A bipartisan deal approved by the Senate Finance Committee this month to extend the Highway Trust fund does not include an amendment that would have expanded private financing opportunities for water and wastewater infrastructure.
In June Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) filed an amendment to the Finance Committee’s initial highway funding proposal that would have eliminated state-based caps on the amount of private activity bonds (PABs) that may be used to finance water and wastewater infrastructure. The amendment was based on the “Sustainable Water Infrastructure Act” (S. 2345), a stand-alone bill that Sen. Menendez introduced in the Senate in May, and which was one of several non-transportation proposals that senators on the committee filed for consideration with the highway legislation.
Ultimately, a compromise highway funding agreement reached by Democratic and Republican Finance Committee leaders and approved by the panel July 11 omitted the Menendez language. This outcome was not unexpected, as the final bill included few extraneous items, but the transportation bill may have marked one of the few remaining opportunities for Sen. Menendez to attach his PAB proposal to legislation that is likely to advance through Congress before the end of the year.