CDFA is pleased to announce that Reps. Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) and Darin LaHood (R-IL) have introduced the Modernizing Agricultural and Manufacturing Bonds Act (MAMBA) in the U.S. House of Representatives as H.R. 2737. MAMBA would modernize the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) as it relates to small issue bonds, specifically the private activity bond rules for first-time farmers and manufacturing bonds.

Stay up-to-date on SSBCI by registering for the SSBCI Briefing Series. This Friday, we'll be joined by guest speakers from Start Co. and Buy from a Black Woman, who will provide insights on how to best engage and support women- and minority-owned small businesses.

Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) this week reintroduced the Move America Act to bring billions of dollars to grow and repair infrastructure through an expansion of private activity bonds and the creation of an infrastructure tax credit. S. 1403 would allocate Move America Bonds to states, based on population size.

Two bills expanding the use of tax-exempt bond financing have been reintroduced in Congress with a good chance of being incorporated into infrastructure legislation. One three-pronged bill includes restoration of tax-exempt advance refunding, a tripling of the cap on bank-qualified debt, and the reinstatement of Build America Bonds under another name. The other has several provisions for expanding the use of tax-exempt Private Activity Bonds for financing multifamily housing.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell and U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene have introduced legislation to increase investment in affordable housing, build tens of thousands of new affordable units around the state, and provide more resources and stronger protections for at-risk groups. The bill would increase the amount of LIHTC credits allocated to each state and increase the number of affordable housing projects that can be built using private activity bonds.

A bipartisan group of legislators introduced the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2021 in both chambers of Congress. Novogradac estimates the primary unit financing provisions of the bill could finance as much as 2 million additional affordable rental homes in urban and rural areas over 10 years.

The Kinder Institute Local and Regional Infrastructure Database contains more than 1,800 planned infrastructure projects identified by surveying local and regional leaders, reviewing capital investment documents, and selected using other sources. This interactive map allows users to explore the data.

Reps. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) introduced the Agricultural Resilience Act, which outlines a farmer-focused, research-driven path to net-zero agriculture. The bill would, in part, make changes to the Rural Energy for America Program and moves the federal AgSTAR program.

Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) reintroduced their bipartisan Growing Climate Solutions Act. The act establishes a U.S. Department of Agriculture technical assistance and certification program to assist producers and forest owners seeking to participate in voluntary carbon markets.

U.S. Reps. Rodney Davis (R-IL), Greg Stanton (D-AZ), Steven Palazzo (R-MS), and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) announced they had introduced legislation to increase funding for transit systems in small communities. The Small Community Transit Improvement Act, H.R. 2306, would increase the apportionment for the Small Transit Intensive Cities Program (STIC) from 2 percent to 3 percent to urban areas with populations of less than 200,000.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that it will hold an information session on the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) on May 13 and a tribal consultation on May 27. The American Rescue Plan Act reauthorizes and amends the State Small Business Credit Initiative Act of 2010 to provide resources to tribal governments named in the annually published list required by the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994 to support small businesses.

U.S. EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan announced the 2021 notice of funding availability under the agency's Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program and state infrastructure financing authority WIFIA (SWIFIA) program. These lending programs accelerate investment in critical water infrastructure through innovative and flexible financing that can support a wide range of projects in both large and small communities.

On Tuesday, April 6, HUD announced the allocation of $689,565,492.92 through the nation's Housing Trust Fund for affordable housing. The Housing Trust Fund was launched in 2008 as an affordable housing production program that complements existing federal, state, and local efforts to increase and preserve the supply of decent, safe, and sanity affordable housing for low- and extremely low-income households, including families experiencing homelessness.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced $187 million in Capital Investment Grants (CIG) through the Federal Transit Administration. The federal funding will be allocated to four Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) infrastructure projects in California, Utah, and Washington State. The CIG Program provides funding for major transit infrastructure capital investments nationwide.

On April 14, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the establishment of the Office of Recovery Programs to lead the Department's implementation of economic relief and recovery programs, including nearly $420 billion in programs from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) provided guidance on how the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund will work. The Restaurant Revitalization Fund provides for qualified restaurants and other food establishments to obtain tax-free federal grants of up to $10 million to replace the loss of revenues resulting from the pandemic. Unlike the SBA's Paycheck Protection Program, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund will be administered directly by the SBA.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $61.4 million for technologies that produce low-cost, low-carbon biofuels. Biofuels are derived from renewable resources and can power heavy-duty vehicles that are difficult to electrify with current technologies—including airplanes and ships—to help accelerate America's path to a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury released the Made in America Tax Plan Report to provide additional depth on the plan first announced last week as part of President Biden's American Jobs Plan. Importantly, this tax plan would generate new funding to pay for a sustained increase in investments in infrastructure, research, and support for manufacturing, fully paying for the investments in the American Jobs Plan over a 15-year period.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced that it is accepting applications for Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) program grants to help provide educational and medical services in rural areas.