Each year, the Appalachian Regional Commission releases its report “The Appalachian Region: A Data Overview from the 2018-2022 American Community Survey.” This year’s is the 14th such update, and was a perfectly crafted blend of data to show improvement and progress toward fulfillment of the ARC’s mission, and the challenges that justify allowing the ARC to continue.

This nearly 60-year-old federal agency meant to “strengthen economic growth in Appalachia to help the Region achieve socioeconomic parity with the nation,” reports increased family income and decreased poverty here. (Remember, these are 2022 figures.) According to the ARC, the region’s overall poverty rate of 14.3% was a decrease of two percentage points from the 2013-2017 period. And, it said median family income grew 9.3% between the two periods.

Meanwhile, the report says bachelor’s degree attainment by those over age 25 increased by more than 3 percentage points, and labor force employment rate had increased in the entire region.

Broadband access is improving, too. Sort of.

“The share of Appalachian households with at least one computer device rose 8.6 percentage points between 2013-2017 and 2018-2022, while the share with broadband internet access increased by 12.2 percentage points,” the ARC said. Smartphones were classified as a computer device, for purposes of this calculation.

Meager improvement then, but improvement nonetheless.

Not so fast. The report’s authors want to assure taxpayers there is still a need for the agency. After all, there are still “key vulnerabilities compared to the rest of the U.S. economy.”

Population is declining in the region as a whole. Poverty rates stayed the same or increased in 76 Appalachian counties. The percentage of households receiving federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments is still higher than the national average.

We have a higher percentage of those over 65 with a disability; we are still nearly 4 percentage points behind national rates for broadband subscriptions.

For some counties, the more things change, the more they stay the same — and it’s been that way for the generations who have watched the ARC become entrenched in Washington, D.C.

According to OpenPayrolls.com, the average employee salary for the ARC in 2023 was $125,557.

“This is 75.0 percent higher than the national average for government employees and 62.8 percent higher than other federal agencies,” according to OpenPayrolls.

What interest would those folks have in moving the needle enough to convince anyone the mission is accomplished?

Bureaucracy exists to serve itself. We all know that.

But at some point, those responsible for holding the ARC accountable will have to make clear it exists to serve (and lift) US.