House Passes Infrastructure Bill That Includes Funding Opportunities For Public Power

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 8, 2021

The House of Representatives on Nov. 5 voted 228 to 206 to pass H.R. 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, that includes numerous funding opportunities for public power utilities that are supported by the American Public Power Association (APPA).

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is an infrastructure and surface transportation bill that includes $1.2 trillion in funding for transportation, energy, and water infrastructure.

Of the $1.2 trillion, $550 billion is new federal spending that was not previously authorized. This includes $7.5 billion in federal spending for electric and alternative fuel vehicle infrastructure, $65 billion for broadband infrastructure, $65 billion for electric and grid infrastructure, $7.5 billion for zero- and low-emission school buses and ferries, and $47.2 billion for resiliency, including cybersecurity.

APPA members can get additional details on grant availability by clicking here.

Build Back Better Act

Immediately following the vote on the infrastructure bill, the House on a 221 to 213 party line vote approved H. Res. 774, a rule for considering H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act. The House will now postpone further consideration of the Build Back Better Act until congressional budget scorekeepers can provide analysis of the full spending and revenue effects of the measure.

As it stands now, the House may still vote on the most recent version of the Build Back Better Act, or it may vote on some final agreement on the bill if such an agreement is reached.

APPA supports the expansion of energy tax credits to include public power utilities provided under the Build Back Better Act.

Enactment of those provisions would complete decades of work to obtain comparable incentives to those provided to for-profit electric utilities by current energy production and investment tax credits.

But given the additional time provided by the delay in consideration of the Build Back Better Act, APPA will continue to seek improvements to the bill.

This includes seeking to exclude municipal bond interest from a new proposed corporate alternative minimum tax, seeking reinstatement of bond modernization provisions approved by the House Ways and Means Committee and seeking access to a $9.7 billion Rural Utility Services renewable energy program.