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AMSA Legislative Update October 2004

Member Pipeline - Legislative - October 2004 Update

To: Members, Affiliates, Legislative Policy Committee,
Legal Affairs Committee, Clean Water Funding Task Force
From: National Office
Date: November 2, 2004

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This edition of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies’ (AMSA) Legislative Update, current through October 27, 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.

Appropriations

Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) September 29 that will keep federal government agencies operating at current spending levels through November 20. Congress returns to Washington on November 14 for a lame duck session to raise the debt ceiling, talk about reorganization issues for the 109th Congress and to either pass the remaining appropriations bills or extend the continuing resolution until January 2005. The Senate has not passed seven of the spending bills and the House has passed all but one bill – the VA-HUD & Independent Agencies spending measure, which includes funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

SRF Funding in EPA Budget Still Uncertain, AMSA Pushes for $1.35 Billion
The Senate Appropriations Committee in late September unanimously approved S. 2825 (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm), the bill making appropriations for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and for sundry independent agencies. The bill includes $1.35 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) for fiscal year (FY) 2005, which is considerably higher than the $850 million approved by the
House Appropriations Committee in the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 2005 (H.R. 5041). Both former President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush have asked Congress to fund the SRF at $850 million but Congress has consistently rejected the Presidents’ requests and provided an annual appropriation of $1.35 billion for the CWSRF since 1998.

After the House Appropriations Committee accepted the 37 percent cut to the SRF (down almost $500 million from $1.34 billion to $850 million), a coalition of stakeholder organizations, including AMSA, prepared and released a report entitled, All Dried Up: How Clean Water Is Threatened by Budget Cuts (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/pubs/2004-09-15ADU.pdf), which was disseminated to Members of Congress and provides a state-by-state analysis of the economic, and job-related impacts of the proposed cuts to the CWSRF program. AMSA has used the report in meetings with appropriations committee staff who have begun to negotiate the difference between the funding levels in the House and Senate VA-HUD appropriations bills.

In a September 17 FaxAlert (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/faxalerts/091704se.cfm), AMSA requested its members to send letters to their Representatives and Senators urging them to support the $1.35 billion appropriation level in the Senate VA-HUD & Independent Agencies appropriations bill for the CWSRF. There is still time for AMSA members to contact their Members of Congress by downloading a sample letter that can be personalized and emailed or faxed to their Senators or Representatives from Write Congress Now, which is located on the home page of AMSA’s website (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org).

The VA-HUD spending bill will likely be included in a larger omnibus package. House and Senate negotiators will try to determine in the coming weeks what the final level of funding should be for CWSRF. The two most likely scenarios are that they will either split the difference between $1.35 billion and $850 million or the House will cede to the Senate’s higher funding level. AMSA continues to urge lawmakers to support the $1.35 billion funding level for the CWSRF.

Funding for National Biosolids Partnership on Hold
Future federal funding for the National Biosolids Partnership (NBP) will be decided by appropriations committee negotiators as part of a compromise bill between the House and the Senate. The House Subcommittee on VA-HUD & Independent Agencies and the full House Appropriations Committee included in EPA’s FY 2005 budget nearly $1 million to fund the activities of the NBP. All programs in the VA-HUD appropriations bill were cut by two percent, which would give the NBP $980,000 to support its activities next year. Money was tight in the VA-HUD bill due to needed increases in veterans’ health benefits. Immediately before the markup, AMSA met with staff of individual Representatives as well as staff of the VA-HUD Subcommittee to make an urgent appeal for the NBP funding.

The Senate, as it has done in previous years, did not include the NBP line-item in its version of the VA-HUD spending bill. AMSA asked select members this summer to contact their Senators and urge their support for the program. This action followed visits to the Subcommittee offices by AMSA staff and was in addition to the letter of support clean water agencies signed in February 2004 during the AMSA Winter Conference. The VA-HUD bill is likely to be part of an end-of-year omnibus bill that Members of Congress will vote on either during the November lame duck session or after a new Congress convenes in January 2005.

CSO Policy Clarified in House Committee Budget Bill
AMSA was successful in its request to appropriators to include language in the House VA-HUD and Independent Agencies funding bill, H.R. 5041(http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm) to clarify section 402(q) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), which requires that permits, orders and decrees “shall conform to” the 1994 CSO policy. EPA’s 1994 Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Policy (Policy) directs CSO communities to develop and implement long-term control plans (LTCPs) to retrofit their sewer systems over a period of years. The Policy states that LTCP obligations are to be imposed via an “enforceable mechanism,” endorses CWA permits as the primary vehicle for imposing LTCP obligations, and places delegated state permitting authorities in the lead for implementation. The FY 2005 EPA appropriations language provides the first-ever legislative history on the intended effect of "shall conform to" in CWA § 402(q).

This language should be helpful to CSO communities across the nation seeking permits, and seeking the proper balance between state and federal roles overseeing their CSO remediation efforts.

The language was not included in S. 2825, the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 2005 (http://www.amsa-cleanwater.org/private/legreg/legupdate/leg_tracker.cfm). EPA Acting Assistant Administrator for Water, Benjamin Grumbles, has stated publicly that he approves of the language. EPA’s concurrence may improve the chances of the language being included in a final VA-HUD appropriations bill.