The $9.3 billion water infrastructure bill to authorize 25 Army Corps of Engineers projects and update the country’s aging drinking water systems was sent to the Senate floor with bipartisan support Thursday.
The Water Resource Development Act of 2016 made it through the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works by a 19-1 vote Thursday morning. The consensus around the bill was so strong that the hearing lasted about a half hour. The bill passed out of committee within 15 minutes of the hearing starting.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said the hearing might have been finished in record time, which is a testament to the bipartisan sentiment around the bill.
“Look, 19-1, nothing happens here 19-1,” she said. “Even a resolution on Mother’s Day, someone will say, ‘My mother wasn’t nice to me today.’ We have a great product … let’s get this done and send a message to the country that we can get things done.”
The bill would authorize 25 projects in 17 states that already have funding approved. Those 25 projects would total $4.5 billion and include projects to improve ports, rebuild levees for flood control, increase hurricane protection in Louisiana, and build ecosystem restoration projects in bodies of water across the country.
In addition, the bill includes $4.8 billion in investment in the country’s drinking water and wastewater infrastructure.
The bill includes a $220 million package for Flint, Mich., and other cities around the country dealing with lead in their drinking water. It’s the second attempt at getting the deal through the Senate after it was stripped from a comprehensive energy bill passed last week.
The bill also includes $1.4 billion in spending over the next five years to help update water infrastructure in those places. Among the plans are $300 million over the next five years to replace lead pipes and $100 million over the next five years to test for lead in the water in schools and daycare centers.
There are also some modifications and additional funding for the State Revolving Loan Fund programs, which allows the EPA to back loans to communities around the country to update their infrastructure.
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said he appreciated having the provisions for lead water contamination in the bill because it’s not limited to just Flint.
“In Baltimore, we don’t use our water fountains because of that,” he said.
He added, “This bill will really help our water infrastructure and our water needs around the nation.”
While the bill just passed out of committee on Thursday, Environment and Public Works aides are hopeful it will move quickly to the Senate floor.
A majority aide said committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., made a promise to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that the bill would make it through committee by Thursday. That led to some late nights of negotiating and a bipartisan deal, the aide said. The hope is to have a vote on the bill in May or June.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, added the bill would benefit his home state, where many people lack basic water infrastructure.
Due to Alaska’s huge size and far-flung, rural cities, many places lack basic water and sewer infrastructure, he said. The bill would help those communities that deserve to have basic amenities available to most Americans, Sullivan said.
“I think it’s an embarrassment to America,” he said. “We’re a great country and some of these communities have diseases that are at third-world levels.”
