Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund: The bill not only reauthorizes the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan program, but also increases the minimum percentage of additional subsidies designated for disadvantaged communities from 6 to 12%. Additionally, the bill provides $15 billion to replace lead service lines throughout the country and $10 billion to remove PFAS, or toxic chemicals from water service lines.
Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund: If there are sufficient applications a state will now be required to use a minimum of 10% of Clean Water State Revolving Loan Funds for grants, negative interest loans, and loan forgiveness, or to buy, refinance or restructure debt for disadvantaged communities.
Water Assistance for Disadvantaged Communities: The bill authorizes the Assistance for Small and Disadvantaged Communities Drinking Water Grant program, which helps public water systems in underserved communities, at $510 million over five years and allows the Administration to increase the federal share to 100% if an eligible entity is unable to pay or would experience significant financial hardship. Additionally, the bill creates a Rural and Low-Income Water Assistance Pilot Program to award grants to eligible entities to develop and implement programs to assist qualifying households with need in maintaining access to drinking water and wastewater. Finally, the bill authorizes $280 million annually for sanitary sewer overflows and stormwater reuse municipal grants, with requirements to allocate at least 25% of such funds towards systems serving rural or disadvantaged communities.
Rural Surface Transportation Grants: The bill includes $2 billion, in Highway Trust Fund contract authority, over five years, to improve and expand surface transportation infrastructure in rural areas, increase connectivity, improve safety and reliability, and generate regional economic growth.
ROUTES: The bill codifies the Rural Opportunities to Use Transportation for Economic Success (ROUTES) Council. This initiative seeks to address disparities in rural transportation. Under IIJA, USDOT is required to create an internal ROUTES Council tasked with providing technical assistance to rural areas for grant applications, researching and developing strategies to resolve rural transportation issues; and gathering information from stakeholders.
Energy Upgrades: The bill includes $3.5 billion to upgrade low-income housing to be more energy efficient.
Brownfields Remediation: The bill contains $3.5 billion over five-years for the remedial account of the Superfund program and would waive the state-cost share requirements. One of the few tax increases in the bill is the re-reinstatement of the Superfund polluters levy, a tax on chemical companies to clean up hazardous waste sites. It is estimated to raise $14.5 billion over a decade. The tax was created in 1980 and expired in 1995. This plan would impose the tax through 2031. ASCE has long championed the need to increase federal funding for Superfund and reinstatement of the expired Superfund taxes.
LIHEAP: The bill appropriates $100 million annually in supplemental funding for the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). This program helps low-income households pay for heating and cooling costs. The supplemental LIHEAP funding will be administered through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) via its regular formula.
Digital Equity: The bill includes $2.75 billion for digital equity and inclusion work, split between two new grant programs. The first program will fund digital equity capacity grants at the state level, enabling state government organizations to apply for funds they need to plan digital equity work. Once a state has those plans in place, they can then apply for additional grant funding to implement the program. The second program will fund competitive digital equity grants at the local level, such as libraries, public housing, local governments, or nonprofits. These grants are intended to help with efforts like digital literacy training.
Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program: The bill provides an additional $2 billion for the existing program that is directed toward tribal governments to be used for broadband deployment on tribal lands, as well as for telehealth, distance learning, broadband affordability, and digital inclusion.
