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House T&I Subcommittee To Vet Cuts To Water Programs
Tasha Eichenseher, E&E Daily reporter
The House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee is expected to
consider proposed U.S. EPA budget cuts to water programs and fiscal year 2006
priorities at a hearing Wednesday.
President Bush's budget request calls for $450 million in cuts for the EPA, for
a total agency budget of $7.57 billion. The deepest cut to the EPA's budget is a
$361 million reduction in the agency's Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF).
The program, currently funded at nearly $1.1 billion, provides states with loans
to improve water treatment plants.
During a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting last week,
lawmakers from both sides of the aisle questioned EPA on its proposed cut to
CWSRF. In defense of the cut, acting EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson remarked
that the agency's $730 million request for the fund is part of a long-term
commitment the administration has made for the program to provide $6.8 billion
in federal dollars between fiscal years 2006 and 2011.
Once those funds are appropriated, Johnson said the CWSRF will be able to
operate at a sustainable annual level of $3.4 billion.
Senate EPW Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) chimed in to question the
extent of the cuts, arguing that he was "troubled" that both the Bush and
Clinton administrations have targeted the popular water fund as a means to
reduce the agency's overall funding total. Other EPW panel members also
challenged the effects that municipalities across the country would feel should
Bush's budget request for CWSRF get enacted.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said his staff calculated that this year's proposed cut
would mean $3 million less in wastewater loan funding for his state. And Senate
EPW ranking member Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) said the CWSRF cut would leave
Northeastern states with about $106 million less compared with FY '05 (E&E
Daily, Feb. 10).
Lawmakers last year reluctantly granted Bush's last recommendation to reduce
funding for the popular program, and the administration appears intent on
following up with further cuts this year.
Johnson said there was little difference between Bush's overall $7.57 billion
spending plan for the agency when compared with its $8.02 billion enacted level
from Congress for FY '05. The 5.6 percent cut is not so significant, Johnson
said, if one considers the Bush budget removes some $500 million in
lawmaker-written earmarks added during the appropriations process.
Congress historically has reacted negatively to such justification for budget
cuts. At past hearings with top EPA officials, lawmakers have argued quite
forcefully that they know best what funds are needed for water projects in their
districts. And time and again, that displeasure has evolved into the restoration
of most of the administration's recommended reductions.
But this year may be different. Bush is pressing for fiscal discipline in the
wake of a $421 billion federal deficit, and a handful of GOP leaders are showing
an interest in following suit.
Supporters of increased funding for water infrastructure argue that a tight
fiscal climate is not a sufficient reason to cut the federal share of the
revolving loan fund, pointing to the $388 billion gap in funding for water
infrastructure needs over the next 20 years that has been documented in recent
EPA, Congressional Budget Office and Government Accountability Office reports.
"Our view is that the funding cut to the CWSRLF really does demonstrate an
untenable move by the federal government to zero out funding for clean water,"
said Adam Krantz, managing director of government affairs for the Association of
Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, which has floated the idea of a dedicated clean
water trust fund to support infrastructure projects in the long-term in addition
to supporting continued funding for the CWSRLF.
"I support substantially increased federal funding, including the concept of a
trust fund," said Nancy Stoner, director of the Clean Water Project at the
Natural Resources Defense Council. "I think we have a looming crisis in terms of
our sewage system. EPA is predicting as much sewage in our water in 2025 as we
had in the 1960s if we don't step up assistance."
EPA budget cuts also focus on the earmarks and a $20 million grant program to
train wastewater operators and a reduction from $40 million to $15 million in
the Alaska Native Villages drinking water and wastewater program.
Elsewhere, the EPA budget sees status quo funding, or modest gains, from
previous years. The agency's Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund would sit
at roughly the same $850 million level that it has been at in recent years. Same
goes for EPA accounts for the inspector general office ($37 million request),
Leaking Underground Storage Tanks fund ($73 million), and oil spill response
program ($16 million).
EPA's Science and Technology account -- which provides funding for a range of
studies, including the health and environmental effects of air pollution,
drinking water quality and global climate change -- would increase slightly to
$761 million under the Bush budget. In FY '05, Congress rejected a Bush request
to fund the EPA science account at $689 million, instead funding it at $744
million.
Cleanup programs under EPA's Superfund and brownfield programs would see slight
increases compared to FY '05 enacted levels. Superfund would go up by about $30
million to $1.28 billion, with the bulk of those funds geared toward cleanup of
some of the nation's largest and most complex sites. Brownfields funding also
heads up under Bush's budget by some $47 million, to $210 million.
The EPA's Environmental Programs and Management account, among the largest
within the agency's budget, would see a slight increase in FY '06 under Bush's
request. The EPM account would go from $2.29 billion to $2.35 billion, with
increases felt in programs that deal with regional watersheds and homeland
security.
New items tacked into EPA's budget include a request for $44 million to start
the "Water Sentinel" program, a pilot project to help select cities conduct
monitoring and surveillance of their drinking water systems. In all, the Bush
budget seeks $185 million for homeland security-related EPA functions (E&E
Daily, Feb. 8).
Schedule: The hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 16, in 2167
Rayburn.
Witnesses: TBA.
Senior reporter Darren Samuelsohn contributed to this story.