The House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee is aiming to markup its own version of a Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) before Congress departs for the August recess, but at this point it remains undecided whether the bill would include a Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA).
In May the Senate approved WRDA legislation (S. 601) with a WIFIA pilot program included as its own section. But jurisdictional issues complicate the picture in the House of Representatives because the House T&I Committee, which must approve WRDA, does not have authority over drinking water infrastructure legislation. Instead the House Energy and Commerce Committee must approve drinking water bills, and at this point the two committees have only had limited discussions about how to design a WIFIA program that offers funding to both drinking water and wastewater projects. Without an agreement, congressional staff say, T&I leaders might be hesitant to include WIFIA in the WRDA bill, so as not to give the Energy and Commerce panel a chance to amend that portion of the bill – and slow down its progression in the process.
While no final decisions on the path forward have been made, Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Bob Gibbs (R-Oh.) is planning to have a WIFIA bill drafted and ready for consideration before August – the same timeframe as WRDA. Gibbs’ draft is expected to resemble the Senate WIFIA bill by focusing on projects exceeding $20 million and charging EPA with selecting loan recipients. But Gibbs’ bill might not include the Senate bill’s limitation of WIFIA funding to 49 percent of a project’s cost, or its prohibition on using tax-exempt bonds to pay for project costs not covered by WIFIA loans – two provisions of S. 601 about which AMWA has expressed concerns.