AMSA May 2004 Legislative Update

This edition of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies’ (AMSA) Legislative Update, current through June 1, 2004, provides an overview of bills and initiatives 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 website to congressional websites 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” website. To renew or bookmark the Bill Tracker, go to http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Clean Water Funding

Senate Staff Report Progress on Funding Bill to AMSA Members
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) Chairman James Inhofe (R-OK) and Fisheries, Wildlife and Water Subcommittee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) have instructed their staffs to finish writing a water and wastewater infrastructure funding bill that will amend the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Act loan programs. Senate staff briefed AMSA members at AMSA’s National Environmental Policy Forum (NEPF) in Washington, DC on May 25, telling them that the new bill will contain incentives instead of mandates and could be ready for introduction in the Senate early this month. Negotiations between the majority and minority staff to make the bill bipartisan are reportedly on shaky ground. The bill is expected to reauthorize the clean water and drinking water state revolving funds (SRF) for five years for approximately $40 billion. As in the House, Davis-Bacon prevailing wage provisions and the state allocation formula for the distribution of the SRF funds to the states could pose significant hurdles to passage of the bill this year.

AMSA member agency executives and AMSA staff met with EPW staff during the NEPF to discuss the need for more federal funding and less regulation and paperwork. Late last year, AMSA received a request from the leadership of the EPW Committee asking the association to suggest improvements to the loan process under clean water SRF programs. AMSA solicited comments from member wastewater treatment agencies in a December 19, 2003 Legislative Alert LA 03-3 (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legalrts/la03-3.cfm). Comments were compiled and forwarded to the EPW Committee chairs in a January 30, 2004 letter (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/leg_outreach.cfm).

Water Utility Groups Call for More Federal Funding
Representatives of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA0, the American Water Works Association (AWWA), and the National Rural Water Association (NRWA) testified April 28 at a hearing of the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee entitled ‘Aging Water Supply Infrastructure’. Witnesses at the hearing that was prompted by increased lead levels in Washington, DC’s water provided testimony on both water supply and wastewater infrastructure funding needs. The Mayor David G. Wallace of Sugar Land, Texas, representing the USCM’s Urban Water Council, identified three basic approaches to help cities finance the water and wastewater infrastructure necessary to comply with clean and safe drinking water laws. Those included grants, 30-year no-interest loans, and greater use of Private Activity Bonds.

AMSA member Jerry N. Johnson, General Manager, District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority in Washington, D.C. testified that a lack of increased federal funding for drinking water could jeopardize public health. He also testified that inadequate funding for wastewater infrastructure could result in rivers and lakes that are unsuitable for fishing, swimming, and as sources of drinking water which would lead to reduced property values and declining ecosystem vitality. Johnson also called for a long-term federal investment, increased user rates and better utility management.

Howard Neukrug, Director of the Office of Watersheds for the Philadelphia Water Department testified that AWWA believes “that significant federal assistance, including grants, is necessary and justified to help meet the cost of these very expensive federal mandates on water and wastewater utilities, and to meet the costs of infrastructure repair and replacement that have been, in many cases, deferred because federal mandates have consumed the ratepayer’s budget.” The last witness, Mr. Ralph McCarter, P.E., General Manager, First Utility District of Knox County in Knoxville, Tennessee testified that the NRWA believes that communities exhibiting the greatest need should receive funding first, that funding should not be limited to loans, and that a minimum portion of the funds should be set aside for small systems. Copies of the hearing testimony are available on the Subcommittee’s website (http://www.house.gov/transportation/).

Members of the Subcommittee voiced their frustration with the lack of public awareness of the infrastructure problems and stated that few voters talk about the infrastructure funding need when the Representatives are home in their Districts. AMSA will begin to address this issue through a grassroots and communications effort this year as part of the work of the AMSA Clean Water Funding Task Force (formerly the AMSA Wastewater Infrastructure Funding Task Force). AMSA distributed a press release at the hearing in support of both increased funding for the state revolving funds and for the establishment of a long-term funding mechanism (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/releases/042604.cfm).

Budget and Appropriations

The House passed on May 19 the fiscal year (FY) 2005 budget resolution conference report, sending it across the Capitol to the Senate where Republicans were unable to garner enough votes to pass the measure before adjourning for the Memorial Day recess. Earlier in the process, the Senate passed an amendment to its budget bill that added $3 billion in spending authority for the clean water and drinking water state revolving loan (SRF) programs. Conference report documents reveal that the additional $3 billion for the SRFs was not included in the budget deal. With a final budget for the year now in jeopardy, the FY 2005 appropriations process will proceed in June without the budget guidelines. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young (R-FL) intends to begin marking up Homeland Security, Military Construction, Legislative Branch and Defense appropriations bills the first week in June.

AMSA Asks Appropriators to Add Billions to SRFs in VA-HUD Bill
AMSA continues to work with a broad coalition of organizations in Washington, DC to convince Congress to increase the amount of money it appropriates to the clean water and drinking water state revolving loan funds (SRFs). After the Senate provided for $5.2 billion in budget authority for the SRFs in their fiscal year (FY) 2005 budget resolution, AMSA urged Members of Congress to follow up the Senate’s action with full funding during the appropriations process. The Senate amendment, had it been adopted in the final conference report, would have made it easier for appropriators to fund the clean water SRF at $3.2 billion and the drinking water SRF at $2 billion in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget in the FY 2005 VA-HUD & Independent Agencies appropriations bill. Fifty-three Senators signed a May 11 letter (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/co/2004-05-11H2oapp.pdf) to the chair and ranking member of the House Subcommittee on VA, HUD & Independent Agencies asking for the $5.2 billion for the SRFs. AMSA also has advocated support for the increase in numerous letters to budget conferees and to the full House and Senate. The letters (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/outreach/2004-03-06SRF.doc) have been signed by a diverse group of environmental, municipal, state and labor organizations in support of the increased funding. AMSA continued its advocacy with another round of letters June 3 to House and Senate appropriators requesting that the additional $5.2 billion be included in the VA-HUD bill (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/co/2004-06-03apph.doc).

AMSA Optimistic on Funding for National Biosolids Partnership
House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on VA-HUD-Independent Agencies have begun work on their fiscal year (FY) 2005 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. According to Roll Call, a publication that tracks congressional activity, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young (R-FL) has told his 13 subcommittee chairmen to keep Member projects – or earmarks – in their bills to a minimum. There is no firm commitment yet from the Subcommittees to add $1 million for the NBP program.

AMSA members attending the National Environmental Policy Forum in May in Washington, DC received priority issue packets to distribute to their Members of Congress during their office visits. The NBP funding request was included in the AMSA issue packet. Earlier this year, AMSA member POTWs were asked to sign a funding request letter to Congress at the AMSA Winter Conference in Los Angeles, Calif. This letter was sent to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate appropriations committees and subcommittees and is posted on AMSA’s website in the Legislative Correspondence and Outreach section (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/leg_outreach.cfm). Individual agencies that have Members of Congress on the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees were contacted by AMSA and asked to write a letter urging their Member to request that $1 million for the NBP be included in EPA’s budget for FY 2005. A copy of the memorandum to AMSA members can be found on the AMSA website at http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/leg_outreach.cfm. Members should click on the March 11 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 (www.amsa-cleanwater.org).

Water Quality

Transportation Conferees Will Consider Stormwater Amendment
By a vote of 410-0, the House on April 28 adopted a motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 4219, to provide a two-month extension of highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety, transit, and other programs funded out of the Highway Trust Fund pending enactment of a law reauthorizing the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA 21). The extension was necessary as House, Senate and the White House continue discussions on a new six-year highway bill. However, negotiations during May yielded little progress as the White House continued to meet with House and Senate leaders to press for a less costly bill.

Of interest to AMSA members is the Senate-passed Safe, Affordable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003 (SAFETEA) (S. 1072) that contains the utility-supported amendment to set-aside 2 percent – approximately $958 million over six years – for states to mitigate stormwater runoff from highways. The amendment to the Senate’s $318 billion highway construction and repair package received bipartisan support and would provide funds for projects such as stormwater retrofits, the recharge of groundwater, natural filters, stream restoration, minimization of stream bank erosion, and innovative technologies. AMSA will join with other stakeholder organizations on a letter to transportation conferees in early June urging their support for the stormwater provision. AMSA also sent several letters to EPW Senators urging their support for the amendment (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/advocacy/releases/2003-11-11-03cornyn.pdf).

The House-passed legislation, a six-year, $284 billion highway and transit funding bill (H.R. 3550), does not contain the set-aside. AMSA staff has joined with other stakeholder groups in meetings in the House to push for the funding. House members are showing a reluctance to support a diversion of the highway money for environmental purposes.

The nation’s highway programs will continue to operate under the two-month extension of the old highway bill, TEA 21, until the end of June. If an agreement has not been reached by then, Congress will likely postpone action on the bill until next year and extend the program once again into 2005.

Bush Makes Recess Appointment for 2 EPA Nominees
President Bush announced recess appointments for two of his four nominees for vacant positions at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Four EPA nominees had their confirmations placed on hold in late March in the Senate. Bush bypassed the Senate on May 29 and announced the appointments of Ann Klee as EPA General Counsel and Charles Johnson as the new Chief Financial Officer.

Still awaiting confirmation in the Senate are Acting Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water, Ben Grumbles, and Stephen Johnson, the nominee for the deputy administrator’s job. Grumbles, a former House staffer to the Water Resources Subcommittee and to Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), has been acting in his position since January. The four candidates are being opposed for confirmation by Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee Ranking Member James Jeffords (I-VT). Jeffords is waiting for information he requested from EPA back in October 2003. Although Jeffords is the only Senator that placed a formal hold on a confirmation vote on the EPA candidates, other Senators agreed that the agency should respond to the request before the nominees are voted into office.