Congress approved a final spending plan for the federal government this month, nearly six months into the 2013 fiscal year and less than a week before the March 27 deadline to avert a government shutdown. The $984 billion bill closely follows a measure produced by the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier in March that would cut millions of dollars from EPA’s Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs.
As approved by the House and Senate, the appropriations legislation (H.R. 933) includes an omnibus package of five full-year spending bills, plus a continuing resolution (CR) that largely extends FY12 funding levels for all other departments and agencies. The bill would impose several additional cuts on EPA, but President Obama is expected to sign it into law.
Among the EPA cuts is a reduction in DWSRF funding by $10.6 million to $908.7 million, and a cut to the CWSRF by $17 million to $1.452 billion. The bill would also rescind $20 million in unobligated SRF dollars, and the SRFs are still subject to an additional cut of approximately $140 million by the end of the fiscal year due to the budget sequestration that took effect on March 1 (see previous story).
The bill would extend a provision first enacted for FY12 that allows states to not spend any minimum portion of their DWSRF allotments on green infrastructure projects, though they would have to devote at least 10 percent of CWSRF allotments to green projects. States would, as they do now, have to set aside between 20 and 30 percent of their DWSRF and CWSRF dollars to provide additional subsidies (such as principal forgiveness or negative interest loans) to disadvantaged communities.
Now that the FY13 budget is finally in the books, work will soon begin on the FY14 appropriations process. The House and Senate Budget Committees have already released their broad budget blueprints for the year, but work will get underway in earnest after President Obama releases his FY14 budget proposal. Obama is expected to send his plan to Capitol Hill by early April.