Two Core EDA Programs, One Open Application: What Kentucky's Coal Communities Need to Know

The U.S. Economic Development Administration funds regional economic development primarily through two core programs, Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA), bundled together under a single, rolling application Notice of Funding Opportunity (PWEAA2023, Assistance Listings 11.300 and 11.307). Applicants do not have to choose a program up front; EDA reviews each application and places it in the funding pool that best fits.

Within EAA, the Assistance to Coal Communities (ACC) pathway, a Special Need pathway, is especially relevant to Kentucky: four of the state's six congressional districts (the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th) rank among EDA's 40 identified ACC districts nationwide. Not in one of these districts? ACC funding is open to any project area that can demonstrate localized economic contraction within the broader coal economy using third-party economic data.

Program One: Public Works

Public Works is EDA's program focused primarily on construction. It provides catalytic investments to help distressed communities build, design, or engineer the physical infrastructure needed to attract industry, expand business, and create jobs that last over the long term. Example projects include, but are not limited to:

Water and sewer system improvements
Industrial parks, business incubator and accelerator facilities
Port, harbor, and aviation facility revitalization
Brownfield redevelopment
Broadband and fiber optic infrastructure deployment
Workforce development facilities and manufacturing space for multiple tenants

EDA's historical average Public Works award is about $1.4 million. Infrastructure applications are strongest when they show how the project will create or retain jobs, such as a named employer that wants to locate in the region but needs upgraded sewer capacity to do so.

Program Two: Economic Adjustment Assistance (EAA)

EAA is EDA's most flexible program, supporting both construction activities and activities that do not involve construction, in regions facing adverse economic change, whether sudden (such as a plant closure) or gradual (such as an extended industry decline). EAA funds two grant types:

Strategy Grants: to develop, update, or refine a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS)
Implementation Grants: to carry out CEDS activities such as infrastructure improvements, workforce training, technical assistance, and capitalizing or recapitalizing Revolving Loan Funds (RLFs)

EAA also includes three Special Need pathways for regions affected by the transition away from certain energy sources: Assistance to Coal Communities (ACC), Nuclear Closure Communities (NCC), and Biomass Closure Communities (BCC).

EDA's historical average EAA award is about $650,000, with ACC, NCC, and BCC implementation projects ranging from $500,000 to $3,000,000, and planning projects from $100,000 to $350,000.

Spotlight: Assistance to Coal Communities (ACC)

ACC is the pathway most relevant to Kentucky. It runs on EAA's flexible authority (Section 209 of the Public Works and Economic Development Act), and Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations provided $80 million for the ACC initiative.

The key advantage is how communities qualify. Instead of meeting the standard unemployment or per capita income thresholds, an applicant can document a Special Need: the closure of a coal mine, a coal-fired power plant, or a coal economy supply chain business within the 15 years prior to application. EDA recognizes communities that can demonstrate coal-related job loss, business contraction, or long-term economic distress affecting any part of the coal ecosystem.

Because ACC sits inside EAA, the full EAA toolkit is available to coal community applicants for:

Construction and infrastructure investments
Workforce development and reemployment of displaced coal economy workers
Planning, including developing or updating a CEDS
Capitalizing or recapitalizing Revolving Loan Funds

ACC implementation awards generally range from $500,000 to $3,000,000, with planning projects from $100,000 to $350,000. Recent Kentucky awards show the full spread: a $62,507 feasibility study for Appalshop in Letcher County, a $610,000 water and sewer project for the City of Earlington in Hopkins County, and a $4.7 million award to the City of Richmond to convert a former school into a residential recovery and workforce training center.

Every application, ACC included, must be consistent with the region's CEDS or an equivalent plan, and awards cannot go to individuals or commercial businesses. If you are not sure where to find your region’s CEDS, start with your Area Development District (ADD), the regional planning body that maintains it. Grant Ready Kentucky’s guide to Kentucky’s Area Development Districts can help you find yours. For ideas about what coal community diversification projects can look like, the National Association of Counties' BRECC Economic Diversification Toolkit highlights proven strategies such as downtown revitalization, outdoor recreation and tourism, repurposing former mine lands, expanded housing supply, and workforce training.

Cost Share: Documenting Distress Lowers Your Match

EDA covers a percentage of total project cost, and your community provides the rest as match. The more economic distress you can document in the project's service area, the higher the share EDA is allowed to cover.

Baseline: EDA up to 60% of total project cost
Documented distress and Special Need, including ACC: EDA up to 80%
Rare full funding exception: up to 100% for Tribes; nonprofits with exhausted borrowing capacity; or states and political subdivisions with exhausted taxing and borrowing capacity

Tip: In Kentucky, EDA grants qualify for match assistance through the state's GRANT Program, which can substantially reduce the local burden.

Documenting Distress: Start with NERDE

EDA recommends NERDE, the National Economic Resilience Data Explorer, when compiling economic development data for distressed and coal-impacted communities. Built by Argonne National Laboratory in partnership with EDA, NERDE consolidates federal data on economic distress criteria, local economic conditions, and industry clusters in one free clearinghouse.

Its Distress Statistics Generator is the fastest way to check your county. It pulls the unemployment and per capita income figures EDA uses and shows how your area measures against Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance eligibility criteria, giving you the current third-party data reviewers expect to see in an application.

A Head Start on the Numbers: GRKY's Kentucky County Data Snapshot

To save Kentucky applicants a step, Grant Ready Kentucky has compiled a county data snapshot for this opportunity: all 120 counties with the two figures EDA uses most, the 24 month average unemployment rate and per capita income, each measured against the national benchmark with the thresholds built in, so you can see at a glance whether a county meets a standard distress criterion.

Use it as a conversation starter, not a determination, and bring the figures for your project area to your Area Development District, your EDA representative, or the GRKY team. Keep its limits in mind: the snapshot is static, reflecting data pulled in July 2026, and it is county level, while EDA evaluates the region you define in your application, which can include distressed census tracts inside counties that do not qualify as a whole.

Before you apply, reconfirm your numbers for your specific project region through StatsAmerica's Measuring Distress tool or NERDE's Distress Statistics Generator and check them against the latest PWEAA NOFO.

What EDA Looks For

EDA screens every application in two stages:

First is a pass or fail competitiveness review: the project must respond to the NOFO, align with an EDA Investment Priority (critical infrastructure, workforce, innovation and entrepreneurship, economic recovery resilience, or manufacturing), show firmly committed matching funds, and align with the regional CEDS. Applications that pass are then scored on eight equally weighted merit factors, including feasibility, documented stakeholder support, economic resilience, alignment with other regional investments, degree of distress, job creation and retention, private investment leveraged, and plan alignment.

A note on outcomes: EDA funds lasting economic impact, not temporary activity. Fifty temporary construction jobs will not carry a $1 million construction request. The transformative outcomes EDA wants to see include:

Permanent jobs created and retained (good jobs with benefits)
Private investment leveraged
Businesses created, attracted, retained, or expanded
Workers trained, credentialed, placed, and retained in employment
Sites ready for development, increased infrastructure capacity, and occupied facilities
Plans that lead to implementation

In practice, the strongest applications name their strategy document, lock in match commitments early, prove distress with current third-party data, build a visible coalition of supporters, and quantify the payoff in jobs and leveraged investment. Our two-page program overview and webinar presentation, linked below, walk through these factors in detail.

No Deadline, But Timing Still Matters

PWEAA has no fixed application deadline; EDA accepts and reviews applications on a rolling basis until program funds are exhausted or a new NOFO is issued. In practice, that rewards communities that get organized early: assembling distress documentation, lining up match commitments, confirming SAM registration is current, and registering in EDA's EDGE portal (sfgrants.eda.gov) rather than waiting for a submission date that does not exist.

Questions about fit? Kentucky's dedicated EDA field representative, Emily Hathcock, can discuss project concepts before you apply: EHathcock@eda.gov or 202-424-0424.

Go Deeper: Resources and Downloads

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