Rep. McNerney Sends Letter Calling for Fix to Water Infrastructure Projects Funding as Part of Transportation Bill Negotiations

November 23, 2015

Washington – November 23, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Rep. Jerry McNerney (CA-09) and Rep. Carlos Curbelo (FL-26) led their House colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to the Chairs and Ranking members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, urging the conference committee on the transportation reauthorization bill to include a provision that strikes the prohibition that bars municipalities from using tax exempt bonds toward Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) projects. The Senate version of the highway-transportation bill included the necessary fix to the WIFIA program.

Earlier this year, Rep. McNerney previously tried to suspend this ban by introducing H.R. 1710 to help states, including California, with declarations of emergency due to severe drought conditions. Rep. McNerney is also a co-sponsor of Rep. Curbelo’s legislation, H.R. 3756, that would remove the financial assistance limitation for WIFIA water projects.

Full text of the letter:

November 19, 2015

The Honorable James Inhofe The Honorable Barbara Boxer

Chairman Ranking Member

Committee on Environment and Public Works Committee on Environment and Public Works

205 Russell Senate Office Building 112 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510 Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Bill Shuster The Honorable Peter DeFazio

Chairman Ranking Member

Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure

204 Cannon House Office Building 2134 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairmen Inhofe and Shuster and Ranking Members Boxer and DeFazio:

We write to you regarding the importance of investing in our nation’s infrastructure, for both transportation and water. As you know, the current surface transportation extension is set to expire on December 4, 2015.

U.S. water infrastructure is crumbling, costing millions of dollars, hurting job growth, and impacting states’ ability to manage droughts and water shortages. We lose an estimated 7 billion gallons of water per day from leaking pipes, with some cities losing as much as 30 percent of their water. There are enough shovel-ready drinking water projects around the U.S. that would create jobs for more than 400,000 American, including almost 90,000 direct construction jobs. In addition, nearly $335 billion worth of repairs, upgrades, and replacements are needed by water systems in the next 20 years.

To help address this issue, Congress passed the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (PL 113-121), that makes crucial investments in our nation’s infrastructure. Despite support from a variety of stakeholders, section 5028(a) of this legislation prohibited municipalities from using tax exempt bonds toward Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) projects.

The Senate-passed long-term highway bill, H.R. 22, included a provision striking that prohibition – a necessary fix to the WIFIA program. While similar language was excluded from the House-passed Surface Transportation Reauthorization & Reform Act, we encourage the Conference Committee to take action similar to the Senate and include language to eliminate section 5028(a) in any surface transportation reauthorization conference bill that may be developed by the conferees.

Thank you for your attention to this issue and we look forward to working with you on the important infrastructure needs of our great nation.

Sincerely,

_____________________________ _____________________________

JERRY MCNERNEY CARLOS CURBELO