Clean Water Current

(July 16, 2020) – The House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee marked up and advanced a bipartisan Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) 2020 earlier this week, providing another important step to advancing a final bill this Congress and continuing the recent trend of passing a braod WRDA bill every two years.

While the bill passed this week by the committee only contains provisions related to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) policies and projects, the House is expected to couple it with the committee’s clean water focused and bipartisan Water Quality Protection and Job Creation Act of 2019, H.R. 1497, during WRDA conference negotiations with the Senate this summer and fall.

The Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee is continuing their work to put final touches on their recent bipartisan WRDA package that has passed through the committee and awaits full Senate consideration. 

Given the few remaining legislative days left before Congress adjourns for the August recess, it is possible these pieces of legislation do not reach their respective chambers for a full vote in the coming weeks, in which case the House and Senate are expected to move to informally conference them with the goal of producing a final WRDA package to be voted on in September and sent to the President.

NACWA supports the strong funding for clean water programs in both the House and Senate bills and will continue working to ensure any final WRDA 2020 bill includes the most robust funding possible for clean water.

Please contact NACWA’s legislative team, Jason Isakovic or Kristina Surfus, to discuss further.