s managers, reviewed and 

discussed the merit review panel’s process and recommendations. 

Our review of each regional office’s committee meeting records 

showed that each committee approved the recommendations and 

forwarded the ranked list of applications to the selecting official—the 

Regional Director. The Regional Director in each office then reviewed 

applications and could select applicants outside of the ranked order, 

taking into consideration factors such as the availability of program 

funding, the geographic distribution of grants, and the diversity of 

applicants. After the Regional Director selected the grant award 

recipients, EDA notified the recipients and issued grant award 

documents.

EDA officials cited several challenges that they faced in implementing the 

CTAA program. First, they highlighted difficulties associated with setting 

up the new program. EDA headquarters staff noted that setting up a new 

program required considerable effort because they were required to 

develop entirely new regulations instead of integrating CTAA funding into 

an existing EDA program. After the TGAAA established the program in 

February 2009, EDA issued program implementation regulations for 

comment in May 2009 and finalized the program regulations in August 

2009. EDA then issued its federal funding opportunity for public comment 

in December 2009 and issued the final federal funding opportunity 

announcement in January 2010. EDA officials said that they had to 

incorporate the program’s complex trade-impact eligibility criteria into the 

new program regulations and the federal funding opportunity, which 

required that they modify standard processes and award criteria 

appropriately. They noted that determining significant trade impact on 

communities was complex and time consuming. Several EDA regional 

officials also mentioned that there was an administrative burden in having 

to learn the requirements and procedures of a new program. In addition, 

four of the six regional offices hired a combined total of six new staff 

members to administer the program, and EDA officials said existing staff 

were pulled away from working on other EDA programs to respond to the 

demands of administering CTAA.

A second challenge cited by EDA officials was having to obligate all 

program funds by the end of fiscal year 2010. EDA officials said they had 

a relatively short amount of time—a little over 3 months—to conduct 

EDA Officials Reported 

CTAA-Specific Challenges 

Related to the Grants 

Award Process
 

Page 13 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

outreach to potential applicants in the period between the federal funding 

opportunity announcement in January 2010 and the application deadline 

of April 20, 2010. EDA officials from some of the regional offices said that 

the short time frame may have led to EDA’s receiving fewer applications 

than if the application period had been longer. They said that as a result, 

some applicants may not have had enough time and resources to 

develop their proposal, identify funds to meet the cost share 

requirements, and build regional partnerships required to produce a 

complete application.

Third, EDA headquarters officials expressed concern over the reliability of 

a list of more than 450 eligible counties that they compiled and published 

to assist communities in demonstrating trade impact. EDA used the list to 

notify the communities that they were eligible to apply for the grant. 

However, EDA reported in issuing an updated version of the list that 

some eligible communities may not have been included, and the list may 

have included some ineligible communities. EDA subsequently required 

all counties that appeared on the list to provide TAA certification data to 

establish eligibility. An EDA official said the list of eligible counties was 

difficult to create. For example, the list depended on Department of Labor 

data on TAA for Workers certifications; however, these data include city 

and state information but not county information. In 9 of the 12 grant files 

we reviewed, the applicants provided evidence that they were on the list 

to show their eligibility, in addition to evidence of TAA for Workers 

certifications. Despite the concerns that EDA identified with the list, we 

noted that all 12 files we reviewed showed evidence of trade impact and 

that EDA had determined that they were eligible for the program.

EDA continues to monitor CTAA grants through its standard process of 

reviewing periodic progress and financial reports that grantees are 

required to submit. In our review of a sample of EDA grant files, we found 

no gaps in the regional offices’ collection of required progress and 

financial reports. Seven of the 36 projects had been completed as of the 

publication of this report, with an additional 6 slated to conclude by the 

end of September 2012. Grantees with construction projects are required 

to report on certain EDA performance measures—such as the number of 

jobs created and retained—3, 6, and 9 years after the award. In 2013, 

those grantees will be required to report measures relating to jobs 

created, jobs retained, and level of new private investment. At that point, 

according to agency officials, EDA will have more information about 

whether the projects are on track to meet their goals for jobs created, jobs 

retained, and the amount of private investment leveraged. EDA noted in 

EDA Continues to 

Monitor Grants but 

Will Not Be Able to 

Assess Effectiveness 

until after 2013
 

Page 14 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

its agency comments that it will not know the outcomes of the grants until 

2019, when the grantees will submit final nine-year reports on project 

impact.

EDA has begun to disburse the funds associated with the 36 CTAA 

grants and continues to monitor their progress by using a standard 

process in which grantees must submit periodic progress and financial 

reports (see fig. 4). After awarding the grants from July to October 2010, 

EDA began disbursing CTAA funds in late 2010. Adhering to its standard 

process, EDA provides CTAA funds in response to disbursement 

requests from the grantees and will continue to disburse funds until the 

projects are completed. EDA’s standard terms and conditions for any 

grant specify that the communities will be reimbursed with grant funds 

after grantees document payments of approved project expenses, up to 

the full amount of the cost that EDA has agreed to share.15

Figure 4: EDA Uses a Standard Process to Disburse CTAA Payments and Monitor 

Grants

As of the

publication of this report, 7 of the 36 projects had been completed, and 

another 6 were expected to be completed by the end of September 2012.

 

15For strategic planning grants, the federal share of the eligible costs was not to exceed 

75 percent. For implementation grants, the federal share of eligible costs was not to 

exceed 95 percent. 

EDA Continues to Monitor 

Grants through Standard 

EDA Monitoring 

Mechanisms
 

Page 15 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

EDA regional officials said that they monitor grants in several ways, which 

are consistent with EDA grants management guidance and procedure. 

For example, they receive financial reports, performance reports, budget 

documents, and requests for disbursement from the grantee. The 

requirements for each grant are specified in the conditions of the grant 

award contracts. EDA officials reported that they review all of these 

documents, which contain information such as whether the design of the 

project is complete or construction has started and whether the grantees 

are able to fund their portion of the project. EDA officials said that they 

stay in contact with grantees mostly through phone calls and e-mails and 

that they conduct site visits, although these are relatively limited due to 

budget constraints. Within the EDA regional offices, engineers perform 

the monitoring of CTAA grants for construction projects, and EDA project 

managers monitor the grants for development of strategic plans. CTAA 

grant monitoring has been absorbed into the routine workload of these 

regional office officials. One engineer told us that on average he monitors 

about 50 EDA grants at any given time, of which just one is a CTAA 

grant. Another engineer agreed that this is a fairly standard monitoring 

workload. In our review of 12 of the 36 grant files, we found no evidence 

of deficiencies in the required performance and financial reports that EDA 

regional offices received from grantees. The documentation also 

corroborated the descriptions of follow-up activity provided by staff at 

each regional office.

Because many of the CTAA grants funded construction projects that are 

still in progress, EDA regional offices continue to monitor these grants 

(see fig. 5 below). Several of the strategic planning projects have been 

completed and were closed out by EDA regional offices. EDA closes out 

a grant after it receives the final progress, financial, and audit reports.
 

Page 16 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

Figure 5: CTAA Grant Project Timelines: Most Are Still Being Implemented as of August 2012
 

Page 17 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

EDA officials noted one challenge they experienced in implementing the 

CTAA grants. All CTAA grant funds had to be obligated by the end of 

fiscal year 2010, though they could be disbursed over several years. 

Thus, EDA had to award its grants during a single fiscal year, which 

limited the agency’s ability to amend grants, because any changes had to 

be consistent with the original project intent, scope, and budget. EDA 

officials stated that since other community grant program funding does 

not expire at the end of the fiscal year, they can make changes to grants 

for construction projects as long as these changes relate to the original 

scope and are properly documented. Officials indicated the stricter 

conditions on changing the terms of CTAA grant awards pose a particular 

challenge with construction-related projects, because unforeseen 

circumstances such as delays or changes in management may require 

major changes in such projects. Officials stated that because EDA cannot 

change CTAA grants, communities with construction projects that require 

major changes may not be able to spend their grant money in time, which 

could result in deobligated funds.

All EDA grant recipients, including recipients of CTAA grants for 

implementation projects, are required to provide data on jobs created, 

jobs retained, and the amount of private investment leveraged.16 They 

provide these data at 3, 6, and 9 years after the date of the grant award. 

CTAA grantees with implementation projects will begin to report on these 

measures starting in 2013. Consequently, EDA will not be able to 

determine the effectiveness of the program until then or later. Using 

estimates in the grant applications for the 36 CTAA awards, EDA projects 

that the program will result in 6,586 jobs being created and 1,892 jobs 

being saved once all the projects are implemented.17 EDA noted that it 

does not have job creation projections for strategic planning grants, 

although it expects those strategic plans to lead to job creation in the 

future. EDA’s fiscal year 2011 annual report to Congress notes the results 

of EDA’s economic development investments are often realized years 

after the initial investment.18

 

16EDA does not require reporting on these measures for nonconstruction grants.

17We did not verify EDA’s or the grantee’s methodologies for any of these estimates.

18U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration, Annual Report 

to Congress (Washington, D.C.: 2011).

EDA Will Collect 

Performance Data on 

Projects, but It Is Too 

Early to Determine Their 

Effectiveness
 

Page 18 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

EDA provided some examples of projected potential job creation through 

CTAA grant projects:

• 200 jobs may be created as a result of a project to develop a business 

park in Lincoln County, North Carolina;

• 300 jobs may be created as a result of a project to expand and 

improve facilities at a former Air Force Base in Blytheville, Arkansas; 

and

• 311 jobs may be created and 255 retained as a result of a project to 

create a business center to assist entrepreneurs in Boise, Idaho.

In its agency comments, Commerce noted that they will not know the 

outcome of the projects until 2019, when the grantees submit their final 

nine-year reports on project impact.

Our review of how the CTAA program compared with other EDA grant 

programs shows that while the CTAA grants targeted trade-impacted 

communities, some grantees might have been eligible for other EDA 

grant programs. EDA officials identified two other programs that target 

economically distressed communities—EDA’s Economic Adjustment 

Assistance (EAA) and Public Works—which may have been able to 

provide assistance to CTAA communities. We found that EDA, through 

CTAA grants, assisted some trade-impacted communities that may not 

have qualified for EDA’s other community grant programs due to 

differences in eligibility and cost-share requirements. However, EDA 

officials also provided some specific examples of CTAA grantees that 

may have qualified for the EAA or Public Works programs. Although 

officials credited the CTAA program with providing additional funding to 

assist more communities, some officials suggested that funding for tradeimpacted communities could have been designated within, and similar 

services could have been delivered through, EDA’s existing programs.

EDA officials said that the CTAA grants targeted some trade-impacted 

communities that may not have qualified for EDA’s other community grant 

programs—EAA and Public Works. While CTAA and the EAA and Public 

Works programs all funded similar activities, such as construction 

projects, there are differences between CTAA’s eligibility and cost-share 

requirements and those of the other two programs, which have the same 

CTAA Targeted TradeImpacted 

Communities; Some 

May Not Have 

Qualified for Other 

EDA Programs, and 

Some May Have

CTAA Grants Targeted 

Some Trade-Impacted 

Communities That May 

Not Have Qualified for 

Other EDA Programs
 

Page 19 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance 

requirements. Table 3 provides a comparative overview of the three 

programs. 

Table 3: EDA’s CTAA, Economic Adjustment Assistance, and Public Works Programs 

 CTAA 

Economic Adjustment 

Assistance Public Works 

Targeted recipient Trade-impacted communitiesa Economically distressed 

communitiesa Economically distressed 

communitiesa

Program purpose and 

goals 

To help communities affected 

by trade impacts devise longterm strategic plans and carry 

out implementation activities, 

such as construction projects, 

to address economic 

development challenges 

To help economically distressed 

communities by supporting a 

wide range of construction and 

nonconstruction assistance using 

flexible tools to address pressing 

economic recovery issues 

To help economically distressed 

communities by supporting 

construction or rehabilitation of 

essential public infrastructure and 

facilities to leverage community 

resources and strengths 

 Eligibility Eligible applicants must meet 

one or more certifications 

from the TAA programs for 

Workers, Firms, or Farmersb

 

Eligible applicants must meet at 

least one statutory economic 

distress criterion (unemployment 

rate 1 percentage point higher 

than national average, per capita 

income 80 percent of national, or 

special needc

) 

Eligible applicants must meet at 

least one statutory economic 

distress criterion (unemployment 

rate 1 percentage point higher 

than national average, per capita 

income 80 percent of national, or 

special needc) 

EDA share of project 

costs 

Up to 95 percent for 

implementation grants and up 

to 75 percent for strategic 

planning grants 

Up to 50 percentd Up to 50 percentd

Funding ppropriation, 

fiscal year 2010 

$36.77 million $38.62 million $133.28 million 

Source: GAO analysis of Department of Commerce documents. 

a

To be eligible, an applicant must be a community, defined as a city, county, or other political 

subdivision of a state or a consortium of political subdivisions of a state, or a consortium of political 

subdivisions of a state as defined in 13 CFR 312.2. 

b

The Department of Labor makes certifications for the TAA for Workers program, the Department of 

Commerce makes certifications for the TAA for Firms program, and the Department of Agriculture 

makes certifications for the TAA for Farmers program. 

c

The special need may be the closing or restructuring of an industrial firm, loss of a major employer, 

or negative effects from changing trade patterns. 

d

Projects may receive up to an additional 30 percent because of the relative needs of the region in 

which the project will be located, as determined by EDA. 

As shown in table 3, CTAA targeted trade-impacted communities, and 

EAA and Public Works targeted economically distressed communities. 

Communities that were eligible for the CTAA program had workers or 
 

Page 20 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

firms certified as trade-impacted by other TAA programs.19

Some officials stated that CTAA funds were needed for trade-impacted 

communities because those communities are not necessarily a subset of 

economically distressed communities. For example, officials said 

communities in western Montana that received CTAA grants might not 

have been eligible for the EAA and Public Works programs, because they 

have low unemployment levels. However, due to the increase in timber 

imports from Canada, many communities in western Montana were trade 

impacted. EDA officials also noted it takes time for trade impacts to be 

reflected in the unemployment rates or per capita incomes, particularly in 

urban areas. As a result, the city of Chicago or Orange County, California, 

may have been less likely to receive grants under the other programs, but 

EDA officials did award CTAA grants to these locations on the basis of 

trade impacts. 

To qualify for 

EAA and Public Works assistance, communities must demonstrate 

economic distress by documenting high unemployment levels or low per 

capita incomes.

The CTAA program also required recipients to contribute a much lower 

percentage of their own funds to their projects. As shown in table 3, EDA 

required communities in the CTAA program to provide between 5 and 25 

percent of the costs of the grants, while EDA requires communities in the 

EAA and Public Works programs to provide up to 50 percent of the costs. 

The higher level of EDA funding provided through the CTAA program may 

have led some communities to apply for grants and to implement projects 

that they would not otherwise have been able to carry out.

EDA officials said that some of the trade-impacted communities assisted 

by the CTAA program could have qualified for and received similar 

assistance from the EAA and Public Works programs. Although EDA 

officials credited the CTAA program with providing a funding stream to 

assist more communities, some officials suggested that funding for tradeimpacted communities could have been designated within, and similar 

services could have been delivered through, EDA’s existing programs, for 

the following reasons:

 

19No CTAA grantee established eligibility based on the TAA for Farmers or TAA for Firms 

programs.

EDA Officials Said CTAA 

Assisted Some 

Communities That Could 

Have Qualified for Other 

EDA Grant Programs
 

Page 21 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

• CTAA communities met the primary eligibility requirements. Many of 

the communities that applied for CTAA program assistance 

demonstrated sufficiently high unemployment rates or low per capita 

incomes. For example, EDA officials said one CTAA grantee was 

located in one of the nation’s most economically depressed areas, 

which also happened to be impacted by trade.

• CTAA communities could qualify under the special need category. In 

addition to the main eligibility requirements, the EAA and Public 

Works programs can provide grants in special circumstances, which 

can include the closing or restructuring of an industrial firm or loss of a 

major employer and the negative effects from changing trade 

patterns.

• CTAA communities could implement similar projects. The EAA 

program offers nonconstruction grants and the Public Works program 

offers construction grants similar to those offered by the CTAA 

program. For example, one grantee applied for both CTAA and Public 

Works grants to make infrastructure improvements to a multitenant 

manufacturing building. The grantee was eligible for both programs, 

but EDA awarded the community a CTAA grant.

Additionally, EDA said that CTAA was duplicative of the EAA and Public 

Works programs, since these programs could have met the needs of 

trade-impacted communities. As noted above, the administration 

proposed to discontinue the CTAA program in 2012, contending that EDA 

could provide similar assistance to communities at a lower cost through 

its EAA program (see table 4 for more on the funding of these programs). 

Congress responded by repealing the CTAA program in 2012.

Table 4: Funding in Fiscal Years 2010 to 2012 for the CTAA, EAA, and Public Works 

Programs

(Dollars in millions)

FY 2010 FY 2011 FY 2012

CTAA $36.8 $0 $0

EAA $38.6 $78.7 $50.1

Public Works $133.3 $88.7 $111.6

Legend: FY = fiscal year 

Source: Department of Commerce budget documents.
 

Page 22 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

We provided a draft of this report to the Department of Commerce for 

comment. We received written comments from Commerce, which are 

reprinted in appendix IV. In its comments, Commerce concurred with this 

report and provided additional information clarifying that the outcomes of 

the CTAA grants may not be known until 2019, when the final nine-year 

reports on impact will be provided by the grantees. Commerce also 

provided further information on planned improvements to EDA’s 

performance measures. 

We also received technical comments from Commerce that were 

incorporated into the report. 

We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional

committees, the Department of Commerce, and other interested parties.

In addition, the report is available at no charge on the GAO website at

http://www.gao.gov. 

If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact

me at (202) 512-4101 or gomezj@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices

of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last

page of this report. GAO staff who made key contributions to this report

are listed in appendix V.

J. Alfredo Gomez

Acting Director

International Affairs and Trade

Agency Comments
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

Page 23 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

To determine how Commerce made grant award decisions, we reviewed 

relevant laws and regulations, the CTAA federal funding opportunity, and 

grant files. We interviewed responsible EDA officials at headquarters and in 

the six regional offices and conducted a site visit to the Philadelphia 

Regional Office to gain an understanding of their grant solicitation, 

approval, and oversight processes. We interviewed agency officials at 

headquarters to gain an understanding of the agency’s establishment of 

and participation in the Interagency Community Assistance Working Group.

To provide an in-depth review of the grant award process and monitoring, 

including whether EDA followed its procedures, we obtained and 

reviewed supporting documentation for the program. We selected a 

nonprobability sample of 12 grant recipients for a file review. We used a 

data collection instrument to review the sample of grant files against the 

process and requirements outlined in the CTAA federal funding 

opportunity, or the grant application announcement. In each file, we 

reviewed applications, agency reviews of the applications, documentation 

of the award process and decisions, and progress and financial reports. 

Because we selected a nonprobability sample of grant recipients, the 

information we obtained from these reviews cannot be generalized to the 

whole group of 36 grant recipients. We selected the sample of 12 grant 

recipients to provide a variety of grant awards on the basis of region, 

grant amount, and grant type—whether the purpose of the grant was to 

help a community develop a strategic plan or implement part of an 

existing strategic plan. The characteristics of our sample are listed below.

• To determine the number of grant files to select from each regional 

office, we considered the distribution of CTAA funding. As a result, we 

selected four grant files from Chicago; three from Atlanta; two from 

Philadelphia; and one each from Seattle, Austin, and Denver.

• We selected grants representing the range of grant award amounts. 

The 36 CTAA grant award amounts ranged from $53,000 to $3.5 

million. The grant award amounts in our sample ranged from $75,000 

to $3 million.

• To determine the number of implementation grants versus strategic 

planning grants to select, we considered the proportion of each type 

receiving grant awards. For the implementation grants, we also 

selected recipients according to the proportion of implementation 

grants with construction projects. As a result, we selected 10 

implementation grants—4 with construction projects and 6 with 

nonconstruction projects—and 2 strategic planning grants.

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

Page 24 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

• In addition, our sample contained a mix of urban and rural 

communities as well as a mix of grantee types. The sample included 

three grant recipients that were an Economic Development District, 

five counties, three cities or towns, and one that was a combined 

recipient of a county and an Economic Development District.

To identify the mechanisms that EDA established to monitor the grants 

and evaluate their effectiveness, we reviewed program information, 

agency documentation, and data on the status of the grants. We reviewed 

monitoring documents, such as progress and financial reports, in our 

grant file review. We also interviewed EDA regional officials regarding 

their grant monitoring procedures, challenges they encountered in 

monitoring the grants, and their plans for evaluating the effectiveness of 

the program.

To determine how the CTAA program compared with other EDA 

community grant programs, we obtained agency information on the goals, 

eligibility, activities, and targeted recipients of the CTAA program and 

other EDA community grant programs. We interviewed EDA officials to 

gain an understanding of the client base for each program and to identify 

examples of CTAA grantees that may have qualified and those that may 

not have qualified for multiple programs.

We conducted this review from March 2012 through September 2012 in 

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 

Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain 

sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our 

findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that 

the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and 

conclusions based on our audit objectives.
Appendix II: CTAA Grant Awards: Grantees, 

Amounts, and Grant Purpose

Page 25 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

Grantee

Award 

amount Purpose

1 Village of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin $3.5 

million

To help build the 40,000-square-foot

Southeast Wisconsin Innovation Center

2 City of Danville, Illinois $3 

million

To construct a roadway and rail overpass bridge to support 

the city’s industrial area

3 Cowlitz Wahkiakum Council of Governments and 

the City of Woodland, Washington

$2.4 

million

To make infrastructure improvements to expand the 

Woodland Light Industrial Park

4 Jackson County Development Authority of Ripley, 

West Virginia

$2.1 

million

For construction, water, sewer, and rail infrastructure 

improvements

5 City of Darlington, South Carolina $1.84 

million

To make sewer system improvements to increase sewer 

treatment capacity for existing and prospective industries

6 City of Bastrop, Louisiana $1.8 

million

To fund a new industrial park in the U.S. 165 corridor

7 Franklin County and the Kerr-Tar Regional 

Economic Development Corporation, North Carolina

$1.74 

million

To build a roadway for improved access to the Triangle North 

Franklin Business Park

8 Winston County Commission, City of Haleyville, and 

Cooperative District of Winston County, Alabama

$1.66 

million

To make infrastructure improvements to serve businesses in 

the Winston County Industrial Park and Haleyville’s North 

Industrial Park

9 Lincoln County and the City of Lincolnton, North 

Carolina

$1.6 

million

To make sewer improvements needed for the development of 

Phase 1 of the Airport Business Park

10 New River Valley Planning District Commission of 

Radford, Virginia

$1.5 

million

To provide funding for the Western Virginia Transportation 

Equipment Manufacturing Competitiveness Initiative

11 City of Anderson, Indiana $1.5 

million

To provide funding for road infrastructure improvements and 

related property updates to develop an industrial park

12 Washington County and the City of Eastport, Maine $1.42 

million

To construct and rehabilitate the Eastport Business Center 

and establish the Maine Marine Energy Center

13 City of Galesburg and Knox County, Illinois $1.22 

million

To create the Entrepreneurs Innovate and Go Global Initiative 

14 City of Janesville, Wisconsin $1.2 

million

To construct the Rock County Small Business Incubation and 

Innovation Center

15 Mississippi County and Blytheville-Gosnell Regional 

Airport Authority of Blytheville, Arkansas

$1.2 

million

To expand and improve two facilities at the Blytheville-Gosnell 

Regional Airport

16 Overton County and the City of Livingston, 

Tennessee

$1.18 

million

To extend a water line needed to develop an industrial park in 

the county

17 Flathead County Economic Development Authority 

of Kalispell, Montana

$1.15 

million

To acquire the site of the Columbia Falls Rail Park

18 Boise State University, Idaho $1 

million

To build the Technology and Entrepreneurial Incubator

19 McMinn County and the McMinn County Economic 

Development Authority, Tennessee

$750,000 To install broadband fiber in three county industrial parks

20 Bedford County, Pennsylvania $650,000 To expand a multi-tenant building and incubator space in 

Bedford County Business Park I

Appendix II: CTAA Grant Awards: Grantees, 

Amounts, and Grant Purpose
Appendix II: CTAA Grant Awards: Grantees, 

Amounts, and Grant Purpose

Page 26 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

Grantee

Award 

amount Purpose

21 Town of Eureka, Montana $634,130 To fund the engineering, design, and construction of the 

Wood Development Center 

22 Bitterroot Economic Development District, Inc., 

Missoula, Montana

$627,000 To implement a competitive strategy to guide economic 

diversification efforts in a four-county region

23 Orange County, California $500,000 To prepare an analysis of the current Orange County 

economy

24 Mifflin County and the Mifflin County Industrial 

Development Authority, Mifflin, Pennsylvania

$457,500 To make infrastructure improvements to a multi-tenant 

manufacturing building, the Mifflin County Industrial 

Development Corporation Plaza

25 City of Sterling Heights, Michigan $391,468 To make technology and infrastructure improvements to the 

Macomb Technology Advancement Center

26 City of Chicago, Illinois $383,965 To develop and implement Chicago’s Sustainable Industries 

Project 

27 Clinton County Government of Plattsburgh, New 

York 

$301,000 To partially fund three workforce development activities in 

Clinton County

28 Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission, 

Postville, Iowa

$200,000 To implement a 27-county, three-state (northeast Iowa, 

southeast Minnesota, and western Wisconsin) regional action 

plan

29 Grant County, New Mexico $170,000 To develop an economic development master plan that will 

help target new industries and create jobs

30 Lane County, Oregon $155,689 To implement economic gardening, business development, 

instructional technical assistance, and workforce training 

programs

31 East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning 

Commission, Menasha, Wisconsin

$133,500 To fund a strategic plan for expanding global trade in nine 

counties in northeastern Wisconsin

32 Morris County, Texas $93,046 To develop an economic development strategic plan to 

assess the current market

33 Franklin Regional Council of Governments, 

Greenfield, Massachusetts

$78,102 To develop a strategic plan for the Franklin County 

Interconnection and Innovation District

34 Northwest Iowa Planning and Development 

Commission, Spencer, Iowa

$75,000 To develop a strategic plan to help the region map its future 

economic course

35 Northwest Pennsylvania Regional Planning and 

Development Commission, Oil City, Pennsylvania

$75,000 To develop a trade strategy to assist Crawford County’s 

tooling and machining industry

36 Barnwell County, South Carolina $53,194 To support the development and implementation to enhance 

the specialty agribusiness sector 

Source: Department of Commerce.
Appendix III: TAA Programs at a Glance: 

Responsible Agencies, Service Structures, 

Types of Assistance, Number Assisted 

Page 27 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

Program Responsible agency Service structure Type of assistance

Number assisted, 

by fiscal yeara 

TAA for Workers Department of Labor: 

Employment and Training 

Administration

State and local workforce 

agencies provide 

assistance to workers 

covered by certified 

petitions.

Provides funds for services 

and benefits including: 

training, case management 

and reemployment services, 

income support, job search 

and relocation allowances, 

wage supplement allowance 

for older workers, and 

eligibility for health coverage 

tax credit.

2009-2011:107,896 

employeesb

TAA for Farmers Department of Agriculture: 

Foreign Agricultural 

Service, Farm Service 

Agency, National Institute 

of Food and Agriculture, 

and Economic Research 

Service 

The National Institute of 

Food and Agriculture 

develops and delivers 

training and technical 

assistance to groups of 

farmers or fisheries.

Provides funds for technical 

assistance (training and 

business plan development) 

and cash payments to 

implement business plans.

2010-2011: About 

9,800 individuals 

TAA for Firms Department of Commerce: 

Economic Development 

Administration 

EDA provides funding to 11 

Trade Adjustment 

Assistance Centers. The 

Centers provide funds for 

consultants, engineers, 

designers or industry 

experts to work with firms.

Provides funds to develop 

adjustment proposals 

(business recovery plans) 

including work in such areas 

as engineering, information 

technology, management, 

market development, quality 

improvement, and sales. 

2010: 264 firms or 

25,889 employees

2011: 183 firms 

14,561 employees

TAA for 

Communities

• Community Trade 

Adjustment 

Assistancec

Department of Commerce: 

Economic Development 

Administration 

The Economic 

Development 

Administration awards 

grants to communities.

Provides grant funding for 

strategic planning or 

implementing a project or 

program as part of a strategic 

plan. 

2010: 36 

communities

• Community 

College and 

Career Training 

Department of Labor: 

Employment & Training 

Administration

The Employment & Training 

Administration awards 

grants to institutions of 

higher education.

Provides grant funding to 

institutions of higher education 

to develop or improve 

education and career training 

programs for persons eligible 

for the Workers program.

2011: 32 institutions 

of higher education 

or consortia

• Industry Sector 

Partnershipd 

Department of Labor __ __ __

Source: GAO analysis of data from the Departments of Labor, Agriculture, and Commerce.

a

The number assisted was determined using the fiscal year of the certification or grant award. 

b

The number assisted under the TAA for Workers program only reflects the number of employees 

assisted between May 18, 2009 to February 14, 2011. 

c

Congress repealed the CTAA program in fiscal year 2012. 

d

Congress did not fund the Industry Sector Partnership grant program and repealed it in fiscal year 

2012. 

Appendix III: TAA Programs at a Glance: 

Responsible Agencies, Service Structures, 

Types of Assistance, Number Assisted
Appendix IV: Comments from the Economic 

Development Administration

Page 28 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

Appendix IV: Comments from the Economic 

Development Administration
Appendix IV: Comments from the Economic

Development Administration

Page 29 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance
Appendix IV: Comments from the Economic 

Development Administration

Page 30 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance
Appendix V: GAO Contact and Staff 

Acknowledgments

Page 31 GAO-12-993 Trade Adjustment Assistance

J. Alfredo Gomez, (202) 512-4101 or gomezj@gao.gov

In addition to the contact named above, Kim Frankena (Assistant 

Director), Christina Bruff, David Dayton, Leah DeWolf, David Dornisch, 

Etana Finkler, Bradley Hunt, Ernie Jackson, Erin Preston and Jeremy 

Sebest made key contributions to this report.

Appendix V: GAO Contact and Staff 

Acknowledgments 

GAO Contact

Staff 

Acknowledgments

(320898)
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