II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 2375 

To amend title 40, United States Code, to relocate the headquarters of 

the Appalachian Regional Commission, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 31, 2019 

Mr. MANCHIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Environment and Public Works 

A BILL 

To amend title 40, United States Code, to relocate the headquarters of the Appalachian Regional Commission, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘ARC Relocation Act’’. 

5 SEC. 2. HEADQUARTERS OF THE APPALACHIAN REGIONAL 

6 COMMISSION. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that— 

8 (1) Senate Report 115–258, accompanying S. 

9 2975 (115th Congress), contained bipartisan lan10 guage expressing a belief that ‘‘if the Appalachian 


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1 Regional Commission is going to move, it should 

2 move to the State of West Virginia’’; 

3 (2) the greater Washington, DC, metropolitan 

4 area accounts for 22 percent of the Federal work5 force, yet only accounts for less than 2 percent of 

6 the population of the United States; 

7 (3) the headquarters of the Delta Regional Au8 thority, the Denali Commission, and the Northern 

9 Border Regional Commission are already 

10 headquartered in their respective regions; 

11 (4) headquartering a regional commission with12 in the jurisdiction of the commission can reduce ad13 ministrative overhead, increase accountability to the 

14 people the commission was designed to serve, and 

15 enhance confidence in the work of that commission; 

16 (5) the Appalachian Regional Commission is an 

17 economic development agency focused on the Appa18 lachian region and representing a partnership of 

19 Federal, State, and local governments across 13 

20 States; 

21 (6) despite the reach of the Appalachian Re22 gional Commission across 13 States, West Virginia 

23 remains the only State fully within the jurisdiction 

24 of the Appalachian Regional Commission; 


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1 (7) West Virginia is located at the midpoint of 

2 the Appalachian region; 

3 (8) West Virginia is central to the creation of 

4 the Appalachian Regional Commission; 

5 (9) following the visit of President John F. 

6 Kennedy to West Virginia during his presidential 

7 campaign in 1960, he was moved by the poverty he 

8 observed there and he worked to create the Appa9 lachian Regional Commission through an Act of 

10 Congress in 1965; 

11 (10) the Appalachian Regional Commission is 

12 critical to assisting communities impacted by the de13 cline of the coal industry as well as the opioid crisis, 

14 and no State has seen a greater impact from these 

15 issues than West Virginia; 

16 (11) one of the top goals of the Appalachian 

17 Regional Commission is to spur economic opportuni18 ties in the Appalachian region by investing in strate19 gies that strengthen the economy of the region; and 

20 (12) an effective way to achieve the goal re21 ferred to in paragraph (11) is to directly invest in 

22 the region by relocating the workforce of the Appa23 lachian Regional Commission to the region itself. 


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1 (b) HEADQUARTERS.—Section 14301 of title 40, 

2 United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 

3 following: 

4 ‘‘(g) HEADQUARTERS.—The headquarters of the 

5 Commission shall be located in the State of West Vir6 ginia.’’. 

7 (c) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Federal Co–Chairman 

8 of the Appalachian Regional Commission shall take such 

9 actions as may be necessary to carry out the amendment 

10 made by subsection (b). 

Æ 


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