President Trump’s FY 2021 Budget Proposal, released on February 10, includes $165 million for ARC. This represents level funding with the amount requested in the President’s Budget for FY 2020. Of this proposal, $73 million is requested for ARC’s Area Development Base Program; $50 million is requested to continue the POWER Initiative for communities adversely affected by the downturn in the coal industry; $32 million is requested for special regional initiatives to specifically address economic development in the Appalachian counties considered the most economically distressed; and $10 million is requested to address workforce challenges caused by the Region’s drug crisis. ARC’s FY 2021 Performance Budget Justification is available at www.arc.gov/cj.

The proposed budget will serve as the basis for congressional discussion of funding for individual agencies, with the final decision on agency funding levels to be made by Congress as part of the regular appropriations process later this year.