S1275-119

What This Bill Does

The Impact Aid Infrastructure Partnership Act authorizes $1 billion in federal construction grants over four years ($250 million per year) for school districts that are heavily affected by the presence of non-taxable federal property -- such as military bases, Indian reservations, and other federal lands -- which shrinks their local tax base and limits their ability to fund school construction and repairs. The bill supplements existing Impact Aid payments under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act by creating a new, dedicated construction funding stream. 75 percent of funds go to competitive grants prioritized by facility condition severity, while 25 percent go to formula-based grants using an expanded weighted student unit calculation.

Who Benefits and How

• Federally impacted school districts (local educational agencies eligible under Impact Aid sections 7002 and 7003) receive direct construction, renovation, and repair funding for school buildings that are deteriorating, overcrowded, or fail health and safety codes. Districts with no bonding capacity receive full federal payment with no local match required.
• Students and staff at impacted schools benefit from improved learning environments -- the bill specifically targets buildings with poor ventilation, structural deficiencies, hazardous materials, unsafe drinking water, overcrowding, and inadequate technology infrastructure.
• Indian Treaty and federal trust land communities receive priority attention, including dedicated teacher housing construction and repair provisions. The bill explicitly addresses the unique challenges of geographically remote Tribal school districts where teacher recruitment depends on agency-provided housing.
• Rural communities benefit from formula grants that expand eligibility to districts meeting National Defense Authorization Act requirements, addressing the 30%+ construction cost premium that rural and remote districts face.
• Construction industry firms operating in rural and underserved areas gain $1 billion in potential contract opportunities over four years.

Who Bears the Burden and How

• The federal government (taxpayers) bears the $1 billion authorization cost over four years, plus up to 0.5% administrative set-aside for the Department of Education technical assistance, management, and oversight.
• The Department of Education assumes significant new administrative responsibilities: establishing and maintaining a facility condition priority listing, reviewing grant applications, certifying facility conditions, approving construction plans for grants over $5 million, and producing annual congressional reports.
• Local educational agencies with some bonding capacity must provide a non-Federal match (10-25% depending on their learning opportunity threshold percentage), which may strain already-limited local budgets.
• School districts that apply but are not funded must wait and reapply in subsequent years within the 4-year authorization window, potentially delaying urgently needed repairs.

Key Provisions

• Authorizes $250M/year for 4 fiscal years ($1B total), with funds remaining available until expended (Sec. 3)
• 75/25 split: 75% competitive grants based on facility condition, 25% formula grants (Sec. 3)
• Top competitive priority: facilities violating health/safety codes, failing CDC building standards, or non-compliant with disability access and capacity standards (Sec. 4)
• Second priority: facilities in poor condition per ASCE standards, with hazardous conditions including lead in drinking water, poor air quality, and structural deficiencies (Sec. 4)
• Full federal payment for districts with no bonding capacity; sliding scale match (10-25%) for others based on learning opportunity threshold (Sec. 8)
• Teacher housing construction and repair included for districts serving Indian lands (Secs. 4, 8)
• Funds restricted to construction, renovation, and repair -- no real property acquisition (Sec. 9)
• Supplement-not-supplant requirement prevents districts from reducing local funding (Sec. 9)