The Ferguson Group Blog

Water Resources Development Act Headed to Committee, House Floor this Fall

When the House and Senate resume session in September, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster intends to bring up consideration of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), a bill that authorizes federal funding for Corps of Engineers-backed water infrastructure projects nationwide. House Floor action could come as early as October. The bill will also address a number of policy issues, setting up an expedited planning process designed to get projects into construction sooner and at reduced costs.

The House bill is unlikely, however, to include a new Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) authority. The Senate-passed WRDA bill includes WIFIA, which would offer low-cost, long-term financing for water infrastructure projects both through the Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Under the Senate WRDA bill, WIFIA-backed loans would not begin loan repayment until five years following substantial completion of a project, with a 35-year repayment period. As of August 8, 2013, the TIFIA 35-year loan rate, which the WIFIA program is likely to replicate, was 3.68 percent.

If WIFIA were in place today, would your community pursue a WIFIA loan? Would the WIFIA loan rate allow you to move forward on a project more quickly than if the assistance was not in place? How much could your community save if WIFIA were in place today?

If WIFIA would help your community, tell your congressional delegation. Request a meeting while Members of Congress are back home and tell them how important WIFIA would be to your community.

House and Senate passage of a WIFIA program is far from assured.

Wednesday News Roundup

Every Wednesday, The Ferguson Group blog will be posting a series of articles published over the previous week that discuss topics of interest to local governments. Learn about emerging trends and keep up on key policy issues by browsing the TFG Wednesday News Roundup!

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2013 WRDA on Senate Floor

The Senate began floor consideration of the Water Resources Development Act of 2013 (WRDA) on Monday, May 6^th.  WRDA authorizes new projects for flood protection, port improvements and upgrades to the nation’s aging locks and dams.  Senate sponsors of WRDA (S. 601), Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and David Vitter (R-LA), introduced a manager's amendment to substitute for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public passed bill with some contested elements pruned out.  The bill inched forward May 8^th with the adoption of the manager's amendment as agreed to on the previous day.

Two noncontroversial amendments were added to the manager's amendment, and while dozens of amendments have been proposed, and more are expected by week’s end, only a handful are likely to be voted on.  The Senate approved an amendment by Rep. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to authorize establishment of a National Endowment for the Oceans.  The endowment, if eventually funded by other legislation, would provide grants for research, restoration, and conservation efforts for U.S. marine environments and the Great Lakes.  The other adopted amendment, by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), would appoint the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as the lead agency to coordinate interagency efforts to halt the spread of the voraciously invasive Asian carp.

The leadership of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the committee with primary jurisdiction over WRDA in the House, has indicated that they are not in a rush to take up the Senate WRDA bill.  The House expects to hold additional hearings and “listening sessions” on the bill and remains dissatisfied with the way the Senate handled the issue of authorizing projects to move from the study phase to construction.  With the House and Senate observing no-earmark policies, the question of how to authorize projects without naming them has challenged the two public works committees.  The Senate bill, according to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman Bill Shuster, cedes too much authority to the executive branch as to which projects can move to construction.  Chairman Shuster has not, however, released an alternative plan for moving projects to construction in light of the current prohibition on earmarks, which applies to authorizing bills as well as appropriations bills.

Work by the full Senate on WRDA can be expected to spill over into the week of May 13^th, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said as he urged his colleagues to hasten the pace on the much-needed legislation.  According to many observers, formal consideration of WRDA by the House committee will likely occur no earlier than mid-summer.

Administration's Thoughts on WRDA

The first formal expression of what the Administration is looking for in a water resources bill came to light today in a March 14 letter from Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy to Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA). The letter provides "input on the development of Water Resources Development Act." It arrives as the chairman, with ranking Republican David Vitter (R-LA), is about to release their bipartisan recommendations for WRDA 2013.  

Ms. Darcy outlines a sort of policy wish list, one that has familiar themes from current and past Administrations--watershed planning, process improvement, and authorization of projects “most likely to generate a high return to the Nation.”  More notably the letter's message crosses into territory that knowingly will have the effect of a matadors' red cape.

For the port/navigation community...it states an unambiguous view in opposition to the lobbying effort by ports to increase channel maintenance funding and have full-use made of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. Instead, “spending should not be based on the level of receipts from the current tax.”  It also reiterates the Administration’s proposed fix for the broken Inland Waterways Trust Fund including a new fee structure, which the industry has opposed in favor of building on the existing fuel tax regime.

For flood plain communities...the letter suggests that Congress “re-examine the Federal role following a flood in reconstructing public infrastructure including levees and other flood and storm damage reduction features.” It continues, suggesting reconsideration of “law and policies that influence where and how we rebuild.”

For shoreline and other flood prone communities...Ms. Darcy goes further, calling on the legislature to “retroactively revise the stated purpose of all existing [Corps] authorities that include flood control, storm or hurricane protection, or shore protection as a project purpose.” Reducing “the risk of flood damage in areas beyond the shore” is one thing; protecting and defending a shoreline alignment “for its own sake” is quite another.

The imperatives that drive those and other recommendations of the Administration boil down to concerns about program cost and environmental consequence. Both of those will speak to certain members of the congressional committees that will produce WRDA bills. Other messages in the letter may speak even louder.