WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) introduced the Empowering Jobs Act of 2015 recently, a bipartisan bill that will help spur economic growth and create job opportunities in 30 cities across the country by improving the Empowerment Zone program.

“Just as we’ve witnessed in St. Louis, these tax incentives will help encourage more private sector investment and create more economic opportunity for families and workers in Missouri and nationwide,” said Blunt. “I’m pleased to introduce this important bipartisan bill and I’ll keep working to encourage the creation of good-paying, full-time jobs for Missourians.”

The Empowering Jobs Act of 2015 will extend the Empowerment Zone program for two years and make the program more effective by expanding the way job creators and local governments can take advantage of their allocations of tax-exempt bonds. Specifically, the bill will ease the requirements for how these bonds can be used and encourage more job creators to invest in the nation’s hardest-hit communities. To read the legislation, click here.

Empowerment Zones were established by Congress in 1994 as a way to boost economic development in particularly struggling cities through tax incentives, grants, and tax-exempt financing. The Empowerment Zone bonds encourage the construction of economic development projects like commercial and manufacturing centers. The Empowering Jobs Act of 2015 will allow the 35 percent in-zone hiring requirement for the bonds to be met by hiring 35 percent of people from distressed Census tracts within the city in which the Empowerment Zone is located.