Commerce selects six Tech Hubs winners for re-awarded funds

Six Tech Hubs will get a combined $169 million under Department of Commerce awards announced Monday, redistributing funds the agency clawed back from winners over a year ago. The new awardees include projects in Virginia, Idaho, Illinois and Wyoming, among other states. The focuses of those hubs range from nuclear energy to forest bioproducts. Just two of the hubs — located in Maine and Missouri — again won after their previous awards were rescinded. The award announcement from Commerce’s Economic Development Administration comes more than a year after a decision by the department to rescind over $200 million in Tech Hub awards that were made in the final days of the Biden administration, and hold a new competition.

A bill that would modernize the federal procurement system passed the House under suspension of rules Monday. The legislation from Reps. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., and Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., would raise both the micro-purchase threshold and the simplified acquisition threshold by at least double — from $10,000 to $25,000 and a quarter million to a half-million dollars, respectively.

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