WASHINGTON – Today (Wednesday), U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced that the Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding $13.1 million in CARES Act Recovery Assistance grants to capitalize and administer Revolving Loan Funds (RLFs) that will provide critical gap financing to small businesses and entrepreneurs that have been adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic across Iowa.

Among the grant recipients, in southwest Iowa:

• The Southwest Iowa Planning Council, based in Atlantic, will receive a $550,000 EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant to capitalize and administer an RLF that will provide loans to support businesses disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic in Cass, Fremont, Harrison, Montgomery, Shelby, and Page counties.
• The Region XII Council of Governments, in Carroll, will receive a $2 million EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant to foster recovery and resiliency in the business community by capitalizing and administering an RLF that will provide loans to coronavirus impacted businesses in Audubon, Carroll, Crawford, Greene, Guthrie, and Sac counties.
• The Southern Iowa Development Group Inc., in Creston, will receive a $1.529 million EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant to by capitalizing and administering an RLF that will provide loans to coronavirus impacted businesses in Adair, Adams, Clarke, Decatur, Madison, Ringgold, Taylor and Union counties.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said “President Trump is working diligently every day to support our nation’s economy following the impacts of COVID-19 through the CARES Act. These investments will provide small businesses across Iowa with the necessary capital to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic and, in turn, create a stronger and more resilient state economy for the future.”

The current EDA RLF grantees are some of the more than 850 existing, high-performing EDA RLF, Economic Development District, University Center, and Tribal grant recipients invited to apply for supplemental funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The CARES Act, signed into law by President Donald J. Trump, provides EDA with $1.5 billion for economic development assistance programs to help communities prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus pandemic.