Economic Development Administration: Better Coordination with Regional Commissions and Performance Management Needed

The Economic Development Administration and five regional commissions handed out more than $12 billion in grants from 2016 through 2024 for distressed communities, and GAO found poverty and unemployment generally improved in those areas, though it could not attribute the improvement specifically to the funding. Grantees and local officials described real benefits like upgraded infrastructure and new job opportunities during GAO site visits to Maryland, Vermont and Louisiana.

The Denali Commission has strategic goals but no standardized way to measure whether its grants actually work, and EDA itself hasn't validated its own performance data since 2020, which means years of self-reported results have gone unchecked. EDA also lacks any consistent coordination framework with the five regional commissions despite a statutory requirement to coordinate, leaving arrangements to range from formal agreements to essentially nothing.

GAO recommended the Denali Commission build real measurement procedures and EDA resume validating its data and build a coordination framework; both agreed.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.