The INVEST in America Act (H.R. 2) is a massive infrastructure bill that was put forward by House Democrats with Rep. DeFazio (D-OR), Chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, as the main sponsor.
The bill has 129 cosponsors, none of which are Republicans. The bill was reported amended by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on 6/26/2020 after an extensive markup session. It was debated on the House floor on 6/30/2020 with many amendments passed in groups. The debate continued into 7/1/2020 with more amendments being added in groups. The Republicans attempted to amend the bill, but their bloc of amendments was defeated by a roll call vote of 179-241 with 10 Republicans joining all Democrats in blocking the package. There was, however, a motion to recommit that was passed. The final vote occurred later that day and the bill passed by a roll call vote of 233-188 with 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats defying the party lines.
The $1.5 trillion bill has numerous water infrastructure components of which WEF is interested in. There was over $100 billion during FY2021-FY2025 for water infrastructure related programs allocated prior to amendments. The bill authorized $40 billion over five years for the Clean Water SRF, meaning $8 billion annually. Additionally, the bill included $1 billion over five years in grants to utilities for treatment technology investments to deal with PFAS and other chemicals of emerging concern in accordance with the Clean Water Act.
The bill includes an additional $500 million over five years for PFAS in another provision. The funds specifically go towards covering the capital costs of technologies related to the removal of the chemicals with priorities given towards disadvantaged communities. There also was a provision for safe drinking water state revolving loan funds with an allocation of $20 billion over five years. It should be noted in a later section there is a requirement that recipients use American made steel and other manufactured goods with certain exceptions for all Drinking Water SRF funding projects. Additionally, the bill reauthorizes and increases funding for the new EPA Sewer Overflow Control Grants program to $400 million per year for five years, which will provide grants to utilities for CSO, SSO, and stormwater infrastructure.
The bill also includes several changes to infrastructure financing mechanisms that may be beneficial to water infrastructure. The bill will restore Advanced Refunding for tax-exempt bond repayment, which was eliminated in the 2017 Tax Reform bill. The bill will also lift the volume cap for drinking water and wastewater projects funded Private Activity Bond, which are a form of tax-exempt bonds issued by private entities for projects that benefit the general public. Finally, the bill will restore the Build America Bonds program, which was a success from the 2008 ARRA recovery package.
Several provisions were added by amendments on the floor. Those agreed to by roll call vote are denoted below with the vote breakdown. The amendments are as follows:
- #95 (Sponsors: Tlaib (D-MI) with Kildee (D-MI), Slotkin (D-MI), Cicilline (D-RI), and Moore (D-WI)) Provides 4.5 billion over 5 years to remove lead pipes with a focus on disadvantaged communities and environmental justice communities
- #72 (Sponsor: Lowenthal (D-CA)) Establishment of a Water Reuse Interagency Work Group.
- #206 (Sponsor: Lawrence (D-MI)) Requires a study on water affordability, rates, and shutoffs with an emphasis on equity.
- #307 (Sponsors: Rouda (D-CA) with Huffman (D-CA) and Katko (R-NY)) A $500 million grant program to modernize publicly owned water treatment facilities.
The bill is now headed to the Senate, but Senate Republican have indicated little interest in advancing H.R. 2 and is in the process of developing their own bi-partisan package.
(Information provided by Michael Bradley)
