House Passes Moving Forward Act with Water Quality Amendment

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act, which is designed to transform America’s infrastructure while creating millions of good-paying jobs, combatting the climate crisis, and addressing disparities throughout America. The Moving Forward Act, also known as the Invest in America Act, included Congressman Harley Rouda’s (CA-48) amendment to create a grant program to modernize the nation’s water quality infrastructure.

“With a historic number of Americans unemployed, the Moving Forward Act is more than a plan to fix American bridges, roads, and schools,” said Rouda. “This bill is an opportunity to empower businesses and create jobs for working families — all while addressing the climate crisis. The Moving Forward Act, with the help of my amendments, will deliver common-sense solutions that invest in our local communities, reduce airplane emissions and noise, and update our water quality infrastructure while saving taxpayer dollars.”

“This amendment will help agencies like the Orange County Water District improve our ability to purify wastewater to meet drinking water standards through our Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS). This action, which supports smart technologies, will enhance California’s development of innovative water supply projects, and OCWD looks forward to working with Representative Rouda to guarantee that funding for infrastructure meets the needs of all our communities today and into the future,” said Vicente Sarmiento, board president of the Orange County Water District.

The Moving Forward Act ensures that all communities have clean water by investing to remove dangerous contaminants from drinking water and invests in new, safe wastewater infrastructure. Among its many components, those referenced under drinking water and wastewater include the following:

• Protects access to safe drinking water by investing over $25 billion in the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and other programs to ensure all communities have clean drinking water and to help remove dangerous contaminants like PFAS from local water systems.
• Invests $40 billion in new wastewater infrastructure to encourage efficiency and affordability, and helps communities address stormwater needs, preventing pollution in local rivers.
• Invests in clean water and wastewater infrastructure to meet the federal government’s trust obligations to Indian Country and making responsible investments to repair severely damaged federal canals, leveraging taxpayer dollars to maximize public benefits.
• Unlocks more tax-exempt bond financing for water infrastructure projects by exempting bonds funding these projects from State allocation caps for Private Activity Bonds.

Following its passage in the House of Representatives, it must get approval from the Senate and the President of the United States before it is enacted into law. A fact sheet and a press release about the Moving Forward Act are available at Congressman Rouda’s website.