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House to Consider Large Infrastructure Package
The U.S. House of Representatives is set to take up a massive infrastructure bill this week. The Moving Forward Act (
H.R. 2) is a more than $1.5 trillion proposal aiming to rebuild U.S. communities through infrastructure and innovation improvements. The bill, which is comprised from work by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Education and Labor Committee, the Financial Services Committee, the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, the Oversight and Reform Committee, and the Natural Resources Committee, seeks to increase investments in America's roads, bridges, transit, rail, schools, housing, broadband, drinking and wastewater systems, postal service, clean energy sector, and health care infrastructure.
The bill incorporates the nearly $500 billion INVEST in America Act, which includes a multi-year surface transportation bill that was approved by the House Transportation Committee earlier in the month. Additionally, the bill includes some key provisions that would directly and indirectly impact the Great Lakes region. These include:
- Authorizes the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) through FY 2026, while incrementally increasing the GLRI authorization by $50 million a year to $475 million by FY 2026;
- Authorizes EPA's Search Results Water Pollution Control (Section 106) Grants at $300 million through FY 2025;
- Authorizes EPA's Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grants (CWA Section 221) at $400 million through FY 2025;
- Authorizes the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) at $8 billion annually through FY 2025;
- Provides a definition of PFAS to the Safe Drinking Water Act to mean "a perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substance with at 3 least one fully fluorinated carbon atom;"
- Increases the authorization incrementally to the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) through FY 2025;
- Authorizes $3 billion for a NOAA coastal resiliency fund aimed at shovel-ready coastal restoration projects; and
- Authorizes $50 million annually through FY 2025 for Living Shorelines projects.
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