Rank-and-file Senate Republicans last week ramped up their efforts to force a vote on the “Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2016” (S. 2848), with 30 GOP senators sending a letter asking Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bring up the bill before the Senate breaks for its summer recess on July 15.
Led by Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the letter is intended to show Senate leaders that the bill could win enough votes to pass the chamber this summer. The letter alludes to water infrastructure funding provisions included in the legislation, noting that the bill would “create mechanisms to provide affordable clean water and safe drinking water infrastructure.”
Among other provisions, the bill would appropriate $70 million to EPA to jumpstart the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) pilot program and would authorize a new federal program to help communities and low-income homeowners replace lead service lines.
AMWA has signed two recent coalition letters asking for a vote on WRDA before the summer recess, but time is running short. After July 15 members of the Senate will not return to Washington until after Labor Day, at which point lawmakers will need to focus on approving legislation to fund the government beyond the start of the new fiscal year on October 1. Postponing consideration of the Senate’s WRDA bill until September would also almost certainly delay consideration of a final House/Senate WRDA compromise until a post-election lame duck session.