Californians for School Facilities (CSF) provides federal lobbying for nationwide school facility program funding. Bob Canavan, CSF’s Washington, D.C. lobbyist, John Dominguez (CSF Vice Chair), Joe Dixon (CSF and CASH Past Chair), John Baracy (CASH Board Member) and David Walrath were in Washington, D.C. recently to lobby for The Rebuild America’s Schools Act of 2019 that would provide $100 billion in federal support for school facilities.
The legislation’s most significant provisions are:
- Re-establishing Qualified Zone Academy Bonds (QZAB) at $1.4 billion per year that we expect would provide California about $150 million per year in these tax credit bonds (prior authorization
- as $400 million per year, of which California received about $42 million per year).
- Makes QZAB reforms to eliminate the required 10% local match, allows for some new construction and makes QZABs easier to use.
- Creates Qualified School Infrastructure Bonds (QSIB) authorized for $30 billion ($10 billion for each of 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23).
- Provides $70 billion in grants for school facility repair, renovation and some construction.
- Allows up to 10% of the funds to be used for expanding high-speed broadband access for digital learning.
- Requires energy efficiency provisions.
