House water infrastructure bill heads to floor
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee advanced its 2024 Water Resources Development Act, H.R. 8812, by a vote of 61-2 Wednesday.
"Safe and reliable water infrastructure plays a central role in keeping our economy and supply chain moving, while also protecting life and property. And that’s exactly what this bill provides and that’s why WRDA delivers," Committee Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said.
The details: The panel approved a manager's amendment that makes a series of technical changes to the underlying measure.
Committee leaders fended off more than a dozen amendments during the markup as they worked to keep the measure noncontroversial, including ones that would have waded into Florida's nutrient pollution problems, hydraulic fracturing in the Delaware River basin and Louisiana's levee politics.
Only a small handful of amendments were added to the bill, including one from Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Calif.) to create a pilot program to allow tribes to monitor Army Corps maintenance and repair work on levees and step in if tribal burial sites are found, and another from Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) to create a Levee Owners Board to advise the Army Corps of Engineers.
What's next: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the upper chamber's WRDA bill (S. 4367) last month.
Leaders in both the House and the Senate are hoping to move the measures on their respective floors in the coming weeks in an effort to shield the popular, biennial water resources bill from election-year politics.
