This Week in Washington is a weekly publication of the Water Environment Federation’s Government Affairs department. It provides updates on the latest legislative and regulatory developments that affect the water and wastewater communities.

February 10, 2006

Provided by the Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA

President Bush Submits FY07 Budget
On Monday, President Bush released his FY07 budget request which contained deep cuts in clean water programs administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The Administration’s budget request targets EPA for an overall cut of nearly $310 million, with much of this cut, nearly $200 million, coming from reductions in the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) program.  The President’s budget would set overall spending for the CWSRF to $687 million, which if enacted would represent nearly a 50% overall reduction in spending for the CWSRF since 2001, when funding for the program was $1.350 billion.  Last year, Congress appropriated $887 million for the CWSRF.  The President’s budget also eliminates funding for wastewater operator training grants.  The Drinking Water SRF is on target to receive a slight increase to $841 million from last year’s enacted level of $837 million.  The following table provides additional budget highlights for EPA’s programs: 
 

EPA Program	FY06 Enacted level	FY07 Request	+ (-)
Sec. 106 State grants	$216.17 m	$221.7 m	$5.53 m
Sec 319 non-point grants	$204.28 m	$194 m	($10.28 m)
Targeted watersheds	$16.608 m	$6.930 m	($9.678 m)
WW operator training	$1.182 m	$0	($1.182 m)
Chesapeake Bay	$22.118	$26.397 m	$4.28 m
Great Lakes	$50.153 m	$70.177 m	$20.1 m
Gulf of Mexico	$4.809 m	$4.310 m	($.499 m)
Long Island Sound	$.407.m	$.467	$.060 m
Inf: Alaska Native Villages	$34.5 m	$14.8 m	($19.7 m)
Inf: Mexico Border	$49.3 m	$24.7 m	($24.6 m)
Drinking Water Research	$45.2 m	$49.2 m	$4 m
Endocrine Disruptor Res	$10.5 m	$9.1 m	($1.4 m)
Water Quality Research*	$51.3 m	$57 m	$5.7 m
Surface Water Protection	$189.2 m	$191.6 m	$2.4 m

                                      
The EPA budget request proposes a new $7 million research initiative on water infrastructure to evaluate promising innovative technologies to reduce the cost of operation, maintenance, and replacement of aging and failing systems for water and wastewater infrastructure.
 
For the U.S. Geological Survey, the President’s budget requests an overall reduction of $20.585 million from $965.345 million FY06 enacted level to $944.760 million.  Programs within the water resources investigations unit would see an overall reduction of $7.717 million.  The National Water Quality Assessment Program would receive a slight increase of $368,000 from $62.203 FY06 enacted levels, and the streamgauging program would receive a $2.82 million increase over $13.944 million enacted levels. 
 
The President’s FY07 budget for the U.S. Department of Agriculture targets funding increases for the Conservation Reserve Program from $1.987 billion to $2.093 billion; increases for the Wetlands Reserve Program from $250 million to $403 million; increase for Conservation Security Programs from $259 million to $342 million; but decreases for the Environmental Quality Incentive Program from $1.017 billion to $1.0 billion.  The budget calls for elimination of watershed protection and flood prevention programs. 
 
Congress now begins its annual deliberations of this request with budget hearings beginning this month.  Last year, Congress was able to complete most of the ten appropriations bills before the fiscal year ended September 31st.  It is too early in the process to predict whether they will be able to meet this deadline this year.  Republican leaders may decide to wait until after the 2006 election to vote on cuts to popular discretionary programs.  (PS)
 
CAFO Water Permit Application Deadline Extended
On February 7, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator signed a final rule extending the deadline for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to apply for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits and to implement nutrient management plans (NMPs) required by EPA's 2003 CAFO rule.  Under the final rule, facilities newly defined as CAFOs will have until July 31, 2007, to seek NPDES permit coverage. The 2003 rule required newly defined CAFOs to seek NPDES permit coverage by Feb. 13, 2006, and for all CAFOs to have NMPs in place by Dec. 31, 2006.  EPA will be revising the 2003 rule in response to a federal court decision and had to extend the deadlines because the Agency will not finalize the revisions by the original deadlines.  The final rule granting the extensions will be published in the Federal Register soon.  A pre-publication copy is available at http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/afo/caforulechanges.cfm#dates.  (SJH)

Quote of the Week: “…the most important day in her life…except when she embraced her faith, the next most important day was April 5, 1968, the day after her husband was killed. She had to decide, "What am I going to do with the rest of my life?"  We would have all forgiven her, even honored her, if she said, ‘I have stumbled on enough stony roads…I'm going home and raising my kids’…none of us, nobody could have condemned that decision. But instead, she went to Memphis -- the scene of the worst nightmare of her life -- and led that march.”  --former president Bill Clinton, speaking at the funeral service for Coretta Scott King, February 7, 2006.   Mrs. King, the widow of slain civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Martin Luther King, died January 30 at the age of 78.

This Week in Washington is provided by the Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA. To receive This Week in Washington by e-mail, contact Lisa Jones, (703) 684-2400 ext. 7741, ljones@wef.org. For more information on this week's stories, please contact the WEF staff whose initials appear at the end of the item in which you are interested. TW –Tim Williams (703) 684-2437, twilliams@wef.org; SRT - Sharon Thomas, (703) 684-2423, sthomas@wef.org; SJH - Sam Hadeed (703) 684-2418, shadeed@wef.org; PS-Patricia Sinicropi (703) 684-2416, psinicropi@wef.org. This Week in Washington is available on-line at http://www.wef.org/PolicyAction/USGovernmentAffairs/TWIW/.