Oklahoma’s US House delegation is back in Washington this week preparing for a full legislative session and one of the House goals is to build support for infrastructure and pandemic stimulus legislation.
Some attended President Trump’s Saturday night rally in Tulsa and now prepare to debate the infrastructure package which includes a House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis report.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and several committee leaders touted the legislation at a news conference last week, saying it would help stimulate the economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic according to E and E News.
The plan, dubbed the “Moving Forward Act,” would invest more than $300 billion in roads and bridges, $75 billion in clean energy, $40 billion in wastewater, and $25 billion in drinking water, according to a fact sheet provided by Pelosi’s office.
Its central component is a $494 billion highway reauthorization bill passed by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week after a marathon markup (Greenwire, June 19).
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has scheduled three days of floor debate on the package — from June 30 to July 2 — before members leave for the July Fourth break.
While the T&I Committee has already completed work on the surface transportation provisions, other panels still have to produce their portions of the package.
The Energy and Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over the clean energy provisions, which are expected to mirror those in the “Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s America Act,” H.R. 2741.
The Ways and Means Committee will handle tax incentives for clean energy, which are expected to resemble those in the “Growing Renewable Energy and Efficiency Now Act,” the sweeping green energy bill that the panel unveiled last fall.
And the Oversight and Reform Committee will take the lead on provisions that would provide $10 billion for the U.S. Postal Service to replace its aging fleet of gas-powered delivery vehicles with electric vehicles.
The Trump administration reportedly remains keen on the $1 trillion infrastructure plan that was floated in the president’s fiscal 2021 budget request to Congress.
A major component of the plan would be an $810 billion, 10-year reauthorization of surface transportation programs, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House at the time
Source: E and E News