U.S. Water News Online
ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Clinton administration's fiscal 2001 budget is proof that bad habits are hard to break, says a national organization of contractors. Once again, the president's proposed budget shortchanges clean water infrastructure investment, according to the contractors. The fiscal 2001 budget recommends a 41 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF) Program, which helps states finance low-cost loans for wastewater collection and treatment facilities.
"We've been down this road many times before and will prevail in Congress with higher funding that reflects real-world needs," said National Utility Contractors Association (NUCA) president Andy Mayts. "It's time for the administration to heed its own evidence and stop undercutting the SRF program."
The $800 million program request that was submitted to Congress is $550 million below the current $1.35 billion spending level, said Mayts. An identical program cut initiated by the Clinton administration last year was resoundingly rejected by Congress, he said.
The backlog of community investment needs is a major reason why Congress has been unwilling to turn its back on the successful SRF funding mechanism, according to Mayts, and every year the need for capital investment climbs. The EPA's 1996 Needs Survey Report to Congress identifies $139 billion in needs that must be addressed over the next two decades to meet Clean Water Act standards. In 1999, the agency informally revised those estimates to at least $300 billion to meet water quality infrastructure requirements.
"Bipartisan support for the Clean Water SRF is strong on Capitol Hill. Nevertheless, we will have to work hard just to reclaim the more than half-billion dollars in investment funds lopped off by the administrationŐs budget," said Bill Hillman, NUCA's director of government relations. Last year, NUCA presented Congress with an economic assessment of the presidentŐs intended cut, which showed that more than $3 billion in potential loan funds would be lost over the next thirty years if Congress accepted the $800 million funding level in fiscal 2000, as compared to the $1.35 billion level.
"Three billion dollars over the next thirty years will finance a heck of a lot of projects that otherwise wouldn't get built until a sewer line ruptures and forces community action," Hillman said.
The administration defends the $800 million request level based on an assumption that state-administered clean water SRFs will be sufficiently capitalized when they revolve at $2 billion annually by the year 2005. "There is a point where federal capitalization funds can exceed a state's ability or willingness to match the money by 20 percent and administer the loans, but that's for Congress to decide," said NUCA contractor and incoming president Angelo Di Paolo.
In addition to the annual appropriations battle, there are companion bills before Congress that would authorize $15 billion for the program over the next five years and make it easier for disadvantaged communities to use the loans. The Clean Water Infrastructure Financing Act (H.R. 2720 and S. 1699), sponsored by Reps. Sue Kelly (R-NY) and Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) in the House and Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) in the Senate, has attracted bipartisan support, which sends a strong message to the appropriators that the Clean Water SRF is an investment priority, Paolo said.
The president's fiscal 2001 budget also included increased funds for the Drinking Water SRF Program, which would receive a modest $5 million boost to $825 million. NUCA supports the drinking water construction-financing program and will recommend that Congress fully fund the SRF at the authorized level of $1 billion.
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