Committee Members and Meetings

Legislation & Policy Committee Members: Sue Lowry has been appointed Committee Chair, following the elections at our annual Members Business Meeting in New Orleans. The Board of Directors adopted an updated list of Committee members on January 9, 2008.  The Committee has agreed to meet on the last Thursday of each month by telephone starting at 9am Mountain. The meetings are open to any Member and the agenda will be distributed during the week before each meeting. Any Member interested in this Committee is encouraged to contact Tom, Sue or Peter Evans ASAP.

Priorities of the Committee: Current priorities include building support for the USGS Streamgage Programs, monitoring the Corps' development of WRDA2007 implementation guidance, supporting the USGS planning for a “national water census,” Senator Bingaman's introduction of S-2156 (the Science and Engineering to Comprehensively Understand and Responsibly Enhance Water Act), the Corps' interest in enhancing the assistance it provides to state water planning efforts and development of the National Integrated Drought Information System (“NIDIS”). Committee meetings are open to all Members; contact Sue Lowry or Peter Evans for details.

“Water For America” Initiative Funding : During our 2008 Washington Roundtable, which we coordinated with the Western States Water Council and the Association of State & Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators, learned more about the Administration's proposal to initiate a new sequence of regional water budget assessments, which USGS has described as a “national water census.”  The purpose and need were generally supported, but concerns related to funding (and the risk of drawing funds away from the National Streamflow Information Program, which is barely 20% complete) resulted in letters to the USGS and to House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee leadership. Bob Hirsch responded on April 16. Additional background on their initiative is available on the USGS website. Let Peter Evans know if you have any suggestions or questions.

Federal Legislation

Major Federal Water Programs Lose Funds: Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee staff estimate that, compared with the FY-2001 federal budget appropriations, President Bush's budget request for next year (FY-2009) represents a 26% reduction (in inflation-adjusted dollars) for water programs at the EPA, Bureau of Reclamation, Corps of Engineers, USGS and Department of Agriculture.  By contrast, using those same (inflation-adjusted) calculations, the President's FY-2009 request includes a 23% increase in federal discretionary spending (not including the supplemental funding for the war).  As a fraction of federal discretionary spending (i.e., everything “on-the-books” except our Social Security payments and interest on our national debt), the water programs accounted for about 1.5% in FY-2001 and would drop to about 0.88% in the proposed FY-2009 budget.

WRDA 2007is First Veto Override for President Bush: When the Senate voted November 8 to override the President’s veto, WRDA 2007 authorized $23B worth of water projects across the country and gave President Bush his first defeat in a veto showdown with Congress.

The Senate vote was 79-14 (more than the 2/3 majority needed) to override the veto announced November 2; only 12 republican senators and 2 democratic senators voted against the override. The House voted 361-54 (again, far more than the 2/3 majority needed) to override this veto November 6. This result, in both the House and Senate, was widely expected given the importance of the bill to individual lawmakers and, perhaps, to the communities in their districts.

The WRDA veto was the 5th one cast by this President, but the first one to be overridden. The President and many others had complained that the bill was wasteful, although the bill authorizes projects but does not appropriate the money for them; appropriation of funds will have to be taken care of in future bills. Therein lies the real problem: even though it has been 7yrs since the last WRDA authorization, these $23B projects now join the $58B backlog of previously authorized projects (according to the OMB) that still haven’t been funded by Congress or built by the Corps and there is no any indication that the $2B/yr that the Corps usually gets for them will be increased. The sound-bites are really cheery, though; it sounds like our water infrastructure woes were just solved!

The Senate adopted the conference report by a vote of 81-12, after the House adopted it Aug1 by a vote of 381-40. In an Aug1 letter signed by Assistant Secretary Woodley and OMB Director Portman, the White House has threatened a veto of the bill because of its cost, but congressional leaders in both parties predict that they will be able to override a veto. The CBO reports that this WRDA authorizes $11.2B between 2008 and 2012 and an additional $12B for 10 more years, for a total of $23.2B. The final version costs far more than the original Senate-passed bill, which authorized about $14 billion, and the original House bill, which authorized about $15 billion. The CBO synopsis of the final bill is very useful.

Senator Bingaman Drafting SECURE Water Act: Senator Bingaman (D-NM) has introduced legislation (S-2156) that is intended to increase water use efficiency, expand acquisition & analysis of water data needed to improve water management and enhance the understanding of climate change impacts on water availability and energy production in the U.S. This draft includes provisions addressed to the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Energy, but specifically calls upon the USGS for a “water data enhancement & planning” component that includes authorization and direction to:

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