With proposals to renew America’s infrastructure growing in popularity, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) this month reintroduced the “Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2013,” better known as “WIFIA,” as S. 335. The bill is virtually identical to the WIFIA legislation Merkley first sponsored last year, except that the new version clarifies that tribal communities are eligible to apply for WIFIA loans.
S. 335 would direct EPA to operate the new WIFIA program independent of the existing Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs). While the agency would continue to distribute SRF funds to states as it does today, EPA would separately offer low-interest loans to “regionally significant” water infrastructure projects following a nationwide competitive application process. The proposal broadly offers eligibility to any project to “construct, replace, or rehabilitate” a water or wastewater system, but the minimum WIFIA loan would be $20 million, in order to focus the program on large-scale projects. Multiple small projects would be able to jointly submit an application that exceeds this threshold, however, and the bill would encourage – but not require – communities to consider using green infrastructure approaches where possible.
Like his earlier bill, S. 335 would require projects receiving WIFIA funds to abide by Davis-Bacon wage rates and follow “Buy American” rules for iron, steel and manufactured products used in the projects’ construction. Merkley’s staff has said that those provisions are high priorities of the Senator.
While it may be difficult for the WIFIA legislation to advance through the Senate as a stand-alone bill, there could be an opportunity for it to move in the coming months as part of a new Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) that is a top priority of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee. EPW chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has previously expressed interest in the WIFIA concept, and in late 2012 even circulated a draft WRDA bill that included language to establish a WIFIA pilot program. Even if such a pilot program is not as comprehensive as a permanent WIFIA established through a stand-alone bill, it could offer a chance to get WIFIA off the ground and demonstrate its potential for funding large-scale water projects.
Over the coming weeks and months AMWA will educate senators about the benefits of WIFIA and encourage additional lawmakers to support the measure.