Clean Water Current

As the Senate works through the summer legislative schedule, its version of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), S. 2800, or “America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018,” is on deck to come before the full Senate for a vote in the coming weeks.

NACWA has been working with the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee for many months to ensure inclusion of several key bipartisan provisions in the bill important to the clean water sector.  Among the many NACWA-supported provisions include bipartisan legislation that codifies integrated planning, which passed unanimously in the Senate last year. An outline of the Committee-passed bill is provided here.

The House has already passed a narrower version of WRDA earlier this summer that focuses on US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) project authorizations and reforms. However, the House continues to work on separate infrastructure-related proposals that could ultimately align with key Senate WRDA provisions and be negotiated in a final conference bill.

On one of these key issues—integrated planning—NACWA is actively working with several other municipal groups to advance a bill in the House. Integrated planning negotiations are complicated by the presence of several different legislative proposals, but NACWA has helped fashion a revised proposal that would help provide a path for negotiations between the House and Senate on integrated planning during a WRDA/infrastructure conference later this year.

Another provision in the Senate WRDA bill, establishing a stormwater infrastructure funding task force at EPA, is anticipated to pass the House this week. This helps to position the provision for inclusion in a final WRDA conference as well.

NACWA looks forward to continuing engagement as the WRDA process unfolds in the Senate and House.  For more information, including any questions on the status of integrated planning legislation in the House, please contact Jason Isakovic or Kristina Surfus, NACWA’s Legislative Directors.