WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03) supported passage of H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. This historic legislation will invest more than $1.5 trillion in rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure and create millions of good-paying jobs to get people back to work.
“When I toured communities across the Third District to learn about their infrastructure needs last year, one thing was abundantly clear: the federal government is failing to pay its fair share. This has forced municipalities across America to delay or cancel long overdue repairs to roads, bridges, schools, clean water, and more because they can’t afford to foot the bill on their own,” Congresswoman Trahan said. “COVID-19 has only made this problem worse. The Moving Forward Act will finally end the decades’ long pattern of federal divestment in infrastructure projects, bring our nation into the 21st century, and get folks back to work in good jobs.”
“I’m particularly proud that this historic bill includes provisions of my legislation to provide greater federal aid for municipalities to protect rivers from raw sewage and storm water, known as “combined sewer overflows.” Local governments in the Merrimack Valley are all too familiar with combined sewer overflows running into the river. H.R. 2 will increase the federal government’s investments in these projects to finally fix our wastewater infrastructure,” she continued.
As H.R. 2 was being drafted, Trahan successfully included provisions of the Stop Sewage Overflow Act, bipartisan legislation she introduced with Congressmen Darin LaHood (IL-18) and Seth Moulton (MA-06) to increase federal investments in combined sewer overflow projects in communities across America. Inclusion of these provisions will benefit projects in the Merrimack River watershed where six urban treatment plants dumped 770 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Merrimack River in 2018 alone.
The Moving Forward Act also includes:
- The INVEST in America Act, a nearly $500 billion investment to rebuild and reimagine the nation’s transportation infrastructure by fixing crumbling roads and bridges, improving safety, reducing gridlock, and putting the U.S. on a path toward zero emissions from the transportation sector by cutting carbon pollution, investing in public transit and the national rail network, and deploying technology and innovative materials. The INVEST in America Act is fueled by American workers and ingenuity thanks to strong Buy America provisions and labor protections.
- Investments in schools through the Reopen and Rebuild America’s Schools Act, which funds $130 billion in school infrastructure targeted at high-poverty schoolswith facilities that endanger the health and safety of students and educators. This investment will help students get back to school and create more than 2 million jobs to help workers get back to work.
- A 5-year, $10 billion investment to address structural challenges and upgrades at childcare facilities to make sure that childcare settings are safe, appropriate, and able to comply with current and future public health directives.
- More than $100 billion for our nation's affordable housing infrastructure to create or preserve 1.8 million affordable homes. These investments will help reduce housing inequality, create jobs and stimulate the broader economy, increase community and household resiliency in the face of natural disasters, improve hazardous living conditions, and increase the environmental sustainability of our housing infrastructure.
- Safer access to clean drinking water by investing over $25 billion in the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and other programs to ensure all communities have clean drinking water and to help remove dangerous contaminants like PFAS from local water systems.
- Modernization of our energy infrastructure for a clean energy future by investing more than $70 billion to transform our electric grid to accommodate more renewable energy, expand renewable energy, strengthen existing infrastructure, help develop an electric vehicle charging network, and support energy efficiency, weatherization, and Smart Communities infrastructure.
- Expanded access to affordable high-speed broadband Internet access in all parts of the country by investing $100 billion to promote competition for broadband internet infrastructure in unserved and underserved communities, prioritizing those with persistent poverty. This investment gets children connected to remote learning, closes broadband adoption and digital skills gaps, and enhances payment support for low-income households and the recently unemployed.
- Long overdue updates to the nation’s health care infrastructure by investing $30 billion to upgrade hospitals to increase capacity and strengthen care, help community health centers respond to COVID-19 and future public health emergencies, improve clinical laboratory infrastructure, and increase capacity for community-based care.
- A stronger and modernized United States Postal Service by investing $25 billion to modernize postal infrastructure and operations, including a zero emissions postal vehicle fleet, processing equipment, and other goods.
- Efforts to promote new renewable energy infrastructure by incentivizing the development of wind and solar on public lands and building a workforce for offshore wind.
- New investments in our communities by spurring private investment through the tax code, through a revitalized Build America Bonds program, expansions of Private Activity Bonds, and significant enhancements to the New Markets Tax Credit and the Rehabilitation Tax Credit.
A fact sheet on the Moving Forward Act is available HERE.
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