(September 16, 2020) – Conference negotiations between the House and Senate on a final Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) 2020 bill have ramped up over the past week with clean water provisions and billions of dollars in potential funding now coming into focus.

S. 3591, the America’s Water Infrastructure Act 2020 (AWIA), which passed the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, and H.R. 1497, the Water Quality Protection and Job Creation Act of 2019, which passed the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee, are serving as the  basis for WRDA 2020 conference negotiations.

Both bills, which NACWA has had strong involvement in and which passed through their respective committees in a bipartisan manner, contain billions of dollars in authorized federal funding for several key clean water programs, including the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF).

With negotiations in full swing and Congress’ goal of sending a final WRDA bill to the President’s desk later this fall, now is a critical time for Members of Congress to hear from their local utilities about the importance of increased federal funding for clean water programs in a final WRDA bill and the impact it can have on their local communities and constituents. 

In particular, Congress needs to hear about the importance the CWSRF has locally and the need to provide significant increases in a final WRDA package at levels at least in the range provided for in H.R. 1497 ($14 billion over five years) and S.3591 ($7.5 billion over three years). 

NACWA encourages all members to weigh in with their Senators and Representatives on the importance of comprehensive WRDA legislation – please feel free to forward NACWA’s letter to your elected officials and/or use it as a template for your own letter. NACWA will continue to provide WRDA 2020 updates as they occur.

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