“Late Friday night, after years of advocacy by NUCA members, the U.S. House passed on a 228-206 a historic milestone for our nation’s water infrastructure. Never before has the American utility construction industry been given by Congress resources of this magnitude to improve thousands of communities across America.”

“Our member’s visits to lawmakers this week urging this bill’s enactment paid dividends to this nation that will be realized across the 21st century. With this legislation enacted into law, we can repair broken water mains, replace harmful lead service pipes, build new water systems, and deliver clean water to millions of American citizens. And this bill will expand access to high-speed broadband to households and businesses across the country.”

“This bill and its funding resources are an extraordinary achievement. Our industry is grateful for the work of House infrastructure leaders such as Reps. Peter DeFazio and Frank Pallone, Jr., who supported this bill and our industry members throughout this fight. We’re eager to begin work on building the subsurface infrastructure strengthening our nation’s economic foundations of the next 100 years.” 

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“This bill is a significant milestone for our nation. The infrastructure bill delivers historic levels of funding for water infrastructure and lead pipe service line replacement. This is welcome news for thousands of American communities and millions of our citizens. $55 billion to replace obsolete water distribution systems and remove harmful lead pipes, plus another $65 billion to install modern broadband infrastructure, is an extraordinary achievement and the Senate should be thanked for their hard work. This bill is a big win for NUCA members,” said NUCA CEO Doug Carlson.

This $1.2 trillion bill and its $550 billion in new spending also reauthorized federal surface transportation programs for the next five years. Industry members use this long-term authorization schedule to efficiently plan and finance the highway projects they are contracted to build by state and local jurisdictions.

Carlson thanked the members of the U.S. Senate who made a down-payment on fixing America’s leaking and outdated water systems. NUCA is grateful for the work of Senate Environment and Public Works Committee leadership to shepherd this long-awaited legislation through the Senate. Our industry extends a special thanks to Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Capito, and subcommittee Chairman Duckworth and Ranking Member Lummis for their support and enthusiasm. Clean water and sanitary wastewater requirements are universal and bipartisan.

Passage of increased water system infrastructure investment has been a long-standing legislative goal of NUCA. The bill authorizes $35 billion for water projects, including $14.7 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and $14.7 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) over five years. This is a significant increase from prior appropriations for these funds.

NUCA has advocated for and supported this process from the very beginning, and the passage of this Senate bill is the biggest increase in funding our industry has seen in years. The act is a significant milestone in the effort to reauthorize water funding that has been moving forward across several Congressional sessions. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which has been appropriated for but never reauthorized since its establishment in 1987, is the primary funding mechanism for water quality projects.

Other sections of the Senate’s $1.2 trillion version of H.R. 3684 which could affect NUCA members and their future project schedules include:

•            $110 billion for new highways, roads and bridges

•            $73 billion for power infrastructure improvements

•            $7 billion for Army Corps of Engineers infrastructure priorities

•            $2 billion for Bureau of Reclamation water infrastructure facilities

•            $25 billion for airport improvements, including better drainage systems

•            $17 billion for ports and waterway modernization

•            $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging infrastructure

•            $11 billion for highway safety programs

NUCA and other trade organizations were able to keep the anti-business PRO Act out of this version of the legislation, which must be seen as a victory for the industry. This Senate bill also reforms certain permitting processes used by the construction industry, such as improvements to the FAST-41 law to expand its permanent reach into more federal projects to ensure they are completed on-time and under budget.

This bipartisan, revenue-neutral bill is a long-overdue investment in our nation’s infrastructure that will help ensure millions of Americans have access to clean and healthy drinking water and modern communications. It will deliver an economic boost to our industry and the American economy once the full effect of its resources is realized in the years ahead. Finally, this bill will also create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the decade ahead, not only in our industry but in others who depend on better transportation and infrastructure for their business model success.

The bill now goes to the U.S. House for action. NUCA remains hopeful the House will take quick action on this legislation when it returns in September.

“NUCA applauds the Senate for this welcome step towards fulfilling the promises that new infrastructure projects can deliver for our nation and our economy. Our members are eager to begin building more of a better America. Speaker Pelosi, we’re ready to start our backhoes and begin digging—let’s get this bill passed and send it to the President,” exclaimed Carlson.

About The National Utility Contractors Association (NUCA)

Founded in 1964, the National Utility Contractors Association represents nearly 1,700 U.S. utility and excavation contractors, manufacturers, and suppliers who provide the materials and workforce to build and maintain our nation’s intricate network of water, sewer, gas, telecommunications, and electric infrastructure. NUCA is found online at www.nuca.com, and can be followed on Twitter at @NUCA_National. The association’s Twitter hashtags are #WeDigAmerica and #NUCAdigs. 

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H.R. 3684 also included some labor policy proposals not supported by NUCA, such as mandated project labor agreements on certain projects. However, this bill is far from being finished, and NUCA and other business groups are lobbying Congress to remove this policy from the final legislation. “We urge Congress to avoid being sidetracked by partisan policy proposals that sound good in theory but in practice will have the economic recovery this bill aims to strengthen,” wrote NUCA CEO Doug Carlson.

This surface transportation bill will serve as the opening ploy in negotiations with the Senate’s own version of the bill. Nothing is yet written in stone that these funding levels will remain intact, nor will policy proposals. NUCA continues to lobby Congress to keep these water infrastructure resources at least at this level of funding, arguing that these amounts would enable good progress to be made in addressing the back catalog of needed public works projects across the U.S.

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On an bipartisan 89-2 vote, the Senate passed the Drinking Water and Wastewater Act of 2021 (S. 914) and sends it to the U.S. House for their vote. S. 914 doubles the past federal investment in water and wastewater programs. If the House passed it as written, $35 billion would become available to the reauthorized Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds over the next five years.  

NUCA members see our neglected community infrastructure first-hand everyday – we know better than anyone how dire the need is for this bill. This bipartisan bill is a long-overdue investment in our nation’s infrastructure that will create thousands of new jobs and help ensure millions of Americans have access to clean and healthy drinking water and safe, sanitary wastewater systems. 

Your participation in the upcoming May 26th Washington Summit is needed more than ever. We must urge our U.S. Representatives to pass S. 914 or other infrastructure legislation that makes sure the $35 billion floor set by today’s Senate bill gets across the finish line. 

This bill is a tremendous step in the right direction. If your Senator voted for this legislation, please let them know your appreciation for their support of their community’s water and wastewater infrastructure needs. 

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