There are 140 federal economic development programs run by 13 agencies, worth about $60 billion a year. GAO checked 29 of them against four run by the agency whose whole job this is: all 29 overlapped, and 20 overlapped on everything.
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Original editorial artwork generated for Hugin.
GAO identified 140 federal economic development programs administered by 13 agencies; the 131 that reported obligations put them at about $60 billion in fiscal 2024. To measure overlap it compared four Economic Development Administration programs against 29 programs run elsewhere, on three dimensions — activities, beneficiaries, purpose. Every one of the 29 overlapped on at least one dimension, and 20 overlapped on all three. EDA is the only federal agency focused solely on economic development and is required to coordinate with the others; GAO reports that collaboration has stalled in recent years.
"Fragmented" is a word that usually means nothing. GAO gives it a number.
The map
GAO identified 140 federal economic development programs administered by 13
agencies. GAO surveyed these programs, 131 of which reported total obligations
of about $60 billion in fiscal year 2024.
One hundred and forty doors, thirteen buildings, for a town trying to fund a
business park.
The overlap test
GAO did not eyeball it. It took four programs from the Economic Development
Administration — the only federal agency whose sole focus is economic development
— and compared them with 29 programs run by other agencies on three dimensions:
activities, beneficiaries, purpose.
All 29 programs overlapped with at least one of the EDA programs in at least
one of three aspects — activities, beneficiaries, or purpose. Further, 20
programs overlapped with at least one of the EDA programs in all three aspects.
Twenty of 29 doing the same kind of thing, for the same kind of people, toward
the same end.
⚠ That is overlap, not waste. Two programs can serve identical purposes and
both be needed — different regions, different eligibility, different failure
modes. GAO keeps overlap and duplication as separate findings, and this record
keeps them separate too.
What is actually broken
The coordination that is supposed to manage the overlap:
Agency collaboration efforts, however, have stalled in recent years — even
though collaboration could help the agency better manage resources and avoid
duplicating efforts.
EDA is required to coordinate with the other agencies. GAO's recommendations go
to restarting that, not to cutting programs — which is the cheap answer and,
notably, not the one the auditor reached for.
The review exists because the Senate Appropriations Committee asked for it in the
report accompanying the 2024 Commerce-Justice-Science bill. That is worth
noticing on its own: a committee asked a question two years ago, and this is the
answer arriving.
