The respective platforms of the just-completed Republican and Democratic national conventions each made passing references to water-related issues, though neither party made the topic a major focus of their agendas.
The platform of the Republican convention, which concluded on August 30, largely focused on reducing government spending and easing overly burdensome federal regulations, but did include a paragraph highlighting the importance of investing in water infrastructure. While noting that most Americans take “the safety and availability of our water supply” for granted, the GOP said the infrastructure is “in perilous condition” and in need of improvements. The document suggested that investment should come through “a federal-state-private partnership,” and also criticized the Davis-Bacon law that “continues to drive up infrastructure and maintenance costs.”
Other portions of the Republican platform expressed opposition to any “cap-and-trade” law to limit greenhouse gas emissions or an expansion of federal Clean Water Act authority to non-navigable waters. It also advocated for “reining in the EPA” and preventing “expansive new regulations that will impose tens of billions of dollars in new costs” on the country. When making policy to protect human health and the environment, the platform said, government should “weigh the costs and benefits of a policy,” especially “when the causes and long-range effects of a phenomenon are uncertain.”
The Democratic platform, adopted a week later on September 4, also makes infrastructure investment a key component of plans to put Americans back to work. Specifically, the Democrats support “the creation of a national infrastructure bank” that would direct funds to a variety of road, bridge, rail, and water and sewer projects. The document also includes a lengthy endorsement of increased investment in rural communities, including “water and wastewater community infrastructure projects” that protect the health of “18 million rural residents.” A later section on urban infrastructure, however, focuses on transportation needs and does not mention water and wastewater systems.
Environmental protection efforts are cited as “a top priority” in the Democratic platform. The document says the party “will continue working to ensure the integrity of the waters Americans rely on every day for drinking” and other activities, and goes on to promote what it calls President Obama’s push for “simpler, smarter, and more cost-effective” regulations. This approach, it argues, results in “common sense safeguards to protect the American people.” The platform also calls global climate change “an economic, environmental, and national security catastrophe in the making,” and pledges to respond with policies that lead to more energy generated from clean sources.
The complete Republican platform is available online at http://www.gop.com/2012-republican-platform_home/. The Democratic platform is online athttp://www.democrats.org/democratic-national-platform.