Some federal agencies are less famous than others. The Delta Regional Commission, founded in 2000 as a federal-state partnership to improve economic conditions in the impoverished Mississippi Delta region is downright obscure. Despite its lack of fanfare, the DRA receives $30 million in federal funding annually to spend in counties throughout Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and southern Illinois. So how exactly is all of that money being spent?
Global North Institute contacted DRA’s FOIA officer, in this case a private law firm in Mississippi, in connection with DRA Project IL-54287 SIC-Advanced Virtual Reality Nursing granted $59,337 to Southeastern Illinois College for the purpose of buying virtual reality simulators for nursing students in Harrisburg, Illinois. In principal, targeted economic development funding can be a way of improving economic conditions. Looking at the grant program, though, suggests that because of its very broad mission and relative obscurity DRA funds are at risk of going to waste. The grant stretched out across two years with monthly and quarterly updates, totaling up to 200 pages of administrative reporting. By stretching out purchasing over such a long period of time, students were presumably not able to begin learning promptly. Simultaneously, technology and licenses became increasingly outdated from the tech described in the original proposal.
DRA board members, who are drawn from states covered by DRA vote on proposals like the VR grant. One document in the release lists other DRA projects slated for funding around August, 2020. The list includes CNA (certified nursing assistant) training, “Industrial Park Life Station Replacement,” and several water main and road improvement projects. These funding items suggest that DRA lacks a clear mission for its funding and ends up being used as a source of miscellaneous grants in the region. A DRA staff member reviewing the VR grant application wrote “Regional impact: project will impact all five counties within the college district that are part of the DRA.”
In the record, DRA staff members disagreed about whether the project would support “retaining” enough jobs within the meaning of DRA criteria. Ultimately, the decision to fund the proposal amounted to a shrug “I agree with Kemp’s assessment of the [lack of a significant enough] Tier 1 impact ranking but project seems to be a good avenue to train workers. It is also a smaller ask,” wrote one DRA staff member.