Congress Focuses on FY 2024 Spending

The House of Representatives returns from its August recess this week with only three legislative weeks remaining to act before the federal government’s fiscal year ends on September 30th.

The House, which has only passed the FY 2024 Military Construction and Veterans Affair Appropriations bill, is expected to take up the FY 2024 Defense spending bill this week. The Senate, which returned from its summer recess last week, is also set to take up a procedural vote on a small package of appropriations bills, known as a “minibus.” The bills included in the minibus are the Agriculture spending bill, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs spending bill, and the Transportation and Housing spending bill.

While Congress continues to work on the annual appropriations bills, it remains highly unlikely that they will have all, if any, of the twelve bills, complete before September 30th when FY 2023 ends, so it is expected that Congress will likely attempt to pass a short-term continuing resolution (CR) to provide more time to continue to work on the FY 2024 spending bills. Lawmakers also are considering providing supplemental appropriations for several Biden Administration requests in a potential CR that include additional funding for border security, Ukraine, and disaster relief.

Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Implementing IIJA's Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Provisions

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works on Thursday, September 7, held the second part of a hearing on the drinking water and wastewater provisions under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The purpose of the hearing, highlighted by Committee Chair Senator Thomas Carper (D-DE) in his opening remarks, was to gain a deeper understanding on the progress in implementing this historic legislation, and to make sure that the programs are benefiting communities by ensuring clean, safe, and reliable access to water.

While the three panelists who provided testimony agreed that the funds allocated by the IIJA are playing a pivotal role in addressing the escalating costs, a prevailing sentiment emerged that much more remains to be accomplished. Key concerns centered around the escalating financial burden on ratepayers, particularly low-income individuals, and the substantial financial outlay required for the modernization of water systems across the country.

Among the panelists was Kishia Powell, CEO of Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, the largest wastewater utility center in Maryland. Powell underscored that “despite historic levels of federal funding, the current federal share of water infrastructure funding nationwide is still less than five percent.” This concern was echoed by Elizabeth Biser, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, who noted that “even with a historic amount of federal and state dollars, North Carolina could only fund 13.7 percent of the funding requested in 2022 for water and wastewater infrastructure needs.”

Eric Volk, Executive Director of the North Dakota Rural Water Systems Association, emphasized the challenges that emerging pollutants, like PFAS, are creating. The environmental hazard, in addition to the significant costs being shouldered by communities -- as opposed to the polluters themselves -- represent a growing inequity that the IIJA has not addressed.

A recording of the hearing is linked here.

Reported by NEMWI intern James Li, Brown University.