Members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee failed to meet their self-imposed deadline of marking up a new “Water Resources Development Act” (WRDA) during the month of July, but committee staff say work on the legislation is progressing nicely and the bill could be ready to debut in September.
According to committee staff WRDA’s delay is mainly due to the inability of House leaders to schedule time for the bill’s consideration on the floor of the House before the August recess. Without a floor vote scheduled, T&I Committee leaders chose to postpone their planned markup until the path forward becomes somewhat more clear.
The delay to WRDA also effectively delays a decision on the next steps for a House version of the “Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act” (WIFIA), which would offer low-interest loan assistance to large-scale water and wastewater infrastructure projects. House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Robert Gibbs (R-Oh.) is working on updating a draft WIFIA bill he circulated in 2012, but no official word has emerged on whether that proposal will be incorporated into the House’s WRDA bill. Though AMWA and other WIFIA supporters prefer that route, some House Republicans have concerns about attaching an unrelated pilot program to the must-pass WRDA legislation.
If Rep. Gibbs’ WIFIA cannot be folded into the House WRDA bill, the T&I panel could consider the two bills together at the same markup this fall. Presumably, this would demonstrate a degree of House support for a WIFIA program, and boost the chances of a WIFIA being included in the final WRDA legislation that will be negotiated by a House-Senate conference committee.
In May the U.S. Senate passed its own WRDA bill (S. 601) that included a WIFIA pilot program similar in construct to Rep. Gibbs’ earlier draft bill. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) strongly supports WIFIA and plans to argue for its inclusion in the final WRDA bill in conference.