
Last year, ReImagine Appalachia published an overview of Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) funding since 1965. We highlighted that non-highway funding for ARC has declined about $650 million annually since the late 1970s and early 1980s—when parts of the ARC region, including PA-OH-WV and KY, lost big parts of their traditional economic base in extractive industries and in manufacturing. In retrospect, we suggested Congress made a mistake cutting ARC funding—given the evidence (surveyed in our brief) that ARC investments create jobs and narrowed the gap in economic outcomes between ARC counties and the rest of the United States. We highlighted that Congress had a chance to rectify its mistake by delivering Appalachia its due share in new federal infrastructure and climate jobs funding. We also pointed to the bipartisan RE-POWER Act sponsored by Representatives Conor Lamb (D-PA) and David McKinley (R- WV), which provides $1 billion in POWER grants for communities and regions impacted by job losses in the coal industry to invest in economic and workforce development in the ARC region, including the four ReImagine Appalachia states.