Today, the President and Vice President launched a Southwest Border Economic Development Initiative to address the unique shared challenges facing the communities along the Mexican border by strengthening community efforts to generate sustained development and lasting prosperity. Increased interaction with our Mexican neighbors along the border is generating economic development opportunities and challenges that put a heightened premium on federal coordination and cooperation with state and local organization as well as binational cooperation. The Community Adjustment Investment Program catalyzes investment and job creation in local communities. The region's unique challenges reflect economic disparities along our 2000-mile border with Mexico. Their population is growing twice as fast and is much younger than in the rest of the country, - Three times as many people living along the border speak a foreign language in the home compared to the rest of the country.
Unemployment is high and one quarter of adults have less than a high school graduate's education.
Interagency Task Force on the Economic Development of the Southwest Border President Clinton is taking executive action to establish an Interagency Task Force on the Economic Development of the Southwest Border. The mission is to coordinate and better leverage federal economic development and other services for the Southwest Border in close concert with locally led efforts. The goal is to raise the living standards and overall economic profile of the Southwest Border on a sustained basis. The Task Force will enhance coordination among the related economic development institutions, binational efforts such as Border XXI, Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, and other federal economic development programs and integrate these federal programs with locally led efforts. With overall coordination by the National Economic Council, Task Force members will include the federal agencies that supply economic development programs and services to the region, including the Departments of Treasury, Agriculture, Labor, State, Education, Defense, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Interior, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and Energy, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Small Business Administration, Office of Management and Budget, Office of National Drug Control Policy and General Services Administration.