II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2375 To amend title 40, United States Code, to relocate the headquarters of the Appalachian Regional Commission, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JULY 31, 2019 Mr. MANCHIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works A BILL To amend title 40, United States Code, to relocate the head- quarters of the Appalachian Regional Commission, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘ARC Relocation Act’’. 4 SEC. 2. HEADQUARTERS OF THE APPALACHIAN REGIONAL 5 COMMISSION. 6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that— 7 (1) Senate Report 115–258, accompanying S. 8 2975 (115th Congress), contained bipartisan lan- 9 guage expressing a belief that ‘‘if the Appalachian 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:16 Aug 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2375.IS S2375 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 2375 IS Regional Commission is going to move, it should 1 move to the State of West Virginia’’; 2 (2) the greater Washington, DC, metropolitan 3 area accounts for 22 percent of the Federal work- 4 force, yet only accounts for less than 2 percent of 5 the population of the United States; 6 (3) the headquarters of the Delta Regional Au- 7 thority, the Denali Commission, and the Northern 8 Border Regional Commission are already 9 headquartered in their respective regions; 10 (4) headquartering a regional commission with- 11 in the jurisdiction of the commission can reduce ad- 12 ministrative overhead, increase accountability to the 13 people the commission was designed to serve, and 14 enhance confidence in the work of that commission; 15 (5) the Appalachian Regional Commission is an 16 economic development agency focused on the Appa- 17 lachian region and representing a partnership of 18 Federal, State, and local governments across 13 19 States; 20 (6) despite the reach of the Appalachian Re- 21 gional Commission across 13 States, West Virginia 22 remains the only State fully within the jurisdiction 23 of the Appalachian Regional Commission; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:16 Aug 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2375.IS S2375 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 2375 IS (7) West Virginia is located at the midpoint of 1 the Appalachian region; 2 (8) West Virginia is central to the creation of 3 the Appalachian Regional Commission; 4 (9) following the visit of President John F. 5 Kennedy to West Virginia during his presidential 6 campaign in 1960, he was moved by the poverty he 7 observed there and he worked to create the Appa- 8 lachian Regional Commission through an Act of 9 Congress in 1965; 10 (10) the Appalachian Regional Commission is 11 critical to assisting communities impacted by the de- 12 cline of the coal industry as well as the opioid crisis, 13 and no State has seen a greater impact from these 14 issues than West Virginia; 15 (11) one of the top goals of the Appalachian 16 Regional Commission is to spur economic opportuni- 17 ties in the Appalachian region by investing in strate- 18 gies that strengthen the economy of the region; and 19 (12) an effective way to achieve the goal re- 20 ferred to in paragraph (11) is to directly invest in 21 the region by relocating the workforce of the Appa- 22 lachian Regional Commission to the region itself. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:16 Aug 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2375.IS S2375 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 2375 IS (b) HEADQUARTERS.—Section 14301 of title 40, 1 United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 2 following: 3 ‘‘(g) HEADQUARTERS.—The headquarters of the 4 Commission shall be located in the State of West Vir- 5 ginia.’’. 6 (c) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Federal Co–Chairman 7 of the Appalachian Regional Commission shall take such 8 actions as may be necessary to carry out the amendment 9 made by subsection (b). 10 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:16 Aug 08, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2375.IS S2375 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS