According to House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA), the House version of the Water Resources Development Act will be marked up when Congress returns from their August recess in September. The bill, which has not been released to the public, is said to be a policy reform bill, and has even had a slight name change in its title, making it the Water Resources Reform and Development Act, or “WRRDA” (instead of the usual “WRDA” acronym).
Due to the House ban on earmarks, the bill is rumored to contain no earmarks but will instead make major reforms in how the Army Corps of Engineers does business. As far as authorizing new water projects for the Corps, House T&I leadership has indicated the bill would require local governments to request projects, which the Army Corps of Engineers would then need to approve. There have been no details given as to how Congress would then authorize these new projects filtering up from the local level.
The types of policy reforms in the bill could center on transparency, accountability and streamlining regulatory and project planning and implementation processes. Also, congressional oversight could be ramped up in the prioritization and review of current and new water resource projects in the future.
The Senate passed its $12 billion WRDA bill in May. The Senate bill also avoids earmarks by automatically authorizing projects that meet a certain set of criteria. But many House members believe this approach gives up much congressional authority to the executive branch. One expected consistency between the two measures could be the controversial environmental process streamlining provisions included in the Senate version, which could be included in the House bill as well.
In recent statements, House T&I leaders have indicated that their approach in the new WRRDA legislation could be one the Senate would embrace in a potential conference reconciling the two bills, assuming the House version passes.