An Enormous Infrastructure Bill Is Brewing In House

Photo: Speaker.gov

There is no question that our nation's streets and buildings along with bridges are in disrepair.  Desperately needed for an upgrade in many cities spanning across the nation.  How is the change going to occur?  Who is going to pay for such a grand change? 



When President Trump was first elected, I thought that there might be a chance of an enormous infrastructure bill passing through the government.  Why?  Because he is a businessman and builds buildings.  Creates opportunity.  To my disappointment, many trillions of dollars later with no result and no infrastructure bill, the House (with a Democratic majority) is leading the way to change.  The infrastructure bill is introduced by email yesterday morning by Politico Energy:

ON THE WISH LIST: House Democratic leaders on Monday unveiled the text of a broad $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill that includes billions for clean energy and clean water. "Those who don't believe in climate change, tough luck," Transportation Chair Peter DeFazio said when announcing the bill last week. "We're going to deal with it."

The bill, H.R. 2 (116), would pour tens of billions of dollars into modernizing the electric grid, investing in clean water projects and extending a host of clean energy tax credits, Pro's Anthony Adragna, Eric Wolff, Gavin Bade and Ben Lefebvre report.//

Some of the toplines: The legislation would extend the 30 percent Investment Tax Credit for solar projects until 2025, after which it would gradually step down to 10 percent in 2028. The Production Tax Credit would also be extended to 2025, as would the 45Q tax credit for carbon capture and sequestration projects.

— The Transportation Department would be required to issue an annual report ranking states by their carbon emissions reductions. The top 15 states would be able to use federal funds to pay for state-approved parts of the transportation projects. For the bottom 15 states, the department would postpone issuing 10 percent of the project budget until improvements were made.

— It includes $250 million annually for five years for grants to states to improve the natural gas distribution program and $2 billion over five years to help address orphaned oil and gas wells on public lands.

— FERC would be directed to issue a report and begin a rulemaking process to increase the construction of interstate transmission lines, which experts consider essential to fostering renewable energy growth.

— $46.5 billion for water infrastructure projects and an additional $2.5 billion for regional cleanups that the Trump administration has previously proposed cutting.

Timeline: House leaders expect to bring the bill to a vote before July 4. But it faces an uncertain path forward amid opposition from Republicans, who call it a Democratic wish list.

This is great news for the reconstruction/renovation which needs to occur across America to bring the country up to speed.  Read the entire House Bill by clicking here.  Stay tuned!