Beyond SRF funding levels and caps on tax-exempt municipal bond interest, the hundreds of pages of President Obama’s FY14 budget request include several other items of interest to the water community, such as:
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Another one-year extension of the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. The budget would extend CFATS authority through October 4, 2014, and would not impact the status of drinking water and wastewater facilities, which would remain exempt from DHS chemical regulation.
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$4.7 billion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, $276 million below its FY12 funding level. Under Obama’s plan, the Corps would focus on construction projects “with high economic and environmental returns while addressing public safety.”
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$2.65 billion for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which coordinates federal climate change research, representing a $151 million increase over FY12 funding levels. The program receives funding from 13 different federal agencies and covers the national climate assessment, a report on climate change impacts and response strategies due for publication in 2014.
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A new $10 billion National Infrastructure Bank offering loans for transportation, water, and energy infrastructure projects that “have a clear public benefit, meet rigorous economic, technical and environmental standards, and [are] backed by a dedicated revenue stream.”
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$1.0 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation, a reduction of $26.8 million from the bureau’s 2012 enacted level. This includes $35.4 million for the WaterSMART program and $14 million for the Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse Program.
The final decisions on these and other spending and program recommendations will be up to Congress as it works its way through the FY14 appropriations process.