ID HJM004

Butte County, with approximately 2,500 people, was designated as an outlying county of the Idaho Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2013, making it ineligible for various grants and opportunities.

The Idaho National Laboratory, an 890-square-mile Department of Energy facility employing approximately 4,000 workers, is located in Butte County, but the workers commute from Bonneville County where Idaho Falls is located.

Butte County businesses and residents cannot access the secure INL facility or provide goods and services to its employees, resulting in minimal economic benefit despite the 25% workforce commute threshold that triggered the metropolitan designation.

The memorial urges the Office of Management and Budget to exclude counties containing large federal installations from core-based statistical area designations based on the percentage of employment accounted for by workers residing in central counties.

The House Chief Clerk is directed to forward this memorial to Congress, Idaho's congressional delegation, and the Office of Management and Budget, supporting federal legislation known as the Statistical Area Fairness Act.