The undersigned organizations, representing business, environment, local government, and water sector stakeholders, strongly urge you to fund several key water infrastructure programs authorized in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, P.L. 117-58). These programs were authorized but not provided appropriations in the IIJA and we urge funding as the FY 2024 appropriations process proceeds. Building smart, modern, resilient, and sustainable infrastructure has long been among our top priorities.
We encourage your committee to fund the following issue areas and programs (See Appendix 1 for specific programs of interest):
· Small and disadvantaged communities and environmental justice: Catalyzing assistance for small, rural, disadvantaged, and underserved communities especially around funding for water infrastructure, affordability, lead pipe replacement, especially schools, technical assistance, and access to technologies to address water quality concerns at the household level (e.g., point of use/point of entry water filtration systems). This funding should also include the low-income assistance needs assessment and pilot projects and add to the technical assistance that EPA is already providing. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently released its Small and Disadvantaged Community Water Funding Roadmap to help on this important issue.
· Resilience: Promoting resilience, cybersecurity, and sustainability for water and wastewater systems, including through nature-based solutions and leveraging public-private partnerships, as well as deployment of USGS ‘super’ gauges throughout river basins to monitor nutrient loading.
· Technology innovation: Establishing an advanced technology grant program and a pilot for waste-to-energy solutions to drive innovation, lower costs, and improve efficiency.
Our organizations recommend continued full funding for State Revolving Funds and the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act and also support the Water Reuse Interagency Working Group to integrate approaches to public and industrial water recycling.
We again urge your support for important water and resilience funding in the FY24 appropriations and will follow up with you and your staff to answer any questions you may have. Thank you for your leadership.