Appalachian Regional Commission federal obligations

A regional commission’s $282.9 million award book

ARC is a federal-state body covering Appalachian counties across multiple states. USAspending does not draw that county map. It records awards the Commission made. $282,904,641 through FY2026 is that obligation stock. Highway, broadband, workforce, and local-development projects can all appear if they were issued as federal awards tagged to CGAC 309. Projects funded only by states, localities, or private partners stay off this table.

Four hundred forty-nine awards against $282.9 million implies about $630,077 per award. That mean is consistent with project-scale assistance rather than thousands of tiny grants. The packet still has no median and no program-by-program split. Area development, highway, and other statutory pots are not labeled in these five facts.

Geography is the point—and the limit—of the state table

For a regional commission, the state breakdown is not a side feature. It is the public question: which partner states received ARC-awarded dollars in the USAspending geography fields? The 449 awards will not land evenly. Coalfield counties and metro-adjacent counties can both appear, depending on recipient location and place of performance. The file does not flag distressed-county status; ARC’s own maps do that.

A large share in one state can mean several sizable project awards, not a preference ranking. Open award-level records for recipient names. SpendingVault’s state path for agency 309 is the roll-up, not the project dossier.

Obligations through FY2026, not a one-year ARC appropriation

The $282,904,641 is cumulative through the FY2026 cutoff. Multi-year infrastructure awards remain in a running obligation total until they are closed or de-obligated. Comparing this figure to a single-year ARC appropriation mixes a warehouse stock with an annual funding law. Staff costs at the Commission generally never appear among the 449 awards.

Outlays can lag on construction-heavy assistance. This packet has no outlay total. Do not treat $282.9 million as cash already in local bank accounts. Treat it as legal commitments USAspending still attributes to awarding agency 309.

CGAC 309 versus other regional authorities

Appalachian Regional Commission rows use awarding-agency code 309. The Delta Regional Authority and the Denali Commission are separate CGACs with their own totals. Adding those three by hand would create a combined “regional commission” number that USAspending does not publish as one agency. SpendingVault keeps /agencies/309/ on ARC only.

How to use the ARC pages

Open the Appalachian Regional Commission agency page for the live $282,904,641 and 449-award filters. Follow the state subdirectory to see attribution across partner states. Use the all-agencies index as a directory. Dollar rank against a nationwide regulator is arithmetic, not a statement about Appalachian need.

Nothing in this extract scores poverty rates or job creation. Those are Census and labor statistics. This file is the federal award ledger through FY2026 for CGAC 309.

Distressed-county maps versus the 449 USAspending rows

ARC publishes its own county-eligibility and distressed-county maps. Those maps are not a column in this extract. The 449 awards carry USAspending recipient and place-of-performance fields, which may be a state capital, a regional nonprofit, or a construction site. The state table for agency 309 rolls those fields up. It does not flag whether a county was distressed in the year of award.

Highway and area-development pots are statutory categories in ARC’s own budget justifications. They are not labeled in the five packet facts. The $282,904,641 is the combined awarding-agency stock through FY2026. Splitting it by program here would invent a breakdown the packet does not contain. Award-level Assistance Listings, when present, are the next stop for program identity.

Partner-state contributions and local matches that never become federal awards stay off this table. A project that looks large on an ARC press release can look smaller in USAspending if only the federal slice was awarded under CGAC 309. Refresh the agency page after warehouse updates. Outlays on construction-heavy assistance can lag the $282.9 million obligation figure by years.

County-level questions are the reason many people open ARC pages, and this extract cannot fully answer them. The 449 awards roll to states, not to named counties, in SpendingVault’s state table. Award-level records may carry more precise geography when USAspending populated it. The $282,904,641 remains a state-and-agency stock through FY2026. Do not interpolate a county ranking from a state share. Use the ARC agency page for the live filters and keep CGAC 309 unmerged with other regional bodies.

Questions

How much has the Appalachian Regional Commission obligated?

USAspending.gov shows $282,904,641 in ARC obligations through FY2026 across 449 awards. Awarding-agency CGAC 309 is the filter. The total is federal award commitments, not a full picture of state or local matching funds. USAspending.gov records this as awarding-agency obligations through FY2026, not cash outlays. The live table for CGAC 309 is the source for the current 449-award book.

What is the average ARC award size?

Dividing $282,904,641 by 449 awards yields about $630,077. The packet has no median and no program split. Project-scale assistance can sit beside smaller administrative awards in the same mean. That figure uses only the packet totals. The extract has no median and no contract-versus-assistance split. FY2026 is the warehouse cutoff, not a single-year appropriation.

What is agency code 309?

309 is the USAspending awarding-agency CGAC identifier for the Appalachian Regional Commission. SpendingVault’s /agencies/309/ path uses that code. Delta and Denali regional bodies use different CGACs. SpendingVault URLs under the agency path filter to that CGAC identifier. It is an accounting tag, not a quality score. Totals on this page are obligations through FY2026.

Can I see ARC spending by state?

Yes. The state table for agency 309 attributes the 449 awards using USAspending geography fields. It does not mark distressed counties. Recipient location and place of performance can differ on the same award. Outlays are unpublished in this packet, so this page does not estimate cash already paid. Refresh the agency page after USAspending updates rather than treating the current stock as frozen.