Legislative Update: News from House Committees

Reconciliation Package

The House Committees spent an intense couple of weeks unveiling and marking up the draft text for the $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better Act” budget reconciliation package (S. Con. Res. 14). The Budget Committee is now combining all the passed recommendations into one bill. Changes may still be made in the House Rules Committee before the bill is sent to the House floor. As part of a deal made with moderate Democrats, House Majority Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had vowed to try and resolve the major difference between the House and Senate reconciliation packages before voting on the legislation.

Funding for water infrastructure projects was divided between the House Transportation and Infrastructure and the Energy and Commerce Committees. Spending often mirrored or complimented funding laid out in the bipartisan infrastructure bill, including emphasizing provisions and funds that addressed environmental justice programs and needs.

House Transportation and Infrastructure

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee titles include various environmental justice funding for wastewater and stormwater infrastructure grant programs targeting disadvantaged communities, including $2 billion for sewer overflow and stormwater reuse municipal grants. Other water resources provisions include:

• $450 million for grants to install, repair or replace domestic septic systems, including investment in connecting households with failing septic systems to public sewer systems;
• $495 million in grants for rural, small, tribal, and economically disadvantaged communities to help with meeting the technical and financial requirements of the Clean Water Act;
• and $500 in grants to reduce the backlog of wastewater infrastructure projects.

The plan would also provide grants for alternative water source projects, household septic systems, wastewater infrastructure assistance to Colonias along the border, and providing clean water needs assessments.

House Energy and Commerce

After three days of markups, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved several titles, including a range of drinking water and waste cleanup programs. But the House funding levels are at odds with amounts set by Senate Democrats requiring them to be worked out between the two chambers. The House legislation provides $30 billion for full replacement of lead drinking water pipes, compared to the $15 billion that the Senate bill provided. The House amount will significantly boost the funding provided in the infrastructure bill, bringing the total investment to the $45 billion that President Biden and industry says is needed to complete the job. The bill also includes $700 million in grants to reduce lead contamination in schools and $100 million for drinking water infrastructure on tribal lands.

The committee sets aside $750 million in grants to be administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to go to states, tribes, local governments, or non-profit groups aimed at reducing waste in communities through the funding of projects to reduce waste byproducts and packaging in the design of products; to modernize or construct infrastructure for organics recycling and reuse; to support food waste reduction projects; to back efforts to lower waste disposed of in landfills; and to “create market demand or manufacturing capacity for recovered, recyclable, or recycled commodities and products,” according to the legislative text. $300 million would have to be preserved for projects in low-income or disadvantaged communities.

House Ways and Means

The Ways and Means Committee wrapped up four days of markups approving about $2.2 trillion in tax increases and about $1.3 trillion in tax breaks in a party-line 24-19 vote. The plan increases the top corporate tax rates to 26.5% for businesses with incomes above $5 million and the individual tax rate up to 39.6% for individuals with taxable income of more than $400,000. An amendment by Rep. Miller (R-WV) attempted to strip the expanded Superfund excise tax provisions from the bill, and another amendment from Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX) that would eliminate provisions reinstating the expired fees on a select group of chemicals and petroleum products, were both defeated.

Outlook

Without a doubt, the path forward is a difficult one given the strains on the legislative calendar. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will have to do much political maneuvering to satisfy the competing demands between the progressive and moderate factions in the caucus and slim Democratic margins in the House.

Several moderate Democrats, including Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), are pushing to scale back the topline costs of the bill. Manchin is telling the White House and Democratic leadership that he is only open to supporting a $1 to $1.5 trillion package but would not back a $3.5 trillion bill. The main contentions center on his concerns regarding spending for elder care, child tax credits, the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP), which will provide grants to utilities that increase their clean energy production and penalizes those that continue to use fossil fuels, Negotiations could stall talks, affecting the overall fate of the legislation, as well as the Senate-passed infrastructure bill that is to be taken up by the 27th.

So far, President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have downplayed such intra-party debates and sharing confidence that Sen. Manchin remains loyal to the party’s goals. On Sept. 15, President Biden met with Senators Manchin and Sinema to discuss a “path forward” on the legislation in what was billed as a “productive” meeting. On the progressive’s side, Budget Chairman Bernie Sanders continues to reiterate that the $3.5 trillion number is already the result of a “major, major compromise” and that most of the Democratic caucus would support his earlier pitch for a $6 trillion economic policy bill.  The challenges Democratic leaders face is making Pelosi’s goal to have the bill taken up on the House floor by Sept. 20 less likely and may even push the process into the late fall.