Dear Chairs Capito, Graves, and Guthrie and Ranking Members Whitehouse, Larsen, and Pallone:
On behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its member companies, we are committed to ensuring sufficient supplies of clean, safe water for improved quality of life for our customers, employees, and the communities where we operate. As your committees advance legislation to enhance water policy and water infrastructure, we look forward to helping find solutions that enjoy broad support.
We respectfully offer the following recommendations:
- Enact meaningful permitting reform to streamline and provide certainty for both communities and businesses, including modernization of the National Environmental Policy Act, Waters of the U.S., Sections 401 and 404 of the Clean Water Act, Nationwide Permits, and other general permitting programs.
- Consider sufficient funding for the state revolving funds, the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, and related programs at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Congress should also reauthorize of the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act (DWIA), especially for unspent funding and incentives for preconstruction planning and development.
- Ensure implementation of the water subcabinet, as authorized under the Flood Level Observation, Operations, and Decision Support Act (FLOODS) to facilitate interagency coordination.
- Utilize the Chamber’s small and disadvantaged community water funding roadmap to provide small, rural communities with a guide and add to the technical assistance EPA is already providing to help access infrastructure funds.
- Authorize and fund water technology innovation, starting with the DWIA technology grant programs. Congress should consider an industrial water reuse tax credit, continue to fund lead line mapping and replacement, foster R&D for PFAS treatment technologies, and increase access to digital and artificial intelligence solutions (e.g., for PFAS compliance monitoring).
- Make it easier for public and private entities to partner with distressed systems, starting with safe harbor limits on previous liability and noncompliance. Enable nature-based and resilience solutions to save lives, protect infrastructure, bolster our natural resources and grow our economy.
- Provide additional tools for small, rural communities and households for technical assistance, access to technologies and data. Examples of legislation that provide such tools include the Clean Water SRF Parity Act, Healthy H2O Act, Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program Establishment Act, and the Wastewater Infrastructure Pollution Prevention and Environmental Safety Act.
- Address water scarcity, especially in the American west and along the U.S.-Mexico border where water quality is a significant challenge, including support for the Border Water Infrastructure Program. Linking solutions, such as water reuse and recycling, can help address scarcity.
- Facilitate and increase exports of U.S. water technologies, products, and services.
We would welcome an opportunity to discuss these priorities and look forward to working with you.
Sincerely,
Marty Durbin
Senior Vice President, Policy
President, Global Energy Institute
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
cc: Members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce
