In the weeks following the Senate’s narrow, two-vote rejection of an amendment that would have allowed drinking water utilities to share their annual consumer confidence reports (CCRs) via the Internet rather than postal mailings, AMWA and supporters in Congress continued to urge lawmakers to support this simple change as a means of delivering regulatory relief.
In the days after the CCR amendment garnered only 58 of the necessary 60 votes in order to be attached to the Senate’s Farm Bill, AMWA and other drinking water associations wrote to members of the Senate and Environment and Public Works Committee with an offer to work together on the issue going forward. In the letter, AMWA and the other groups said that they were “encouraged that a majority of the Senate” voted in favor of the electronic CCR proposal but noted their understanding “that some senators still have questions about the proposal,” based on information circulating on Capitol Hill which suggested that the measure could eliminate drinking water right-to-know requirements or allow water systems without websites to avoid producing CCRs altogether. Confident that these misperceptions could be easily resolved, AMWA and the water community offered to work with committee members and staff to clarify these misconceptions and “set the bill on a track for passage” this year.
A copy of this latest letter on electronic CCRs is available on AMWA’s Legislative Information webpage at www.amwa.net/cs/leginfo#CCR_vote.
Separately, Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) offered a version of the “End Unnecessary Mailers Act” as an amendment during the House Agriculture Committee’s markup of its own Farm Bill proposal in July. Though Rep. Roby then withdrew the amendment without a vote under an “offer and withdraw” arrangement (because the proposal was not germane to the Farm Bill and was therefore not allowed under House rules), she stated her belief that the issue was an important one for members of the House to consider.
Speaking in favor of the amendment, Rep. Roby said that it would “reduce regulatory and paperwork burdens placed on water systems” and noted that has attracted bipartisan support in Congress. Currently, the stand-alone House bill on the issue (H.R. 1340) has 64 cosponsors drawn from both parties, while the Senate companion (S. 1578) has 13.
There is currently no timeframe for action on the stand-alone bills, but supporters tell AMWA that they will continue to look for ways to attach the proposals to larger pieces of legislation that may move through Congress.