On Feb. 7, the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council released a report to President Trump demonstrating the impact of opportunity zones across America. The 157-page report comprehensively addresses many metrics suggested and achieved by opportunity zones to date, and makes two legislative suggestions to Congress to improve zone impact:

“1) In order to measure the positive impact that the Opportunity Zones initiative is having on the American people, the Federal Government will need to evaluate the effect of Qualified Opportunity Fund investment on jobs, incomes, businesses, and poverty. Members of the Council will work with Congress to develop legislation that will address the collection of any additional information that would be useful in assessing the value of the Opportunity Zones incentive to distressed communities. Such legislation shall establish appropriate procedures and measures to ensure that the collection of such information is performed in a manner so as to prevent duplicative or redundant reporting, and that any personally identifiable data included in such information is properly protected and withheld from disclosure to the public.

2) Congress should act on the President’s reform proposal to consolidate a number of Federal economic assistance resources across Federal Agencies. The Council suggests these grants be centralized to provide technical, planning, and capacity-building assistance for non-profit organizations and local governments, with the purpose of catalyzing and leveraging Opportunity Zone investment and sustained job growth for Opportunity Zone residents.”

The legislative items are suggestions for future action. A “best practices” Opportunity Zones report may be forthcoming in Spring 2020. Hot Off The Hill will report on any related legislation and significant developments in this area.