Members of the House and Senate will return from Thanksgiving break under a tight deadline to reach agreement on a compromise Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) bill before Congress adjourns for the year. Congress is expected to leave Washington no later than December 9, or whenever a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government is agreed to – meaning that WRDA and any other legislation not finalized by that point may have to wait until next year for further action.
The Senate approved its version of WRDA (S. 2848) over the summer, in the form of legislation that included $100 million for water projects in Flint, Michigan through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), $70 million in WIFIA funds that could be leveraged into loans for communities nationwide, as well as various new program authorizations and revisions to parts of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. A narrower WRDA bill later approved by the House of Representatives (H.R. 5303) lacked WIFIA dollars and most SDWA and CWA reforms while only authorizing up to $170 million in infrastructure assistance for Flint through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Congressional Democrats have pledged to block any final WRDA bill that does not include Flint assistance mirroring what the Senate approved, and AMWA has written to lawmakers in support of provisions in the Senate-passed bill. But because WRDA is not “must-pass” legislation before the end of the year, it is possible that lawmakers could delay the final decisions on the bill into the next Congress if a deal does not come together in the next few days.
The only true “must-pass” item on the agenda is a CR to avoid a government shutdown when current federal appropriations expire on December 9 (see related story). Because Congress will likely adjourn for the year once a CR is approved, it is possible that in the absence of a WRDA deal lawmakers could simply add some level of Flint assistance to the CR. This strategy could placate Democrats who insist on sending funds to Flint this year, but it is uncertain whether such a provision would also deliver broader water infrastructure funding for communities across the country.