ENERGY BRIEFING: Schumer Tees Up Water Infrastructure Bill

摘要

Democrats are working with Republicans to determine timing this week on a bipartisan drinking water and wastewater infrastructure bill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said yesterday . "We have a lot to do," the New York Democrat said on the floor. The chamber today is expected to hold a procedural vote on whether to begin consideration of the water infrastructure bill (S. 914), Nancy Ognanovich reports. Schumer also said he expects the Senate to consider by week's end a resolution to reinstate an Obama-era rule limiting methane emissions. Schumer said members will have an opportunity to offer amendments to the water infrastructure legislation. A person familiar with the negotiations said there don't appear to be any roadblocks at this point facing the bill. "On a topic this straightforward and bipartisan, I hope our Republican colleagues will cooperate so we may finish the bill ASAP," Schumer said. The water infrastructure bill would invest more than $35 billion in water resource development projects across the country. It would also reauthorize two critical Environmental Protection Agency programs-the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund-which provide financial aid to localities' drinking water systems and to state safe water programs, as well as loan financing and assistance for communities for a range of water infrastructure projects.