Airborne Act of 2026
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill adds an indoor air quality credit to the general business credit. Eligible taxpayers could claim $1 per square foot for qualified assessments, $5 per square foot for air-cleaning upgrades, and $50 per square foot for HVAC upgrades, with higher $25 and $250 rates for upgrades that satisfy prevailing-wage and apprenticeship rules. Treasury must write assessment and certification regulations after consulting Energy or EPA, and Energy must create a voluntary certification program within 365 days.
Who Benefits and How
Commercial building owners, nonprofit building owners, public building designers, HVAC contractors, air-cleaning vendors, and construction apprentices benefit from a tax subsidy tied to indoor air quality investments. Schools, offices, public facilities, and other building occupants benefit if owners use the credit to pay for ASHRAE-compliant ventilation, filtration, or HVAC improvements. Designers of public or nonprofit property can receive allocated credits when government or 501(c)(3) owners cannot directly use the credit.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Taxpayers must pay for qualified assessments or upgrades, satisfy ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2022 or 241-2023 compliance, reduce basis, avoid double deductions, and document that upgrade credits do not exceed 50 percent of eligible costs. Contractors seeking higher credit rates must comply with prevailing-wage and apprenticeship labor-hour rules. Treasury, IRS, the Department of Energy, and EPA must prescribe regulations, certification standards, and a voluntary program for property-owner compliance claims.
Key Provisions
- Adds Internal Revenue Code section 45BB as a new indoor air quality credit.
- Provides $1, $5, and $50 per-square-foot base credits for assessments, air-cleaning upgrades, and HVAC upgrades.
- Raises upgrade credits to $25 and $250 per square foot when prevailing-wage and apprenticeship rules are met.
- Requires Treasury, Energy, and EPA to set assessment and certification standards tied to ASHRAE indoor-air standards.
- Authorizes credit allocation to designers for improvements on public or nonprofit property.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Creates a new Internal Revenue Code section 45BB indoor-air-quality business credit for commercial, public, and nonprofit buildings that obtain qualified assessments, air-cleaning upgrades, or HVAC upgrades meeting ASHRAE-based standards.
Key Policy Areas
tax, energy, public_health, labor
Primary Purpose
Creates a new Internal Revenue Code section 45BB indoor-air-quality business credit for commercial, public, and nonprofit buildings that obtain qualified assessments, air-cleaning upgrades, or HVAC upgrades meeting ASHRAE-based standards.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Commercial building owners
- Nonprofit building owners
- HVAC contractors
- Construction apprentices
- Public building designers
Identified Costs
- Treasury Department
- Internal Revenue Service
- Department of Energy
- EPA
- Taxpayers claiming credits
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Introduced in House
Mr. Beyer (for himself and Mr. Fitzpatrick) introduced the following …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Department of Energy, EPA, Internal Revenue Service
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "agencies"
- → ['Treasury Department', 'Internal Revenue Service', 'Department of Energy', 'EPA']
- "beneficiaries"
- → ['Commercial building owners', 'Nonprofit building owners', 'HVAC contractors']
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology