A $1.1 trillion FY14 omnibus appropriations bill approved by Congress eliminates drastic cuts to the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs that House lawmakers had proposed last year, but also imposes new “Buy American” rules for iron and steel products used in SRF-funded projects.
The FY14 spending bill (H.R. 3547) includes a total of $8.2 billion for EPA – an increase of about $300 million above the agency’s 2013 sequestration-impacted funding level and equal to President Obama’s request. The total is well above the $5.5 billion House appropriators originally proposed for the agency.
The bill provides the DWSRF with $906.9 million and the CWSRF with $1.489 billion, restoring nearly all SRF funding that had been cut by last year’s budget sequestration. The funding level is nearly equal to the pre-sequestration FY13 appropriation for each program and is far above a proposal floated last year by House lawmakers that would have reduced DW and CW SRF funding to $350 million and $250 million, respectively.
In keeping with current practice, states will be required to reserve between 20 and 30 percent of their SRF dollars to provide additional subsidies in the form of principal forgiveness, negative interest loans or grants to qualified recipients. Appropriators also directed EPA to deliver a report detailing how additional subsidization authority has been used, including information on the number and amount of loans awarded, recipient communities and project descriptions.
Other sections of the omnibus legislation impose new “Buy American” rules for the use of domestic iron and steel on all projects funded in whole or in part by SRF loans. Iron and steel products subject to the “Buy American” restrictions include “lined or unlined pipes and fittings, manhole covers and other municipal castings, hydrants, tanks, flanges, pipe clamps and restraints, valves, structural steel, reinforced precast concrete, and construction materials.”
The provision allows EPA to waive the rules for individual projects if it determines domestic iron and steel products are not available in sufficient quantities or of satisfactory quality, would increase a project’s overall costs by more than 25 percent, or their use would otherwise be “inconsistent with the public interest.”
Similar “Buy American” language had been part of draft EPA spending legislation circulated last year by House and Senate appropriators, so its inclusion in the final bill is not unexpected. But unlike “Buy American” language included in the 2009 economic stimulus legislation, the current provision does not require the use of American-made “manufactured goods” – a broad requirement that posed significant challenges to many communities seeking to use stimulus funds.
H.R. 3547 funds the entire federal government for the remainder of the 2014 fiscal year, removing the threat of another government shutdown before the fall.