The SCRC received regular appropriations of $250,000 annually from FY2010 through FY2020 but did not form during that time due to the absence of an appointed federal co-chair.

[1] In 1994, the Southern Rural Development Commission Act was introduced in the United States House Committee on Agriculture, which would provide the statutory basis for a “Southern Black Belt Commission.” While the concept was not reintroduced in Congress until the 2000s, various nongovernmental initiatives sustained discussion and interest in the concept in the intervening period.

[3] In August 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden nominated Jennifer Clyburn Reed as Federal Co-Chair of the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission.

In this role, Reed will work on economic and poverty issues in the Southeastern United States.

[8] The SCRC was created to address economic distress in areas of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida not served by the ARC or the Delta Regional Authority (DRA).