I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3585 
To amend the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to 
establish the Capacity Building for Business Districts Pilot Program, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 23, 2025 
Mr. EZELL (for himself and Mr. CARTER of Louisiana) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committee on Financial Services, 
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Public Works and Economic Development 
Act of 1965 to establish the Capacity Building for Busi-
ness Districts Pilot Program, 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 ‘‘Capacity Building for 
Business Districts Pilot Program Act of 2025’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Vibrant and prosperous business districts 
are vital components of thriving communities, pro-
viding critical commercial goods and services to com-
munity residents. 
(2) Business districts contribute to the vitality, 
character, and identity of urban neighborhoods, 
small towns, and rural and Native communities. 
(3) Business districts drive entrepreneurship, 
local business ownership, economic growth, and job 
creation. 
(4) Business districts are an essential part of 
the economic development ecosystem for towns, cities 
and rural communities, helping to attract con-
sumers, visitors, new residents and new businesses 
to those communities and neighborhoods. 
(5) Locally based business district organizations 
are well positioned to provide technical assistance 
and support to small and underserved businesses, 
while also helping to attract customers for those 
businesses by shaping and nurturing the physical en-
vironment of the business districts. 
(6) Locally based business district organizations 
need technical assistance and flexible capital to sup-
port their ongoing operations, and cannot readily ac-
cess these funds from existing programs at the Eco-
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nomic Development Administration due to the rel-
atively small scale and highly local scope of their op-
erations. 
(7) There exists a substantial number of inter-
mediary organizations that are well positioned to re-
ceive and responsibly deploy funding from the Eco-
nomic Development Administration to currently 
unserved or underserved business district organiza-
tions for capacity building grants, technical assist-
ance, training, and dissemination of best practices. 
SEC. 3. CAPACITY BUILDING FOR BUSINESS DISTRICTS 
PILOT PROGRAM. 
Section 207 of the Public Works and Economic De-
velopment Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3147) is amended— 
(1) in subsection (a)(2)— 
(A) by redesignating subparagraph (I) as 
subparagraph (J); and 
(B) in subparagraph (H) by striking the 
‘‘and’’ at the end and inserting the following: 
‘‘(I) carrying out the pilot program estab-
lished under subsection (c); and’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(c) CAPACITY BUILDING FOR BUSINESS DISTRICTS 
PILOT PROGRAM.— 
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‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—Within the program au-
thorized under subsection (a), the Secretary shall es-
tablish a pilot program, to be known as the ‘Capac-
ity Building for Business Districts Pilot Program’. 
‘‘(2) GRANTS.—The Secretary may award to 
specified recipients Capacity Building for Business 
Districts Pilot Program grants, on a competitive 
basis, to carry out place-based initiatives that pro-
vide specialized technical assistance, capacity build-
ing, and related services to eligible subrecipients that 
support business district revitalization in low-income, 
rural, minority and Native communities. 
‘‘(3) MULTIPLE AWARDS.—In providing assist-
ance under this subsection, the Secretary shall make 
multiple awards to multiple organizations. 
‘‘(4) ADMINISTRATION.—The Secretary may 
not carry out this subsection through a regional of-
fice. 
‘‘(5) PRIORITIZATION.—The Secretary shall en-
sure a broad geographic distribution of award activi-
ties, and give priority to an applicant— 
‘‘(A) that would serve a distressed commu-
nity in an area described under section 301(a), 
including rural communities and Indian Tribes; 
and 
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‘‘(B) that has the demonstrated capacity to 
serve multiple States or multiple geographies 
within a State. 
‘‘(6) REPORTING.—Specified recipients shall 
submit to the Secretary (at such time and in such 
manner as the Secretary may prescribe, but no more 
frequently than annually) a report specifying— 
‘‘(A) the names and addresses of eligible 
subrecipients receiving services and support 
from the specified recipient; 
‘‘(B) the use of funds by the specified re-
cipient, including direct technical assistance and 
pass-through grant funds; 
‘‘(C) the use of funds by the eligible sub-
recipients, including internal operations, direct 
services to businesses, and district revitalization 
activities; 
‘‘(D) the specific geographic areas served 
by the eligible subrecipients; 
‘‘(E) the name, address, and industry as 
determined by the North American Industry 
Classification System, of each entity receiving 
assistance from eligible subrecipients; 
‘‘(F) the total number of jobs created and 
retained during the reporting period; and 
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‘‘(G) any other information as the Sec-
retary considers appropriate consistent with the 
findings under section 2 of the Capacity Build-
ing for Business Districts Pilot Program Act of 
2025. 
‘‘(7) TERM.—The term of an initial grant shall 
be for a period that the Secretary determines appro-
priate for the proposed activities but not less than 
2 years. 
‘‘(8) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 
‘‘(A) 
BUSINESS
DISTRICT.—The 
term 
‘business district’ means a geographic area, 
which may have been designated as a business 
district by a State, county, regional or local 
unit of government, that is characterized by 
dense development, efficient land use, and a 
concentration of small businesses, economic ac-
tivity, and employment opportunities or an area 
that could contain such concentration, including 
a rural main street or neighborhood commercial 
corridor. 
‘‘(B) 
BUSINESS
DISTRICT
ORGANIZA-
TION.—The term ‘business district organiza-
tion’ means a public or nonprofit entity located 
in a business district and established to provide 
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services to the business district to promote the 
district, attract private investment and create 
jobs, and enhance the physical environment 
through property development and planning ac-
tivities. 
‘‘(C) CAPACITY BUILDING.—The term ‘ca-
pacity building’ means training, education, sup-
port, advice, and the provision of operating 
grants to enhance the technical and administra-
tive capabilities of business district organiza-
tions. 
‘‘(D) ELIGIBLE SUBRECIPIENT.—The term 
‘eligible subrecipient’ means a business district 
organization that— 
‘‘(i) is an organization that— 
‘‘(I) is described in paragraph 
(3), (4), (5), or (6) of section 501(c) 
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 
and is exempt from taxation under 
section 501(a) of such Code; or 
‘‘(II) is a public entity; and 
‘‘(ii) provides services to a business 
district located in an area described under 
section 301(a) to support economic devel-
opment, including providing business sup-
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port services and physical space enhance-
ments to such district. 
‘‘(E) SPECIFIED
RECIPIENT.—The term 
‘specified recipient’ means an organization 
that— 
‘‘(i) is described in paragraph (3), (4), 
(5), or (6) of section 501(c) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 and is exempt from 
taxation under section 501(a) of such 
Code; 
‘‘(ii) operates, including through affili-
ates, membership networks or partnerships 
with third party entities, in multiple geo-
graphic areas served by multiple regional 
offices of the Economic Development Ad-
ministration; and 
‘‘(iii) has experience and expertise in 
providing technical assistance and exe-
cuting capacity building programs in sup-
port of business district organizations and 
similar 
community-based 
organizations 
that focus on revitalizing business districts 
and 
commercial 
corridors, 
including 
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through support of underserved small busi-
nesses.’’. 
Æ 
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