WRDA bill sails through House

WATER POLICY

WRDA bill sails through House

Ariel Wittenberg, E&E News reporter

Published: Thursday, June 7, 2018

A water infrastructure bill easily secured approval on the House floor last night, gaining a 408-2 vote and overcoming a last-minute Democratic motion to recommit.

Other amendments to the Water Resources Development Act, or WRDA, had sailed through when Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) offered a motion to recommit, a parliamentary move used by the minority party that the Rules Committee says “provides one final opportunity for the House to debate and amend a measure.”

The motion would have added an amendment asking the Army Corps of Engineers “to work to restore and strengthen the resiliency of infrastructure in Puerto Rico impacted by Hurricane Maria and in the mainland for areas impacted by Irma and Harvey,” she said.

“This could potentially save lives,” Velázquez said, adding that she did not believe the amendment would “kill the bill or send it back to committee.”

House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) opposed the motion.

He did not discuss the specifics of Velázquez’s amendment, which was not submitted with other amendments to the Rules Committee earlier this week, but he did mention that the bill “has many benefits to all 50 states, the territories, including Puerto Rico,” before praising the bill overall.

Velázquez’s motion failed, 180-227, and the bill passed shortly thereafter.

The motion to recommit was one of just two moments of discord in an otherwise smooth debate.

Because of Shuster’s commitment to keep its focus on the Army Corps Division of Civil Works and block any riders, the WRDA bill has largely avoided controversy and remained bipartisan.

Many on the floor celebrated that this year’s WRDA bill is the third such reauthorization bill in six years to pass the House, sticking with a schedule Shuster vowed to keep when he ascended to lead the committee.

Shuster, who is not seeking re-election, celebrated the bill on the House floor yesterday, saying simply that “WRDA works.”

“This infrastructure, maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is vital to every part of the country, and every American benefits from it,” he said. “You don’t have to live near a port or a major waterway to experience these benefits.”

The House agreed to 50 of 52 amendments offered on the floor, other than Velázquez’s, with two being withdrawn. There was no debate on the vast majority of amendments.

House Democrats did, however, decry a move by the Rules Committee to reject an amendment to allow revenues in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to be used for port infrastructure projects.

Sponsored by Shuster and Transportation and Infrastructure ranking member Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the amendment was a slight modification on language authored by DeFazio and included in the version of WRDA advanced in committee last month but stripped from the version considered by the Rules Committee.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the ranking member on the Rules Committee, blasted the move on the floor, saying that “the majority threw sand in the gears of what was a good process.”

DeFazio, too, lamented the move. He noted that the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is backed by a tax of 0.125 percent of the value of commercial cargo loaded at federally funded ports but that the fund currently has a $9 billion balance because both the Trump and Obama administrations have used the money to pay for non-transportation-related projects.

The Rules Committee, he said, “wants to continue to steal money from the American people and spend it who knows where, but not on American’s ports.”

The Senate bill, which includes more reforms to the process for the Army Corps’ approval of projects, advanced out of the Environment and Public Works Committee last week. It is unclear when it will be taken up on the Senate floor.

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