Title: Public Buildings Renewal Act of 2019
Policy area: Taxation

Summary:
Public Buildings Renewal Act of 2019
This bill allows tax-exempt financing of certain government-owned buildings by expanding the definition of "exempt facility bond" to include bonds used for qualified government buildings.
A qualified government building is a government-owned building or facility that consists of one or more of the following
The bill excludes buildings or facilities that include specified recreational equipment or are used for the primary purpose of providing retail food and beverage services, recreation, or entertainment.
The bill establishes (1) a $5 billion limit on the amount of tax-exempt financing which may be provided for government buildings, and (2) procedures for allocating and applying for the financing.
The bill exempts the bonds for government buildings from the volume cap on private activity bonds.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1251 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1251

   To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for the tax-
        exempt financing of certain government-owned buildings.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 14, 2019

 Mr. Blumenauer (for himself, Mr. Kelly of Pennsylvania, Mr. Larson of 
  Connecticut, Mr. Marchant, Mr. Kind, Mrs. Walorski, Mr. Suozzi, Mr. 
  Zeldin, Mr. Tonko, and Mr. Hurd of Texas) introduced the following 
      bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for the tax-
        exempt financing of certain government-owned buildings.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Public Buildings Renewal Act of 
2019''.

SEC. 2. TAX-EXEMPT FINANCING OF QUALIFIED GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS.

    (a) In General.--Section 142(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986 is amended by striking ``or'' at the end of paragraph (14), by 
striking the period at the end of paragraph (15) and inserting ``, 
or'', and by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(16) qualified government buildings.''.
    (b) Qualified Government Buildings.--Section 142 of such Code is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(n) Qualified Governmental Buildings.--
            ``(1) In general.--For purposes of subsection (a)(16), the 
        term `qualified governmental buildings' means any building or 
        facility that consists of one or more of the following:
                    ``(A) An elementary school or a secondary school 
                (within the meanings given such terms by section 14101 
                of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 
                (20 U.S.C. 8801), as in effect on the date of the 
                enactment of this subsection).
                    ``(B) Facilities of a State college or university 
                used for educational purposes.
                    ``(C) A library maintained for, and open to, the 
                general public.
                    ``(D) A Court of law.
                    ``(E) A hospital, health care facilities, 
                laboratory facilities or research facilities.
                    ``(F) Public safety facilities (including police, 
                fire, enhanced 911, emergency or disaster management, 
                and ambulance or emergency medical service facilities 
                and jails and correctional facilities).
                    ``(G) Offices for employees of a governmental unit.
        Such term shall include any equipment, functionally related and 
        subordinate facility, or land (and any real property rights 
        appurtenant thereto) with respect to any such building or 
        facility.
            ``(2) Specifically excluded facilities.--Such term shall 
        not include--
                    ``(A) a building or facility the primary purpose of 
                which is one of the following: retail food and beverage 
                services, or the provision of recreation or 
                entertainment, or
                    ``(B) any building or facility that includes any of 
                the following: any private or commercial golf course, 
                country club, massage parlor, tennis club, skating 
                facility (including roller skating, skateboard, and ice 
                skating), racquet sports facility (including any 
                handball or racquetball court), hot tub facility, 
                suntan facility, racetrack, convention center, or 
                sports stadium or arena.
            ``(3) National limitation on amount of tax-exempt financing 
        for qualified governmental building.--
                    ``(A) National limitation.--The aggregate amount 
                allocated by the Secretary under subparagraph (C) shall 
                not exceed $5,000,000,000.
                    ``(B) Enforcement of national limitation.--An issue 
                shall not be treated as an issue described in 
                subsection (a)(16) if the aggregate face amount of 
                bonds issued pursuant to such issue for any qualified 
                governmental building (when added to the aggregate face 
                amount of bonds previously so issued for such facility) 
                exceeds the amount allocated to such qualified 
                governmental building under subparagraph (C).
                    ``(C) Allocation by the secretary.--The Secretary 
                shall allocate a portion of the amount described in 
                subparagraph (A) to a qualified governmental building 
                if the Secretary determines that--
                            ``(i) the application for financing of such 
                        qualified governmental building meets the 
                        requirements set forth in subparagraph (D), and
                            ``(ii) the amount of the allocation 
                        requested, if allocated by the Secretary, would 
                        not cause the national limitation set forth in 
                        subparagraph (A) to be exceeded.
                    ``(D) Applications for financing.--An application 
                for financing a qualified governmental building meets 
                the requirements of this subparagraph if such 
                application includes--
                            ``(i) the amount of the allocation 
                        requested,
                            ``(ii) the name of the governmental unit 
                        that will own the project, together with 
                        complete contact information,
                            ``(iii) a description of the project as a 
                        whole and the proposed organizational and legal 
                        structure of the project,
                            ``(iv) a timeline showing the estimated 
                        start and completion dates for each major phase 
                        or milestone of project development and an 
                        indication of the current status of milestones 
                        on this timeline, including all necessary 
                        permits and environmental approvals,
                            ``(v) a statement of anticipated sources 
                        and uses of funds for the project, and
                            ``(vi) the following declaration signed by 
                        an individual who has personal knowledge of the 
                        relevant facts and circumstances: ``Under 
                        penalties of perjury, I declare that I have 
                        examined this document and, to the best of my 
                        knowledge and belief, the document contains all 
                        the relevant facts relating to the document, 
                        and such facts are true, correct, and 
                        complete.''
                    ``(E) Use of allocation in a timely manner.--If, 
                following an allocation by the Secretary under 
                subparagraph (C), bonds are not issued in the amount of 
                such allocation after the date that is 2 years after 
                the date of such allocation, then the unused portion of 
                the allocation shall be withdrawn, unless the 
                Secretary, upon a showing of good cause by the 
                applicant, grants an extension of such date.
            ``(4) Exception for current refunding bonds.--Paragraph (4) 
        shall not apply to any bond (or series of bonds) issued to 
        refund a bond issued under subsection (a)(16) if--
                    ``(A) the average maturity date of the issue of 
                which the refunding bond is a part is not later than 
                the average maturity date of the bonds to be refunded 
                by such issue,
                    ``(B) the amount of the refunding bond does not 
                exceed the outstanding amount of the refunded bond, and
                    ``(C) the refunded bond is redeemed not later than 
                90 days after the date of the issuance of the refunding 
                bond.
        For purposes of subparagraph (A), average maturity shall be 
        determined in accordance with section 147(b)(2)(A).
            ``(5) Office space.--Subsection (b)(2) shall not apply with 
        respect to any qualified governmental building.
            ``(6) No depreciation or investment credit.--No 
        depreciation, amortization, or business credit under section 38 
        shall be allowed with respect to any facility described in 
        subsection (a)(16) which has been financed by the net proceeds 
        of the issue.''.
    (c) Governmentally Owned Requirement.--Section 142(b)(1)(A) of such 
Code is amended by striking ``or (12)'' and inserting ``(12), or 
(16)''.
    (d) Exemption From Volume Cap on Private Activity Bonds.--Section 
146(g)(3) of such Code is amended by striking ``or (15)'' and inserting 
``(15), or (16)''.
    (e) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to bonds issued after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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