The 2015 Legislative Year in Review

The 2015 Legislative Year in Review
Last year brought victories for WEF and water agencies
 
By Steve Dye, WEF Government Affairs
 
The final months of 2015 were busy for the Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.) government affairs efforts in Congress. Several major funding priorities for WEF and water were accomplished, and several significant policy goals were enacted into law.
 
Final FY16 Omnibus Appropriations Bill Restores Funding
In mid-December, the U.S. Congress reached a final agreement for the fiscal year (FY) 2016 budget for the federal government, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016. The bill provides $1.067 trillion in base funding, which includes $73.7 billion for overseas contingency operations, $7.1 billion in disaster aid, $1.5 billion for program integrity, and $700 million in emergency funding. Read the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 at https://rules.house.gov/bill/114/hr-2029-sa.
 
Funding to all federal agencies is included in the bill, and it retains or increases the funding amounts for the agencies from FY 2015. The bill holds the U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA) at the FY 2015 enacted level of $8.139 billion. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund is funded at $1.394 billion and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund is funded at $863 million, restoring severe cuts proposed in 2015 in the draft House and Senate committee bills. The bill did not include funding for Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loans and loan guarantees, but it did include language directing EPA to continue to use administrative monies to establish the program.
 
The bill was free of many of the policy riders that had been hotly debated in Congress, including any restrictions on EPA in proceeding with the implementation of the Clean Water Rule and the Clean Power Rule.
 
In 2016, WEF will be advocating before Congress and the Administration for full funding for the SRF programs, as well as funding for the WIFIA program to provide low interest loans for infrastructure projects.
 
 Rider That Banned CSO and Wet Weather Bypassing Excluded 
 Also, in the FY16 Omnibus bill, a major effort to strip an unfunded mandate was successful. The Senate version of the appropriations bill that funds EPA included a rider that would have forbidden wet weather bypassing and combined sewer overflows (CSOs) in the Great Lakes watershed. The compromise language in the final bill will require some additional reporting for CSO events only, but it makes no changes to the Clean Water Act requirements or additional fines.
 
The Senate's FY16 appropriations bill contained a policy rider (Sec. 428 of S. 1645) requiring all combined sewer overflows (CSO) in the Great Lakes watershed to be eliminated, including overflows discharged in compliance with a CSO Long Term Control Plan (LTCP) or consent decrees. The rider would have also required water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) to eliminate discharges of blended effluent that otherwise meet standards established in a WRRF's National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit during peak wet weather events.
 
A recently completed survey of Great Lakes WRRFs estimated the cost-of-compliance to the policy rider exceeded $72 billion in the region. A coalition of cities, counties, and associations is aggressively lobbying Congress in opposition to this policy rider because it has the potential to be extremely costly, requiring massive infrastructure expansion, ratepayer increases, and reopening of consent decrees and/or LTCPs. More than 45 letters were sent to Congress from public agencies and organizations opposed to the policy rider, including WEF; the Water Environment Associations of Indiana, Michigan, New England, New York, and Ohio; and WEF members at agencies throughout the Great Lakes region.
 
 WIFIA Fix and Better Highway Stormwater Management
The highway reauthorization bill, known as the Fixing American Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) that was enacted into law in December, included a fix to the WIFIA program that WEF helped create and a stormwater management provision that WEF helped draft. 
 
The fix removed a restriction on the use of tax-exempt financing on WIFIA-financed projects. WEF and other water associations have been advocating for the provision since the program was enacted in 2014. The WIFIA program required that WIFIA can finance only up to 49% of a total project cost, and the remaining 51% could not come from a tax-exempt source, such as tax-exempt municipal bonds or private activity bonds. This was limited by Congress in 2014 to keep the cost of creating WIFIA budgets neutral, with the intent of fixing it later. The restriction on tax-exempt financing was removed by the provision in the FAST Act that WEF and other water associations strongly advocated.
 
Also included in the FAST Act was a stormwater management provision that WEF helped draft that directs metropolitan, nonmetropolitan, and statewide transportation planning agencies to “improve the resiliency and reliability of the transportation system and reduce or mitigate stormwater impacts of surface transportation,” among the list of items to be included when agencies are planning surface transportation projects that use federal funding.
 
Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), who was a member of the conference committee negotiating the final bill, included the provision. Language similar to the provision was originally developed by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) with WEF staff assistance and was introduced as the Highway Stormwater Management Act as stand-alone legislation in 2014 and 2015 (S. 518). On behalf of WEF, Dr. Dan Medina of Atkins Global (Epsom, U.K.) and Jim Gibson of Sanitation District #1 in Fort Wright, Ky., participated in a hearing in May 2014 before the Senate Water & Wildlife Subcommittee chaired by Sen. Cardin. During the hearing, the WEF members testified on the importance of better stormwater runoff management during the surface transportation planning process. Sen. Cardin introduced his legislation shortly after the hearing.
 
The provision that Rep. Edwards included in the bill is a significant step toward better stormwater management included early in the planning process of surface transportation bills. Currently, planning agencies that use federal dollars for projects are given eight criteria to consider during the planning process, such as increased safety, economic growth, and intermodal connectivity. The Edwards provision amends U.S. Code 23, Section 134(h)(1) and 135(D)(1), and will urge planning agencies to “reduce and mitigate stormwater impacts of surface transportation.” Planning agencies are not required to include these criteria in projects, but projects that meet more criteria will score higher.
 
In 2016, WEF will be working closely with EPA to help complete the formation of the WIFIA program and establish another federally backed source of low-interest financing. WEF will also be working with the Federal Highway Administration to incorporate the stormwater management provisions into the project planning process so that stormwater management costs are built into the federally funded highway projects and are not left to local agencies to address after a project is completed.
 
Save the Date: WaterWeek 2016
WEF invites everyone to attend the National Water Policy Forum, Fly-In, and Expo on April 11‒13, in Washington, D.C. Save the date and plan on joining your colleagues from around the nation to participate in the 2 1/2 day meeting, which will feature congressional speakers, policy briefings, visits to Capitol Hill, and roundtable dialogues with key policymakers and experts on important regulatory and policy matters. The Forum, Fly-In, and Expo are hosted by WEF, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), and the WateReuse Association. It will take place during WaterWeek 2016 (April 10‒15). Registration and more details about the event will be coming shortly. The WEF Government Affairs Committee will also hold a full committee meeting on the morning of April 11 for committee members. We hope to see you there!
 
Since 2011 Steve Dye has served as Legislative Director for the Water Environment Federation (WEF).  In his government relations role Steve represents the Federation before Congress, monitors key legislation and federal policies, develops and executes legislative strategies and proposals, and maintains WEF’s excellent reputations before public and private interests in the water sector.  He also leads WEF’s Water Advocates Program, a grassroots program designed to mobilize and train WEF members to advocate before federal, state, and local officials.
 


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