Congress Begins Constructing Infrastructure Legislation

The United States Congress is taking steps to pass significant infrastructure legislation, and the Senate’s vote on a bill in April 2021 placed a serious down payment on potential new water and wastewater construction projects across the country. This vote has larger implications for Congress and the administration as both seek to demonstrate resolve on an issue directly touching the lives of Americans.

The Senate passed the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act (DWWIA), S. 914, April 29, 2021, in a bipartisan 89-2 vote, sending this important bill to the House. S. 914 authorizes $35 billion over 5 years for water projects, including $14.7 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and $14.7 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) over 5 years. In another victory for clean water, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed its own State Revolving Funds (SRF) reauthorization bill, The Water Quality and Job Creation Act of 2021, H.R. 1915, on June 10, 2021. This bill would provide over $50 billion in SRF funding and grants to communities across the country for wastewater infrastructure. It awaits a vote in the U.S. House.

The similarly sized remaining SRF reauthorization counterpart included in the Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s America (LIFT) America Act, H.R. 1848, which also awaits passage through the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and has jurisdiction over drinking water. It’s unclear what strategy congressional leadership might take in advancing these key pieces of legislation during the remainder of the year.

Critical underground infrastructure problems have been brought to light in recent years, with alarming incidents taking place in Michigan, Mississippi and Texas. For the industry to correct such problems, help from Congress and increased private investment is needed to assist municipalities addressing the more than $500 billion in awaiting projects.

A massive $2.2 trillion infrastructure package was proposed by the Biden administration in spring, but legislative reality and concerns that the proposal was not focused on core infrastructure, such as water systems, roads, bridges, broadband and highway, have whittled down the package to an estimated $1.1 trillion.

While action on the Biden administration’s larger infrastructure proposal has been promised by the start of Congress’s August recess, the full Senate’s April 29, 2021, vote on S. 914 is reality — and demonstrates that both parties recognize they have much at stake when it comes to fixing America’s crumbling infrastructure.

The Senate vote on S. 914 may turn out to be the most promising vote for overall infrastructure this session.

This action has been a long time coming. Passage of increased water system infrastructure investment has been a long-standing legislative goal of the National Utility Contractors Association (NUCA). According to Eben Wyman, principal, government relations at NUCA, “We’ve been working on this issue for decades. Congress has not reauthorized the SRF programs at levels near this magnitude since its inception.”

The CWSRF, which has been appropriated for, but not reauthorized since its establishment in 1987, is the primary federal funding mechanism for water quality projects. It provides assistance to states through low-cost financing of projects. In 2019, the 51 state programs provided $6.2 billion in funding for water infrastructure projects.

Securing funding for each of these programs at almost $15 billion is a significant increase in resources available for projects. Both S. 914 and H.R. 1915 are long-overdue investments in the nation’s water infrastructure that will create thousands of new jobs and help ensure millions of Americans have access to clean and healthy drinking water and safe, sanitary wastewater systems.