“There will be some who say this all stems from climate change,” Wheeler told a Wilson Center event on global water issues. “But the truth is that water challenges have been around for generations and are causing immediate deaths annually.”

He added that he finds the current global dialogue on environmental issues frustrating because “water issues often take a backseat. It’s time to change that.”

Wheeler highlighted a number of ways EPA is working in the United States and elsewhere to address water insecurity, such as the development of a plan to accelerate water reuse technologies and collaborating with the State Department to encourage other countries to reduce the amount of debris they release into the oceans. 

Funding for many EPA water programs, however, would be cut under the Trump administration’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. This proposal would slash the EPA’s largest water program—the State Revolving Fund, which subsidizes low-cost infrastructure loans—by 12 percent.  WEF and others in the water sector are actively seeking an increase in the FY2020 CWSRF to $2.8 billion and $1.3 billion for the DWSRF (the fully authorized amount), as well as funding for WIFIA at the fully authorized level of $50 million in FY2020.  In addition, WEF is seeking $2.5 billion for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Water and Wastewater Loans and Grants and $100 million for Title XVI-WIIN competitive grants, $20 million for the National Priorities Water Research Grant Program and at least level funding for the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay, as well as other important programs.

Additionally, the Trump administration proposed cutting funding to the Army Corps of Engineers by nearly a third and cutting funding by nearly 30 percent to the Bureau of Reclamation, which manages water in the West.  (Bloomberg BNA, 3/20/19)