Economic Adjustment Committee

To ensure coordination between agencies, Executive Order 12788, as amended, instituted the Defense Economic Adjustment Program (DEAP) and the Economic Adjustment Committee. The DEAP assists seriously affected states, communities, businesses, and workers in responding to Department of Defense changes.

The Economic Adjustment Committee is comprised of 22 Federal departments and agencies at the Cabinet level, that work together to coordinate technical and financial assistance, providing communities access to the full complement of Federal government resources. The Director of the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation is the Executive Director of the Economic Adjustment Committee.

Specifically, the Economic Adjustment Committee:

• Coordinates Federal interagency and intergovernmental assistance to help states and communities respond to defense-triggered economic impacts;
• Develops procedures that assist affected states and locales;
• Provides a clearinghouse for information exchange among Federal, state, and local officials involved in economic adjustment activities. These resources touch beneficiaries from the Federal level to the individual citizens impacted by defense downsizing or growth resulting from base closures, realignments, mission growth, and similar defense adjustments;

Members of the Economic Adjustment Committee can assist states, communities, businesses and workers with a myriad of technical and financial assistance requirements to include: grants, loan guarantees, strategic outreach, and public benefit conveyance (sponsorship for transfer of surplus Federal property to eligible state and local governments for public purpose).