EDA 2024: Celebrating a Year of Growth, and Four Years of Investing in America

By Cristina Killingsworth, Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development

At the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA), 2024 was another year of tremendous impact and growth. Our dedicated team of public servants worked tirelessly to improve the competitiveness of American industry.

Through the 583 awards and over $1 billion dispersed throughout the nation in 2024, EDA helped create or retain 52,135 jobs and attract more than $7.5 billion in private investment. These aren't just numbers. These are real people. This is the federal government investing in America’s industries of the future and in our people, places and their potential.

Celebrating Biden-Harris Administration Investments

Reflecting on EDA’s work during 2024, I am proud of the work we have accomplished for the American people in the four years of the Biden-Harris Administration. We hit the ground running in 2021 with nearly 800 projects funded by the American Rescue Plan. Through six programs, including the groundbreaking $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBBRC) and $500 million Good Jobs Challenge (GJC), we supported the country’s recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic while investing in the future growth of our nation’s workforce, creating pipelines of talent in some of the most essential industries in our nation. We are already seeing the concrete results of these investments, and 2024 ends with a celebratory milestone: over 12,000 workers have been trained and placed into jobs through the Good Jobs Challenge.

Growth in Every Region, Every Sector

EDA’s investments build a foundation for sustainable job growth and durable regional economies throughout the United States. This year, our regional investments continued to deliver significant results for the American people.

In 2024, EDA invested in 133 disaster recovery and economic resilience projects and participated in 6 FEMA missions across the country to build a more resilient nation and support communities after natural disasters including hurricanes, flooding, and other catastrophes. As the designated coordinating agency for the Economic Recovery Support Function within the National Disaster Recovery Framework, EDA provides a critical role facilitating grants, training, and other forms of assistance to support economic recovery efforts in disaster-impacted communities.

Revolving Loan Funds (RLF) capitalized through EDA’s Economic Adjustment Assistance program continued to provide a vital source of gap financing to small businesses that face barriers to accessing capital through a traditional lender. EDA celebrated #RLFWeek 2024 by promoting the success stories of entrepreneurs who are thriving and giving back to their communities because of EDA’s support.

The Public Works program achieved impactful improvements to American infrastructure. Investments include over $3 million to increased water and sewer access to local businesses and first responders in South Carolina. EDA invested $18 million for water infrastructure improvements to support job creation in Georgia in addition to $2 million for infrastructure improvements to create a centralized hub for efficient emergency responses following natural disasters in Louisiana, among others.

We announced an update to the FY 2023 EDA Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance (PWEAA) funding opportunity to provide $5 million for indigenous communities, strengthening our support of America’s Tribal Nations.

Tech Hubs & Recompete Projects Take America by Storm

In October 2023, President Biden announced the designation of the inaugural 31 Tech Hubs, as well as the recipients of 29 Tech Hubs Strategy Development Grants, authorized for $10 billion as part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.

In the summer of 2024, President Biden announced $504 million in implementation grants to 12 Tech Hubs to scale up the production of critical technologies, create jobs in innovative industries, strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness and national security, and accelerate the growth of industries of the future in regions across the United States.

Team EDA hit the road to visit America’s Tech Hubs. You can follow along in EDA’s first official “travelogue”: The Great American Tech Hubs Tour 2024.

Recognizing the potential of additional investments under this program and its importance to U.S. national security, Congress identified additional funding of up to $500 million in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, continuing the Tech Hub program’s momentum.

Team EDA also made significant progress in our Recompete Pilot Program. In August 2024, the Department of Commerce announced awards for six communities – totaling $184 million – to support implementing innovative strategies to create good-paying jobs and economic growth in some of the most economically distressed places in the country.

The two-phase program saw an unprecedented 565 Phase 1 applications, requesting more than $6 billion in funding. The Finalists, from which the ultimate six awardees were selected, were announced in December 2023 and represent urban, rural, and Tribal communities spanning 20 states and Territories. Finalists identified an integrated set of projects to improve their communities through workforce training, wraparound services, critical infrastructure, entrepreneurship, and small business supports and governance.

Bridging Communities, Expanding Impact

EDA continues to champion identifying and proliferating economic development best practices and transforming economic theory into practice. Our programs and initiatives are helping ensure U.S. businesses operate in an ecosystem primed for success.

In 2024, both the BBBRC and GJC Communities of Practice hosted convenings in Washington, D.C. in March. The gatherings provided an opportunity for grantees to connect, collaborate, and learn from each other as they expand their programs. This builds on EDA’s recent work to stand-up nine Communities of Practice focused on facilitating shared learning and growth in coal communities, Tribal nations, manufacturing communities, technology-led regional economies, and more.

In February, the new Economic Recovery Corps welcomed its first cohort of 65 fellows to begin their 30-month placements in cities, counties, territories and tribal lands serving as host communities across the U.S. These early-to-mid career professionals will deploy to support local, state, and Tribal economic development agencies across the country, creating and executing regional economic development plans and projects in the communities they serve.

Reauthorized by Congress and Ready for the Future

Our efforts in 2024 identified new and reinforced existing approaches to fulfill EDA’s critical mission of bolstering the competitiveness, resilience, and economic security of regions across the country. What we achieved and learned in 2024 will inform our work in the year ahead, serving as a blueprint for continued innovation. You can see examples of the real impact of our work on the lives of Americans at eda.gov.

Those efforts will continue into the foreseeable future thanks to EDA’s Reauthorization, which was included in the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024, passing with strong bipartisan support in Congress.

The country has changed since EDA was last authorized, with new industries, new challenges, the residual impacts of a global pandemic and the rising intensity of natural disasters. Over the last 20 years, EDA has evolved to ensure its programs make America’s communities more competitive, resilient, and secure. This reauthorization legislation will allow EDA to continue to meet the moment for generations to come.

Economic development is an ongoing process and, while we celebrate the accomplishments of 2024, EDA does so with our eyes fixed to the future. We are excited to build on EDA’s proud legacy of spurring locally led, community-driven economic development and are poised for more great service to the nation.