Economic Adjustment Assistance
PWEAA FY2025 Update
In FY 2025, the PWEAA NOFO was revised to specify EDA's updated investment priorities and to make other technical changes. See Grants.gov for more information.
The PWEAA NOFO sets out EDA’s application submission and review procedures for two of EDA’s core economic development programs authorized under the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 3121 et seq.) (PWEDA): (1) Public Works and Economic Development Facilities (Public Works) and (2) Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA).
EDA’s Public Works program helps distressed communities revitalize, expand, and upgrade their physical infrastructure to enable communities to attract new industry, encourage business expansion, generate local investment, and create or retain long-term jobs through land acquisition, development, and infrastructure improvement projects that establish or expand industrial or commercial enterprises.
The Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA) program is EDA’s most flexible program; it provides a wide range of technical, planning, and public works and infrastructure assistance in regions experiencing adverse economic changes that may occur suddenly or over time. These adverse economic impacts may result from a steep decline in manufacturing employment following a plant closure, changing trade patterns, catastrophic natural disaster, or a military base closure. The EAA program can assist state and local entities in responding to a wide range of economic challenges through: (1) Strategy Grants to support the development, updating or refinement of a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) and (2) Implementation Grants to support the execution of activities identified in a CEDS (or equivalent), such as infrastructure improvements, including site acquisition, site preparation, construction, rehabilitation and equipping of facilities. Specific activities may be funded as separate investments or as multiple elements of a single investment.
Under EAA, EDA can also fund market and environmental studies, planning or construction grants, and capitalize or recapitalize Revolving Loan Funds (RLFs) to help provide small businesses with the capital they need to grow.
EDA also runs specific programs under the EAA program including:
- Disaster Relief and Recovery: to meet expenses related to flood mitigation, disaster relief, long-term recovery, and restoration of infrastructure in areas that received a major disaster designation.