Rep. Lee Supports the Moving Forward Act – Legislation to Rebuild Infrastructure, Create Jobs, Fight Climate Crisis, Address Disparities

WASHINGTON, July 3 -- Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California, issued the following news release:

On Wednesday, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-13) voted to pass H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act - sweeping legislation that will invest more than $1.5 trillion in modern, sustainable infrastructure while creating millions of good-paying jobs, fighting the climate crisis and addressing disparities in housing, health and education in California and nationwide.

"The Moving Forward Act addresses disparities in our communities by making much-needed investments in environmental justice, in green jobs, in higher wages, in affordable housing and technology," Congresswoman Barbara Lee said. "This legislation provides billions of dollars for repairing schools and roads, and will help ensure clean water for families across the country. It is a necessary step to rebuild our economy and protect our country and the planet from catastrophic climate change. The Senate should immediately join the House in supporting this transformative legislation to build a stronger, greener and more equitable economy."

The Act will provide significant funding for priorities including:

* 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.

* 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 "forever chemicals" like Teflon 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.

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

* 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.

* 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.

For more information, a fact sheet on the Moving Forward Act is available here https://transportation.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Fact%20sheet%20HR%202%20Moving%20Forward%20Act%20FINAL.pdf.