The leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee on May 8 introduced their 2018 version of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) legislation, officially titled America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018. Among the many provisions in the legislation is a two-year extension of EPA’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program. The provision prompted AMWA to join with several other water sector groups to write a letter in support of the legislation.
Much of the legislation, introduced as S. 2800, involves studies and authorizations related to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects. But like recent WRDA bills enacted in 2014 and 2016, respectively, S. 2800 also includes a number of drinking water and wastewater policy provisions that could affect efforts to secure low-cost financing for water and wastewater infrastructure.
Most notably for AMWA, the bill would extend the WIFIA program through 2021, two years beyond its currently scheduled expiration in 2019. The legislation as introduced also does not include any version of the “SRF WIN Act,” a bill opposed by AMWA that would create a separate WIFIA program for use solely by state SRF agencies. However, supporters of that bill are ramping up efforts to add it to the larger WRDA legislation.
The EPW Committee heard testimony on S. 2800 from several water sector stakeholders during a May 9 hearing, and two witnesses – representing the Arkansas Rural Water Association and the American Society of Civil Engineers – testified in favor of adding the SRF WIN Act to the WRDA bill. Each framed the proposal as a means to help rural communities and state SRF agencies access WIFIA loans, even though the current WIFIA program already allows each of them to do so. For its part, AMWA has previously warned that the SRF WIN Act would undercut the existing WIFIA program by offering states preferable loan terms and reducing the program’s overall leveraging capability.
EPW Committee staff have told AMWA that the SRF WIN Act was excluded from this year’s initial WRDA bill in part because of opposition in the water sector and in part because of the bill’s anticipated budget cost, but it is the subject of ongoing negotiations as amendments to S. 2800 are developed.
In terms of water policy provisions that are presently part of America’s Water Infrastructure Act, several notable items include:
- Formally authorizing EPA’s WaterSense program;
- Authorizing states to use up to 10 percent of their Drinking Water State Revolving Fund capitalization grants to implement source water protection plans;
- Requiring communities with populations of greater than 10,000 people to comply with a qualification-based selection process for architectural and engineering services established by the Brooks Act, for projects using DWSRF funds (Congress imposed a similar requirement for CWSRF-funded projects in 2014);
- Establishing a new competitive grant program at EPA to promote innovative workforce development for the water utility sector;
- Expressing the sense of Congress in support of “robust” funding for the Drinking Water and Clean Water SRF programs;
- Directing GAO to complete a study analyzing how small and rural communities may access the WIFIA program, and recommending ways to improve access to the program for small and rural communities; and
- Directing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a study to examine impediments to implementation of its version of the WIFIA program, which was authorized in 2014 but has yet to see any activity.
The EPW Committee is planning to markup the legislation on May 24. In advance of the markup the committee plans to compile a “managers amendment” of revisions to the bill. Many of those changes are likely to be technical in nature, but SRF WIN Act supporters are expected to press to add that legislation to the larger WRDA bill. AMWA plans to continue to discourage the committee from doing so, and would likely withdraw its support form the overall bill if provisions were added that would undercut the existing WIFIA program.