Today, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced that the Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding a $2.4 million grant to the city of Cascade Locks, Oregon, to make power supply infrastructure improvements needed to support business growth. The EDA grant, to be located in a Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Opportunity Zone, will be matched with $601,872 in local funds, is expected to create 66 jobs, retain 82 jobs, and generate $22.2 million in private investment.
“The Trump Administration is committed to helping American communities impacted by natural disasters obtain the modern infrastructure they need to encourage business attraction and growth,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “This investment will improve and strengthen Cascade Locks’ energy infrastructure to meet the needs of the community and the project’s location in an Opportunity Zone will attract additional investment.”
“Cascade Locks was impacted by severe winter storms, flooding and mudslides in 2017,” said Dana Gartzke, Performing the Delegated Duties of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development. “This project will help the city become more resilient in the face of future natural disasters by undergrounding circuits, hardening a transmission line, and purchasing a new substation, and the project’s Opportunity Zone designation will further transform the region’s economy.”
The funding announced today goes to one of Oregon’s 86 Opportunity Zones. Created by President Donald J. Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Opportunity Zones are spurring economic development in economically-distressed communities nationwide. In June 2019, EDA added Opportunity Zones as an Investment Priority, which increases the number of catalytic Opportunity Zone-related projects that EDA can fund to fuel greater public investment in these areas. To learn more about the Commerce Department’s work in Opportunity Zones, please visit EDA’s Opportunity Zones webpage. To learn more about the Opportunity Zone program, see the Opportunity Now resources webpage. To learn more about Opportunity Zone best practices, see the recently released White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council Report (PDF) to President Trump.
This project is funded under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (Pub. L. 116-20) (PDF), in which Congress appropriated to EDA $600 million in additional Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) Program (PDF) funds for disaster relief and recovery as a result of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, wildfires, and other calendar year 2017 natural disasters under the Stafford Act.
About the U.S. Economic Development Administration (www.eda.gov)
The mission of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting competitiveness and preparing the nation’s regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy. An agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, EDA makes investments in economically distressed communities in order to create jobs for U.S. workers, promote American innovation, and accelerate long-term sustainable economic growth.