Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2013
Last updated
Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014
Full title
To provide for improvements to the rivers and harbors of the United States, to provide for the conservation and development of water and related resources, and for other purposes.
Reported by the joint conference committee on May 15, 2014; agreed to by the House on May 20, 2014 (412-4) and by the Senate on May 22, 2014 (Roll Call Vote 163: 91-7)
Signed into law by PresidentBarack Obamaon June 10, 2014
An authorization bill is a type of legislation used in the United States to authorize the activities of the various agencies and programs that are part of the federal government of the United States. Authorizing such programs is one of the powers of the United States Congress. Authorizations give those things the legal power to operate and exist. Authorization bills must be passed in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate before being signed by the President of the United States in order to become law. They may originate in either chamber of Congress, unlike revenue raising bills, which must originate in the House. They can also be considered at any time during the year.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is a U.S. federal agency under the Department of Defense and a major Army command made up of some 37,000 civilian and military personnel, making it one of the world's largest public engineering, design, and construction management agencies. Although generally associated with dams, canals and flood protection in the United States, USACE is involved in a wide range of public works throughout the world. The Corps of Engineers provides outdoor recreation opportunities to the public, and provides 24% of U.S. hydropower capacity.
The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they compose the legislature of the United States.
Typically, water resource bills are passed every few years, but one has not passed since 2007.[1][2] One reason no other water bill has passed since 2007 is that there have been controversies about the bill's use of earmarks to fund specific projects.[3]
An earmark is a provision inserted into a discretionary spending appropriations bill that directs funds to a specific recipient while circumventing the merit-based or competitive funds allocation process. Earmarks feature in American and South African public finance.
Provisions of the bill
The bill contains reforms intended to speed up "project delivery by eliminating duplicative studies and requiring concurrent reviews, and streamlining environmental reviews."[1] It also deauthorizes $12 billion worth of projects that have not been active over the last five years.[2] The bill would also allow non-federal organizations and groups to provide funding for projects.[2] If passed, the bill would set up a Congressional review process for approving projects, instead of letting the Army Corps of Engineers make all decisions about which project to pursue.[3]
Congressional Budget Office report
This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the Congressional Budget Office, a public domain source.As ordered reported by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on September 19, 2013.[4]
H.R. 3080 would authorize the United States Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to construct water projects for mitigating storm and hurricane damage, restoring ecosystems, and improving flood management.[4] The legislation also would authorize the agency to assist states and local governments with levee safety programs and to assist Indian tribes with planning and technical assistance for water resources projects. Finally, H.R. 3080 would direct the Corps to implement a pilot program to enter agreements with nonfederal partners to manage and construct certain projects.[4] Those agreements would be subject to appropriation of all federal costs.
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain. Depending on its location and strength, a tropical cyclone is referred to by different names, including hurricane, typhoon, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, and simply cyclone. A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean, and a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean; in the south Pacific or Indian Ocean, comparable storms are referred to simply as "tropical cyclones" or "severe cyclonic storms".
An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the system through photosynthesis and is incorporated into plant tissue. By feeding on plants and on one-another, animals play an important role in the movement of matter and energy through the system. They also influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. By breaking down dead organic matter, decomposers release carbon back to the atmosphere and facilitate nutrient cycling by converting nutrients stored in dead biomass back to a form that can be readily used by plants and other microbes.
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water levels.
Assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts, including adjustments for anticipated inflation, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that implementing H.R. 3080 would cost about $3.5 billion over 2014-2018 period.[4] Spending would continue for authorized projects after 2018, and the CBO estimates that such spending would total $4.7 billion over the 2019-2023 period.[4]
Pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply because enacting the bill would not affect direct spending or revenues.[4]
PAYGO is the practice in the United States of financing expenditures with funds that are currently available rather than borrowed.
Speaking in favor of the bill, Representative Shuster argued that the bill was primarily about jobs and improving the United States' competitiveness.[1] According to Shuster, "A strong water transportation network is critical to keeping pace with other nations that are improving their own infrastructure networks and gaining ground in an increasingly competitive global marketplace."[1]
The bill was considered to be bipartisan.[7] Newspaper The Hill said that this bill and three others from the week of October 21, 2013, would give the House "a chance to practice the long-forgotten art of working together."[7] This was a reference to the contentious United States federal government shutdown of 2013, which ended the previous week.
The conference report was opposed by Heritage Action for America, which said that the bill "hikes spending while doing little to reduce bureaucracy and limit the role of the federal government."[6]
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