WRDA Conference Committee Work Continues
On Jan. 3, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) released a memorandum noting the House Leadership’s intent to hold a vote on a final bill Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) bill as soon as it is ready for consideration. Select members of the House and Senate—called conferees—have been working on resolving the discrepancies between the two chambers’ respective WRDA bills in a conference committee since late November. The short legislative schedule during the holiday season resulted in negotiations continuing into 2014. Please visit AGC’s Legislative Action Center and ask your members of Congress to support the construction industry’s priorities for the final WRDA bill.
AGC has been active throughout the WRDA legislative process and has advocated for the construction industry’s WRDA priorities, detailed in a letter to all conferees. In both its letter and continuing lobbying efforts, AGC articulates the need for:
- An adequate and efficient project authorization process;
- Spending harbor maintenance tax revenues on harbor maintenance;
- Addressing the Olmsted Locks and Dam project in a way that allows other necessary inland waterways projects to proceed;
- Environmental streamlining and project delivery acceleration through limiting the time to file lawsuits on projects under the National Environmental Policy Act and setting firm deadlines for pre-construction project studies; and
- Innovative financing methods—including a public private partnership pilot program and Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Authority—that supplement, not replace, traditional government funding for water resources infrastructure.