Congress should support strong funding for EPA’s water infrastructure assistance programs next year, AMWA and a coalition of seven water sector and infrastructure organizations wrote to lawmakers on April 1 as work gets underway to put together spending legislation for the 2020 fiscal year. The associations’ letter was sent to Congress after the Trump Administration’s FY20 budget proposed slashing overall EPA funding by nearly one third.
The water sector letter did not discuss the proposed budget cuts directly, but noted the country’s need of nearly $750 billion in water infrastructure spending over the next 20 years (as estimated by EPA), and pointed to the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs), along with the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program, as the “core programs” at the federal level that offer funding for “critical drinking water and clean water projects.”
Specifically, the letter asked lawmakers to fund the DWSRF and WIFIA in FY20 at their fully-authorized levels of $1.3 billion and $50 million, respectively. The letter also asked Congress to increase funding for the CWSRF “beyond its FY19 level of $1.7 billion.” Congress’ authorization of the CWSRF has expired, so there is no “fully-authorized” level of funding that may be requested.
The letter went on to note a number of new EPA grant programs that Congress authorized last fall as part of America’s Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA), including initiatives focusing on lead removal, water utility resiliency, and water workforce development, among others. AMWA and the other associations called on lawmakers to appropriate “the fully authorized funding level for each of these new AWIA programs in FY20.”
Congress is widely expected to reject President Trump’s proposal to slash EPA funding by several billion dollars, but it remains to be determined how much money will be available to devote to the agency’s water infrastructure programs next year.