The $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge (PDF) is the marquee of EDA’s American Rescue Plan programs that aims to boost economic recovery from the pandemic and rebuild American communities, including those grappling with decades of disinvestment.

On September 2nd, 2020 the Biden-Harris Administration announced awards for 21 regional coalitions that were finalists in the Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBBRC). This $1 billion grant competition, created through the American Rescue Plan Act, challenged communities to identify a set of interconnected investments that, together, could transform their local economy, expand economic opportunity and competitiveness, and create thousands of good jobs.

BBBRC awardees each received between $25 million and $65 million to fund 123 individual strategic projects to advance economic strategies benefiting 24 states. This federal funding was matched by more than $300 million of local investment and leveraged support from over 450 private sector and 27 labor unions or workers organizations.