The Economic Adjustment Assistance is intended to "help devise long-term economic redevelopment strategies and carry out implementation activities and public works projects to address economic development challenges in regions impacted by hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters during 2008 and covered by a major disaster declaration under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act."

EDA further notes: "Through the Economic Adjustment Assistance program, selected applicants will utilize EDA's flexible set of program tools to develop and implement on a regional basis long-term economic redevelopment strategies for the recently disaster-impacted regions in the United States."

EDA will allocate the $400,000,000 appropriation provided in the Second Disaster Appropriation among its six regional offices, located in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia and Seattle. The allocation formula consisted of six elements weighted according to their perceived impact on recover efforts and included population, inverse per capita income, unemployment, the number of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), public assistance-eligible counties, the number of FEMA designated counties, and the number of National Response Center environmental damage incidents resulting from natural occurrences.

Through this competitive solicitation, EDA seeks

"to fund investments that generate new employment opportunities for regions suffering economic distress in the form of high unemployment, underemployment, low per capita incomes, and outmigration due to the 2008 natural disasters. The Economic Adjustment Assistance program can provide a wide range of technical, planning and infrastructure assistance. This program is designed to respond adaptively to pressing economic recovery issues and is well suited to help address the challenges faced by the regions affected by the hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters occurring during 2008. Assistance can support the development of a strategy to alleviate economic dislocation caused by the disaster (a strategy grant) or support project implementation (an implementation grant), such as infrastructure improvements.

EDA's economic development activities encourage business growth and increased business establishment, retention and expansion, and help create jobs. Post-disaster recovery activities that do not contribute directly to these goals (such as flood mapping, levee public works or housing) are entirely necessary to the recovery effort and may lead indirectly to economic development. However, those types of activities are funded by other federal agencies and are therefore not within the province of the funding opportunities provided ..."

Click here for the announcement text including funding priorities and submission protocols.

Note that one review/selection criterion includes:

Leverage local partnerships and other federal programs (e.g., Economic Development District Organizations, Trade Adjustment Assistance Centers, University Centers, the U.S. Department of Labor's Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) initiative) that increase the project's probability of success, as well as its probability of bringing substantial benefits to the distress community in which it is located.