Sponsors (21)
This bill directs substantial federal resources and new financing tools to modernize and make school facilities safer, more efficient, and better connected—especially in high‑need areas—while imposing matching, compliance, and certification requirements and generating significant federal costs that may raise inequities, delays, and budget pressures for states, districts, and taxpayers.
Students, teachers, and staff in high‑need and affected districts will receive federal funding to repair, remediate, and modernize school buildings (including lead/PFAS testing, indoor air quality upgrades, seismic retrofits, and other health/safety fixes), improving health and learning conditions.
Local school districts and LEAs will gain access to sizeable federal grants, revived tax‑credit bond financing (including refundable credit payments), and multi‑year authorizations that expand capital for construction, major repairs, and modernization, enabling planning and large projects they otherwise couldn’t afford.
Schools and districts receiving grants can fund energy and water efficiency, decarbonization, net‑zero planning, and on‑site renewables, which will lower long‑term utility and operating costs and reduce emissions over time.
U.S. taxpayers and the federal budget will face substantial new spending and tax expenditures (large annual authorizations, revived tax‑credit bond credits, and multi‑year appropriations), increasing deficits or crowding out other priorities.
State and local governments (and thus local taxpayers) will need to provide matching funds and meet maintenance‑of‑effort assurances (e.g., 10% state match, capital outlay maintenance rules, up to 50% local cost limits), which can strain budgets and reduce flexibility, especially in fiscal shocks.
State education agencies and local districts will face new administrative, reporting, and compliance burdens (state plans, national data collections, Treasury/annual reporting, documentation/licensing), increasing costs and staff workload and potentially delaying access to funds.
Based on analysis of 14 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a FY2027–FY2031 federal school‑infrastructure grant program, revives certain tax‑credit bonds, expands allowable facility uses, mandates studies, and funds pyrrhotite repairs.
Introduced February 4, 2026 by John F. Reed · Last progress February 4, 2026
Creates a multi-year federal school facilities program providing grants and technical support to repair, modernize, and build public elementary and secondary school facilities for FY2027–FY2031; revives certain tax-credit bond authorities for school financing; authorizes a range of allowable uses for funds (health, safety, energy, accessibility, instructional spaces, seismic upgrades, and more); requires federal studies and creates an Office of School Infrastructure and Sustainability; increases impact-aid construction authorization temporarily; and establishes a program to fund or reimburse repairs to school foundations damaged by pyrrhotite. Allocations are tied to prior-year Title I, Part A distributions, include small set‑asides for outlying areas and Bureau-funded schools, and allow States limited administrative set‑asides and requirements for approved plans, grant competitions, and reporting. The bill also restores and updates Internal Revenue Code provisions for qualified tax-credit bonds (including qualified zone academy bonds) and applies prevailing-wage requirements to bond-funded projects.