Congressman Pascrell Applauds Senators Menendez And Crapo For Introducing Legislation Aimed At Jobs Creations Through Water Infrastructure Upgrades
Press Release
U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-8) today applauded Senators Robert Menendez and Mike Crapo after they introduced The Sustainable Water Infrastructure Investment Act, which Pascrell sponsored in the House of Representatives. The legislation would allow greater use of tax-exempt private activity bonds by local governments to finance these projects. These bonds are subject to an annual cap, but the legislation would ensure that bonds for water and wastewater projects are not subject to the cap. It is estimated that the legislation could create 57,000 jobs.
"It is critical that the Congress effectively and expeditiously respond to two of our nation's most-pressing needs: jobs creation and water system upgrades," said Pascrell, a House Ways and Means Committee member who shepherded passage of the water infrastructure legislation in the House last month as part of H.R. 4849, the Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act of 2010. "Our nation's job deficit and deteriorating water systems have gotten to the point that if you randomly pick up a newspaper in any American city, there's a good chance you find a story about a company's job cuts or a community's water main break -- maybe both. Taxpayers cannot be expected to foot the entire bill for all of the repairs and updates that our water infrastructure needs. Our legislation will encourage public-private sector partnerships to secure needed resources. I commend Senator Menendez and Senator Crapo for showing their leadership on this very important initiative."
The legislation authored provides for the removal of state volume caps on private activity bonds (PABs) for water and wastewater financing. Congress has already exempted airports, intercity high-speed rail, and solid waste disposal sites from these bond caps. The legislation would allow both public and privately-owned water systems easier access to capital throughout the nation, which has great implications for raising the quality of the drinking water in communities of the Eighth Congressional District and throughout the nation.
PAB issuance would be one of the fastest forms of federal assistance when applied to water and wastewater projects, with only 90-120 days needed to complete the process -- from approval to sale -- and get Americans to work.
Last month, Rep. Pascrell took to the House floor to advocate for this legislation. The speech can be viewed at:
http://www.youtube.com/RepPascrell#p/u/0/H7-T0ylJOwQ}
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