Just three weeks ahead of the January 2 “fiscal cliff” of automatic tax increases and spending cuts, congressional lawmakers and the White House remain far apart on any deal to resolve the issue. Much of the recent media attention to the issue has focused on the impending expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts, but the fiscal cliff also includes an 8.2 percent across-the-board spending cut to domestic discretionary programs – including EPA and the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs. If the cuts go through, the SRFs could loose roughly $200 million in funding next year.
In early December AMWA joined a group of water utility and infrastructure organizations in sending a letter to warn Congress of the consequences of such a cut to EPA’s water programs and to urge lawmakers to do everything possible to resolve the issue before the end of the year. But as is often the case in Washington, partisan negotiations on the cliff are expected to go down to the wire.