Economic Development Administration – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Economic Development Administration (EDA) seeks public comment on, how to design and structure loan guarantees for small- and medium-sized manufacturers through its authority under the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2012 (H.R. 2112, Pub. L. 112-55), which designated up to $5,000,000 from its Economic Adjustment Assistance Program appropriations for loan guarantees under Section 26 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 (the Stevenson-Wydler Act) (15 U.S.C. 3721). Specifically, EDA is considering how to implement its statutory authority to establish a loan guarantee program for small- and medium-sized manufactures that encourages projects that re-equip, expand, or establish a manufacturing facility in the United States and that use innovative technology or processes in manufacturing. The loan guarantees should also be used to encourage the manufacture of innovative products, processes, or ideas developed by research funded in whole or in part by grants from the Federal government. EDA requests input from the public, through the specific questions listed below, on ways to structure this program, in order to assess the level of demand for such a program and the level of agency support necessary to institute a loan guarantee program consistent with the provisions of the Stevenson-Wydler Act.

The National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) has cancelled its open meeting, originally planned for Tuesday, February 19, 2013. The meeting, which was to be the quarterly meeting of NACIE, will not be held this quarter. We expect the next quarterly meeting to be held later this year. Please visit the Web site of the Economic Development Administration (www.eda.gov) to see documents related to previous NACIE meetings and activities and notices about future meetings.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 4314(c)(4), the Economic Development Administration (EDA), Department of Commerce (DOC), announce the appointment of those individuals who have been selected to serve as members of EDA's Performance Review Board. The Performance Review Board is responsible for (1) reviewing performance appraisals and rating of Senior Executive Service (SES) members and (2) making recommendations to the appointing authority on other performance management issues, such as pay adjustments, bonuses and Presidential Rank Awards for SES members. The appointment of these members to the Performance Review Board will be for a period of twenty-four (24) months.

The National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship will hold a meeting on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. The open meeting will be held from 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. and will be open to the public via conference call. The meeting will take place at the U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230. The Council was chartered on November 10, 2009 to advise the Secretary of Commerce on matter related to innovation and entrepreneurship in the United States.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, as amended.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, as amended.

Through this notice of proposed rulemaking (``NPRM''), the Economic Development Administration (``EDA''), U.S. Department of Commerce (``DOC''), proposes and requests comments on updates to the agency's regulations implementing the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965, as amended (``PWEDA''). On February 1, 2011, EDA published a notice requesting comments on improving the regulations. A 70-day public comment period followed from February 1, 2011 through April 11, 2011, during which EDA received approximately 170 comments. In addition, EDA conducted an internal review of its regulations. This NPRM addresses and incorporates public comments and agency staff suggestions to present an updated set of proposed regulations that reflects the agency's current practices and policies in administering its economic development assistance programs. For convenience, the full text of EDA's regulations as amended is available on EDA's Web site at https://www.eda. gov/.

The National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship will hold a meeting on Tuesday, Sept 13, 2011. The open meeting will be conducted from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. (EDT). A limited number of seats are available to members of the public who would like to attend the meeting in person. The public can also dial in to the meeting via a listen-only conference number 888-942-9574, passcode 6315042. The Council was chartered on November 10, 2009, to advise the Secretary of Commerce on matters relating to innovation and entrepreneurship in the United States.

The Obama Administration announces and requests public comments on the structure of the Strong Cities, Strong Communities Visioning Challenge (SC2 Pilot Challenge), which is a component of the SC2 Interagency Initiative led by the White House Office of Urban Policy. The SC2 Interagency Initiative is a multi-agency, capacity- building effort to coordinate Federal resources offered by the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Small Business Administration, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (collectively, the ``SC2 Interagency Partnership''), to address the many planning, housing, and economic challenges facing communities across the United States. The President has called upon executive departments and agencies to work together more strategicallythrough better coordination of human, regulatory and financial resourceswith economically distressed cities in the Nation by identifying barriers to federal assistance. Subject to the availability of funds under Economic Development Administration's (EDA) Economic Adjustment Assistance program (42 U.S.C. 3149), the SC2 Pilot Challenge will offer a total of $6 million to support the development and implementation of comprehensive economic development strategic plans for approximately six cities. Each of the winning cities (one selected in each of EDA's six geographic regions) will be awarded $1 million to conduct a community-led challenge competition (referred to as the ``Challenge Competition'') with the support of the SC2 Interagency Partnership, and will receive technical assistance and support from EDA to conduct the Challenge Competition. As a part of the Challenge Competition, each city will invite multidisciplinary teams, representing a variety of disciplines with complementary skills in the economic development arena, to submit proposals for comprehensive economic development strategic plans establishing and promoting a vision and approach to stimulate local economic development. The proposals are expected to be multi-faceted, to include plans to restructure and realign land-uses, infrastructure, and economic and social resources (e.g., industry clusters, workforce development), and economic development approaches that promote competitiveness and high-growth potential. The final comprehensive economic development strategic plan for the city will be based on a genuine understanding of the local, regional, and global economic realities. The plan will serve as a blueprint to guide the city's and region's future investments towards economic prosperity. To design the Challenge Competition, EDA anticipates using the new authority granted to Federal agencies to conduct prize competitions and challenges under the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Reauthorization Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-358 (2011)) (America COMPETES Act). In this regard, EDA will engage a prize and challenge expert to help develop the competition framework, including rules regarding eligibility, potential prize amounts, process and other criteria, that each winning city will use to run its local Challenge Competition. Through this notice, EDA requests public comments on the structure of the SC2 Pilot Challenge, in particular regarding how the agency can best use the America COMPETES Act authority to conduct prize competitions to implement the SC2 Pilot Challenge. Please also see the section titled ``Solicitation for Comments on the SC2 Pilot Challenge'' for a list of specific questions. Subject to the availability of funds in FY 2012, EDA anticipates publishing a federal funding opportunity (FFO) notice to announce the SC2 Pilot Challenge in December 2011.

The National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship will hold a meeting on Tuesday, June 14, 2011. The open meeting will be conducted from 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. A limited number of seats are available to members of the public who would like to attend the meeting in person. The public can also dial in to the meeting via a listen-only conference number: 800-369-3377, passcode 9687020. Chartered on November 10, 2009, the Council advises the Secretary of Commerce on matters relating to innovation and entrepreneurship in the United States.