AMSA Legislative Update March 2002

The National Office is pleased to provide you with this issue of the Legislative Update, which is current through April 1, 2002. The Legislative Update provides a summary of recent activities that impact AMSA's membership. For more detailed information regarding AMSA's position on or activities related to any specific bill, go to the web links at the end of selected news items, or contact AMSA's National Office at 202/833-AMSA or info@amsa-cleanwater.org.

AMSA members can track congressional action on specific legislation through AMSA's Bill Tracker. The Tracker provides a direct link from AMSA's web site to Congressional web sites where bill texts and summaries are posted, allowing members to research relevant federal legislation. The site also includes the status and most recent action taken on all federal legislation through a link to the Library of Congress' "Thomas" web site. To increase the value of this essential resource, the Bill Tracker is routinely updated on the AMSA web site. To bookmark the Bill Tracker, go to http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Clean Water Funding

House Committee Approves Wastewater SRF Funding Bill
The House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee introduced their version of a wastewater infrastructure funding bill just hours before receiving testimony on the proposal on March 13. The Water Quality Financing Act of 2002 (H.R. 3930) was the focus of the hearing before members of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. Among other things, the bill authorizes $20 billion over five years for the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund. Patrick T. Karney, Director of the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, Ohio, testified on behalf of AMSA. A week later, and with no changes to the original bill language, the T&I Committee unanimously passed H.R. 3930 out of committee. The only amendment that was offered and subsequently approved was to make SRF funds subject to prevailing wage rates (Davis Bacon).

AMSA continues to voice its concern over language in the bill that would place additional administrative, paperwork and possible regulatory burdens on grant applicants. AMSA is working with Congressional members and staff to get clarifying and explanatory language into the report, which will accompany the legislation to the House floor. The report language will provide further instruction on and interpretation
of specific provisions of the bill to the partners in the program, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state clean water and financial managers and SRF applicants.

Meantime, the cosponsors of the bill, T&I Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) and Ranking Member Jim Oberstar (D-MN), and Water Resources Subcommittee Chairman John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) and Ranking Member Pete DeFazio (D-OR), are circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter to House members asking them to support the bill. Members of the House Water Infrastructure Caucus (WIC) also will be asked to become cosponsors of the bill.

As AMSA works to favorably change the House bill, we are asking members to write letters to their Representatives to encourage them to become cosponsors of H.R. 3930. To view a sample letter and contact your Congressman, go to the March 26 Fax Alert Special Edition, posted on AMSA's website at: http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/faxalerts/032602.cfm on AMSA's web site.

With less than 30 legislative days left this year, Chairman Young would like to take H.R. 3930 to the House floor in late spring. However, the bill would first have to go to the Ways and Means Committee due to bill's inclusion of private activity bond language.

The White House has expressed firm opposition to the $20 billion funding level in the bill, but has looked favorably upon the provisions being opposed by AMSA and other state and local organizations. Officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have said the authorization levels are not in keeping with the President's current budget priorities and that they will continue to lobby the bill's sponsors to drastically reduce the $20 billion price tag.

Boehlert Research Bill is Companion to H.R. 3930
House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert has introduced the Water Quality Research, Development, and Technology Demonstration Act (H.R. 3996), a $500 million, five-year wastewater research bill that he anticipates will become part of the Water Quality Financing Act of 2002 when it reaches the House floor. Among other things, H.R. 3996 amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) to authorize the EPA Administrator to make grants to nonprofit organizations to provide technical and information assistance for rural and small treatment works. Before being considered in tandem with H.R. 3930, the bill must first be passed by both Boehlert's Science Committee and the T&I Committee. To read a copy of the bill, go to the Bill Tracker on AMSA's website at: http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Markup of Senate Bill Delayed until April
The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee delayed until after the spring recess further consideration of its version of a combined water and wastewater infrastructure funding bill, S. 1961, the Water Investment Act of 2002. A copy of the bill can be found on AMSA's web site at: http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legalrts/la02-1.cfm. The $35 billion, five-year bill amends the funding provisions of the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act, would end federal funding at the end of five years, and would place additional burdens on SRF applicants.

The bill, now scheduled for mark up on April 11, is expected to contain several modifications, including a labor amendment that would require workers on SRF-funded projects to receive local prevailing wages under the Davis-Bacon law. Meantime, AMSA has met continuously with the staff of EPW Committee Chairman Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) and ranking member Robert Smith (R-N.H.) in an effort to eliminate or modify new requirements in the areas of asset management, the consideration of consolidation or alternative management structures, and other specific technical, managerial, and financial decisions that currently reside with municipal officials at the local level. AMSA's recommended modifications to S. 1961 were fully detailed in Legislative Alert 02-02, available at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legalrts/la02-2.cfm. Further details can also be found in AMSA's February 28 testimony before Senate EPW Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water delivered by Association Vice President Paul Pinault of the Narragansett Bay Commission. A copy of AMSA's testimony can be accessed at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/testimony/5-23-01testimony.cfm. Pinault called for the addition of a grant component and additional funding to address core infrastructure needs. He also requested the deletion of the majority of the new administrative and regulatory requirements, recommending instead that the bill provide incentives to local communities to employ best management practices.

As was the case with the House bill, the White House opposes the funding levels in S. 1961. The bill authorizes over $20 billion for clean water and $15 billion for safe drinking water over five years, and would make the funds available to both public and privately owned systems. At the end of the five years it is the intent of the cosponsors to end the annual federal contribution to the state revolving loan funds and allow them to become self-sufficient. In a related action, the Bush administration's $7.7 billion budget request to Congress for EPA for fiscal year 2003 would totally eliminate funding for the clean water state revolving fund in 2006 (see related story under EPA Budget).

EPA Budget

EPA Cuts SRF in Proposed 2003 Budget
EPA sent a $7.7 billion proposed budget for fiscal year (FY) 2003 to Congress in early February. The Administration is asking lawmakers to approve $1.212 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund (CWSRF), a decrease of $138 million from FY 2002, and $850 million for the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund (DWSRF), the same amount enacted by Congress last year. EPA's proposed budget also requests $124 million in new funding, out of a total EPA investment of $133.4 million, in homeland security, including $16.9 million to conduct drinking water system vulnerability assessments on small to mid-sized systems. Reaction was immediate to the proposed levels of funding for the SRFs as Congressional supporters, including Senate majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) and the Water Infrastructure Network (WIN), called on appropriators to increase the funding levels for both SRFs to help ease the backlog of the nation's water infrastructure projects.

The administration's proposed budget would zero out federal funding for the CWSRF in 2006, according to Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on VA-HUD and Independent Agencies. At a March 20 hearing on EPA's budget, Mikulski told EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman that the "move may be a budget gimmick by the White House Office of Management and Budget." Mikulski also expressed concerns over the current funding formula for allocating funds to the states. The current formula, based on 1970 census data, has prompted Western Senators to call for the reauthorization of the CWSRF.

The Northeast Midwest Congressional Coalition (NEMW) also is calling on Members of Congress to weigh-in with appropriators to fund higher appropriations levels for the CWSRF, DWSRF and the Section 319 Non-point Source Pollution Grants program through "Dear Colleague" letters. Additionally, the House letter asks members to support $450 million for the Wet Weather Water Quality Act (WWWQA), which was signed into law in 2000 but remains unfunded. Copies of the letters can be found on the NEMW web site at: http://www.nemw.org/news.htm#approps.

National Biosolids Partnership Seeks Support
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on VA-HUD-Independent Agencies has not included in next year's budget for EPA AMSA's request of $1.5 million to fund the activities of the National Biosolids Partnership (NBP) for fiscal year (FY) 2003.

AMSA has contacted members in those States that have Senators on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and has requested these members to write to their Senators to request that the full $1.5 million for the NBP be included in EPA's budget for FY 2003. A copy of the memorandum to AMSA members can be found on the AMSA web site at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/leg_outreach.cfm. Members should then click on the March 27 correspondence "Selected AMSA Members asked to Contact Senate Appropriators on NBP Funding." AMSA also has sent to appropriators in the House and the Senate copies of the NBP resolution signed by members at the AMSA Winter conference in February 2002. To view or download a copy of the resolution, go to: http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/02-06-02nbpletter.pdf on AMSA's web site.