Last week, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) will invest $3 billion to help communities across the country build back better. 

“With an emphasis on equity, EDA’s investments made possible by the American Rescue Plan will directly benefit communities that have been denied full access to economic prosperity and who have been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic,” Secretary Raimondo continued. “We will work with local communities across the country on innovative new approaches to ensure that we can increase American competitiveness by strengthening our workforce, businesses, and communities and build back better in regions across the country.”

Please visit www.eda.gov/ARPA for the latest news and announcements about EDA’s American Rescue Plan programs.

The National Scenic Byway Foundation is providing grants of up to $2,000 to support innovative byway conservation and beautification projects. The purpose of these grants is to fund projects that will make a meaningful impact, be highly visible and benefit from significant volunteer participation (both from constituents of byway partners and the surrounding community). A total of $50,000 will be awarded to winning applicant organizations selected to receive funding through this competitive process. Applicants must submit their projects for consideration based on the deadlines and requirements.

All applications are due by 12 p.m. EDT Friday, July 30. Selected applicants will be notified the first week of August. Learn more and apply.

In the spring, Travel Oregon partnered with Portland-based company, Locl. With Locl’s platform, businesses can easily manage GMB profile updates, create offers and events, engage with customer reviews, monitor business performance and act on insights – all in one place and for every location.

What’s more, business listing updates made in Locl are now available in the Oregon Tourism Information System (OTIS). OTIS is the database that powers attractions, events and tourism-related business listings on traveloregon.com and several other Oregon DMO websites.

Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its mask guidance for those who are vaccinated against COVID-19 in the wake of a significant surge of the Delta variant among unvaccinated Americans. The recommendations advise fully vaccinated individuals to wear masks indoors in places with high or substantial COVID-19 transmission rates. In addition, the agency is recommending universal mask wearing for all teachers, staff and students of K-12 schools even if fully vaccinated, citing a need to return to school this summer/fall. The decision comes ahead of a potential spike in cases this fall due to the Delta variant.

To help determine risk level and monitor COVID-19 cases across the country, the CDC released a dashboard tracking coronavirus data by county.

View of a summary of recent changes here.

For Oregon COVID-19 updates, please continue to check Travel Oregon's industry-facing COVID-19 Toolkit.