Brownfields Redevelopment Enhancement Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 644) to facilitate the provision of assistance by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the cleanup and economic redevelopment of brownfields.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this is a bill to give more flexibility to our municipalities. They are allowed to use Community Development Block Grant funds for cleaning up brownfields.

By the way, I do want to comment for a minute on brownfields. We hear a great deal about public sector-private sector, and I believe that people have unwisely seen this as if there was an opposition. In fact, we need to cooperate, and I particularly here want to call attention to an aspect of this bill that is relevant to those who tend to see the private sector as the fountain of all benefits and the public sector as somehow a source of negative activity.

What we are doing here is giving local governments the right to use Federal money to clean up messes that were left behind by the private sector. Brownfields overwhelmingly are the result of industrial activity that was once profitable and no longer is. That doesn't mean that the people that did it were bad people, necessarily. It does mean given the change in economics, private sector entities walked away in many cases and left the public sector responsible for these cleanups.

What we are doing here is giving more flexibility to local communities so that they don't have to take out a section 108 loan, which can tie up their Community Development Block Grant funds for a long time. It does give in to local judgment.

I do want to note one very important point that the gentleman from Michigan, the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, has stressed, and a point on which I am in complete agreement with him, namely that the funding flexibility here should be for brownfields, not for Superfund sites.

In the Superfund situation, we have provisions for those who polluted to have to pay in to cleaning up the messes they left behind. We do not want the brownfields money here to be used in any way to diminish that liability.

So I very much agree with the point that was made by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell). In fact, when we sent this bill previously to the Senate, they removed the restriction that we had put in there that would have prevented this from happening, and we then would not pass the bill. We will send this again to the Senate and we hope they will accept that this is for brownfields, it is not for Superfund. It should be used in this very strict way so as to not become a substitute for private contributions that ought to be coming.

If we limit this to CDBG money for the brownfields situation, we will be doing it right. This bill is entitled the Brownfields Redevelopment Enhancement Act. We want moneys that are freed up here to be used only for that purpose.

Mr. Speaker, with that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), the chair of the Housing Subcommittee, from which this bill came.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell).

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to make any comments for the Record that they wish, and also to include extraneous material on H.R. 644 and H.R. 1066.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 644, the Brownfields Redevelopment Enhancement Act of 2007. I want to commend Congressman Miller of California for introducing this legislation for the fourth time.

This bill aims to provide local communities greater access to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's brownfields program to clean up and redevelop contaminated sites. More importantly, the bill will help local communities create new jobs and expand their tax base.

The revitalization of brownfields sites has always been a familiar topic in Illinois, as my home State has thousands of these underused or vacant

properties. Brownfields are those sites where redevelopment is complicated by potential environmental contamination. They are less seriously contaminated than those covered under the Superfund Act, and there are an estimated 500,000 of them across the country.

HUD administers a brownfields program called the Brownfields Economic Development Initiative, or BEDI. The main purpose of BEDI is to spur economic and community development of the brownfields sites. The problem is that due to a loan guarantee requirement, the program has been underutilized. Over the past 5 years, the Financial Services Committee has sought to make HUD's program more effective, specifically the BEDI program.

At hearings, we learned that many communities had been shut out of the BEDI program because they can't get a grant without going through the cumbersome process of applying for a section 108 loan. That is very hard on those smaller communities.

Under current law, HUD's brownfields redevelopment projects must be backed by those section 108 guaranteed loans. The section 108 loans require a local community to provide loan security by collateralizing its BEDI project with that community's current and future CDBG allocations. Therefore, many small communities have been hesitant to reply for BEDI because they are unwilling or unable to pledge their block grants as collateral for the guaranteed loans. In short, H.R. 644 amends the HUD Act of 1974 to permit HUD to issue BEDI grants independent of the section 108 loan guarantees.

This bill does not create a new program and would not trigger new spending or receipts. This bill will facilitate brownfields redevelopment in thousands of communities across the country, thereby encouraging economic development, expanding communities' tax bases and, most importantly, creating new jobs.

I applaud the bill's sponsors for introducing H.R. 644. I urge my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

General Leave

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 644, the Brownfields Redevelopment Enhancement Act, a bill of which I am an original cosponsor. I certainly applaud the distinguished chairman of Committee on Financial Services, Mr. Frank, for working to get this bill to the floor. I also want to thank Mr. Gary Miller, who introduced the bill and who has been working on this subject for quite some time, as well as all of the other cosponsors of this bill.

The House passed a bill identical to H.R. 644 in the 109th Congress because many of us recognized the importance of preserving a means of remedying the numerous hazardous sites that remain in this country.

Under the Brownfields Act, the Environmental Protection Agency awards grants for the assessment and cleanup of sites that pose a serious threat to human health and the environment than sites addressed by the Superfund.

Many of these sites thwart the development and revitalization of communities in distressed areas of the country, including the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County. In fact, it is these sites that make development efforts impossible because of the potential risks.

The Brownfields Redevelopment Enhancement Act becomes a powerful economic development tool when used in conjunction with other Federal economic redevelopment resources, CDBG and section 108 loan guarantees. It is precisely the kind of leveraging tool that we must utilize to spur development in places where development costs are uncertain given the presence of hazardous materials.

The Brownfields Redevelopment Enhancement Act, if passed, will continue to provide four types of competitive grants: Assessment grants used as planning tools by grantees to conduct due diligence related to the affected sites; revolving loan fund grants to capitalize the loans for the cleanup of the sites; cleanup grants that provide for the recipient to undertake cleanup activities; and job training grants made available to nonprofits and educational entities to develop environmental job training programs.

Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford to postpone passage of this bill any longer. It sends a bad signal to the communities across the Nation who are trying to rebuild, reinvest and strengthen their economic local economies. Any Federal tool to leverage private investment must be preserved, particularly in this pay-as-you-go economic environment. The Brownfields Enhancement Act is a tool, and therefore I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 644. As a former mayor of the third largest city in New Jersey, Paterson, the first planned industrial city in the Nation and home to some of the country's oldest brownfield sites, I know this bill will be beneficial to our Nation's communities.

H.R. 644 authorizes HUD to offer much-needed grants for the environmental cleanup and economic development of brownfield sites, places we drive by every day of our lives. We want to rehabilitate those sites, including inactive factories, gas stations, salvage yards, abandoned warehouses.

This bill also makes brownfield-related environmental cleanup and economic development activities eligible for Community Development Block Grants assistance. These sites drive down property values, provide little or no tax revenue, and contribute to community blight.

Since the inception of brownfield programs, Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government has allocated over $800 million in brownfield assessment and cleanup funds. In addition, this investment has leveraged over $8 billion in cleanup and redevelopment dollars, a better than 10 to 1 return on investment. It has resulted in the assessment of more than 8,000 properties and helped create over 37,000 jobs. It is a winner.

This is because the EPA and HUD grants work in conjunction with funds that come from both the State and local governments, and of course private sources, to address cleanup of brownfield sites. If we don't do this, those sites will remain abandoned and barren for years ahead of us.

This is an exciting time in the brownfields marketplace. Federal brownfields programs have provided the foundation on which State initiatives have flourished. Throughout the country, there are thousands of abandoned structures that were once thriving businesses, often part of large industrial centers. Economic development matched with environmental cleanup has resulted in the rebirth of many industrial and commercial properties and surrounding neighborhoods.

Anyone who cares about our Nation's cities celebrates these successes. HUD's particular expertise in incorporating brownfields remediation into a larger strategy for economic development and community revitalization is essential to the success we have had and will continue to have in the future. This is a stimulant to the economy, a real stimulant.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this very worthwhile legislation.

Mr. Speaker and Chairman Frank, on behalf of New York City, which I represent, I am pleased that the House is considering the Brownfields Redevelopment Enhancement Act.

I am proud to have been an original cosponsor of this legislation in every session since it was first introduced in the 107th Congress.

As you know, the primary purpose of the bill is to increase the flexibility of the Housing and Urban Development Department's Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI) and to make the program available to more local Governments.

The legislation eliminates the requirement that communities applying for BEDI grants must pledge their Community Block Development Grant (CBDG) funding as security for the loan--a rule that puts local Governments between a rock and a hard place.

Since its inception, the larger brownfields program has proven an effective Government response to a serious environmental problem, and it is important that we maximize its use.

Brownfields are abandoned, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where further redevelopment is impeded by environmental contamination. They spot our country from coast to coast, especially in areas with high or formerly high levels of industrial activity, such as older urban areas. New York City, including my district, is full of them.

These locations have potential for economic development but are held back by the environmental problems created by former or current users. The program has successfully used a variety of financial and technical assistance to restore these sites which would otherwise be doomed to further decay.

I am very pleased to support this legislation and thank Representative Gary Miller for introducing it again this year and Chairman Barney Frank and Ranking Member Bachus for their leadership on this bipartisan issue.