Early this week, news began to emerge from Capitol Hill that Senate Democratic Leadership may be shifting course in the short term on the size and scope of infrastructure spending for this year due to a budgetary time crunch. While details are still being worked out, at this time it seems that infrastructure may come in a 2 part legislative push-allowing the President to continue to pursue some bipartisan solutions, while planning for a more robust party-line package either later this fall or early in 2022.
The MBFA and BDA continue to work to ensure that muni priorities are included in the initial infrastructure package. Many of these provisions, such as those included in the LIFT Act, have received bipartisan praise in the last weeks, and are in a good position for inclusion.
Expected Process
September 30th will remain a crucial date no matter which path Congress decides to take on infrastructure spending this year. On that date, the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021(or funding from the prior year to be extended) is required to be enacted as well the FY 2021 budget resolution has to be passed. This opens the door to a multi-part process:
- Use the highway reauthorization bill to try and get a slimmed-down bipartisan compromise on infrastructure; and
- Use the FY 2022 budget to pass the remainder of the 4+ trillion of the American Jobs Plan and the American Family Plan next year by a party-line vote.
This leaves multiple opportunities for the advancement of MBFA and BDA priorities to become law. At this time it is unclear which vehicle Congressional Leaders prefer for these provisions, however, we will provide more details in the coming days when the process becomes clearer.
If you would like to get more involved with the MBFA, please contact Brett Bolton at brettbolton@munibondsforamerica.org
