FY 26 budget for EDA’s Build to Scale program level at $50M—so far

In perhaps the most difficult budget season of the last 25 years, where the President’s budget has proposed eliminating funding for scores of programs, both the House and Senate subcommittees with budget oversight for the Economic Development Administration (EDA) have proposed continuation funding of $50 million for FY2026 for the popular Build 2 Scale (B2S) program—referred to as the Regional Innovation Program Grants in budget language. B2S is one of three key funding priorities for SSTI’s Innovation Advocacy Council (IAC). Under IAC’s coordination, dozens of organizations weighed in with their members of Congress to explain the importance of the program and asked them to support it. This direct communication has taken the program from authorization but no funding to $50 million per year. While a relatively small amount of money, B2S is the largest federal pool of competitive funding to support individual, regionally designed innovation initiatives across the country.