AMWA Urges Congress To Provide Full Funding For EPA Drinking Water Programs

Last week, AMWA wrote to Congress in support of fully funding EPA’s water infrastructure assistance programs in the 2024 fiscal year, including several grant initiatives that AMWA worked to establish.

The association’s letters to House and Senate appropriators highlighted several key drinking water programs, including the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) and the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program, and noted how they are essential in helping communities address their more than $470B in drinking water infrastructure investment need as identified by EPA.

AMWA’s letters also asked appropriators to provide full funding for several more recently established grant programs that Congress established with AMWA’s support, including the Midsize and Large Drinking Water System Infrastructure Resilience and Sustainability Program and the Reducing Lead in Drinking Water grant program. The association further urged lawmakers to provide funding for the Rural and Low-Income Water Assistance Pilot Program to help water systems establish and sustain water bill assistance for low-income ratepayers. Finally, AMWA requested full funding for grants to help water systems address emerging contaminants like PFAS.

“The failure to fund these important water infrastructure programs would have real-world impacts across the country, from water rate increases to pay for backlogged capital improvements to the potential for more frequent water service disruptions that erode the public trust in drinking water quality,” AMWA CEO Tom Dobbins said in a statement. “As the fiscal year 2024 appropriations legislation takes shape, AMWA urges Congress to fully fund EPA’s critical water infrastructure programs.”

The White House sent the administration’s FY24 Budget request to Congress earlier this month. Last week, EPA Administrator Michael Regan testified on the proposal before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Administrator Regan’s written testimony highlighted the proposed budget’s investments in WIFIA and other water infrastructure funding programs, but committee Republicans pushed back on the “largesse” of the request.

The Administrator will return to Capitol Hill this week to deliver testimony on the agency’s budget request before the House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee.