“The new initiatives and funding increases actually make this legislation a new national water infrastructure program,” says a representative for the National Rural Water Association.
WASHINGTON — The massive $1.3 trillion federal spending bill lawmakers in Congress are racing to pass this week would open the spigot for greater federal grants, loans and other assistance to flow to water and wastewater utilities around the U.S.
Programs within the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture that support water and sewer utilities would see funding levels boosted by hundreds of millions of dollars.
“The new initiatives and funding increases actually make this legislation a new national water infrastructure program,” said Mike Keegan, a legislative affairs staffer at the National Rural Water Association. “If the president signs it, he and Congress can claim that.”
Route Fifty
By Bill Lucia,
Senior Reporter
March 22, 2018