This week, Congress returned from its extended recess following a hotly contested 2024 election. As the clock winds down on the 118th Congress, Capitol Hill now turns its attention to addressing critical outstanding items before January 3rd when the new Congress will be sworn in. The House and Senate will enter the final stretch of this Congress, commonly referred to as the “lame duck” session, needing to pass several key bills, including legislation to keep the federal government open and operating, relief for states and communities affected by the recent deadly hurricanes, disaster mitigation legislation, and a critical water resources infrastructure package.
Appropriations
Above almost all else, Congress must pass legislation to extend funding for the federal government before leaving for the holidays in December. In September, Congress passed a continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded until December 20th. With Republicans winning control of the House, Senate, and White House in last week’s election, it is likely that the GOP will want to pass a second continuing resolution going past early January once the new Congress is seated. With full control of the government, Republicans will have the necessary leverage to pass a Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations bill in line with their own policy agenda. This is likely to include significant spending cuts to non-defense government programs.
Disaster Relief
Congress will also need to pass an aid package providing disaster relief to states and communities affected by Hurricanes Milton and Helene, which devastated areas across the Southern Untied States’ coasts and interior last month. The continuing resolution passed in September allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to access more than $20 billion for disaster relief efforts, however, much of that has been used by FEMA to respond to immediate needs in affected areas. FEMA’s disaster relief fund will need to be replenished to help affected areas rebuild and improve resilience to future storms. In addition, the Small Business Administration depleted its disaster loan funds in mid-October, meaning any aid package will likely need to include additional funds to allow this program to continue to allocate needed relief to businesses affected by the storms. There is widespread agreement among Republicans and Democrats on the need to pass an aid package. How much funding will be in that package is unclear, as some Republicans are calling for a smaller package with additional spending cuts to offset new funding. In the aftermath of hurricanes Milton and Helene, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) chose not to bring the House back from its October recess to vote on an aid package, preferring to push consideration until after the election.
Reauthorization of Earthquake and Wind Hazard Reduction Programs
The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Programs (NEHRP) and the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program (NWIRP) are relatively small programs whose authorizations have expired. These two programs are critical to the resilience of the nation’s infrastructure. Both programs provide the needed research to better understand the impact of earthquakes and wind hazards on our nation’s infrastructure. Additionally, the federal research provided by both the NEHRP and NWIRP programs are instrumental to the development of standards such as ASCE-7, Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures, as well as other consensus-based standards related to seismic and wind load design.
In July, the Seante Commerce Committee approved S. 3606, the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Reauthorization Act of 2024 which would reauthorize NEHRP for five years at an annual authorization of $174 million. Meanwhile in September, the House Science Committee approved H.R. 9723, the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program Reauthorization (NWIRP) Act of 2024, a five year extension of the program with an annual authorization of $37 million. ASCE will continue to work with Congress in hopes of completing the reauthorization of both programs.
WRDA 2024
Finally, a high priority for the lame duck session is passage of a final Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) for 2024. WRDA is Congress’s biennial legislation authorizing new water resources projects (dams, levees, ports, inland waterways, etc.) and studies for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. WRDA is often seen as a model of bipartisan cooperation, as it has been passed and signed into law every two years since 2014. Both the House and the Senate passed their own respective WRDA bills this summer, and conference committee negotiations to produce a final WRDA agreement have continued throughout the fall.
ASCE has been involved in the WRDA process throughout 2024, and passage of the bill with certain key provisions is a top legislative priority. Among key provisions in the two bills which ASCE strongly supports is reauthorization of the National Dam Safety Program (Sec. 128 of the House bill, H.R. 8812). The National Dam Safety Program (NDSP) is the primary source of federal funding for state dam safety programs, providing state assistance grants to support dam inspection and monitoring, emergency preparedness, and staff training and other needs. The NDSP’s legislative authority expired on September 30, 2023, and has been operating on previously appropriated funds since that time. Provisions in the House WRDA bill, which were not included in the Senate bill, would reauthorize the program through 2028, increase the amount of funding states could receive in state assistance grants, and make improvements to the High Hazard Potential Dam Rehabilitation Grant Program- which provides grants to make repairs to dams which pose the greatest risk to communities. ASCE, along with the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, helped lead advocacy efforts supporting inclusion of NDSP reauthorization in WRDA 2024. In September, ASCE led several partner organizations in a letter to the House and Senate encouraging inclusion of NDSP reauthorization in any final WRDA agreement.
The Senate’s WRDA bill (S. 4367) is slightly more slimmed down than the House bill, but it includes several key policy provisions. In particular, the Senate bill contains an adjustment of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF) cost share formula which ASCE has long supported. Under this provision, funding for 75 percent of costs for inland waterways projects would be funded using general government funds, while 25 percent of funding would come from the IWTF. The current general fund- IWTF project cost share is 65%-35%. The cost share adjustment in the Senate’s WRDA bill would fulfill a recommendation from the Inland Waterways chapter of ASCE’s 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. The proposed cost share adjustment in the Senate’s WRDA bill was not included in the House’s bill.
To learn more about this year’s House and Senate WRDA bills, we encourage you to read ASCE’s WRDA 2024 policy memo. This document outlines key provisions in both WRDA bills, as well as ASCE’s position on these provisions.
