[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 79 (Wednesday, May 10, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S1606]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KAINE (for himself and Mr. Warner):
  S. 1523. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow 
rehabilitation expenditures for public school buildings to qualify for 
rehabilitation credit; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. KAINE. Madam President, today I want to discuss legislation I am 
introducing, the School Infrastructure Modernization Act, with my 
colleague Senator Warner.
  To claim the Federal tax credit for historic preservation, a building 
renovation must be for a different purpose than that for which the 
building was previously used, a requirement known as the prior use 
rule. This bill waives that requirement for renovations of K-12 public 
school buildings. This will make it easier to restore historic-but-
dilapidated school buildings across the country so our children have 
safe, modern spaces in which to learn.
  As a Richmond City Council member and later mayor, I faced challenges 
familiar to many municipalities--overcrowded schools, aging buildings, 
and limited dollars in the budget. But in one particular case, I and a 
group of local stakeholders identified a creative solution. On one 
hand, we had an overcrowded Thomas Jefferson High School with in-zone 
and magnet students. On the other hand, we had a closed Maggie Walker 
High School that needed renovations. We put together a financing 
package that made use of Federal and State historic tax credits to 
renovate Maggie Walker High School and satisfied the prior use rule by 
consolidating the magnet program from Thomas Jefferson into a new 
Maggie Walker Governor's School for Government and International 
Studies. Today, some 30 years later, this is one of America's highest 
performing public high schools. Without the Federal historic tax 
credit, this would have been too expensive to make happen.
  This bill will make it easier to do similar projects around the 
country. More modern school buildings will bolster the quality of 
public education, and carrying out these projects will generate private 
sector infrastructure investment and jobs. In Virginia alone, according 
to a 2021 study, more than 1,000 K-12 schools are at least 50 years 
old, representing more than half of all the K-12 schools in the 
Commonwealth.
  I encourage my colleagues to support this commonsense incentive that 
is good for education, good for infrastructure, and good for jobs.
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