Senate Votes to Increase SRF Appropriations Funding
NUCA's efforts to restore and increase annual funding for the EPA's Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs are continuing to make progress. On September 24, the Senate passed by a 77-21 vote an Interior, Environment and Related Agencies appropriations bill that includes substantial funding increases for both SRF programs--$2.1 billion for the Clean Water SRF, $1.4 billion for the Drinking Water SRF and $150 million for direct grants to communities for water and wastewater improvements next year. That legislation must now be reconciled with the House version passed on June 26 by a 254-173 vote. Similar to the funding levels passed in the Senate bill, the House version calls for $2.3 billion for the Clean Water SRF, $1.4 billion for the Drinking Water SRF and $160 million in direct grants for water and wastewater improvements next year. If the funding levels in the reconciled bill are anywhere near those proposed, it will increase federal investment in water and wastewater infrastructure to levels not seen in several years. We thank NUCA members and chapters, as well as our colleagues in the Clean Water Council, for helping make these extraordinary increases possible.
 
CGA Releases 2008 DIRT Report
On September 22, the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) held a conference call for CGA members that detailed the findings of its fifth annual report on data submitted into the Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT)--a secure Web application used for the collection and reporting of underground utility damage information. The 2008 Report focuses on the data gathered throughout the United States and Canada from 2006 to 2008. The CGA estimates that approximately 63% of the total damages in the U.S. were voluntarily submitted, with more than 180 organizations submitting event information to DIRT for 2008. The four key findings cited by the CGA in the 2008 report are: 1) events submitted continue to increase, 2) the total number of damages has decreased, 3) consistent trends can be identified and 4) the quality of the data has improved. Unfortunately, once again, the news was not good for the excavator community in the report. The majority of root causes of reported incidents were attributed to excavators failing to meet their responsibilities. This finding is doubtless related to the fact that the excavator community submitted only 3% of the total facility event information in 2008. NUCA's Damage Prevention Committee continues to work to increase excavator participation in the DIRT program and to make the system more user-friendly to the excavation community.
 
Congress Looks to Pass Highway Bill Extension
On September 23, the House of Representatives passed a three-month extension of the highway bill by a vote of 335-85. Republicans in the House split their votes on the extension after their leadership chose to oppose the bill, protesting the possibility that a federal gas tax increase could be debated as a funding mechanism for the six-year, $500 billion transportation plan proposed by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.). It is the belief of Rep. Oberstar and proponents of a six-year transportation bill that a three-month extension is needed to spur an agreement on a long-term infrastructure bill before year's end. As a member of the Transportation Construction Coalition, NUCA favors a three-month extension while Congress works to pass a six-year reauthorization of the program. The Senate is expected to take up the extension this week, but it remains unclear if it will follow suit in passing a three-month extension or will instead pass the 18-month extension favored by three Senate committees and the Obama administration. The latter prefers to defer the issue until after the 2010 mid-term elections. The current federal surface transportation law expires on September 30, coinciding with the end of the fiscal year. If the Senate decides to pass a longer-term extension, it remains unclear how the two versions will be reconciled. As a backup plan, funding for the highway program may be extended through October as part of a one-month extension in broader legislation to keep the federal government running after the fiscal year ends.
 
Health Care Reform Makes Slow Progress
The Senate Finance Committee continues its second week of work on a health care reform bill despite there being no clear path to passing the bill out of committee. Changes to the America's Healthy Future Act following the first week of the mark-up have increased the overall cost of the bill to around $900 billion, which would be paid for with $358 billion in new taxes and $542 billion in cuts to government health programs. "We have made real progress," said Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). "We will continue our work to pass meaningful health care reform." Features of the Finance Committee proposal include: establishment of an individual mandate to purchase coverage, creation of state-based health insurance exchanges through which small businesses and individuals could purchase coverage, and an exemption from the requirement to provide health insurance for employers with 50 or fewer employees. With practically no hope of broad bipartisan support, Sen. Baucus must rely on the support of Democrats, who hold a 13 to 10 advantage on the panel, to move the legislation. Meanwhile, on the House side, liberal and centrist Democrats are fighting over whether a public health care insurance option should be included in a House health care bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi favors a "public option," but is struggling to ensure that the legislation doesn't drive up the deficit over the long term-a major concern of centrist Democrats. Under the speaker's timetable, the bill could be on the House floor in mid-October, although there is strong disagreement about that from other lawmakers, including Democrats. Any proposal that reaches the House floor is expected to include both an employer and individual mandate.
 
 

Excerpted from the Washington Report by NUCA Government Relations Vice-President, Eben Wyman, and NUCA Government Relations Coordinator, Ben Gann.