Water Provisions Included in Transportation Bill

The Senate voted to proceed with consideration of the Transportation bill (S 1813) late Thursday evening. Debate on the bill is anticipated to begin the week of February 13 and the fate of the bill is uncertain. Senate rules allow for amendments to be offered on any subject, and it the bill could end up tied down by a debate on the health care law, the keystone pipeline decision, or any other issue on Senators minds.

LUST Fund Raided

The gas tax is supposed to fund all the programs and projects in the transportation bill.  However, the tax has not been raised since 1993 and revenue from the tax was $9.6 billion less than Senators needed to fund their bill. To help close this gap, the bill raids EPA’s Leaky Underground Storage Tank (LUST) fund.  Under the terms of the bipartisan funding agreement, $3 billion is transferred from EPA’s LUST fund to the Highway Transportation Fund.  Additionally, the amount of the gas tax directed to the LUST fund will be reduced in future years from the current 0.1 cent per gallon to 0.066 cents per gallon.

Cap on Bonds Raised

The transportation bill also includes language eliminating the cap on private activity bonds for drinking water and wastewater projects for the next six years. The language in the bill is nearly identical to the Sustainable Water Infrastructure Investment Act of 2011 (HR 1803/S 9393) that ACWA supports.