I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3802 
To reform the Appalachian Regional Commission, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 
A BILL 
To reform the Appalachian Regional Commission, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Appalachian Regional 
Commission Reform Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
(a) HEADQUARTERS.—Congress finds that— 
(1) regional commissions, such as the Delta Re-
gional Authority, the Denali Commission, and the 
Northern Border Regional Commission, are each 
headquartered in their respective region; 
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(2) headquartering regional commissions within 
the region affected is a sensible approach to ensure 
that the commissions are housed in more affordable 
locations than the District of Columbia, thereby re-
ducing administrative overhead and making the com-
missions closer and more accountable to the people 
the commissions were designed to serve; 
(3) the Appalachian Regional Commission (re-
ferred to in this Act as the ‘‘Commission’’) is not 
headquartered in Appalachia but in Washington, 
DC; and 
(4) the headquarters of the Commission should 
be relocated from the District of Columbia to a more 
affordable location in the Appalachian region so that 
it is closer and more accountable to the people the 
Commission was designed to serve. 
(b) PERFORMANCE.—Congress finds that— 
(1) the Commission was created to help foster 
economic opportunity and close health and edu-
cational disparities in a geographic region of the 
United States beleaguered by persistent poverty and 
high unemployment; 
(2) the Commission remains the sole Federal 
agency focused singularly on economic revitalization 
in the Appalachian region; 
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(3) in 1998, Congress charged the Commission 
with ‘‘address[ing] the needs of severely and persist-
ently distressed areas of the Appalachian region and 
focus[ing] special attention on the areas of greatest 
need’’; 
(4) the Commission has long been criticized for 
its shortcomings in fulfilling this mission, including 
in— 
(A) a 1999 study titled ‘‘Mountain Money: 
Federal Tax Dollars Miss the Mark in Core Ap-
palachia’’ by Mark Ferenchik and Jill Ripen-
hoff for the Columbus Dispatch; and 
(B) a 2008 book titled ‘‘Uneven Ground: 
Appalachia Since 1945’’ by Ronald D. Eller; 
(5) in 2004, the Office of Management and 
Budget noted the importance of the Commission 
‘‘[f]ocusing efforts on . . . targeting assistance to 
areas of distress’’; 
(6) in 2017, Citizens Against Government 
Waste characterized the programming of the Com-
mission as duplicative and called for drastic reduc-
tions in the budget of the Commission; 
(7) in 2017, the Office of Management and 
Budget, citing a Government Accountability Office 
study, concluded that the Commission should be 
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abolished, and that conclusion was reflected in the 
fiscal year 2018 budget request submitted by the 
President; 
(8) these recent actions reflect a growing cho-
rus that the Commission should be reformed; and 
(9) therefore, given the long-recognized short-
comings of the Commission, the long-standing criti-
cism of the Commission, and the need to ensure its 
optimal performance, the time has arrived for the 
Commission to be reformed. 
(c) PERSISTENT POVERTY.—Congress finds that— 
(1) using 1960 data, the Commission (which 
was created in 1965) concluded that there were 214 
distressed counties in the Appalachian region; 
(2) in 2017, according to the Commission, there 
are 84 distressed counties in the Appalachian region, 
reflecting the areas of most persistent poverty in the 
region; and 
(3) therefore, the Commission should be re-
formed to focus its attention on the areas of most 
persistent poverty in the region. 
(d) AREA
DEVELOPMENT
FUNDING
FOR
DIS-
TRESSED COUNTIES.—Congress finds that— 
(1) according to the study by the Columbus 
Dispatch referred to in subsection (b)(4)(A), of the 
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22,169 grants issued by the Commission from fiscal 
year 1966 through fiscal year 1998, none of the 5 
counties that received the most Commission funding 
was considered distressed, and more than 1⁄4 of all 
Commission spending during that period went to 
States with few, if any, distressed counties; 
(2) according to author Ronald D. Eller in 
2014, ‘‘[the Commission] policies have concentrated 
resources in a select few ‘growth centers’ in the [Ap-
palachian] region, expanding services to the poor 
and growing the mountain middle class, but doing 
little to alter conditions in the most rural distressed 
counties or to address systemic political or economic 
inequalities throughout Appalachia’’; 
(3) until 1995, the Commission allocated up to 
20 percent of its area development grants for use in 
distressed counties; 
(4) following instructions given to the Commis-
sion by the Committees on Appropriations of the 
Senate and the House of Representatives in 1995, 
this allocation was increased by the Commission to 
30 percent; 
(5) section 7.5(c) of the Code of the Commis-
sion (as in effect on the date of enactment of this 
Act) reflects this 1995 policy change and states that 
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the Commission ‘‘will allocate up to 30 percent of 
Commission area development funds for use in dis-
tressed counties’’, even though, according to the 
Commission’s public representations, economic con-
ditions in distressed areas of the Appalachian region 
have not greatly improved since the 1960s; 
(6) given the persistent levels of poverty in the 
distressed counties in the Appalachian region, more 
area development funding and emphasis should be 
devoted to those counties; and 
(7) therefore, the allocation described in para-
graph (3) should be increased to 60 percent. 
(e) GRANT EXPENDITURES.—Congress finds that— 
(1) section 14524(d) of title 40, United States 
Code, provides that ‘‘not less than 50 percent of the 
amount of grant expenditures the Commission ap-
proves shall support activities or projects that ben-
efit severely and persistently distressed counties and 
areas’’; 
(2) given the persistent levels of poverty in the 
distressed counties in the Appalachian region, more 
grant expenditures and emphasis should be devoted 
to those counties; and 
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(3) therefore, the 50 percent threshold in sec-
tion 14524(d) of title 40, United States Code, 
should be increased to 60 percent. 
SEC. 3. MISSION OF THE APPALACHIAN REGIONAL COM-
MISSION. 
Section 14301 of title 40, United States Code, is 
amended by striking subsection (a) and inserting the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT AND MISSION.— 
‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is an Appa-
lachian Regional Commission (referred to in this 
chapter as the ‘Commission’). 
‘‘(2) MISSION.—The mission of the Commission 
shall be to focus primarily on poverty reduction and 
economic development in areas in the Appalachian 
region with the most persistent poverty.’’. 
SEC. 4. HEADQUARTERS OF THE APPALACHIAN REGIONAL 
COMMISSION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 14301 of title 40, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(g) HEADQUARTERS.—The headquarters of the 
Commission shall be located in the Appalachian region.’’. 
(b) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Federal Cochairman of 
the Commission shall take such actions as may be nec-
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essary to carry out the amendment made by subsection 
(a). 
SEC. 5. GRANT EXPENDITURES. 
Section 14524(d) of title 40, United States Code, is 
amended by striking ‘‘50 percent’’ and inserting ‘‘60 per-
cent’’. 
SEC. 6. AREA DEVELOPMENT FUNDS FOR DISTRESSED 
COUNTIES. 
Section 14526(b) of title 40, United States Code, is 
amended— 
(1) by striking ‘‘In program and’’ and inserting 
the following: 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In program and’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(2) AREA DEVELOPMENT FUNDS.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—Of the funds made 
available for each fiscal year for the Area De-
velopment Program of the Commission, the 
Commission shall allocate not less than 60 per-
cent for projects in counties for which a dis-
tressed county designation is in effect under 
this section. 
‘‘(B) METHODOLOGY.—The methodology 
for determining whether a county is designated 
as a distressed county under subsection 
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(a)(1)(A) shall be the methodology in effect on 
the day before the date of enactment of the Ap-
palachian Regional Commission Reform Act. 
‘‘(3) REPORT.—The Commission shall submit 
an annual report that describes the allocation of 
funds, in dollar amounts and percentage of total ap-
propriations, for the Area Development Program to 
counties described in paragraph (2) to— 
‘‘(A) the Speaker of the House of Rep-
resentatives; 
‘‘(B) the minority leader of the House of 
Representatives; 
‘‘(C) the majority leader of the Senate; 
‘‘(D) the minority leader of the Senate; 
‘‘(E) the Committee on Appropriations of 
the House of Representatives; 
‘‘(F) the Committee on Appropriations of 
the Senate; 
‘‘(G) the Committee on Transportation 
and Infrastructure of the House of Representa-
tives; and 
‘‘(H) the Committee on Environment and 
Public Works of the Senate.’’. 
Æ 
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