The DRA covers 48 counties; the position is needed to allow the organization to fully use its ability to make investments in the eight-state Delta Region.
U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today joined colleagues in asking President Biden to name a Federal Co-Chair to the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), a position needed to allow the organization to fully use its ability to make investments in the eight-state Delta Region.
Hyde-Smith joined Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), and Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in making the request in a letter to the President.
“As a federal-state partnership, the DRA requires an affirmative vote of both a federal member and a majority of State members in order to execute its grant making activities. We understand that the DRA does not have the statutory authority to make program eligibility determinations or new grant awards without the appointment of a Federal Co-Chair or Alternate Federal Co-Chair,” the Senators wrote. “We urge you to promptly appoint a new Federal Co-Chair to the DRA.”
In Mississippi, the DRA covers 48 counties. Its targeted grants to Mississippi communities and organizations support economic development, job training, infrastructure, educational programs, and, importantly, health care projects like telehealth. Other DRA states include Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky.
Hyde-Smith serves on the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the DRA.
Read the letter to President Biden here.
Press Release
10/6/2021
