OSA Cheers House Passage of WRRDA
November 26, 2013
| In a vote of 417 to 3, the House of Representatives passed the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA). The Ohio Soybean Association (OSA) supports the bill, and congratulates House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee leadership following its passage. “OSA applauds the recent passage of the WRRDA bill and commends Chairman Shuster and Ranking member Rahall, as well as Subcommittee Chairman Gibbs and Ranking Member Bishop, for their persistence and support in the process of addressing our waterways infrastructure,” said Bret Davis, OSA president and soybean farmer from Delaware County. The WRRDA bill includes provisions to streamline environmental reviews; establish hard deadlines and cost caps on project studies; allow non-federal interests to contribute funds to expedite project components; annually increase the amount of funding that is provided from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) for port maintenance and dredging; and free up money and increase the capacity of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF) and requiring the Corps to study and report on bonding, user fees, and other potential funding sources. The House bill will now move on to conference with the Senate’s Water Resources Development Act (S. 601) to iron out areas in which the two bills differ. S. 601 includes similar provisions supported by OSA to annually increase the amount of funding that is provided from the HMTF for port maintenance and dredging; to streamline the process for Corps of Engineers projects and reduce project completion times; and to free up money and increase the capacity of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF). Additionally, the Senate version includes an amendment supported by the OSA that would exempt small farms that store oil in aboveground tanks from federal oil spill regulations. The amendment would set storage tank thresholds below which agricultural operations would be excluded from U.S. EPA’s Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure Rule (SPCC). |
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