BNA, 12/16/2009

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on legislation to provide as much as $48 billion in infrastructure spending as part of a job-creation package expected to cost about $150 billion, House leaders said Dec. 15.

The legislation will contain more than $37 billion in additional road, transit, and airport spending and about $11 billion in non-transportation projects, including funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to a House aide. Details were still sketchy late Dec. 15.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and other Democratic leaders announced the measure at a news conference. Hoyer said he hoped to pass the legislative package Dec. 16.

The House action comes as President Obama repeated his call for Congress to pass legislation that would provide incentives for homeowners to add insulation, upgrade power-thirsty appliances, and make other home retrofits that he said would save energy and create jobs.

“The simple act of retrofitting these buildings to make them more energy efficient … is one of the fastest, easiest, and cheapest things we can do to put Americans back to work while saving families money and reducing harmful emissions,” Obama said during a speech at a Home Depot in Northern Virginia, according to a transcript of his remarks.

Such a program, first highlighted as a priority by Obama during a Dec. 8 speech on jobs creation, would be modeled after a provision included in House-passed climate and energy legislation (H.R. 2454) that would provide consumer rebates and other incentives for the retrofit of millions of existing homes and commercial buildings (234 DEN A-11, 12/9/09).

‘Cash for Caulkers,’ Water Infrastructure
Lawmakers in the House and Senate are working on legislation that would expand the program, known informally as “Cash for Caulkers,” and proponents of energy conservation have cited it as a candidate for inclusion in potential in a jobs creation bill. One draft proposal being discussed in the Senate would provide as much as $4,500 per homeowner, according to one proponent of energy efficiency measures.

Administration officials, in a telephone briefing with reporters Dec. 14, said the size and scope of the program remained undetermined.

“We've been careful not to attach a price tag or scale or scope to that project,” Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, said. “This is a scalable project that we are going to be working with Congress to determine what will be the best, most efficient size.”

Among the $11 billion for non-transportation related infrastructure funding, a portion would go to projects for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee aide.

The National Association of Clean Water Agencies and the Water Infrastructure Network have been lobbying House and Senate leaders for an additional $20 billion for clean water and drinking water revolving funds for water infrastructure projects, which they said would create jobs.
Susan Bruninga, NACWA director of public affairs, told BNA Dec. 15 she is optimistic the measure will include funds for water infrastructure.

NACWA and the Water Infrastructure Network have identified a backlog of well over $40 billion in water infrastructure projects they said “are ready to go.”