Menendez, Booker and Pascrell prepare to introduce legislation promoting private investment in infrastructure

U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) recently outlined the Sustainable Water Infrastructure Investment Act of 2016, which would make it easier to update the country’s aging infrastructure.

“This legislation is one step to help finance critical water infrastructure upgrades by facilitating private investment in projects that will create jobs, spur economic growth and most importantly protect the health and safety of our communities,” Booker said.

The bill, which the legislators plan to introduce in both houses of Congress, would update federal tax code to encourage private investment in water and wastewater projects by removing caps on government private activity bonds (PABs) for them. Pascrell and Menendez have introduced this legislation in the past four Congresses, and do so again with Booker as the Flint drinking water crisis highlights the consequences of inadequate infrastructure.

“Flint has taught us all that ignoring our aging water infrastructure has dire consequences,” Menendez said. “We’ve under-invested in our infrastructure, certainly we’ve under-invested in water systems, and now we’re paying the price. These systems are old and badly degraded. Many of them are waiting to fail, and they need to be fixed. We can’t sit back, do nothing, and fail to address the public health dangers of an aging infrastructure.”