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AMSA Legislative Update March 2003

Member Pipeline - Legislative - March 2003 Update

To: Members, Affiliates,
Legislative Policy Committee, Legal Affairs Committee
From: National Office
Date: April 8, 2003

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This edition of AMSA’s Legislative Update, current through April 4, 2003, provides an overview of the disposition of bills of interest to the nation’s publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) in the 108th Congress. For more detailed information regarding AMSA activities related to specific legislation, click on the web links at the end of selected news items, or contact AMSA’s Lee Garrigan at 202/833-4655 or lgarrigan@amsa-cleanwater.org.

AMSA members can track congressional action on individual bills 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 bookmark the Bill Tracker, go to http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

 

Clean Water Funding

AMSA Board Member Testifies in House on Behalf of WIN
William B. Schatz, General Counsel, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Cleveland, Ohio delivered testimony in March on behalf of the Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) before the House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee. Schatz’s testimony at the hearing, entitled "Meeting the Nation's Wastewater Infrastructure Needs", reaffirmed the enormous infrastructure funding shortfall as reported by WIN, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the General Accounting Office, and the Congressional Budget Office. Schatz called on subcommittee members to address not only a short-term solution to current wastewater treatment agency needs but also to take a leading role in the development of a long-term, sustainable funding solution to narrow the gap. The Subcommittee’s Ranking Member, Jerry Costello (D-IL) responded to the testimony by saying, “as long as we continue to compete for funding out of general revenue, we are going to have challenges and funding problems. Until we get a dedicated source of revenue to address this problem it is going to continue to be with us.” Schatz was joined at the witness table by representatives of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators, Prince Georges County Department of Environmental Resources (Maryland), National Utility Contractors Association, and the Rural Community Assistance Program.

AMSA will provide Subcommittee Chairman John J. Duncan (R-TN) and Rep. Costello with additional information on AMSA’s initiative to research and identify revenue sources that could provide a long-term source of funding for wastewater infrastructure (see related story). The witnesses’ testimony is posted on the House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee web site at: http://www.house.gov/transportation. Click on the Subcommittee, and then click on Hearings/Testimony. WIN’s testimony is also available at: www.win-water.org.

House Chairmen Introduce Wastewater Funding Bill
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-AK) and Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) introduced April 2 legislation to reauthorize the clean water state revolving loan fund (CWSRF). The Water Quality Financing Act of 2003 (H.R. 1560) was introduced two weeks after a hearing on the funding needs of the nation’s wastewater treatment agencies (see related story). The Congressmen said the bill, which is similar to last year’s measure (H.R. 3930), reflects the enormous funding gap for wastewater infrastructure, the growing Federal budget deficit and the need for all levels of government to increase their investment in wastewater infrastructure.

H.R. 1560 would, among other things, 1) authorize $20 billion over five years to capitalize the CWSRFs, 2) authorize $1 billion over four years for sewer overflow control grants, 3) require states to use at least 15 percent of the state grants to provide assistance to communities of less than 20,000, 4) require all loan applicants to certify to the state that they have analyzed the cost and effectiveness of alternative management and financing approaches (including rate structures, issuance of bonds, restructuring, regional alternatives, consolidation, and public-private partnerships), 5) develop and implement a fiscal sustainability plan that includes an inventory of critical assets, evaluation of the condition of assets, and a plan for maintaining and replacing assets, and 6) provide subsidization to disadvantaged communities through 30-year repayment periods, forgiveness of loan principal, and negative interest loans.

Committee staff anticipate a May mark-up. Democrats are expected to successfully attach Davis-Bacon prevailing wage provisions to the bill during the mark-up. Last year, the Davis-Bacon provision ultimately prevented H.R. 3930 from reaching the House floor for a vote. AMSA staff continues its discussion with Committee staff on issues of concern to AMSA members in both the short-term funding bill and to ensure a long-term funding solution to finance wastewater infrastructure. To read or download a copy of H.R. 1560, go to AMSA’s Bill Tracker at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Support for Kelly-Tauscher Bill Grows
Support for the Clean Water Infrastructure Financing Act of 2003 (H.R. 20) introduced in early January by Reps. Sue Kelly (R-NY) and Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) has grown to 112 House Members. The bill includes an authorization of $25 billion for the clean water state revolving fund (CWSRF) over a five year period, Davis-Bacon Act wage provisions, and language on asset management. AMSA provided comments on the bill to Rep. Kelly in early January.

In the Senate, Ohio Senator George Voinovich (R) introduced in mid-January the Clean Water Infrastructure Financing Act of 2003 (S.170) which authorizes $3 billion per year for fiscal years 2003 through 2007 for the CWSRF and would provide grant funding for disadvantaged communities and technical assistance for small communities. Copies of H.R. 20 and S. 170 are available on AMSA’s Bill Tracker at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Timetable for Senate Committee Bill Slips
Last year in the Senate, the Water Investment Act of 2002 (S. 1961) was reported out of the Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) along party lines but never made it to the floor for a vote. AMSA declined to support the bill due to the inclusion of numerous controversial new mandates on POTWs. Other stakeholder groups voiced opposition to the prevailing wage provision and the funding formula for distribution of the funds to the states. Although the chairmanship of the EPW has changed hands, new Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK) has vowed to try to work in a bipartisan manner to introduce new wastewater infrastructure funding legislation this session. The Sen. Inhofe’s first priority, however, is the massive highway trust fund reauthorization bill which could delay introduction of a wastewater bill until late this year. AMSA continues to urge the committee to draft a simplified and streamlined measure that addresses both short-term and long-term funding for wastewater treatment agencies. During the April Congressional recess, members of the Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) plan to conduct a briefing for Senate EPW staff to review the key components of a water and wastewater infrastructure funding bill.

AMSA Task Force Projects Up and Running
The AMSA Infrastructure Funding Task Force has received a final strategic plan to guide the efforts of the Task Force over the next several years. In keeping with the plan, members approved a new project that will research and identify possible revenue sources to finance a wastewater trust fund. Also approved were a white paper that will respond to recent arguments by EPA and others that better utility management and full cost-of-service rate pricing will substantially close the funding gap and a project to synthesize some of the information in the AMSA 2002 Financial Survey to make it more focused and user friendly. The final project that received approval, also in keeping with the strategic plan, was for a message development session and a poll by well-known pollster Frank Luntz. Luntz will release the results of the poll at AMSA’s 2003 National Environmental Policy Forum & 33rd Annual Meeting (NEPF) and at a press event on Capitol Hill on May 20. The Task Force will meet during NEPF on Sunday, May 18. For more information on the NEPF, go to http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/meetings/03nepf.

Wet Weather Bills Introduced
U.S. Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) introduced bipartisan legislation (H.R. 784) in February that would authorize $1.5 billion in grants over 2004 and 2005 to help communities invest in their wastewater systems. The Water Quality Investment Act of 2003 would extend by two years a law which was enacted in 2001 and that provided $1.5 billion in grants over two years for planning, design, and construction of treatment works to control or treat municipal combined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer overflows. AMSA supported the original Wet Weather Water Quality Act of 2000 which also authorized a three-year, $45 million grant program for wet weather watershed pilot projects. Camp’s bill now has 28 cosponsors. An identical bill (S. 567) was introduced last month in the Senate by Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME). AMSA supports both the extension of the authorization and the appropriation of funding for the grants. The text of the two-page bills, which amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, can be found on AMSA’s Bill Tracker at: http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

 

Budget and Appropriations

Senators Add Billions to SRFs in Budget Resolution
Senators Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), James Jeffords (I-VT), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Bob Graham (D-FL) successfully added $3 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure to the Senate budget resolution for fiscal year (FY) 2004. The extra money would provide a total of $5.2 billion for the clean water and drinking water state revolving loan funds (SRFs) for FY 2004. AMSA’s support of the increased funding was recognized in remarks on the Senate floor during the debate. The House budget resolution contains no funding provisions for the SRFs. A small number of lawmakers from both chambers will meet to develop a budget report which is a consensus agreement between the House and the Senate. AMSA agencies with House or Senate members on the conference committee have been contacted and asked to communicate their support for the increased Senate SRF funding level to their lawmakers. To review the letter of support for increased SRF funding, go to the Member Pipeline section of the AMSA web site at: http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/leg_outreach.cfm.

National Biosolids Partnership Seeks AMSA Member Support
The House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on VA-HUD-Independent Agencies are expected to approve this month their fiscal year (FY) 2004 budgets for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) including AMSA’s request of $1 million to fund the activities of the National Biosolids Partnership (NBP) for next year. AMSA members that have a Representative or Senator as a member of the Appropriations Committees have been asked to write a letter urging their Member to request that $1 million for the NBP be included in EPA’s budget for FY 2004.

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 April 4 correspondence “Selected AMSA Members asked to Contact Congressional Appropriators on NBP Funding.” A sample letter that AMSA members can personalize and send to their Representative or Senator is available from Write Congress Now, which is located on the home page of AMSA’s website at www.amsa-cleanwater.org. AMSA encourages all of its members to support the $1 million funding request for the NBP.

 

Wastewater Security

House Wastewater Security Bill Awaits Floor Vote
The House T&I Committee approved in late February the Wastewater Treatment Works Security Act of 2003 (H.R. 866). AMSA members and staff last year worked extensively with the Committee to get a nearly identical bill passed through the House and had urged Committee Chairman Don Young (R-AK) and Ranking Member James Oberstar (D-MN) to move quickly to reintroduce the measure this year. The bill would authorize $200 million for POTWs to conduct vulnerability assessments and to pay for enhanced security at their facilities. An additional $15 million would pay for technical assistance to small POTWs. Another $5 million would be made available to EPA to make grants to nonprofit organizations for the improvement of vulnerability self-assessment methodologies and tools for POTWs. That provision could potentially fund upgrades to and training on AMSA’s Vulnerability Self Assessment Tool (VSAT™) software over the coming years. AMSA will continue to work with Members and staff to move the bill to the House floor.

Wastewater Security Bill Battle Anticipated in Senate
Senate Republicans and Democrats are gearing up for what appears to be a partisan battle over competing wastewater security bills. Former Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee Chairman James Jeffords (I-VT) introduced the Wastewater Treatment Works Security and Safety Act of 2003 (S. 779) April 3. Current EPW Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK) was working toward the introduction of a bipartisan bill similar to the House measure (H.R. 866) when Jeffords, in apparent disagreement with Inhofe’s approach, introduced legislation that is nearly identical to the bill he passed out of the EPW Committee in 2002.

Last year’s Wastewater Treatment Works Security and Safety Act (S. 3037), which Jeffords resurrected earlier this year and included as Title V of the Comprehensive Homeland Security Act of 2003 (S.6), was not supported by the municipal wastewater treatment community. This year’s bill would authorize $180 million for fiscal years 2004 through 2008 for wastewater treatment plants to perform vulnerability assessments, prepare emergency response plans, and implement basic security enhancements; $20 million for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 to address immediate and urgent security needs as determined by the EPA Administrator; $15 million for FY 2004 for treatment works that serve a population of under 10,000 people; and $15 million annually for fiscal years 2004-2008 to ensure the continued development of wastewater security technologies. The final authorization is for $500,000 to improve vulnerability self-assessment tools for POTWs. The proposal would require wastewater treatment agencies to submit both vulnerability assessments and emergency response plans to EPA, a requirement that is vigorously opposed by AMSA, and which is not required by H.R. 866. H.R. 866 requires only that POTWs certify that they have performed vulnerability assessments in order to receive funding for security enhancements.

The Jeffords proposal was co-sponsored by Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Bob Graham (D-FL) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT). AMSA will continue to press Congress to pass and fund balanced wastewater infrastructure security legislation in the 108th Congress. Copies of S. 6, H.R. 866, and S. 779 can be found on AMSA’s Bill Tracker at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Administration to Propose Chemical Security Bill
The Bush Administration plans to introduce legislation this month that would require vulnerability assessments by as many as 15,000 facilities that currently are required to submit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Risk Management Plans (RMPs) under Section 112(r) of the Clean Air Act. The bill is expected to be introduced by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK). AMSA estimated last year that approximately 30 percent of member agencies would be subjected to the requirements of a chemical security bill.

Proposed chemical security legislation from last year has already been reintroduced in the 108th Congress by Senate Democrats and included as Title XI of the Comprehensive Homeland Security Act of 2003 (S. 6) and as the Chemical Security Act of 2003 (S. 157) by Sen. Jon Corzine (D-NJ). The Senate EPW Committee unanimously approved last year’s bill but the chemical industry strongly opposed a requirement to submit vulnerability assessments and response plans to EPA. The Administration’s bill is expected to designate the Department of Homeland Security as the sole recipient of information. Significantly, unlike the Corzine bill, the administration’s proposal is not expected to include a requirement for facilities to switch to inherently safer technologies, such as less toxic chemicals. Staff also has been discussing the possible inclusion of a provision that would address facilities currently required to complete vulnerability assessments and response plans under other laws. AMSA has expressed to House and Senate staff the need to quickly pass wastewater security legislation in order for treatment plants to be covered under this provision.

In the House, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, announced plans in March to introduce legislation to improve security and reduce hazards at chemical facilities around the nation. His announcement coincided with the release of a U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) report, done at the request of Pallone and U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell (D-MI), ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, that found, with regard to terrorist threats, that no federal agency has assessed the extent of security preparedness of chemical plants and no federal requirements are in place to require chemical plants to assess their vulnerabilities and take steps to reduce them. Click on the following links to read the GAO reports released by the Committee: Homeland Security: EPA's Management of Clean Air Act Chemical Facility Data GAO-03-509R, March 18, Accessible Text ; Homeland Security: Voluntary Initiatives Are Under Way at Chemical Facilities, but the Extent of Security Preparedness Is Unknown GAO-03-439, March 18, Highlights Accessible Text. AMSA will continue to work with the Committees to secure passage of fair and reasonable chemical security legislation. Copies of S. 6 and S. 157 can be found on AMSA’s Bill Tracker at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

 

Environmental Protection

Mercury Reduction Act Goes to Mark-up
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced in March the Mercury Reduction Act of 2003 (S.616), a bill that would amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to reduce the quantity of mercury in the environment by limiting the use of mercury fever thermometers and improving the collection and proper management of mercury. The Senate voted unanimously in September 2002 to pass last year’s Collins bill. Like last year’s legislation, S. 616 would create a task force of Federal agencies to find ways to reduce the mercury threat to humans and the environment. AMSA will ask Sen. Collins (R-ME) to expand the purpose of the proposed task force to include the development of a national strategy to deal with all aspects of mercury pollution. S. 616 can be found on AMSA’s Bill Tracker at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

AMSA Raises Watershed Rule Profile on Hill
AMSA has been active in both the House and Senate to inform legislative staff of the perilous status of the “watershed rule,” which if proposed, will continue the public discussion on how to best reform the total maximum daily load (TMDL) program. In mid-February, ranking minority member of the Senate EPW Committee Jim Jeffords (I-VT) sent a letter to EPA Administrator Christie Whitman raising concerns that any steps to propose new TMDL rules "could slow needed progress by additional decades by relaxing schedules for setting [pollution limits], reducing EPA's oversight role, allowing states to reclassify polluted waters as clean and adopting other weakening changes to the current program." The letter, which makes several inaccurate statements about the existing TMDL regulations, was cosigned by a number of Democrats, including Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachusetts and Barbara Boxer of California.

In the wake of the Democratic letter, AMSA and other stakeholders, including the states, governors, and nonpoint source groups, are urging moderate Democratic and Republican senators to express their desire that the TMDL package, or ‘Watershed Rule’, move forward. AMSA staff has obtained a draft copy of the watershed proposal and will review the document to verify that it contains the expected improvements over the existing 1985/1992 TMDL regulations. AMSA’s hope is to secure Senate and House letters favoring the watershed package in the near future.