Remarks of SANDY K. BARUAH ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF COMMERCE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT - EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDER BRIEFING – 2007 BUDGET - WASHINGTON, DC

FRIDAY – FEBRUARY 10, 2006

(As Prepared for Delivery)

Good morning, and thank you all very much for being here this morning.

Let’s start with a brief round of introductions…

One of my goals as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development is to strengthen EDA’s relationships with our stakeholder groups, such as those represented here today. This is important because, while the federal government plays an important role in helping to create an environment for successful economic development, it is the communities your memberships represent that are on the front lines of much of the heaving lifting.

While we may not always agree on every policy point, we are in the same industry and our basic goal is the same: to better the economic well-being of American communities. But by forging a good working relationship we can better understand each other, learn from each other, and work together in better more collaborative fashion. The EDA team looks forward to this, and looks forward to hearing your input regarding our programs.

To further this spirit of open communication, along with senior EDA staff, I look forward to the opportunity to address your membership directly during the national conferences you host in and outside Washington and during my travels across the Nation.

I am excited about the President’s budget request for 2007. For you close EDA-watchers, in 25 years, we have gone from one Republican President calling for the dismantling of EDA to another Republican President calling for increases in EDA’s budget and securing a successful reauthorization.

In addition, for perhaps the first time, a President highlighted in a State of the Union Address, a far-reaching initiative that directly compliments and bolsters the EDA mission.

The American Competitiveness Initiative, announced by the President last week, is a bold step to tackle what corporate leaders, the best and brightest in the research and academic community, and leading public officials from both parties believe is the most important element to America retaining its lead as the most prosperous Nation on the globe: competitiveness.

The American Competitiveness Initiative calls for $5.9 billion in Federal resources in FY 2007, and more than $136 billion over 10 years, to increase investments in research and development, strengthen education, and encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. This level of funding puts the Federal R&D budget at the same level on a percentage basis as it was during the Apollo Space Program.

In order for America’s companies to be fully competitive, the regions in which they do business must be competitive as well. President Bush realizes this and has proposed a $47 million increase for EDA in his 2007 budget request to Congress to focus strongly on regional competitiveness. This direction is not new, it mirrors EDA’s long-standing commitment to regional approaches, but we now have a Presidential mandate and therefore, we will re-commit ourselves to this goal.

In addition to more resources, the President has asked EDA to develop a new way to do business, making it easier for our customers to do business with us. In the 2007 Budget, EDA introduces the “Regional Development Account” that will offer all of EDA’s traditional economic development programs (Public Works, Economic Adjustment and Technical Assistance) into one unified account.

This will allow broader flexibility for our investment partners, allowing EDA to respond more quickly and flexibly to economic challenges, and provides grantees the opportunity to access EDA strategic planning, technical assistance, and infrastructure funds in a single investment application.

The overarching themes of the changes to EDA can be summarized in the following principles:

• First, EDA continues its focus on America’s distressed communities unchanged, and will continue to work with the same types of investment partners as we have traditionally done;

• Second, EDA will work to move the nation along the regional development continuum, acknowledging that regions are the critical nexus for economic growth;

• Third, EDA will strongly support innovation and entrepreneurship as critical components to leveraging the private sector and achieving sustained economic prosperity; and

• Fourth, EDA will streamline and simplify its delivery system for economic development resources, minimizing administrative burdens on our investment partners and the agency.

We’re excited about what we see as an exciting nexus of EDA’s strengths and focus and fulfilling an important national need that has broad consensus.

I hope you share my excitement about this new and exciting opportunity for EDA. And while I have painted the broad strokes of the Administration’s vision for EDA, we look forward to working with you on fleshing out some of the details over time. Hopefully, today’s overview briefing will lead to other opportunities for us to engage in meaningful, sincere, and honest dialogue.

Again, thank you for being here today. Now I’ll turn the briefing over to my colleague, Ben Erulkar.