Legislation that would authorize nearly $14 billion to support clean water state revolving funds over five years, along with additional money to address sewer overflows and cleanup of Great Lakes contamination, was approved by a House subcommittee March 4.

The Water Quality Investment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1262) sped through the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment on a voice vote.

The bill would authorize $13.8 billion for state revolving funds. It also would authorize $1.8 billion over five years for grants to help municipalities control sewer overflows and $750 million over five years in support of projects to deal with contaminated sediment in the Great Lakes. The bill also would authorize $250 million over five years for alternative water source projects, the alternatives being such projects as water recycling and wastewater reuse.

H.R. 1262 is scheduled to be marked up March 5 by the full Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The legislation consolidates five bills that won House approval in 2007 or 2008. The Senate passed only one of the bills, on Great Lakes environmental remediation, and that eventually was signed into law.

Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.) has indicated he hopes that if those bills could not get through the Senate individually, they might get through as a package.

Principal Forgiveness Allowed
On provisions for state revolving funds, the bill would modify the conditions under which the money could be distributed by states. The funds primarily provide low-interests loans, but the bill would allow a portion of the funds—not to exceed 30 percent—to be used as grants in the form of forgiveness of principal and negative interest loans.

Ellen Galinsky, president of the Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators, said March 4, “We're certainly supportive of legislation with more state revolving fund money, and there appears to be a lot of flexibility in it.”
She said it seems like certain provisions were taken from the water revolving fund provisions in the stimulus bill, such as the idea of a percentage of the funds being designated for grants.

The stimulus legislation required that a minimum of 50 percent of the money distributed through a revolving fund be provided “in the form of forgiveness of loan principal, negative interest rate loans, or grants,” as EPA explained it (38 DEN A-6, 3/2/09).
Galinsky added that state water pollution officers have not yet reviewed the bill as passed by the subcommittee.

NACWA Supports Bill
The bill has the support of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, although the association would prefer to see annual funding efforts replaced with a long-term system in the form of a trust fund, when it comes to state revolving funds.

Because H.R. 1262 pulls together bills that have been approved by the House once before, supporters say prospects appear good for easy passage in the House this year.

In the last Congress, four of the five bills stalled in the Senate. Oberstar indicated during the March 4 markup that disputes over budget “scoring” were bad enough in the House to slow down the legislation.

In particular, the White House Office of Management and Budget disagreed with House members on the fiscal impact of the legislation, and the House in a previous version trimmed back its request, a reduction that has remained in the new bill.

“So we've had an election, and a new president. Same old OMB,” Oberstar said. “I swear, if Castro came in, these guys would all grow a beard and keep on doing the same thing they've been doing all these years. OMB never changes. You can't change their mind. They're hopeless.”

The five bills now pulled together as H.R. 1262 are the Water Quality Financing Act, introduced by Oberstar; the Water Quality Investment Act, introduced by Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.); the Healthy Communities Water Supply Act, introduced by Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.); the Sewage Overflow Community Right-to-Know Act, introduced by Rep. Timothy H. Bishop (D-N.Y.); and the Great Lakes Legacy Reauthorization Act, introduced by Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.) and the only one of the five to become law.

The Great Lakes legislation that became law in 2008 provided $50 million annually for FY 2009 and FY 2010. The new bill provides $150 million annually for FY 2010 through FY 2014.

Oberstar's committee does not have jurisdiction over the drinking water state revolving funds. Drinking water issues fall under the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

By Alan Kovski and Linda Roeder