House Democrats on August 24 adopted a budget resolution needed to unlock a filibuster-proof $3.5 trillion package of domestic spending and tax breaks and teed up a vote on a separate bipartisan infrastructure bill in September. The budget rule also included language that ensures the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill will be brought to the floor by Sept. 27.

The Senate gave overwhelming bipartisan approval on Tuesday to a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to rebuild the nation's deteriorating roads and bridges and fund new climate resilience and broadband initiatives, delivering a key component of President Biden's agenda. The vote, 69 to 30, was uncommonly bipartisan.

The exclusion of the muni industry's top priorities in the bipartisan infrastructure package has set up a two-week battle for lobbyists and industry advocates to include advance refunding, a bank-qualified expansion, and a direct-pay bond program in the upcoming reconciliation bill. "It continues to be a procedural fight at this point," said Brett Bolton, vice president and head of government and industry relations at the Bond Dealers of America.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden announced a bill he said would close a loophole that allows large investors to seek outsized profits in taxpayer-funded affordable housing. If successful, the change would apply to current and future housing deals that use the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit for funding.

Sens. Tim Scott, R-SC, and John Hickenlooper, D-CO, introduced legislation that would allow fintech lenders to participate in the SBA's 7(a) loan program by lifting an old moratorium on issuing new Small Business Lending Company licenses. The result would be younger and higher credit risk businesses will gain access to affordable credit; more rural small businesses will have easier access to more lenders, and lenders will be able to offer lower rates and longer terms to small businesses.

U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) announced that their bipartisan Carbon Capture Improvement Act has passed the Senate as part of the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act. The Carbon Capture Improvement Act makes it easier for power plants and industrial facilities to finance the purchase and installation of carbon capture, utilization, and storage equipment, as well as direct air capture (DAC) projects through the use of private activity bonds (PABs).

The Reconnecting Communities Initiative aims to create a fund that would help cities and states rectify the damage caused by the hundreds of highways built through minority neighborhoods across the country during the middle of the 20th century. When the final infrastructure bill came out, however, advocates were devastated to see that the program that aimed to heal longstanding racial wounds had been cut to a lower funding level.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act offers many important provisions that those in rural America were seeking. The bill authorizes $303.5 billion from the Highway Trust Fund for roads and bridges; creates a competitive grant program to address the surface transportation infrastructure of rural communities; authorizes the Rural Opportunities to Use Transportation for Economic Success or ROUTES initiative; $65 billion for broadband financing; and funding for rural schools and more.

Representatives Mikie Sherill (NJ-11) and Bill Pascrell, Jr. (NJ-09) introduced the Revamping Appropriate Incentives for Solar Energy for (RAISE) the Roof Act, which clarifies and expands the solar investment tax credit (ITC) to include integrated solar roofs. This move would maximize the positive climate and economic impacts of the next generation of solar energy technology.

When a bipartisan group of senators worked to craft an infrastructure bill, they came close to taking money away from rural assisted living facilities to help pay for it. However, thanks to action by several Congresswomen in rural states, money for assisted living facilities is safe and ready to be allocated, despite being authorized for disbursal more than a year ago.

The CDFI Fund announced $5 billion in New Markets Tax Credits that will spur investment and economic growth in low-income urban and rural communities nationwide. A total of 100 Community Development Entities (CDEs) were awarded tax credit allocations, made through the calendar year 2020 round of the New Markets Tax Credit Program.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released the Interactive Federal Funding Guide as an enhancement to BroadbandUSA's "one-stop" federal funding site. The Guide provides an interactive, step-by-step approach for users to filter through more than 90 broadband-related programs compiled from 12 federal agencies and the Federal Communications Commission.

The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service surgically nipped and tucked the regulations governing qualified opportunity zone funds (QOFs) which, while precise and limited to two specific sections, arguably results in a complete facelift to the way QOFs must operate.

The SBA has awarded 27 organizations across the United States a total of $5.2 million under the Program for Investment in Micro-Entrepreneurs (PRIME) grant awards. PRIME supports these nonprofit organizations as they help low-income entrepreneurs get financing to establish and expand their small businesses by providing direct technical assistance, or provide capacity-building training for other organizations that provide capital to underserved small businesses.

States and territories, as well as cities and counties with populations of more than 250,000, will soon be delivering the first of seven annual Recovery Plan Performance Reports to the U.S. Treasury, and those reports are required to be posted on "publicly facing" websites. The reports are unlikely to reveal much about actual performance but will give an initial view of how states and localities are spending the $350 billion in the American Rescue Plan Act.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator Michael S. Regan joined Silicon Valley Clean Water Commission Chair Alicia Aguirre, and other local officials to announce Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loans totaling $168M for water system upgrades in Redwood City and Alameda County, California.

The Biden-Harris Administration is announcing a number of steps that will create, preserve, and sell to homeowners and non-profits nearly 100,000 additional affordable homes for homeowners and renters over the next three years, with an emphasis on the lower and middle segments of the market.

USDA Rural Development announced that USDA is on track to provide a record level of support for rural working capital and other business capital needs in fiscal year 2021. The Department has invested $1.2 billion in loan guarantees to help rural businesses in 41 states. These investments – made through the Business and Industry Loan Guarantee Program and the Business and Industry CARES Act Program – are expected to create or save more than 12,000 jobs for people in rural areas.

A significant disparity between how the effective spreads of municipal and corporate bonds declined following the most volatile month early in the pandemic may be at least partly explained by the differential treatment they received from Federal Reserve backstop programs. That was a conclusion drawn by a new Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board study.