§ 15701. Consent of States

This subtitle does not require a State to engage in or accept a program under this subtitle without its consent.

§ 15702. Distressed counties and areas

• (a) Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this section, and annually thereafter, each Commission shall make the following designations:
  • (1) The Commission shall designate as distressed counties those counties in its region that are the most severely and persistently economically distressed and underdeveloped and have high rates of poverty, unemployment, or outmigration.
  • (2) The Commission shall designate as transitional counties those counties in its region that are economically distressed and underdeveloped or have recently suffered high rates of poverty, unemployment, or outmigration.
  • (3) The Commission shall designate as attainment counties, those counties in its region that are not designated as distressed or transitional counties under this subsection.
  • (4) The Commission shall designate as isolated areas of distress, areas located in counties designated as attainment counties under paragraph (3) that have high rates of poverty, unemployment, or outmigration.
• (b) A Commission shall allocate at least 50 percent of the appropriations made available to the Commission to carry out this subtitle for programs and projects designed to serve the needs of distressed counties and isolated areas of distress in the region.
• (c)
  • (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), funds may not be provided under this subtitle for a project located in a county designated as an attainment county under subsection (a).
  • (2)
    • (A) The funding prohibition under paragraph (1) shall not apply to grants to fund the administrative expenses of local development districts under section 15505.
    • (B) A Commission may waive the application of the funding prohibition under paragraph (1) with respect to—
      • (i) a multicounty project that includes participation by an attainment county; and
      • (ii) any other type of project, if a Commission determines that the project could bring significant benefits to areas of the region outside an attainment county.
  • (3) For a designation of an isolated area of distress to be effective, the designation shall be supported—
    • (A) by the most recent Federal data available; or
    • (B) if no recent Federal data are available, by the most recent data available through the government of the State in which the isolated area of distress is located.

§ 15703. Counties eligible for assistance in more than one region

• (a) A political subdivision of a State may not receive assistance under this subtitle in a fiscal year from more than one Commission.
• (b) A political subdivision included in the region of more than one Commission shall select the Commission with which it will participate by notifying, in writing, the Federal Cochairperson and the appropriate State member of that Commission.
• (c) The selection of a Commission by a political subdivision shall apply in the fiscal year in which the selection is made, and shall apply in each subsequent fiscal year unless the political subdivision, at least 90 days before the first day of the fiscal year, notifies the Cochairpersons of another Commission in writing that the political subdivision will participate in that Commission and also transmits a copy of such notification to the Cochairpersons of the Commission in which the political subdivision is currently participating.
• (d) In this section, the term “Commission” includes the Appalachian Regional Commission established under chapter 143.

§ 15704. Inspector General; records

• (a) There shall be an Inspector General for the Commissions appointed in accordance with section 3(a) of the Inspector General Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.). All of the Commissions shall be subject to a single Inspector General.
• (b)
  • (1) A Commission shall maintain accurate and complete records of all its transactions and activities.
  • (2) All records of a Commission shall be available for audit and examination by the Inspector General (including authorized representatives of the Inspector General).
• (c)
  • (1) A recipient of funds from a Commission under this subtitle shall maintain accurate and complete records of transactions and activities financed with the funds and report to the Commission on the transactions and activities.
  • (2) All records required under paragraph (1) shall be available for audit by the Commission and the Inspector General (including authorized representatives of the Commission and the Inspector General).
• (d) The Inspector General shall audit the activities, transactions, and records of each Commission on an annual basis.

§ 15705. Biannual meetings of representatives of all Commissions

• (a) Representatives of each Commission, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and the Denali Commission shall meet biannually to discuss issues confronting regions suffering from chronic and contiguous distress and successful strategies for promoting regional development.
• (b) The chair of each meeting shall rotate among the Commissions, with the Appalachian Regional Commission to host the first meeting.

§ 15731. Southeast Crescent Regional Commission

The region of the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission shall consist of all counties of the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida not already served by the Appalachian Regional Commission or the Delta Regional Authority.

§ 15732. Southwest Border Regional Commission

The region of the Southwest Border Regional Commission shall consist of the following political subdivisions:

• (1) The counties of Cochise, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Maricopa, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz, and Yuma in the State of Arizona.
• (2) The counties of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura in the State of California.
• (3) The counties of Catron, Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Sierra, and Socorro in the State of New Mexico.
• (4) The counties of Atascosa, Bandera, Bee, Bexar, Brewster, Brooks, Cameron, Coke, Concho, Crane, Crockett, Culberson, Dimmit, Duval, Ector, Edwards, El Paso, Frio, Gillespie, Glasscock, Hidalgo, Hudspeth, Irion, Jeff Davis, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Karnes, Kendall, Kenedy, Kerr, Kimble, Kinney, Kleberg, La Salle, Live Oak, Loving, Mason, Maverick, McMullen, Medina, Menard, Midland, Nueces, Pecos, Presidio, Reagan, Real, Reeves, San Patricio, Shleicher, Sutton, Starr, Sterling, Terrell, Tom Green 1 1 So in original. Probably should be followed by a comma. Upton, Uvalde, Val Verde, Ward, Webb, Willacy, Wilson, Winkler, Zapata, and Zavala in the State of Texas.

§ 15733. Northern Border Regional Commission

The region of the Northern Border Regional Commission shall include the following counties:

• (1) The counties of Androscoggin, Aroostook, Franklin, Hancock, Kennebec, Knox, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Waldo, and Washington in the State of Maine.
• (2) The counties of Belknap, Carroll, Cheshire, Coos, Grafton, and Sullivan in the State of New Hampshire.
• (3) The counties of Cayuga, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Genesee, Greene, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Livingston, Madison, Montgomery, Niagara, Oneida, Orleans, Oswego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Seneca, St. Lawrence, Sullivan, Washington, Warren, Wayne, and Yates in the State of New York.
• (4) The counties of Addison, Bennington, Caledonia, Chittenden, Essex, Franklin, Grand Isle, Lamoille, Orange, Orleans, Rutland, Washington, Windham, and Windsor in the State of Vermont.

§ 15751. Authorization of appropriations

• (a) There is authorized to be appropriated to each Commission to carry out this subtitle $33,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2019 through 2023.
• (b)
  • (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), not more than 10 percent of the funds made available to a Commission in a fiscal year under this section may be used for administrative expenses.
  • (2) In a case in which less than $10,000,000 is made available to a Commission for a fiscal year under this section, paragraph (1) shall not apply.