Republican leaders of the House Appropriations Committee this month framed the panel’s FY17 Interior and Environment spending bill as part of a response to the Flint water crisis, with the legislation promising millions of additional dollars for federal drinking water infrastructure programs. The committee approved the bill by a vote of 31-18.
As approved by the committee on June 15, the FY17 Interior-EPA spending bill would reduce overall EPA funding to $7.98 billion but increase Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) spending by $207 million next year to $1.07 billion – the highest level of DWSRF investment since the 2010 fiscal year. The bill would also deliver $45 million for loan subsidies through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) pilot program, and an additional $5 million for WIFIA administration at EPA.
Speaking during consideration of the bill, Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) said the bill responded to the need for “greater attention to aging infrastructure and the need for prudent management of water systems” as demonstrated by the crisis in Flint. Calvert repeatedly pointed to the new WIFIA program and said EPA could leverage WIFIA funding in the bill into $3 billion to $5 billion worth of water infrastructure projects nationwide.
Other parts of the committee-approved bill would permit states to use a portion of DWSRF funds to reimburse communities for previously incurred debt for projects that reduce lead in drinking water, and the committee report accompanying the bill would direct states, “to the extent possible,” to give greater weight to projects on state DWSRF priority lists that would “remove lead pipes from existing infrastructure.” The legislation would continue an existing requirement to only allow American-made iron and steel to be used on DWSRF-funded projects, unless an EPA waiver is granted.
Democrats speaking at the markup also pointed to the Flint crisis, but Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) called it the result of “weakening EPA through budget cuts and overreliance on state agencies to manage federal environmental laws.” McCollum and other committee Democrats also decried the bill’s $394 million cut to the Clean Water SRF, which would leave the program with only $1 billion in funding next year. But a pair of Democratic-sponsored amendments, one that would have restored current CWSRF funding levels and another that would have delivered $385 million in emergency funds to Flint, each failed on votes that closely tracked party lines.
As of late June it was unclear whether the full House would consider the EPA spending bill before the chamber breaks for its summer recess on July 15.