[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 153 (Thursday, September 13, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H8175-H8176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               INVESTMENTS IN OUR NATION'S WATER SYSTEMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Tonko) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TONKO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to 
support much needed investments in our Nation's water systems.
  Earlier this year, EPA estimated some $472 billion is needed to 
maintain the Nation's drinking water infrastructure over the next 20 
years.
  We have woefully underinvested in drinking water for far too long, 
and now crumbling pipes and failing systems pose a serious threat to 
public health and public safety.
  Later today, the House is expected to vote on S. 3021, America's 
Water Infrastructure Act, the latest iteration of WRDA.
  It is a good bill, the result of bipartisan and bicameral 
negotiations.
  I am incredibly proud of the work done by both majority and minority 
members of the Energy and Commerce Committee on H.R. 3387, the Drinking 
Water System Improvement Act, which was reported out of committee 
unanimously in July of 2017. Nearly all of that bill has been 
incorporated into S. 3021.
  I would like to highlight a number of the provisions that I am 
pleased were included in the final package.
  Since 2014, I have introduced legislation to reauthorize the Drinking 
Water State Revolving Fund, the primary source of Federal funding for 
our water systems. Since its creation, the program has never been 
reauthorized, and funding has been flat, despite the growing needs in 
our communities.
  S. 3021 would increase the authorization from $1 billion annually 
until it reaches a $1.95 billion level in fiscal year 2021.
  In addition to providing significantly increased funding through the 
SRF, I want to mention a number of other provisions.

[[Page H8176]]

  First, WRDA makes numerous important changes to the SRF program, 
including extending the length of loans from 20 to 30 years, and up to 
40 years for disadvantaged communities, while increasing the set-aside 
for these communities by raising the maximum and, importantly, 
instituting a minimum amount of assistance.
  It provides $125 million annually to support State water offices 
through the Public Water Systems Supervision grant program.
  It seeks to improve the availability of compliance data submitted by 
water systems and States.
  It promotes better asset management practices, improves consumer 
confidence reports, and reauthorizes the Source Water Petition Program.
  It includes funding for EPA to review methods and technologies to 
prevent and detect leakage, contamination, and other problems.
  It requires Buy America standards for SRF projects through fiscal 
year 2023 and prevailing wage standards to ensure that American workers 
are benefiting from these investments.
  It provides funding for systems to conduct risk assessments of their 
resilience to extreme weather.
  It establishes a grant program to help schools and daycare centers 
replace water fountains containing lead components.
  Also related to lead, it requires future EPA needs assessments to 
include the cost of replacing lead service lines.
  I know a number of communities are dealing with emerging 
contaminants, such as PFOA and PFOS. Currently, only systems serving 
more than 10,000 people are required to test for unregulated 
contaminants. This bill requires water systems serving over 3,300 
people to monitor for these contaminants, empowering local residents to 
take action to mitigate serious health threats that they may not have 
known existed otherwise.
  This would mean that thousands of communities, communities like 
Hoosick Falls, New York, and similarly sized systems would no longer 
have emerging contaminants go undetected, potentially threatening their 
residents for years.
  Finally, while not included in the committee-passed bill, WRDA 
authorizes $100 million for areas hit by natural disasters to repair 
their water systems, enabling post-Maria Puerto Rico to access funds 
without the financial burden of State matching requirements.
  This is not an exhaustive list of provisions in this title, but it 
gives a sense of the breadth of policies that were included to improve 
the Safe Drinking Water Act.
  This bill is not a clean water silver bullet, but it will put us on 
the path to end the decades of neglect of our water infrastructure and 
make the investments needed to maintain and upgrade our systems in 
order to protect public health.
  I want to thank my colleagues, Representative Harper, Chair Shimkus, 
Chair Walden, and their staffs for working with our side of the aisle 
on this legislation. I want to acknowledge the contributions of our 
ranking member Representative Frank Pallone, Jackie Cohen, Jean Fruci, 
and Rick Kessler, and other members of the Energy and Commerce minority 
staff for their hard work.
  I always say that every life and every job in this country depends on 
access to safe drinking water. The needs are great and the cost of 
inaction is high.
  Today, Congress has the opportunity to act. I urge my colleagues to 
support America's Water Infrastructure Act and for the Senate to take 
it up immediately

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