NACWA Legislative Update May 2005

This edition of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies’ Legislative Update, current through May 31, 2005, provides information on the activities of the 109th Congress of interest to the nation’s publicly owned treatment works (POTWs). For more detailed information regarding NACWA activities related to specific legislation, click on the web links at the end of selected news items, or contact NACWA’s Lee Garrigan at 202/833-4655 or lgarrigan@nacwa.org.

NACWA members can track congressional action on individual bills through NACWA’s Bill Tracker. The Tracker provides a direct link from NACWA’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.nacwa.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm.

Budget and Appropriations

House Passes EPA Budget Amid Blending Controversy
The U.S. House of Representatives May 19 approved the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget for fiscal year (FY) 2006 after accepting an anti-blending amendment offered by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) during consideration of the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 (H.R. 2361) on the House floor (www.nacwa.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm). The amendment states that no fiscal year 2006 “funds from EPA’s budget may be used to finalize, issue, implement, or enforce the proposed [November 2003] policy of the EPA” (http://www.nacwa.org/advocacy/co/2005-05-19STUPAK.PDF).

NACWA asked its members to take action in a May 15 Special Edition FaxAlert (http://www.nacwa.org/private/faxalerts/051205.cfm)  and also organized a May 16 coalition letter signed by 42 municipal, state and regional stakeholder groups (http://www.nacwa.org/advocacy/co/2005-05-16blend.pdf) opposing the blending amendment. NACWA then prepared and distributed a May 19 ‘Truth Alert’ (http://www.nacwa.org/advocacy/co/2005-05-19btruth.pdf) to all members of the House. The scare tactics used in the anti-blending campaign by some of the nation’s largest environmental activist groups alarmed many Representatives. NACWA staff and member utilities worked with municipal leaders and others to contact and meet with House members to ‘set the record straight.’

Although EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin Grumbles withdrew the November 2003 blending policy guidance document (http://www.nacwa.org/advocacy/co/2005-05-19blendltr.pdf) just hours before the bill went to the House floor, the amendment was introduced and ultimately accepted as part of the House measure. Due to EPA’s withdrawal of the guidance, NACWA does not expect blending to be an issue in the Senate deliberations of its version of EPA’s budget, currently scheduled for action in the Senate Interior and Related Agencies Subcommittee on June 7.

House Agrees to Clean Water SRF Cut
NACWA has continued its work with a diverse coalition of municipal, state, environmental and other stakeholder groups to urge Congress to restore full funding for clean water infrastructure projects. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies increased the fiscal year (FY) 2006 budget for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in May but was unable to restore the large cut to the clean water state revolving fund (CWSRF) that was proposed earlier this year by the White House. In February 2005, the Bush Administration proposed to cut the CWSRF by nearly one-third ($361 million), from $1.09 billion in FY 2005 to $730 million in FY 2006. The subcommittee recommended a funding level of $850 million in the Interior bill, adding $120 million to the President’s request. The full House Appropriations Committee approved the subcommittee’s recommended funding level, which was passed by the House May 19 as part of the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (H.R.2361) (http://www.nacwa.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm).

The Appropriations Committee set aside $200 million for ‘congressional priorities’ that primarily fund individual projects in members’ districts, $40 million for programs of national and regional significance in the Science and Technology portion of the bill, and another $40 million under Environmental Programs and Management for programs and projects such as the National Biosolids Partnership. Projects selected for funding will not be identified until the Senate passes its appropriations measure and the two chambers go to conference to reconcile differences between their bills. The Committee also added the following report language that will accompany the House bill, “with respect to financial assistance from the State Revolving Funds, States should give priority to projects that use best management practices that provide cost savings and increased efficiency.”

The Senate began consideration of EPA's FY 2006 budget in the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies May 19 by receiving testimony from EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. This is the first time the subcommittee has had jurisdiction over EPA’s budget, due to the Senate reorganization of appropriations subcommittees earlier this year. Subcommittee Chairman Conrad Burns (R-MT) has voiced support for increasing FY 2006 funding for the CWSRF from the Administration’s request of $730 million to the current level of $1.09 billion. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies will mark up their spending bill June 7. The full Appropriations Committee vote is tentatively scheduled for June 9. NACWA continues to work with a broad group of stakeholder organizations to urge the Senate to restore the funding. A coalition letter will be sent to all Appropriations Committee members prior to the markup of the bill that funds EPA, the Department of Interior, and the U.S. Forest Service.

NACWA Urges Support for National Biosolids Partnership
NACWA continues to urge Members of Congress and congressional staff to include $1 million in EPA’s FY 2006 budget to fund the activities of the National Biosolids Partnership (NBP) for next year. With EPA’s budget in a new appropriations subcommittee and less money available for projects and programs that the Members request, competition for the money has intensified. NACWA member POTWs signed a funding request letter earlier this year which was sent to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and Subcommittees (http://www.nacwa.org/advocacy/co/2005-02-18NBPApp.pdf).

Individual agencies that have Members of Congress on the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees were contacted by NACWA and asked to write letters urging their Members to request that $1 million for the NBP be included in EPA’s budget for FY 2006. A copy of the Legislative Alert can be found on the NACWA website (http://www.nacwa.org/private/leg_outreach.cfm).

Clean Water Funding

NACWA to Propose Clean Water Trust Fund at House Hearing
NACWA released a revised draft of a proposed clean water trust fund bill for review and comment to NACWA members April 15 via Legislative Alert 05-03 (http://www.nacwa.org/private/legreg/legalrts/la05-3.cfm). The draft, entitled the Clean Water Trust Act of 2005, integrated many of the comments received from NACWA members, Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) organizations and environmental and conservation groups. In addition to the draft legislation, Legislative Alert 05-03 also included the revised summary of, and a list of significant changes, to the draft legislation. NACWA is again making adjustments to the draft to clarify language and, if possible, resolve several outstanding issues that environmental groups have with the fisheries title.

NACWA’s continuing work on the infrastructure funding gap and the need for a dedicated funding source has led the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment to convene two oversight hearings on financing options to close the clean water funding gap. Pollster Frank Luntz, who met in March with Subcommittee Chairman John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-TN), to review the results of the Luntz Research Companies and Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, Inc. national survey on public support for clean and safe water, will testify June 8 on a panel along with NACWA’s economic witness, Ken Rubin of PA Consulting. A second hearing to receive additional testimony is scheduled for June 14. Testimony and a NACWA press release will be posted in the legislative section of the NACWA website following the hearing. NACWA anticipates issuing a final draft of the trust fund bill in June and will work to find co-sponsors for the bill this summer.

House Committee Approves Extension of Wet Weather Grants Law
The House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee on May 19 unanimously approved H.R. 624, introduced by Reps. Dave Camp (R-MI), Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), and 19 additional cosponsors, amending the Clean Water Act to authorize appropriations for grants to municipalities and States to control combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs). EPA estimates it will cost communities $50.6 billion to address CSOs and $88.5 billion to address SSOs. H.R. 624 authorizes $250 million for each of fiscal years 2006 through 2011, totaling $1.5 billion over six years. H.R. 624 also would make other changes to ensure that States may administer the grants in the same way that they administer loans from their state revolving loan funds. Rep. Camp received NACWA’s National Environmental Achievement Award May 3 at the Capitol Hill Reception during NACWA’s 2005 National Clean Water Policy Forum. Rep. Pascrell delivered an impassioned luncheon Keynote address at the May Forum, urging NACWA members to tell their members of Congress that funding for clean water should be a priority.

NACWA 2003 – 2004 Past President Paul Pinault, Executive Director of the Narragansett Bay Commission in Providence, Rhode Island, testified on behalf of NACWA at a hearing last year before the House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee on a similar bill (http://www.nacwa.org/advocacy/testimony/2004-07-08pptestimony.cfm). The original two-year sewer overflow grant program was signed into law in 2001 and provided authorization for appropriations for grants from EPA to municipalities but was never funded. In order for the bill to pass the U.S. House of Representatives, T&I Committee Chairman Don Young (R-AK) must make a request to the leadership to schedule a vote on the bill on the House floor. NACWA will continue to urge Congress to pass and fully fund the legislation.

SRF Funding Bill Introduced in House
Reps. Sue Kelly (R-NY) and Ellen O. Tauscher (D-CA) introduced legislation May 26 to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to authorize appropriations for State water pollution control revolving funds. The Clean Water Infrastructure Financing Act of 2005 (H.R. 2684) authorizes $25 billion for the clean water state revolving fund (SRF) over five years, $10 million a year for technical and financial assistance to owners and operators of POTWs for the development of asset management inventories and plans, management assistance to small systems, and grants to financially distressed communities in years when the Congress appropriates more than $1.4 billion for the CWSRF. NACWA will continue to work with the congresswomen to expand the bill to include the establishment of a trust fund to finance both the CWSRF and grants to municipal clean water agencies.

NACWA Urges Congress to Support Stormwater Mitigation Program in Highway Bill
The House and Senate will convene a conference committee in early June to resolve differences in their respective highway bills. NACWA continues to support a new provision in the Transportation Equity Act as passed May 17 by the United States Senate. The bill authorizes $867.6 million over five years for stormwater mitigation projects, using just 2% of the Surface Transportation Program funds. Such projects include stormwater retrofits, the recharge of groundwater, natural filters, stream restoration, minimization of stream bank erosion, innovative technologies, and others. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, polluted stormwater from impervious surfaces such as roads is a leading cause of impairment for nearly 40% of U.S. waterways not meeting water quality standards.

Senator Kit Bond (R-MO), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, with support from State Departments of Transportation, has said he will try to remove the stormwater provision from the bill during the conference committee. The House transportation bill does not contain the new program. NACWA has joined other supporters of the provision who have prepared and distributed educational materials to the members of the conference committee for use during deliberations on the bill.