WRDA prospects dim amid climate of fiscal concern (11/15/2010)

Here's a summary of the latest update on WRDA from Environment & Energy reporter, Paul Quinlan
WATER: WRDA prospects dim amid climate of fiscal concern (11/15/2010)

The mid-term election made the possibility of the next Congress approving a multibillion-dollar bundle of nationwide water projects known as the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) very slim. In the past, the WRDA has been one of the best ways for our congressional delegate to bring home the bacon. The legislation authorized billions of dollars in federal spending for locks, dams and levees; beaches; the Everglades; coastal wetlands and ecosystem restoration; and construction of drinking water and flood control systems across the United States -- all while creating jobs and, in many cases, subsidizing local and national utilities and industries.

The WRDA's enormous price tag is a problem. The WRDA of 2007 swelled to $23 billion after pet projects were included that gave the bill enough congressional support to override George W. Bush's veto. That scenario is not expected to happen in the near future with mid-term elections bringing a new crop of mostly Republican freshman consisting of tea partiers and budget hawks into Congress that have promised to cut the nation's fat.

Last week, the chances of a WRDA grew even slimmer when White House fiscal commission co-chairs Erskine Bowles and former-Sen. Alan Simpson released draft recommendations on how to reduce the country's budget deficit that called for, among many other things, cutting $1 billion-worth of "low-priority" Army Corps of Engineers programs by 2015. That means that most WRDA-authorized projects are headed for the chopping block. Couple that with the sentiment touted widely among House Republican leaders last year that WRDA projects constitute "earmarks" -- even though some Senate Republicans, led by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), generally disagreed -- and the odds of WRDA progress drop further.

  

In an unprecedented move, Republican leaders withdrew all project requests from what ended up being a $6 billion WRDA the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee passed this year (E&E Daily, July 30). Republicans will take over that committee next year and start again on the WRDA process, from which almost all abstained this year.

The Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 17, at 10 a.m. in 406 Dirksen. Witnesses scheduled to testify include Matt Woodruff, director of government affairs at Kirby Corp. and member of Inland Waterways Users Board; Jim Weakley, president of the Lake Carriers' Association; Steve Verigin, vice president of GEI Consultants Inc., and member of the National Committee on Levee Safety; and Lawrence Roth, senior vice president, ARCADIS U.S. Inc., on behalf of the American Society of Civil Engineers.