House "Dear Colleague" letter supporting FY23 appropriations for the Community Economic Development program

Urge your representatives in the U.S. House to sign the letter below, which is being circulated by Congressman Ron Kind (D-WI), is addressed to House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-NY) and Ranking Member of the Labor HHS Subcommittee, Tom Cole (R-OK) and it is open for signature from any member of the House of Representatives (except for DeLauro and Cole, since it's addressed to them).

Please contact your Representative and ask them to sign on to this letter, which requests $35 million for FY 2023 for the Community Economic Development (CED) program. Past signers of CED program letters are listed below. The deadline to sign the letter is April 25, 2022.

Support Community Economic Development in FY2023

Sending Office: Honorable Ron Kind
Sent By: [email protected]

Dear Colleague:

I write to invite you to join in supporting Community Economic Development (CED) grants administered by the Department of Health and Human Services. The program has been an important source of federal funding for community development corporations (CDCs) for more than 30 years. CDCs use CED to create and expand businesses, finance facilities, and create jobs in low income communities targeted to low-income individuals. CDCs use CED funds with other sources of public and private capital to finance commercial and industrial facilities, small businesses, and mixed use projects.

CDCs leverage $14 in private capital to every $1 in federal funds for projects in communities with high poverty and unemployment rates. The CED program is the only federal economic development program with a principal purpose of job creation for low-income individuals. CDCs are working in some the most economically distressed rural and urban communities in the country, using CED funds to mobilize capital and create job and business opportunities.

I hope you will join me in requesting $35 million for Fiscal Year 2023. The deadline to sign on is April 25th.

To sign on to this letter, use this Quill link. For any questions, please reach out to Ben Hutterer at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Ron Kind
Member of Congress

Letter Text:

Dear Chairwoman DeLauro and Ranking Member Cole:

We write to express our support for Community Economic Development (CED) authorized by the Community Services Block Grant Act. We request a Fiscal Year 2023 appropriation of $35 million for CED. CED is authorized under the Community Services Block Grant Act, as amended and administered by the Office of Community Services in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Under the program, local Community Development Corporations (CDCs) provide financing for business and development activities designed to address the economic needs of low-income individuals by creating employment and business development opportunities. CDCs use CED funds with other sources of public and private capital to finance commercial and industrial facilities, small businesses, and mixed-use projects

The CED program is the only federal economic development program with a principal purpose of job creation for low-income individuals. For this reason, the job creation requirements are the most stringent among federal community development programs. Most federal agencies have cost per job targets at $40- 50,000. CED regulations require job creation at no more than $20,000 per job and that at least 75% of the jobs created under CED are targeted to low-income individuals.

A recent analysis of active CED projects indicated that the program and CDC grantees are mobilizing capital and creating jobs in highly distressed rural and urban low-income communities. For example, in 2017 17 CDCs reporting received a total of $15.5 million in grants which they leveraged for over $220 million for 21 community and economic development projects. In other words, for every dollar in federal CED funds, CDCs leveraged over $14 in other financing. This resulted in the creation of 969 full-time equivalent jobs and the retention of 88 jobs in communities with an average poverty rate of 28.9 percent. A total of 84% of the jobs created with CED went to low-income individuals, exceeding the HHS requirement that 75 percent of jobs created to go low income individuals. The cost per job to the federal government was less than $15,000, again, well under the program requirement of $20,000 per job. According to HHS, between 2015-2020 using CED funds, CDCs provided financing to over 2100 businesses, leveraged some 1.2 billion in total project costs, which lead to the creation of more than 9000 jobs for low-income individuals.

For these reasons we urge the Committee to provide an FY 2023 appropriation for Community Economic Development grants of not less than $35 million. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Past signers of Community Economic Development support letters:

  • Terri A. Sewell (D-AL)
  • Raul M. Grijalva (D-AZ)
  • Nanette Barragán (D-CA)
  • Tony Cardenas (D-CA)
  • Judy Chu (D-CA)
  • Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA)
  • Diana DeGette (D-CO)
  • Joseph Neguse (D-CO)
  • Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)
  • Darren Soto (D-FL)
  • Frederica S. Wilson (D-FL)
  • David A. Scott (D-GA)
  • Nikema Williams (D-GA)
  • Michael F.Q. San Nicolas (D-GU)
  • Cynthia Axne (D-IA)
  • Cheri Bustos (D-IL)
  • Danny K. Davis (D-IL)
  • Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL)
  • Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA)
  • James McGovern (D-MA)
  • Richard E. Neal (D-MA)
  • Jared Golden (D-ME)
  • Chellie Pingree (D-ME)
  • Angela Craig (D-MN)
  • Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)
  • Donald M. Payne (D-NJ)
  • Jefferson Van Drew (R-NJ)
  • Antonio Delgado (D-NY)
  • Brian Higgins (D-NY)
  • Stephen I. Cohen (D-TN)
  • Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)
  • Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)
  • Gwen Moore (D-WI)