A bipartisan group of thirty-five senators wrote to the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee last month urging them to preserve funding for the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs in the forthcoming FY12 spending bills.
Authored by the leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the letter notes that EPA has identified $334.8 billion in drinking water infrastructure needs over the next twenty years and details the job-creating potential of water and wastewater projects. The letter does not request a specific funding level for the SRFs in 2012, but argues, “It is critical that the federal government remains a reliable partner in meeting the nation's clean water and safe drinking water needs” and does not dramatically cut funding. A copy of the letter is available at http://tinyurl.com/3okzoq3.
President Obama has requested just over $2.5 billion for the SRFs in 2012, which represents a modest increase over the programs’ 2011 funding level of $2.49 billion but a cut of nearly $950 million compared to the final 2010 funding level. But given widespread concerns about the budget deficit House Republicans are expected to propose significant cuts to the SRFs and EPA overall when their FY12 Interior-EPA appropriations bill is released next month.