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WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and House Democrats unveiled major legislation to create millions of jobs, take bold action on the climate crisis, and address disparities in urban, suburban, and rural communities across our country. The more than $1.5 trillion proposal rebuilds U.S. communities with infrastructure and innovation that is smarter, safer, and made to last. The Moving Forward Act not only addresses transportation infrastructure, but also schools, housing, health care, water and energy infrastructure, as well as delivers affordable high-speed broadband internet access to all parts of the country.

The Moving Forward Act includes several provisions championed by Dingell, including the USA Electrify Forward Act to spur the manufacturing of electric vehicles, batteries, and other technologies; legislation to advance technology to reduce drunk driving deaths; provisions to improve dams and hydropower operational safety requirements; and provisions to help communities remove dangerous contaminants like PFAS from water.

“Investing in our nation’s infrastructure is bigger than just fixing our roads, bridges, and airports; it will support manufacturing and good-paying jobs, transition our nation to a clean energy economy, and put us on track for robust future growth,” said Dingell. “With American ingenuity and working together we can accomplish a lot. Expanding strong broadband internet access, improving water infrastructure, and cleaning up brownfields helps communities, small businesses, and families to put us on the road to prosperity. Now is the time to make critical investments in establishing a strong infrastructure network that is made to last and gives every small business, consumer, and manufacturer a chance to participate in the economy.” 

The Moving Forward proposal includes a number of provisions championed by Dingell:

• Supports the development of an electric vehicle charging network to facilitate the transition to zero emissions vehicles from coast to coast. It includes a suite of policies Dingell introduced in the USA Electrify Forward Act to support and advance the development, production, and distribution of electric vehicles and electric infrastructure across the United States.

• Advances technologies to reduce drunk driving deaths. The legislation includes a provision that would direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to commence rulemaking on advanced, passive drunk driving prevention technology. Dingell wrote the Honoring Abbas Family Legacy to Terminate (HALT) Drunk Driving Act to take action to prevent drunk driving after a Michigan family was tragically killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver.

• Establishes a number of new requirements to improve the safe operation of dams and hydropower facilities nationwide. Specially, it would require FERC to provide a briefing and a report to Congress on the findings of the independent forensic analysis of the Edenville Dam and Sanford Dam failures, strengthens safety requirements for operation, requires FERC to establish procedures for evaluating the financial health of prospective hydropower owners, requires FERC to convene a technical conference with all states to examine best practices for dam safety, and would improve communications and information sharing between FERC and the states. 
  

• Provides funding to local communities dealing with PFAS contamination in drinking water and requires EPA identify and assist these and other communities with effective decontamination techniques. This provision was included in Dingell’s PFAS Action Act, a comprehensive package that also lists select PFAS chemicals – PFOA and PFOS – as hazardous substances within one year under the Superfund program to direct federal resources to clean up contaminated sites and limit their spread. It would also require EPA to make a determination on all remaining PFAS chemicals within five years, among other things.

Among the many provisions of the Moving Forward Act: 

• The INVEST in America Act, a nearly $500 billion investment to rebuild and reimagine the nation’s transportation infrastructure by fixing our crumbling roads and bridges, improving safety, reducing gridlock, and putting the U.S. on a path toward zero emissions from the transportation sector by cutting carbon pollution, investing in public transit and the national rail network, building out fueling infrastructure for low- and zero-emission vehicles, and deploying technology and innovative materials. The INVEST in America Act is fueled by American workers and ingenuity thanks to strong Buy America provisions and labor protections.

• Invests in schools with the Reopen and Rebuild America’s Schools Act, which funds $130 billion in school infrastructure targeted at high-poverty schools with facilities that endanger the health and safety of students and educators. This investment will help students get back to school and create more than 2 million jobs to help workers get back to work.  

• Addresses structural challenges and upgrades child care facilities by leveraging a 5-year, $10 billion federal investment to generate additional state and private investments in making sure that child care settings are safe, appropriate, and able to comply with current and future public health directives. 

• Invests over $100 billion into our nation's affordable housing infrastructure to create or preserve 1.8 million affordable homes. These investments will help reduce housing inequality, create jobs and stimulate the broader economy, increase community and household resiliency in the face of natural disasters, improve hazardous living conditions, and increase the environmental sustainability of our housing stock.

• 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. 

• Modernizes our energy infrastructure for a clean energy future by investing more than $70 billion to transform our electric grid to accommodate more renewable energy, expand renewable energy, strengthen existing infrastructure, help develop an electric vehicle charging network, and support energy efficiency, weatherization, and Smart Communities infrastructure.

• Delivers affordable high-speed broadband Internet access to all parts of the country by investing $100 billion to promote competition for broadband internet infrastructure in unserved and underserved communities, prioritizing those with persistent poverty. Gets children connected to remote learning, closes broadband adoption and digital skills gaps and enhances payment support for low-income households and the recently unemployed. 

• Modernizes the nation’s health care infrastructure by investing $30 billion to upgrade hospitals to increase capacity and strengthen care, help community health centers respond to COVID-19 and future public health emergencies, improve clinical laboratory infrastructure, support the Indian Health Service‘s infrastructure, and increase capacity for community-based care.   

• Modernizes and strengthens the United States Postal Service by investing $25 billion to modernize postal infrastructure and operations, including a zero emissions postal vehicle fleet, processing equipment and other goods. 

• Promotes new renewable energy infrastructure by incentivizing the development of wind and solar on public lands and building a workforce for offshore wind. 

• Promotes investments in our communities by spurring private investment through the tax code, through a revitalized Build America Bonds program, expansions of Private Activity Bonds, and significant enhancements to the New Markets Tax Credit and the Rehabilitation Tax Credit.

Read more:  

• Text of the Moving Forward Act is here.
• A Section by Section is here.
• A Fact Sheet is here.

This past year, Dingell has introduced and worked on three additional pieces of legislation that would help make our nation’s infrastructure more environmental conscious and friendly. This includes legislation to support and advance Electric Vehicles, legislation to build America’s new infrastructure through investments in combatting climate change, and legislation to establish a National Climate Bank that would publicly finance investments in clean, renewable energy and emissions reduction projects.