{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/massachusetts-delegation-unveil-bill-to-help-communities-in-massachusetts-and-around-the-country-struggling-with-water-infrastructure-costs", "Massachusetts Delegation Unveil Bill to Help Communities in Massachusetts and Around the Country Struggling with Water Infrastructure Costs", "2019-12-20", "2019", "2019-12", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 20, 2019\n\t\t\t Massachusetts Delegation Unveil Bill to Help Communities in Massachusetts and Around the Country Struggling with Water Infrastructure Costs \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t Legislation Eases Cost Burden on Cities and Towns, Supports Communities in Removing Lead and PFAS from Drinking Water\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Bill\r\nText (PDF) Washington, DC- United States Senator Elizabeth\r\nWarren (D-MA) and Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III (D-MA-04), along with\r\nSenator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Representatives Richard E. Neal (D-MA-01),\r\nJames P. McGovern (D-MA-02), Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA-08), William Keating\r\n(D-MA-09), Katherine Clark (D-MA-05), Seth Moulton (D-MA-06), Ayanna Pressley\r\n(D-MA-07), and Lori Trahan (D-MA-03), today announced the introduction of the\r\nAffordable Safe DrinkingWaterAct, a bicameral bill to provide\r\nMassachusetts and other states with more tools to\r\nmitigatewaterinfrastructure costs.The bill has been endorsed\r\nby the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME). \"We must ensure our cities and towns in Massachusetts and across the\r\ncountry are able to provide safe drinkingwater-free of lead, PFAS, and\r\nother harmful pollutants-to our families,\"said Senator\r\nWarren. \"I'm glad to partner with my delegation colleagues on a\r\nbill that helps our communities update theirwaterinfrastructure and\r\nmitigate the costs.\" \"Our citizens deserve clean water and our local communities deserve the\r\nsupport of our federal government to provide it,\" said\r\nRepresentative Kennedy. \"By extending loan repayments on clean\r\nwater projects, this legislation will allow local municipalities to invest in\r\ncritical infrastructure projects and remove dangerous chemicals from their\r\nneighbors' water.\" \"Everyone, everywhere, should have access to clean and safe\r\ndrinkingwater,\"said Senator Markey. \"As\r\nwe continue to learn more about the threats posed by PFAS and the prevalence of\r\nlead throughout our drinking system, we must make sure that Massachusetts\r\ncommunities and municipalities across the country have the resources they need\r\nto respond to this crisis.\" \"Since my time as mayor of Springfield in the 1980s, I have been\r\npassionate that all individuals have access to safe drinking water,\" said\r\nCongressman Richard E. Neal. \"With this bicameral bill, residents\r\nhere in western and central Massachusetts will be able to update their water\r\nsystems and alleviate the costs involved, while promoting healthy standards for\r\nthe future.\" \"We havewaterinfrastructure in Massachusetts that's been\r\naround for longer than some states. Yet the reality is that cities and towns\r\njust don't have the money to bring things up-to-date. I've sat across the table\r\nfrom countless local leaders who are pinching pennies trying to bring safe,\r\nclean drinkingwaterto their residents, and quite frankly, it\r\nshouldn't be that way,\"said Congressman McGovern.\"I'm\r\nproud to join our delegation to ensure that municipalities across the country\r\nhave the tools they need to provide safewaterthat's free of lead,\r\nPFAS, and other dangerous chemicals.\" \"I am proud to work alongside colleagues that continue to prioritize\r\nthe health of Americans,\" said Representative Lynch.\r\n\"As a member of theWaterResources and Environment\r\nSubcommittee, we recently held a hearing on our\r\nnation'swaterresources infrastructure and identified how we can\r\naddress criticalwaterneeds and fund projects to help the development\r\nand restoration of ourwatersystems. Many of us take our\r\ndrinkingwaterfor granted and this bill will help states access\r\nresources to assist them with updating theirwaterinfrastructure to\r\nensure everyone has access to clean, safewater.\" \"Over the past few years, lead, PFAS, and other contaminants, have\r\npresented significant challenges to communities in my district,\" said\r\nCongressman Bill Keating. \"We must face these challenges head on\r\nby ensuring that all communities have the tools they need to provide clean\r\ndrinking water to our citizens. This legislation, which has the backing of our\r\nentire delegation, will provide much needed assistance to our local water\r\nmanagers nationwide.\" \"If the tragedies like the one that occurred in Flint, Michigan have\r\ntaught us anything, it is that we cannot take access to clean, safe drinking\r\nwater for granted,\" said Congresswoman Clark. \"This\r\nbill is an important step towards ensuring Massachusetts communities and all\r\nAmericans have access to water free of lead and PFAS chemicals.\" \"Americans are afraid of poisoning their kids by brushing their\r\nteeth--this is ridiculous! Having safe drinkingwatershould be an\r\nabsolute minimum standard for every community in America. We need to invest now\r\nin getting PFAS and other \"forever chemicals\" out of our lives and\r\nbetter understanding the impact they've already had,\" Representative\r\nMoulton said. \"Every American deserves access to safe, clean drinking water. The\r\nreality is that too many cities and towns lack the resources necessary to\r\nsupport infrastructure that guarantees that right. I've especially seen this in\r\nmy fight to help cities like Lowell and Haverhill update their outdated sewer\r\nsystems to prevent CSO contamination\" said Congresswoman Trahan.\r\n\"I'm proud to join the Massachusetts delegation to ensure that\r\nmunicipalities across the country and in the district I represent have the\r\ntools they need to safeguard water and keep it free of lead, PFAS, and other\r\ndangerous materials.\" Many communities in Massachusetts and around the country have struggled with\r\ntheirwaterinfrastructure costs for several generations. In\r\nresponse, Congress created the State Revolving Funds (SRF) program to improve\r\nthe nation'swaterquality by providing critical support to reduce\r\nthe cost of constructing wastewatertreatment facilities and other\r\neligible activities. While the SRF has been successful in dramatically\r\nimproving the nation'swaterquality, the cost burden for major\r\ninfrastructure projects continues to increase, and many communities still\r\nstruggle to repay SRF loans. SRF loans give states funding to provide several types of financial\r\nassistance to communities, including project construction loans made at or\r\nbelow market interest rates, refinancing of local debt obligations, loan\r\nguarantees, and the purchase of insurance. Currently, communities must repay\r\nloans to the SRFs within 30 years-beginning within one year after project\r\ncompletion-and local governments must dedicate a revenue stream to repay the\r\nloan to the state. Though the 30-year amortization of the loan is helpful,\r\nproject timelines may exceed 30 years, and costs not addressed or offset by the\r\nloan can still strain a community's budget and require making hard cuts in\r\nother critical areas of community investment, such as education and public\r\nsafety. TheAffordable Safe DrinkingWaterActwould\r\nprovide some relief to struggling communities by amending the SRF program and\r\ngiving states the discretion to: \r\n Offer local communities\r\n     the option to repay loans over a longer period of time.The legislation\r\n     would strike the 30-year SRF loan term limit and allow states to make\r\n     loans up to the useful life of the project. Many of\r\n     thesewaterinfrastructure projects have a useful life of 50\r\n     years or more, and allowing communities to amortize beyond 30 years will\r\n     relieve some of the financial pressure associated with finding other\r\n     funding sources for these projects.\r\n Use SRF funding to\r\n     install lead and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) filtering\r\n     systems and other lead and PFAS remediation measures across municipal and\r\n     state facilities.The legislation would amend the Safe\r\n     DrinkingWaterAct to allow SRFs to provide funding to remediate\r\n     lead- or PFAS-contaminatedwaterat public schools, parks, fire\r\n     stations, police stations, senior centers, community centers, and any\r\n     other municipal buildings.\r\n The Affordable Safe DrinkingWaterAct would not require an\r\nincrease of federal funding since it leverages an existing funding source, nor\r\nwould it alter existing law governing SRF interest rates. Instead, it builds on\r\nan existing program to provide states more tools to\r\nmitigatewaterinfrastructure costs. \"I am pleased to be working with my colleagues at the local, state, and\r\nfederal level to elevate the clean drinking water issues that Massachusetts\r\ncommunities face,\" said Massachusetts State Treasurer Deborah\r\nGoldberg, Chair of the Clean Water Trust. \"This legislation\r\nensures that the Trust can provide direct funding for infrastructure improvements,\r\nthat will greatly improve access to safe and clean drinking water for all of\r\nour children across Massachusetts.\" ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/massachusetts-delegation-unveil-bill-to-help-communities-in-massachusetts-and-around-the-country-struggling-with-water-infrastructure-costs"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0861430782824755, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}