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A federal agency created to boost the fortunes of communities near the Canadian border with New York and New England faces extinction under President Donald Trump’s proposed federal spending plan.
The agency, the Northern Border Regional Commission, was created in 2008 to promote jobs and opportunity for those living in the northern reaches of the region, including Androscoggin County.
Trump’s proposed budget plan doesn’t say why the agency is targeted for closure. It is merely one of a long list of federal entities the president wants to cease funding.
Trump’s budget is merely a starting point for congressional action to adopt a federal spending plan. Lawmakers are likely to make major changes before they pass anything.
The border agency has directed more than $5 million in funds to Maine in the past six years, mostly to cover a portion of proposed initiatives aimed at economic development or job training.
In the last year, the agency funneled money to two projects in Auburn.
It provided a $250,000 grant for Central Maine Community College to renovate and expand a precision manufacturing lab in Auburn.
It also gave $246,186 to Auburn to help with construction of a new Riverway Road and related development efforts.
Overall, the New Hampshire-based border agency encompasses 1,100 towns and small cities and 36 counties across the northern reaches of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. More than 2 million people live in the region.
Maine’s senators, Republican Susan Collins and independent Angus King, each voted last year against a proposal to kill the agency along with similar ones that focus on Alaska and the rural South.
In addition to the border agency, Trump aims to eliminate these other agencies:
African Development Foundation
Appalachian Regional Commission
Chemical Safety Board
Corporation for National and Community Service
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Delta Regional Authority
Denali Commission
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Inter-American Foundation
U.S. Trade and Development Agency
Legal Services Corporation
National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation
Overseas Private Investment Corporation
United States Institute of Peace; the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness; and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
