Money for fighting wildfires, recycling water in Senate infrastructure bill

WASHINGTON — A $1.5 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill being hammered out in the Senate includes funding for Nevada needs such as preventing wildfires, expanding broadband access, water recycling and aviation improvements.

The spending bill, despite initial support following bipartisan negotiations that included Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., still faces hurdles in the Senate as it plods toward a final vote that could come as early as this week.

“Our bipartisan bill is the most significant investment in American infrastructure since we built the interstate highway system,” Rosen said.

The bill is backed by the White House.

But it faces headwinds in the House where progressive Democrats have balked about the lack of a clean energy focus, and others are concerned about earmarked transportation projects, which include $51 million for Nevada roads, highways and rail systems.

The evenly split 50-50 Senate prompted leaders to forge a compromise through a bipartisan team that included an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. The result was a 2,700-page bill that is currently under debate in the Senate.

Rosen, Cortez Masto shaping bill

Rosen was a member of the bipartisan negotiating team that reached the compromise. She was also instrumental in including $65 billion for broadband, which contains money to expand access to rural and tribal areas.

She said those provisions would make affordable access to “unserved and underserved communities across Nevada.”

She also was instrumental for the insertion of $25 billion for airports, including $5 billion in available funds for projects in states such as Nevada that rely heavily on tourism.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., included $450 million for a grant program for large-scale water recycling projects. That funding is less than the $750 million she originally sought before the compromise talks.

But the funds could support a regional recycled water plant being sought by the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to provide water to serve more than 500,000 homes in Nevada and Southern California.

Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., introduced the same bill in the House, citing the need for the project due to drought in the West.

Wildfire prevention

In addition, the Senate bill includes $3.4 billion sought by Cortez Masto for wildfire prevention activities and $10 million for wildfire detection, including ALERTWildfire cameras for Lake Tahoe.

Cortez Masto said the funding would help “prevent and detect wildfires so we can stop them before the spark and contain them quickly when they do.”

She said the programs would address “some of Nevada’s most urgent needs, from combating drought and wildfires to supporting good paying jobs for Nevadans.”

With competition for project funding, Cortez Masto said she was pleased with her efforts to “protect Nevada’s water supply and fund wildlife prevention efforts’’ that made it into the bill.

Overall, the bill includes $550 billion for new road, highway, rail and other projects, as well as additional funding to replace aging water systems.

Delicate game

Senators voted on amendments to the bill throughout Tuesday, but progress has been slow and lawmakers are wary of additions that could shatter a delicate balance reached by the bipartisan negotiators.

Passage of the bill would send the legislation to the House, where the outcome is further complicated by demands from progressives to include more climate change programs that could tank final approval in the split Senate.

House lawmakers also want to protect earmarked projects in a $715 billion transportation and water package approved in July.

Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., a senior Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was instrumental in shepherding Nevada projects sought by other state delegation members into the authorization bill.

That legislation included money for construction on Interstate 11 between Las Vegas and Phoenix, projects on Interstate 15, street lighting in North Las Vegas and grants that could be used for rail projects between Las Vegas and Southern California.

It also includes funds for transportation projects in Reno and Pahrump.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.