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water affordability transparency equity and reliability act
GOP Attack on Biodiversity, Climate 'Sticks Finger in the Eye of American People'
Critics of a House appropriations bill that guts environmental agencies warn it's a sign of what the Republicans will do if they retake the Senate and the presidency next year.
Jun 28, 2024
Democrats and watchdog groups reacted with outrage on Friday as a U.S. House environmental subcommittee led by Republicans approved an appropriations bill that would reduce funding for two federal agencies and limit their ability to protect the environment.
The House Appropriations Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee voted to advance a bill to weaken the regulatory capacities of the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), cutting funding for conservation, climate action, national parks, and environmental justice initiatives.
"This bill sticks a finger in the eye of the American people who care deeply about clean air, climate change, endangered species, and responsible use of public lands," said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. "It's a nasty wishlist to defund the priorities of protecting a livable future."
The fiscal year 2025 bill proposes a 20% cut to the EPA's annual budget, from $9.2 billion to $7.4 billion, including a $749 million cut to state and tribal assistance grants. It also proposes reductions to many Interior agency budgets, including a $210 million cut to the National Park Service and a $144 million cut to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Taking aim at the government's ability to regulate industry, most of the Republicans' spending allocations are below fiscal year 2024 and almost all of them are below the amount requested by the Biden administration.
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), the subcommittee's ranking Democrat, said in a statement that the proposed EPA cut was "irresponsible" and that she was "greatly disappointed and frustrated" by the bill, which "completely disregards the reality of a warming planet and ignores the need for us to do more, not less."
Pingree's Democratic colleague, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the full appropriations committee, agreed.
The bill "promotes dirty energy, taking the side of fossil fuel companies and those who deny the scientific reality rather than address the escalating risk to our economy and national security presented by the changing climate and growing number of extreme weather events," DeLauro said in the statement.
Critics of the bill also objected to the large number of "poison-pill" riders that seek to undo Biden administration rules and undermine the Endangered Species Act by naming specific animals for which listing can't be funded. Per a Trump-era Interior rule, the legislation also delists most gray wolf populations from the ESA.
"This proposal is a hatchet job of disastrous proportion that in an unprecedented scale, targets our nation's most imperiled species and the law saving them from extinction," Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement.
The Republicans' bill includes proposed reductions to funding for clean water infrastructure projects, which Food and Water Watch (FWW) said was a step in the wrong direction—water and sewer systems need huge infusions of money just to meet current water quality standards.
"The proposed cuts would leave many with unsafe water and exacerbate the nation’s water affordability crisis, adding more pressure on household water bills at a time when families are already grappling with soaring costs for essential services," Mary Grant, a FWW campaign director, said in a statement, calling safe water "non-negotiable."
Grant said that to safeguard Americans' clean water from "foolishly political annual appropriations battles," Congress should pass the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, And Reliability (WATER) Act—a call she also made last year, when the same subcommittee advanced a similar bill.
The full appropriations committee will consider the bill on July 9. If the bill passes through the committee and then the full chamber, as last year's version did, it's unlikely to make headway in the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate. However, critics of the bill warned that it's a sign of what the Republicans will do if they retake the Senate and the presidency.
Earlier this month, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump said that he plans to gut federal agencies dealing with climate, such as the Interior Department. A union of EPA workers rebuked Trump for the remarks.
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Biden Infrastructure Report Pushes 'Disastrous Water Privatization Schemes,' Watchdog Says
"President Biden should have never appointed an investment banker to chair an advisory council for the nation's infrastructure," said one advocate.
Aug 31, 2023
An under-the-radar report by U.S. President Joe Biden's National Infrastructure Advisory Council should not go unnoticed, said the national watchdog Food & Water Watch on Thursday, as buried in the document is a call for the privatization of U.S. water systems, which progressive lawmakers and civil society groups have long opposed.
On page 15 of the 38-page report, the advisory council said the federal government should "remove barriers to privatization, concessions, and other nontraditional models of funding community water systems in conjunction with each state's development of best practice."
Food & Water Watch (FWW) suggested that the recommendation goes hand in hand with the panel chairmanship of Adebayo Ogunlesi, who is the chairman and CEO of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).
GIP is "an infrastructure investment bank with an estimated $100 billion in assets under management that targets energy, transportation, digital, and water infrastructure," said FWW, making the takeover of public water and wastewater utilities by a private corporation—often under the guise of improving aging systems and lowering costs—financially beneficial for the bank.
"Instead of relying on Wall Street advisers, President Biden should support policies that will truly help communities."
Mary Grant, Public Water for All campaign director at FWW, called the recommendation "a terrible idea."
"President Biden should have never appointed an investment banker to chair an advisory council for the nation's infrastructure," said Grant. "Wall Street wants to take control of the nation's public water systems to wring profits from communities that are already struggling with unaffordable water bills and toxic water."
FWW has analyzed water privatization schemes for years, finding that they it often leave communities "with higher water bills, worse service, job losses, and little control to fix these problems."
A 2018 report by the group titledAmerica's Secret Water Crisisfound that out of 11 privatized water utilities across the U.S., all but one refused to provide data about shutoffs for nonpayment. The group's 2011 brief Water = Lifeshowed that low-income households are disproportionately affected by water price hikes by private owners, as privatization turns a resource recognized by the United Nations as an "essential human right" into a commodity.
"Privatization would deepen the nation's water crises, leading to higher water bills and less accountable and transparent services," said Grant. "Privately owned water systems charge 59% more than local government systems, and private ownership is the single largest factor associated with higher water bills—more than aging infrastructure or drought."
Grant noted that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021 was "a step forward" as it invested $55 billion to expand water infrastructure, but pointed out that "it provided only about 7% of the identified needs of our water systems."
"Instead of relying on Wall Street advisers, President Biden should support policies that will truly help communities by asking Congress to pass the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability (WATER) Act (H.R. 1729, S. 938)," she added.
Introduced in 2021 by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) in the U.S. House and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Senate, the WATER Act would expand funding to small, rural, and Indigenous communities; create a water trust fund; fund projects to eliminate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, contamination; and require the Environmental Protection Agency to analyze water affordability, shutoffs, and civil rights violations by water utilities, among other steps to improve public water access.
"The WATER Act," said Grant, "would fully restore the federal commitment to safe water by providing a permanent source of federal funding at the level that our water and wastewater systems need to ensure safe, clean, and affordable public water for all."
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'Far-Right Radicalism': GOP Wants to Cut Funding for Clean Water Programs by 64%
"House Republicans should be ashamed of themselves," said one campaigner. "Their spending proposal threatens the very safety of our country's water and wastewater systems for the sake of political showmanship."
Jul 13, 2023
The advocacy group Food & Water Watch on Thursday called out Republicans on a U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee panel for pushing a 64% cut to a pair of federal clean water funds in the next fiscal year.
"House Republicans should be ashamed of themselves," declared Mary Grant, the group's Public Water for All campaign director, in a statement. "Their spending proposal threatens the very safety of our country's water and wastewater systems for the sake of political showmanship."
The Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), on Thursday marked up a GOP appropriations bill for fiscal year 2024. A Republican fact sheet celebrates proposed "cuts to wasteful spending" and "claw-backs of prior appropriations," highlighting that it "reins in" the Environmental Protection Agency, "limits abuse of the Endangered Species Act," and provides protections for the fossil fuel industry.
The GOP proposal would slash appropriations for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). The former provides low-interest loans for infrastructure projects like wastewater facilities while the latter provides assistance for initiatives like improving drinking water treatment and fixing old pipes.
Grant stressed that the targeted programs "are widely popular across the political spectrum and have historically enjoyed bipartisan support," as communities in every state rely on them "to make necessary improvements to keep water and sewer systems safe and reliable."
"We cannot allow our country to return to an era when rivers were on fire and communities across the country faced unmitigated toxic water threats."
For fiscal year 2023, the CWSRF got $1,638,861,000 and the DWSRF got $1,126,101,000, including congressionally directed spending projects; for next year, House Republicans want to allocate $535,000,000 and $460,611,000, respectively—a nearly $1.8 billion cut collectively.
"This far-right radicalism seeks to undermine the essential programs of a functioning government," Grant charged. "We cannot allow our country to return to an era when rivers were on fire and communities across the country faced unmitigated toxic water threats. The proposed cuts would leave many with unsafe water and exacerbate the nation's water affordability crisis, adding more pressure on household water bills at a time when families are already grappling with soaring costs for essential services."
The U.S. Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats, "must reject this outrageous proposal out of hand," she said. "Safe water should not be a political bargaining chip, nor used to score cheap political points. Safe water is nonnegotiable."
Grant also called for passing the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability (WATER) Act "to safeguard federal water funding from these foolishly political annual appropriations battles."
Reintroduced in March by U.S. Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the WATER Act is backed by Grant's group and more than 500 other organizations.
"This is not an issue of any single municipality, but for our entire country," said Watson Coleman, pointing to water crises in Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi. "Due to a combination of climate change, outdated infrastructure, and systemic disinvestment in our most vulnerable communities, millions of Americans risk losing access to one of the most basic necessities for human life."
"Access to safe, clean water is a human right," she added. "The American water crisis will only get worse if we fail to act. I urge all my colleagues in Congress, Democratic and Republican alike, to support this pro-humanity legislation and pass it without delay."
Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter noted at the time that when Congress and President Joe Biden passed the bipartisan infrastructure deal in 2021, "they provided a modest down payment on critical water improvements."
"But the investment falls far short of what our communities desperately need," she warned. "The WATER Act is a responsible, comprehensive approach to repairing our failing water and sewer systems that would provide water justice to communities large and small for decades to come. America needs the WATER Act now."
The organization's renewed demand for the legislation on Thursday came in the wake of recently released research from the U.S. Geological Survey suggesting that at least 45% of the country's tap water is contaminated by per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), often called "forever chemicals" because they persist in the human body and environment for long periods.
It also followed a May ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing majority that dramatically reduced which wetlands are covered by the Clean Water Act—a decision that Food & Water Watch legal director Tarah Heinzen said "rejects... established science in favor of corporate developers' profiteering."
The court was criticized for hearing the case as the Biden administration was still working on a new waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, which was finalized in December. Notably, the GOP appropriations bill considered by the panel on Thursday would also repeal that regulation.
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