HR7340-119

What This Bill Does

This bill is a large school facilities package. Title I authorizes $20 billion for each fiscal year 2027 through 2031, available through fiscal year 2036, for long-term improvements to public school facilities. The Department of Education would allocate funds to states using Title I-A shares, reserve 0.5 percent for outlying areas and 0.5 percent for Bureau-funded schools, require state plans, allow state administrative reservations up to 5 percent, and require need-based grants to qualified local educational agencies serving high-poverty students, schools with severe health and safety threats, schools with limited bonding capacity, and schools needing broadband for digital learning. Title II revives qualified zone academy bonds at $1.4 billion annually from 2027 onward and creates school infrastructure bonds with 100 percent tax credits for interest, a $10 billion national bond limitation for each calendar year 2027, 2028, and 2029, six-year expenditure rules, allocations for possessions and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, and Treasury reporting. Title III defines allowed school projects, bars routine maintenance, vehicles, central offices, fee-charging athletic facilities, and certain for-profit charter facilities, and imposes building-code, energy, water, green-building, and American iron, steel, and manufactured-product requirements. Later titles create federal school-facility reporting, an Office of School Infrastructure and Sustainability, data standards, an energy-financing clearinghouse, $100 million per year in Impact Aid construction authorization for 2027 through 2031, and grants for pyrrhotite-damaged school foundations with federal and state cost shares.

Who Benefits and How

Public school students, low-income students, students with disabilities, rural students, Bureau-funded schools, Indian Tribes, outlying areas, qualified local educational agencies, Impact Aid school districts, and pyrrhotite-affected schools benefit from capital grants, bond financing, foundation repair aid, safer facilities, broadband, cleaner air, accessibility upgrades, and energy or water savings. Construction contractors, qualified foundation contractors, professional engineers, domestic steel manufacturers, domestic building-product manufacturers, energy retrofit contractors, small businesses, minority-owned businesses, veteran-owned businesses, and women-owned businesses benefit from school construction and reporting attention to contract awards.

Who Bears the Burden and How

State educational agencies, local educational agencies, the Department of Education, the Interior Department, the Treasury Department, IRS, GAO, the Institute of Education Sciences, EPA, DOE, CDC, NIOSH, and new Education Department school-infrastructure staff must administer allocations, review state plans and applications, maintain facility databases, report project demographics and contracts, apply Buy America waivers, conduct national studies, and operate clearinghouses. Federal taxpayers and state taxpayers bear the funding cost, while for-profit charter school operators, charter-school facility landlords, foreign construction-material suppliers, vehicle purchases, central-office projects, and fee-charging athletic facilities are excluded or disadvantaged.

Key Provisions

• Authorizes $20 billion per year for fiscal years 2027 through 2031 for state-administered public school facility grants, with reservations for outlying areas and Bureau-funded schools.
• Revives qualified zone academy bonds at $1.4 billion annually and creates school infrastructure bonds with 100 percent interest tax credits and $10 billion annual national limits for 2027 through 2029.
• Requires need-based grants to prioritize high-poverty local educational agencies, schools with severe health and safety threats, limited capital-raising capacity, broadband gaps, and free-or-reduced-price lunch thresholds.
• Limits grant uses to school facility construction, renovation, retrofit, broadband, safety, accessibility, energy, water, air-quality, toxic-substance, and community-service projects while excluding routine maintenance, vehicles, central offices, fee-charging athletic facilities, and certain for-profit charter facilities.
• Requires federal reporting, GAO and IES studies, an Education Department school-infrastructure office, data standards, an energy-financing clearinghouse, $100 million per year in Impact Aid construction funding, and grants for pyrrhotite-damaged school foundations.