By Bob Katzen

House 154-0, approved a bill that would leverage the interest from the state’s Rainy Day Fund to better compete for federal dollars, to ensure the state receives the maximum possible share of federal funds and to pay down the state’s long term debt liabilities. The Rainy Day Fund currently has a historic balance of $8.2 billion.

The Senate already approved a different version of the bill in January. A House-Senate conference committee will likely hammer out a compromise version.

“This legislation expands our commonwealth’s competitive edge as we compete for federal funds and pay down our debt obligations,” said Rep. Jack Lewis (D-Framingham), chair of the House Committee on Federal Stimulus and Census Oversight Committee. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act, all contain time-sensitive opportunities for our commonwealth and our local communities — opportunities that require us to have matching resources available. The passage of this bill today ensures that we can properly compete for all available federal funds.

“Ensuring that the commonwealth is able to aggressively compete for the federal funding being made available to states is critical, especially given the challenging revenue conditions that we are facing here in Massachusetts this fiscal year,” said House Speaker Ron Mariano (D-Quincy). “It’s vital that Massachusetts does everything that it can to share in that prosperity.”

(A “Yes” vote is for the bill.)

Rep. Christine Barber Yes Rep. Mike Connolly Yes Rep. Paul Donato Yes Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven Yes