- Cities and regions left behind by bygone industries can now apply for funding to revitalize jobs.
- The Biden administration is opening up applications for its Recompete Pilot Program.
The Biden administration wants to help inject life back into parts of the US that are struggling to attract enough jobs.
Starting today, communities can apply for $200 million in funding, the first tranche of $1 billion that will roll out over the next five years.
It's called the Recompete Pilot Program, and it's meant to pump funds into economically distressed areas. Those are regions that, according to the Economic Development Administration, have gaping prime age employment gaps — meaning that employment among 25- to 54-year-olds lags behind the national average, leaving one of the workforce's most important demographics behind. For instance, all indigenous tribal lands are eligible, as are cities like Scranton, Pennsylvania; EDA has created a comprehensive map of eligibility.
"This funding will deliver on President Biden's commitment to making sure every worker and every community have a fair shot to realize their full economic potential," Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement to Insider, adding that it is a not "one-size-fits-all program."
"What these grants will do is set Americans up for success based on their communities' own unique needs, and input from leaders in their own neighborhoods, whether in the form of job training, investments in workforce development, technology, and infrastructure improvements."
The new funding — which is purposefully broad — is meant to help get that prime age group working again. According to research from Timothy J. Bartik for the Brookings Institute, nearly a sixth of the country's population lives in distressed communities.
"I grew up in a community that, when I was a kid, exported wood products all over the world, and now there's real fears that their main export is going to be young people," Rep. Derek Kilmer, a Democrat from Washington, told Insider. "There's a real desire to figure out what local economy 2.0 looks like."
The pilot program is based on Rep. Kilmer's Rebuilding Economies and Creating Opportunities for More People Everywhere to Excel Act, known as the RECOMPETE Act, and was passed as part of last summer's bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. The program will dole out $1 billion over five years.
It's reminiscent of the push that some areas are making to lure younger workers back in, like offering student loan relief, and it's tied to what the Biden administration calls Bidenomics: Policies targeted at blue-collar and middle-class workers, aimed at promoting the president's goal of building from the bottom up. Part of that push, according to a memo the White House shared with reporters, is over $40 billion in broadband funding, which will be doled out over two years.
While the funding for the recompete program is just a fraction of what's being poured into broadband, its proponents say that even smaller-scale investments are substantive for distressed areas. Bartik's research on the potential of block grants — his proposal would allocate $12.8 billion every year for a decade — found that low-income groups would disproportionately benefit from higher employment rates.
"There's going to be a handful of communities that get somewhere between 25 and 75 million dollars," Kilmer said. "If you're a rural community on the Olympic Peninsula, 25 to 75 million could be a real game changer."
Local governments, nonprofits, and economic development districts can begin applying for what's called planning grants now, which will give them funding to develop potential proposals, and outright plan approval. Out of those communities that receive planning grants or have plans approved, a handful will be chosen to have their programs actually implemented. Those grants cannot be less than $20 million.
"The big story here is making sure that no community is left behind, but also helping create the jobs so that people can have the choice to stay in their communities," Alejandra Castillo, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, told Insider. "Too often we've seen workers have to be displaced because their opportunities are not close by. In a nutshell, there's a lot of excitement in making sure that people have that option."
Are you planning on applying, or want your community to get funding? Reach out to this reporter at jkaplan@insider.com.