Chad Praul, EI’s Domestic Portfolio Director, co-authored an article on water infrastructure finance recently published in WaterWorld, a leading publication in the water and wastewater industry. In the article, “Developing WIFIA’s guarantee capabilities for taxable municipal bonds,” Praul and co-author John Ryan make the case that despite recent legislative disappointments, there is still great opportunity in federal financing for water infrastructure.
Disappointments include the fact that direct-pay bonds were not restored in the Build Back Better legislation and the recently passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework failed to expand funding for the EPA’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan program. However, in the absence of an immediate legislative solution, funders could develop WIFIA guarantees for taxable municipal bonds, making bonds more attractive to investors and creating easier access to funding for innovative infrastructure projects. Learn more about how to turn these legislative lemons into lemonade in the full article, which is currently available online and will be published in the January issue of WaterWorld Magazine.
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