EDA Newsletter January 2009

Volume 2; Issue 1 

A Record of Progress and Accomplishment: 2001–2008

At the close of George W. Bush's presidency, the U.S. Department of Commerce's 

Economic Development Administration (EDA) stands well-positioned as an 

effective and well-managed Federal agency capable of helping American regions 

achieve economic success in the 21 st century. As the next Administration 

prepares to take the reins at EDA, we wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on 

some of the agency's many accomplishments since 2001 of which we can all be 

proud.

Several years ago, EDA established the mission to "lead the Federal economic 

development agenda." We have accomplished that goal. While EDA has always 

had support on Capitol Hill, today the agency enjoys the support and confidence 

of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government as well as premier thought 

leaders across the country. 

This reputation was not earned overnight. It was achieved by the EDA team at all 

levels in all offices by aggressively pursuing three key principles to make EDA 

strong and secure: a focus on results, sound management, and developing a clear 

niche. 

FOCUS ON RESULTS 

Policy priorities: To be results-oriented, an organization must develop a set of 

priorities on which to focus. In partnership with some of America's top thought 

leaders and practitioners of 21 st century economic development, EDA developed 

a set of policy priorities that are emphasized in all EDA investments and activities. 

A consistent focus on these priorities helps to maximize the return on EDA's 

investment of taxpayer dollars by promoting up-to-date, tried and true 21 st 

century economic development approaches. 

The policy priorities developed during the Bush Administration focus on the 

support of:

1. Long-term, coordinated, and collaborative regional economic 

development approaches; 

2. Innovation and competitiveness; 

3. Entrepreneurship; and 

4. Strategies and investments that connect regional economies with the 

worldwide marketplace.

A special emphasis was placed on this fourth priority as communities across the 

nation face the challenges of adjusting to global economic forces. No other U.S. 

Government economic development agency has drawn the essential connection 

between domestic economic development and the worldwide economy. In a 

recent national survey among city and state economic development officials, 

integrating rural and urban economies into the worldwide economy was identified 

as one of their most important issues. 

New Performance Metrics: EDA developed and implemented new performance 

metrics to measure the results of EDA investments. These measurements show, 

among other things, that:

● Since EDA's last reauthorization in 2004, the agency has helped 

Click SUBSCRIBE to Learn 

about other Exciting EDA News 

APA's Economic Development 

Toolbox Part Eleven: THE MOST 

IMPORTANT FACTORS TO 

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

Two of the key objectives to a 

successful economic development 

strategy are business development 

and job growth. In APA's Toolbox, 

www.planning.org/eda/toolkit/#11

development practitioners can learn 

the fundamentals needed to inform 

public policy decisions that advance 

the region's economic 

competitiveness, such as the 

marketing of regional products, buying 

locally, assisting local producers in 

finding local suppliers (import 

substitution), advocating for the the 

expansion of existing firms and the 

attraction or retention of existing 

firms. 

National Summit on American 

Competitiveness Summary 

Report Now Available

The Summary Report for the 2008 

Department of Commerce Summit on 

American Competitiveness is now 

available for download at www.eda.

gov. The report highlights various 

speakers, panels and discussions from 

the event. 

Coming Soon!

February 4–5, 2009

Reinventing Retail and Mixed-Use: 

Surviving, Thriving, and Positioning for 

the Future Beverly Hills, CA [Website]

March 24–27 2009 

Nado's Economic Development 

Finance Service Conference New 

Orleans, LA, 70112 [Website]

April 25–29 2009 

APA's 101st National Planning 

Conference Minneapolis, MN 

[Website]

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EDA Newsletter January 2009

America's urban and rural communities create over 350,000 higherskill, higher-wage jobs at an average cost of $2,500 per job. 

● Dollar for dollar, EDA is the most effective Federal agency in partnering 

with the private sector to create higher-skill, higher-wage jobs. On 

average, every dollar in taxpayer money that EDA has invested since 

2002 has attracted $25 in private sector investment. 

Meaningful Performance Evaluations: EDA implemented the President's 

Management Agenda objective to differentiate between levels of employee 

performance and to award those employees exceeding expectations accordingly. 

This objective was applied throughout the Administration and the process ensured 

all employees received meaningful performance evaluations and all employees 

understood their contribution to overall Department of Commerce and EDA goals.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD): Involvement 

with the Territorial Development Policy Committee (TDPC) of the Organization for 

Economic Cooperation and Development has helped EDA refine its own 

investment policy guidelines, funding priorities, and performance metrics through 

comparative benchmarking to the best regional development policies and 

practices from the OECD's 30 industrialized member nations. In addition to EDA 

learning from OECD, OECD appreciated EDA's leadership in helping to reform the 

OECD agenda away from its historic focus on redistributive policies and subsidies 

to a new focus on how best to enhance and develop the comparative competitive 

advantages of regions by promoting regional investment and innovation and 

establishing multi-level regional governance structures. In recognition of EDA's 

leadership, the U.S. State Department's designated EDA as the head of the U.S. 

delegation to OECD. 

SOUND MANAGEMENT

Of course, focusing on results requires sound management, and we are proud of 

our record over the last eight years in developing and implementing 

improvements in the management of both EDA programs and operations.

Revolving Loan Fund: EDA made a number of changes to its Revolving Loan Fund 

(RLF) regulations in order to improve the administration and effectiveness of the 

program and to fulfill our commitment to implement recommendations resulting 

from an audit by the Office of the Inspector General. Department of Commerce 

Inspector General Todd Zinser hailed EDA's progress as a "sea change" during his 

Congressional testimony.

University Center Program: Beginning in 2004, EDA has run an annual grant 

competition for its University Center program, which helps to make the valuable 

research and expertise assets of universities available throughout regional 

economies. The first round of competition was held in EDA's Austin and Denver 

regional offices. This was followed by a competition in Chicago and Philadelphia in 

2005 and Atlanta and Seattle in 2006. This competition has been extremely 

successful in helping EDA ensure that only the highest performing higher 

education institutions — those that are able to leverage the maximum amount of 

external resources as well as internal expertise — are program participants. EDA 

will complete its second full cycle of competition this year when Atlanta and 

Seattle hold their second University Center competition.

3-Year Cycle for Planning Grants: EDA has been transitioning from annual 

planning grant awards of approximately $50,000 a year to its Economic 

Development Districts (EDDs) to 3-year investments of approximately $150,000 

each. This provides the EDDs with certainty regarding the availability of funds and 

reduces the administrative burden to the grant recipient and EDA. EDA's Austin 

Regional Office deserves special recognition for pioneering the 3-year cycle 

concept, as well as being the first Regional Office to implement it. The transition 

has now fully or partially occurred in four of EDA's six regional offices. The 

remaining grantees will transition to 3-year cycles as soon as funding permits.

Operational Improvements: In addition to program management improvements, 

EDA implemented a number of operational improvements intended to allow EDA 

to work smarter and serve our customers better. These included:

1. A staff reorganization early in President Bush's term to create a more 

efficient and effective agency. The reorganization enhanced service 

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EDA Newsletter January 2009

levels to all stakeholders throughout EDA's Headquarters and six 

regional offices, while strengthening accountability for taxpayer dollars. 

2. A new streamlined, single application form for EDA assistance, which 

significantly reduces the paperwork burden on EDA grantees by 

consolidating all EDA-specific requirements for Federal funding into a 

single application form, which is now available for completion and 

submission online at www.grants.gov. 

3. A Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Automated Administration System that 

allows RLF grant recipients to submit reports and extension requests 

online. The system significantly reduces the burden on recipients while 

also increasing the accuracy of reporting. The system will be ready for 

use for the reporting period ending on March 31, 2009. 

As a result of our program and operational management improvements, EDA has 

earned a reputation as one of the best managed Federal agencies. 

PART Score: EDA received the second highest performance rating by the Office of 

Management and Budget's (OMB) Program Assessment and Rating Tool (PART), 

which was developed to assess and improve the performance of Federal 

programs. 

Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame: EDA was inducted into the Balanced Scorecard 

Hall of Fame for the Balanced Scorecard it established for the agency in 2003. The 

Balanced Scorecard helps the agency continuously improve performance as it 

strives to achieve its mission. It has also raised EDA's visibility and helped to 

establish good working relationships with OMB and Congress by effectively 

communicating EDA's strategic focus. EDA's Balanced Scorecard success was 

highlighted in a 2004 book by Robert S. Kaplan and David R. Norton, who 

developed the Balanced Scorecard, entitled "Strategy Maps."

GPRA: EDA has also met or exceeded the targets for government performance 

and results as set by the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA).

Record of Clean Audit Opinions: EDA received a clean audit opinion on all Financial 

Statements during the Bush Administration. EDA received no Notification of 

Findings or Recommendations (NFR) for accounting processes on the FY 2005, FY 

2006, FY 2007, and FY 2008 Financial Statements. In addition, EDA received no 

NFRs for accounting processes from external OMB Circular A-123 internal control 

auditors since its implementation in FY 2006.

Reauthorization: EDA achieved reauthorization in 2004, and, while 2008 

reauthorization did not materialize in the end, great strides were made in this 

effort. In a Senate reauthorization hearing, we heard an explicit bipartisan 

consensus that EDA's programs are vital to American economic development in 

the 21 st century. The Senate authorizing committee marked up and voted out 

successfully an EDA reauthorization bill in 2008. The House counterpart 

committee, however, did not take action on that legislation. 

Recognition of Outstanding Performance: EDA employees have been well 

represented in the Department of Commerce's Performance Awards Program, 

which provide high-level recognition to deserving employees for their 

contributions to the Department. Since 2001, three employees received "Gold" 

awards, the highest-level performance awards: Joseph Hurney, Lew Podolske, and 

Mary Pleffner. Thirty employees won "Silver" awards: Tyrone Beach, Edward 

Hummel, Neal Noyes, Robert Brown, Calvin Edghill, Robert Moore, Leon Reed, 

Philip Saputo, Jerome Wallace, Phil Paradice (three times), David Witschi, Louise 

McGlathery, Leonard Smith, Darice Ahrnsbrak, Jorge Ayala, Vicki Hendershot, 

Mariylnn Sebby, Mary Pleffner, Benjamin Erulkar, Jedd Vertman, Jerry Foster, 

Donald Huff, Thomas Pellegrino, Lola Smith, Willie Taylor, Asa Williams, Trisha 

Korbas, Devinder Rajput, Sam Spearman, and Bobby Hunter. 

DEVELOPING A CLEAR NICHE 

EDA's third principle is to develop a clear niche within the Federal economic and 

community development portfolio. It has been estimated that there are up to 180 

Federal Government programs related to economic and community development. 

This fact, plus the reality that EDA's resources are limited, make it imperative that 

EDA does not try to be all things to all people. Over the last eight years, EDA has 

developed a niche by focusing on innovation, entrepreneurship and collaborative 

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regional development approaches. This was advanced through:

The Engagement of Leading Economic Thought Leaders: EDA developed valuable 

relationships and partnerships with some of America's leading economic thinkers, 

competitiveness experts, and economic development practitioners. Through 

research projects, EDA conferences, roundtable economic discussions and other 

activities, EDA engaged in policy dialogues with distinguished leaders such as: 

Michael Porter, Professor, Harvard Business School; Mark Drabenstott, Director, 

Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) Center for Regional Competitiveness, 

University of Missouri-Columbia; Deborah Wince-Smith, President Council on 

Competitiveness; David Cole, Chairman, Center for Automotive Research; and 

many more. These relationships helped EDA develop its niche, while also 

providing the agency renewed relevance and respect among the nation's leaders 

of business, academia and government. 

New and Innovative Ways to Communicate with Stakeholders: EDA officials 

delivered over 250 speeches and presentations at economic development 

conferences across the nation and abroad since 2001. We also strengthened 

external communications through an aggressive campaign to disseminate 

information on 21 st century best practices and ideas to economic development 

practitioners. For the first time ever, EDA hosted a national television series, 

which was also delivered via webcast, featuring key leaders from government, 

business and academia. The program — Economic Development Today —

delivered 18 telecasts and webcasts that were viewed by thousands of economic 

development practitioners. Additionally, EDA's information dissemination 

campaign published 16 issues of the Economic Development America quarterly 

publication, which was distributed to over 6,000 practitioners; and developed a 

monthly EDA Update e-newsletter with a distribution list that grew to over 

40,000. 

Excellence in Economic Development Awards: We ran a highly competitive and 

successful EDA Excellence in Economic Development Awards program that 

recognized the best and brightest in 21 st century economic development 

approaches and included onsite award presentation events. The program awarded 

47 organizations in several categories of economic development. 

Lifetime Achievement in Economic Development Award: EDA created a Lifetime 

Achievement in Economic Development Award to be presented to a nongovernment individual who has had a singularly important impact on the policy 

and practice of federal economic development. The Lifetime Achievement in 

Economic Development Award is not an annual or regular award; rather, it is 

presented only rarely, when a non-government individual's body of work and 

engagement with the federal government has significantly improved the federal 

approach to economic development. Commerce Secretary Gutierrez presented a 

Lifetime Achievement in Economic Development Award to Dr. Michael Porter, 

Professor, Harvard Business School at the National Summit on American 

Competitiveness in Chicago, Illinois, on May 22, 2008. 

Conferences and Events: EDA excelled in communicating with our stakeholders 

through conferences and events across the nation. We convened national 

conferences featuring high-profile leaders and distinguished economic 

development practitioners. Regional symposia, organized by both Headquarters 

and Regional Offices, brought together members of the EDA community within 

each of our regions to focus on a wide array of important issues. We also held 

several economic roundtables throughout the country to assemble local and 

regional leaders for deliberation on economic challenges and opportunities facing 

particular regions. These events allowed two things to happen: they bolstered 

regional cooperation by convening regional leaders to craft their own economic 

development strategies; and they provided EDA the opportunity to get feedback 

on its policies, programs, and operations in order to improve services to our 

constituents. For the first time ever, the Assistant Secretary convened roundtable 

meetings with the representatives of Economic Development Districts (EDD) 

across the nation. In all, the Assistant Secretary met in small groups with EDD 

leaders in approximately 40 states

Disaster Redevelopment: Another area in which EDA is building a niche is in 

natural disaster redevelopment. The agency has gained a great amount of 

visibility throughout the Administration and Congress over the last several years 

for its successful efforts in helping regions recover economically from disasters. In 

fact, while some Federal agencies were criticized during Hurricane Katrina 

recovery efforts, EDA received praise. Assistant Secretary Baruah served on the 

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President's Katrina Lessons Learned Task Force, which conducted a 

comprehensive review of the Federal Government's response to Hurricane Katrina. 

Our activities following Katrina bolstered EDA's already strong reputation as an 

effective disaster redevelopment agency, and paved the way for EDA to receive 

appropriations recognition for disaster redevelopment of $500 million in 2008. 

Strengthening America's Communities Initiative: The White House looked to EDA 

for leadership as they proposed the President's Strengthening America's 

Communities Initiative (SACI), a proposal for the comprehensive restructuring of 

the Federal community and economic development portfolio. While the proposal 

was controversial, the White House's designation of EDA as the lead on this bold 

proposal was a demonstration of EDA's rising reputation as an agency that could 

not only lead the policy discussions, but was also in a position to execute 

sweeping and bold initiatives. 

Faith-based and Community Initiatives: EDA became a leader over the past eight 

years as a Federal agency that supports faith-based and community initiatives 

that create jobs, economic opportunity and hope for American communities. EDA 

has invested over $188 million in more than 250 faith-based and community 

projects since 2001. 

Growing White House Visibility: EDA's niche within the Federal economic portfolio 

has been noticed at the highest levels. The agency has developed a firm "seat at 

the table" at the White House on economic and competitiveness issues. EDA 

officials have increasingly been asked to participate in high-level White House 

dialogues on issues ranging from high-end technology to faith-based and 

community initiatives, and from international trade to natural disaster recovery. 

These are just some of EDA's accomplishments since 2001 of which we can all be 

proud, and for which we are held in high regard within the Department of 

Commerce. In fact, EDA's impressive track record was the reason that Secretary 

Gutierrez selected our agency to serve as the lead in organizing two National 

Summits on American Competitiveness, which were held in Washington, D.C., in 

September 2007 and in Chicago, Illinois, in May 2008. These Secretarial Summits 

served as a platform to convene premier leaders from the private, public and 

academic sectors to discuss policies needed to ensure our nation's future 

prosperity and to address the issues that are vital to America's global economic 

competitiveness. Program participants included: Treasury Secretary Henry 

Paulson; Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board, Intel Corporation; Maria 

Bartiromo, Anchor/Editor, CNBC; Louis Gerstner, Retired Chairman and CEO, IBM 

Corporation; Steve Chen, Co-Founder and CTO, YouTube; and many more. The 

discussions were viewed nationwide via CNBC, C-SPAN and web cast. As we heard 

first hand from the Secretary of Commerce and many others, the Summits were a 

great success thanks to EDA's leadership. 

With so many impressive improvements now in place, we are confident that EDA 

will continue to be the Federal leader in economic development policy and 

practices. Thank you to the outstanding EDA staff team for their efforts to 

improve EDA and help secure the agency's future. 

On a personal note, we are honored to have been a part of such an effective 

agency that boasts such impressive results. We are also exceptionally honored to 

have had the opportunity to serve President Bush, and are privileged to serve 

under and learn from David Sampson and Carlos Gutierrez — two exceptional 

leaders who helped guide EDA to the success it enjoys today. Additionally, it has 

also been a pleasure to travel the nation learn about the economic challenges and 

opportunities facing American communities, and work with leaders from across 

the economic development community. This experience has been fulfilling for us, 

and has provided us with a unique perspective into just how meaningful the work 

of the economic development community is for America's future. Thank you for 

your contribution to our nation. 

Sincerely,

Sandy K. Baruah 

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for 

Economic Development

Benjamin Erulkar 

Deputy Assistant Secretary for 

Economic Development and Chief 

Operating Officer

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Grant Thornton LLP completes assessment of EDA's construction 

program investments

EDA enlisted Grant Thornton to perform an assessment of the economic impacts 

and federal costs of its construction program investments. 

The Grant Thornton approach to the research drew from the recent scholarship, 

academic and program management credentials of its team and the knowledge/

insights of other Federal grant- and loan-making program officials. The study set 

out to improve on EDA's existing study, performed by a team of Rutgers 

University and Princeton University economists in 1997. 

In the end, results from the study largely corroborated the results produced by 

the Rutgers team. Specifically, the study shows that: 

EDA investments in rural areas1 have a statistically significant impact on 

employment levels in the communities in which they are made, generating 

between 2.2 and 5.0 jobs per $10,000 in incremental EDA funding, at a cost per 

job of between $2,001 and $4,611, 

The impacts of these investments vary significantly, depending on the type of 

project funded, 

EDA's strategic focus on innovation and entrepreneurship makes sense, in that 

investments in business incubators generate significantly greater impacts in the 

communities in which they are made than do other project types, and 

These results are generally consistent with the impacts observed in urban areas 

based on a limited number of site visits made to projects in urban areas. 

Summary: Results by project Type:

PROJECT TYPE EST. LOCAL JOBS 

GENERATED 

(per $10,000 incremental 

EDA investment 

FEDERAL COST PER 

JOB 

Business Incubators 46.3-69.4 $144-216 

Commercial Structures 9.6-13.4 $744-1,008 

Roads & Other Trans. 4.4-7.8 $1,291-2,293 

Ind. Park 

Infrastructure 

5.0-7.3 $1,377-$1,999 

Community Infra. 1.5-3.4 $2,920-6,872 

— Local Jobs Generated Per $10,000 and Cost Per Job

1 Rural area projects are defined as those projects occurring in counties that 

are not located within an established Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSAs). 

MSAs are geographic entities defined by OMB for use by Federal statistical 

agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing Federal statistics.

FEDERAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITY (FFO) NOW AVAILABLE 

$400 Million for Disaster Assistance

In response to hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters occurring during 

2008, EDA is pleased to announce that it is now accepting applications to support 

long-term post-disaster economic recovery through an additional $400 million in 

emergency funding provided through a Second Supplemental under the 

Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 

signed into law on September 30, 2008.

This FFO follows EDA's August, 2008 announcement of the availability of $100 

million through the First Supplemental Appropriations Disaster Relief Opportunity 

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pursuant to the Act of June 30, 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-252, 122 Stat. 2323 (2008).

Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) notices for both of these Supplemental 

Appropriations, totaling $500 million, may be viewed at: http://www.eda.gov/

InvestmentsGrants/FFON.xml.

As with the First Supplemental, funding for the Second Supplemental 

Appropriations Disaster Relief Opportunity will be allocated entirely to EDA's six 

Regional Offices for competitive awards.

The $400 million will be allocated to the Regional Offices according to a formula 

designed to maximize funding to those regions most severely affected by 2008 

natural disasters, as follows:

● Atlanta Regional Office: 14.38% or $57,500,000 ( Ala., Fla., Ga., 

Ky., Miss., N.C., and Tenn.) 

● Austin Regional Office: 33.58% or $134,300,000 ( Ark., La., N.M., 

Okla., and Texas) 

● Chicago Regional Office: 15% or $60,000,000 ( Ill., Ind., Mich., 

Minn., Ohio, and Wis.) 

● Denver Regional Office: 26.14% or $104,600,000 ( Iowa, Kan., Mo., 

Mont., Neb., and S.D.) 

● Philadelphia Regional Office: 6.93% or $27,700,000 ( Maine, N.H., 

Vt., W.Va., and Virgin Islands) 

● Seattle Regional Office: 3.96% or $15,800,000 ( Alaska, Calif., 

Hawaii, Idaho, and Nev.). 

The EDA notice encourages the submission of several types of innovative projects 

for funding under the $400 million Second Supplemental Appropriations Disaster 

Relief Opportunity, such as "mother grants" obligated to a State for redistribution 

to individual projects; regional, multi-State strategy development grants; and 

grants to universities and research institutions to undertake multi-disciplinary 

activities to develop disaster-resilient economies. 

As background, EDA is the primary Department of Commerce bureau to assist 

with post-disaster economic recovery. While it does not have "first responder" 

duties or capabilities, EDA has a long and successful history of supporting longterm recovery following natural disasters. EDA played an effective role in previous 

disasters such as the Midwest Floods of 1993 and 1997, the 1994 California 

Northridge Earthquake, Hurricane Floyd in 2000, the Florida hurricanes of 2004, 

and the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes.

EDA disaster recovery efforts assist communities in shifting their focus when 

appropriate from the short-term emergency response to the long-term economic 

impacts of the disaster, and enabling the development of an economic recovery 

program that reflects local priorities.

Please contact your EDA Regional Office with questions on this funding 

opportunity. EDA Regional Office contact information can be found at: http://www.

eda.gov/AboutEDA/Regions.xml

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