House Passes Continuing Resolution for FY 2011 Funding, Significantly Reduces SRF Appropriations

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution (CR) for the rest of FY11, which will fund the government after the current CR expires on March 4. The current CR was passed during the lame duck session of the 111^th Congress in December and funds everything at frozen FY10 levels. This proposal would fund the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) at $690 million and $830 million respectively. It is difficult to make a direct comparison to past budget requests and fiscal year appropriations (due to the continuing resolution covering a period of 7 months where appropriations and budget requests cover a period of 12 months). However, this still represents a significant cut to the SRF program, as the program up to this point has been funded at FY10 levels. On its face, when compared to FY10 levels, the CR represents a cut of $1.987 billion from the SRF programs. But, when measured against a comparable time period of FY10, it represents a total reduction in funds of close to $500 million. Of more imminent danger to the program were two amendments to the bill that were offered but not considered. The first would have prohibited funding for any program beyond it authorized amount, and the second would have banned funding for programs that are more than five years past their authorization’s expiration date. Both the Clean Water SRF and the Drinking Water SRF have not been authorized in almost two decades (since 1994 and 1996 respectively). These amendments both would have effectively zeroed out the SRF program. SRF authorization passed the House last Congress and stalled in the Senate due to conflicts over Davis-Bacon prevailing wages in the bill. This CR now moves to the Senate, where voices have already been raised in opposition to the House-passed bill from Senate Democrats and the Administration. The Senate plans to draft its own legislation, and the two will most likely have to be reconciled. For more information, contact Scott Berry at (703) 837-5321 or berrys@agc.org.