21. Department of Commerce · Notable · Needs Congress

Consolidate or eliminate EDA grant programs

Attempted

Printed page 664 21. Department of Commerce

“The Economic Development Administration’s grant programs, which are among a broad set of duplicative and overlapping federal economic development grant programs, should be consolidated with other programs and/or eliminated”

What has happened

Apr 1, 2026 Attempted
The FY2027 Budget repeated the request, canceling $449 million of EDA programs as 'wasteful' earmarks. Requested twice, refused once; the grant programs exist and are funded, and nothing consolidates them with the other federal economic-development grant programs the Quote names.
- Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2027 — Department of Commerce
  Primary Executive branch Apr 1, 2026
Jan 23, 2026 Attempted
Congress refused: P.L. 119-74 appropriated $400 million for Economic Development Assistance Programs plus $66 million for salaries and expenses, and rescinded only $60 million of unobligated balances (sec. 521(a)(1)). The grant programs continue.
- P.L. 119-74, Commerce-Justice-Science and related appropriations, FY2026
  Primary Congress Jan 23, 2026
May 2, 2025 Attempted
The FY2026 discretionary request asked Congress to eliminate the Economic Development Administration outright — a $624 million cut taken together with MBDA — and to rescind EDA's unobligated balances. Eliminating the agency would end its grant programs; no separate consolidation of the grant programs with other federal economic-development grants was proposed.
- OMB, FY2026 Discretionary Budget Request (Vought to Collins)
  Primary Executive branch May 2, 2025

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

This ask rides the trail of #1897 (Abolish the Economic Development Administration, p. 683, attempted) and takes the same Evidence, but it asks something narrower and different: that EDA’s grant programs be consolidated with the other duplicative federal economic-development grant programs and/or eliminated. Both Budgets propose abolishing the agency, which would end the grants; neither proposes a consolidation of economic-development grant programs across agencies, and Congress has funded the programs in both cycles.

Leads, not Evidence. EDA published a run of deregulatory rules in the window — eliminating the supplementary grant, planning grant, signage and grantee-occupancy regulations (2025-07-02 onward), streamlining the general terms and conditions of Investment Assistance (2026-03-17) and removing the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms regulations (2026-06-11). These trim EDA’s own rulebook; none consolidates or eliminates a grant program.

Action: eliminate
Object: Economic Development Administration grant programs
ID: 1811