Washington Report

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation in April that would help local drinking water and wastewater utilities adapt their infrastructure to prepare for the impacts of changing hydrological conditions. H.R. 5596, the Water Infrastructure Resiliency and Sustainability Act, would establish a newRead More

By Kristina Surfus The past year has been both an exciting and frustrating time for following federal clean water initiatives. This is particularly true for advocates of a strong federal funding partnership for clean water, like the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA). TheRead More

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the availability of funding that could provide as much as $5.5 billion in loans, which could leverage over $11 billion in water infrastructure projects through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program. Prospective borrowers seekingRead More

President Donald Trump is fielding letters from Democrats in the House of Representatives who have called on the president to either fire U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt or urge him to resign. Scrutiny against Pruitt has reached a new high in recent days as theRead More

In March, Congress approved an omnibus appropriations bill that includes big increases for U.S. EPA’s State Revolving Fund (SRF) and Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) programs. The bill rejects President Donald Trump’s call to cut funding to EPA by upwards of 30 percent. TheRead More

In March, Democrats in the Senate released a $1 trillion plan to invest in America’s infrastructure — a plan in which the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) says clean water occupies a well-deserved front-and-center position in the infrastructure conversation. Specifically, the plan wouldRead More

In response to last week’s release of President Donald Trump’s $1 trillion-plus infrastructure proposal, Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives outlined a $1 trillion infrastructure plan of their own. The Democratic plan was included in a “Better Deal” policy package that supporters say willRead More

President Donald Trump has unveiled some specifics about his $1.5 billion-plus infrastructure investment plan after calling for a new commitment to rebuilding America’s infrastructure in his January State of the Union address. “This morning I submitted legislative principles to Congress that will spur the biggestRead More

Congress approved legislation last week that ended a brief government shutdown, set a federal budgetary framework through the 2019 fiscal year and delivered billions of dollars in disaster relief aid to communities affected by the devastating hurricanes in fall 2017. The bill was approved as partRead More

Andrew Wheeler’s nomination for Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the number two position at the agency, passed out of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee by an 11-10 party line vote on Feb. 7. The EPW Committee vote wasRead More