Legislative Update Cover Letter
To: Members & Subscribers
From: National Office
Date: March 1997
The National Office is pleased to provide you with the March 1997
Legislative Update. Following are instructions on how to use
this Update, as well as listing of those bills currently being
tracked by the National Office. The Legislative Update is a monthly
service of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies.
House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee
Fills Remaining Seats
Earlier this month, the Democratic members of the House Transportation
& Infrastructure Committee assigned members to the Water Resources
& Environment Subcommittee and filled two of the three remaining
slots on the full committee. According to a minority committee
staffer, a decision was made to leave one seat on the full committee
vacant for the time being.
The full committee has been focusing its efforts recently on reauthorization
of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA),
the major highway funding bill. AMSA has been carefully monitoring
the progress of hearings for details about environmental programs
that may be included in the legislation. Priority consideration
of the legislation is being driven by the fact that ISTEA expires
on September 30, 1997.
The Subcommittee has also held several hearing on Superfund reauthorization.
AMSA continues to push for inclusion of our amendment exempting
POTWs from liability under the statute key Congressional staff
and other Washington, DC based representatives. See page 8 of
Update for additional information.
Clean Water Hearings Scheduled for April
Representative Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), Chair of the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources
and Environment announced plans to hold hearings before his subcommittee
on April 23 and 24 to address Clean Water Act reauthorization.
As currently planned the hearings will focus on infrastructure
needs on April 23 and wetlands on April 24. The National Office
will be contacting committee staff to discuss AMSA participation
during the hearings.
AMSA Provides Comments to EPA Privatization Paper
On March 13, the National Office, with the assistance of members
of the Privatization Workgroup, produced and forwarded comments
to the Environmental Protection Agency on a draft paper titled
"Response to Congress on Privatization of Wastewater Facilities."
The paper was requested by the House Appropriations Committee
to examine the use of public-private partnerships as a source
of funds to meet
current and future wastewater infrastructure needs. A hearing
on EPA's 1998 budget has been scheduled for April 15 and the paper
was requested as background material for that meeting.
The paper, which was rushed by the Agency at the request of the
Committee, takes a very general look at POTW privatization and
neglects to address many of the issues that AMSA identified in
its two publications. Because of the nature in which the paper
deals with privatization, AMSA is concerned that a reader with
little knowledge of the wastewater field might assume that privatization
is a quick and easy way to remedy local funding shortfalls. AMSA's
comments urged the Agency to perform a more careful evaluation
of wastewater utility privatization and all of its implications
prior to submitting the paper to the House Appropriations Committee.
Copies of AMSA's publications, Evaluating Privatization: An AMSA
Checklist and Managed Competition: Developing and Responding to
RFQs and RFPS were forwarded along with detailed comments.
According to a committee report filed with last year's EPA appropriations
legislation, the House Appropriations Committee has been considering
privatization as a viable alternative to government investment
in wastewater treatment facilities. In their committee report,
Representatives urged EPA to "do everything it can administratively
to remove impediments to such public/private partnerships and
encourage the state and local governments to look to the private
sector instead of the Federal government as the financial source
of choice." To ensure better understanding of the issues
and variables involved, the National Office will forward copies
of both noted AMSA publications to all members of the Appropriations
Committee. Additionally, AMSA is pursuing opportunities to provide
testimony during upcoming hearings.
AMSA Weighs in on Biosolids Labeling Bill
Among the legislation being tracked by the Association is
H.R.289, sponsored by Representative Jose Serrano (D-NY - Bronx),
which would amend the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to require the
labeling of any food or ingredient that was produced on land which
sewage sludge was applied unless application terminated more than
one year before the date on which production began. Staff from
the National Office met recently with Nadine Berg, a legislative
assistant to the Congressman, to discuss the implications of the
legislation and the reasoning behind its introduction. It appears
that the bill is not a high priority of Representative Serrano's
and they do not expect it to see any action. Also attending the
meeting were representatives from the Washington, DC office for
the City of New York and AMSA member agency New York City Department
of Environmental Protection. For additional information on the
meeting and recent action on the legislation, please see page
2 of this Update.
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