ARC Relocation Act
Bill: S.5092 | Sponsor: Sen. Manchin, Joe, III (D-WV)
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics

Summary:
ARC Relocation Act
This bill provides for the relocation of the headquarters of the Appalachian Regional Commission (an economic development agency focused on the Appalachian region) from the District of Columbia to West Virginia.

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

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``ARC Relocation Act''.

SEC. 2. HEADQUARTERS OF THE APPALACHIAN REGIONAL COMMISSION.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) Senate Report 115-258, accompanying S. 2975 (115th 
        Congress), contained bipartisan language expressing a belief 
        that ``if the Appalachian Regional Commission is going to move, 
        it should move to the State of West Virginia'';
            (2) the greater Washington, DC, metropolitan area accounts 
        for 22 percent of the Federal workforce, yet only accounts for 
        less than 2 percent of the population of the United States;
            (3) the headquarters of the Delta Regional Authority, the 
        Denali Commission, and the Northern Border Regional Commission 
        are already headquartered in their respective regions;
            (4) headquartering a regional commission within the 
        jurisdiction of the commission can reduce administrative 
        overhead, increase accountability to the people the commission 
        was designed to serve, and enhance confidence in the work of 
        that commission;
            (5) the Appalachian Regional Commission is an economic 
        development agency focused on the Appalachian region and 
        representing a partnership of Federal, State, and local 
        governments across 13 States;
            (6) despite the reach of the Appalachian Regional 
        Commission across 13 States, West Virginia remains the only 
        State fully within the jurisdiction of the Appalachian Regional 
        Commission;
            (7) West Virginia is located at the midpoint of the 
        Appalachian region;
            (8) West Virginia is central to the creation of the 
        Appalachian Regional Commission;
            (9) following the visit of President John F. Kennedy to 
        West Virginia during his presidential campaign in 1960, he was 
        moved by the poverty he observed there and he worked to create 
        the Appalachian Regional Commission through an Act of Congress 
        in 1965;
            (10) the Appalachian Regional Commission is critical to 
        assisting communities impacted by the decline of the coal 
        industry as well as the opioid crisis, and no State has seen a 
        greater impact from those issues than West Virginia;
            (11) one of the top goals of the Appalachian Regional 
        Commission is to spur economic opportunities in the Appalachian 
        region by investing in strategies that strengthen the economy 
        of the region; and
            (12) an effective way to achieve the goal referred to in 
        paragraph (11) is to directly invest in the region by 
        relocating the workforce of the Appalachian Regional Commission 
        to the region itself.
    (b) Headquarters.--Section 14301 of title 40, United States Code, 
is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(g) Headquarters.--The headquarters of the Commission shall be 
located in the State of West Virginia.''.
    (c) Implementation.--The Federal Cochairman of the Appalachian 
Regional Commission shall take such actions as may be necessary to 
carry out the amendment made by subsection (b).
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