Title: Appalachian Regional Commission Reform Act
Policy area: Economics and Public Finance

Summary:
Appalachian Regional Commission Reform Act
This bill declares that the mission of the Appalachian Regional Commission shall be to focus primarily on poverty reduction and economic development in areas in the Appalachian region with the most persistent poverty. The headquarters of the commission shall be located in that region.
The bill increases from 50% to 60% the minimum amount of the grant expenditures approved by the commission that shall support activities or projects that benefit severely and persistently distressed counties and areas.
The commission shall: (1) allocate at least 60% of the funds made available each fiscal year for its Area Development Program for projects in counties designated as distressed, and (2) submit an annual report on the allocation of program funds to such counties.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1824 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1824

 To reform the Appalachian Regional Commission, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 18, 2017

 Mr. McConnell introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To reform 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 ``Appalachian Regional Commission 
Reform Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    (a) Headquarters.--Congress finds that--
            (1) regional commissions, such as the Delta Regional 
        Authority, the Denali Commission, and the Northern Border 
        Regional Commission, are each headquartered in their respective 
        region;
            (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 reducing administrative overhead and making 
        the commissions closer and more accountable to the people the 
        commissions were designed to serve;
            (3) the Appalachian Regional Commission (referred 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 educational 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;
            (3) in 1998, Congress charged the Commission with 
        ``address[ing] the needs of severely and persistently 
        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 Appalachia'' by Mark 
                Ferenchik and Jill Ripenhoff 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 Commission as duplicative 
        and called for drastic reductions 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 abolished, and that conclusion was 
        reflected in the fiscal year 2018 budget request submitted by 
        the President;
            (8) these recent actions reflect a growing chorus that the 
        Commission should be reformed; and
            (9) therefore, given the long-recognized shortcomings of 
        the Commission, the long-standing criticism 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 reformed to focus 
        its attention on the areas of most persistent poverty in the 
        region.
    (d) Area Development Funding for Distressed Counties.--Congress 
finds that--
            (1) according to the study by the Columbus Dispatch 
        referred to in subsection (b)(4)(A), of the 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 [Appalachian] 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 Commission 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 Commission (as in 
        effect on the date of enactment of this Act) reflects this 1995 
        policy change and states that the Commission ``will allocate up 
        to 30 percent of Commission area development funds for use in 
        distressed counties'', even though, according to the 
        Commission's public representations, economic conditions 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 paragraph (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 approves shall support activities 
        or projects that benefit 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
            (3) therefore, the 50 percent threshold in section 14524(d) 
        of title 40, United States Code, should be increased to 60 
        percent.

SEC. 3. MISSION OF THE APPALACHIAN REGIONAL COMMISSION.

    Section 14301 of title 40, United States Code, is amended by 
striking subsection (a) and inserting the following:
    ``(a) Establishment and Mission.--
            ``(1) Establishment.--There is an Appalachian 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 following:
    ``(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 necessary 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 percent''.

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 Development Program of 
                the Commission, the Commission shall allocate not less 
                than 60 percent for projects in counties for which a 
                distressed 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 (a)(1)(A) shall be the methodology in 
                effect on the day before the date of enactment of the 
                Appalachian 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 appropriations, for the Area Development 
        Program to counties described in paragraph (2) to--
                    ``(A) the Speaker of the House of Representatives;
                    ``(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 Representatives; and
                    ``(H) the Committee on Environment and Public Works 
                of the Senate.''.
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