Washington Report – March 10, 2025

Over the weekend, the House of Representatives released the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 that would fund government operations through the remainder of FY25, which ends Sept. 30;
The government is currently operating under a continuing resolution (CR) that expires March 14;
The CR, as proposed, would:
- Increase defense spending by $6B over current funding levels, and non-defense funding would decrease by $13B
- No additional funding for disaster relief
The House Rules Committee is expected to take up consideration of the package today, with a floor vote of the full House expected to occur March 11.

Take 1-2 minutes today to contact your U.S. Representative about the recently re-established U.S. House Public Works & Infrastructure Caucus;
Based on your zip code, if your U.S. Representative is already a member, a pre-generated email thanking them for joining will be sent; if your U.S. Representative has not yet joined, pre-generated language urging them to join will populate;
Your participation in these action alerts is critical to helping amplify APWA’s voice in Washington, D.C. even more;
The caucus, originally established in 2016, plays an invaluable role in helping to educate Members of Congress and their staff about the importance of public works and infrastructure;
Click here to email lawmaker, then share the link;
Text PWX to 52886 to receive alerts via text message.

The U.S. Supreme Court released its decision, March 4, in San Francisco vs. EPA;
In ruling for the City of San Francisco, the Court said EPA cannot enforce permit provisions that hold dischargers responsible for the overall water quality of the receiving body without specifying clear limitations on individual pollutants;
This decision builds on the Chevron deference decision the Court released last summer, which said judges are no longer required to defer to agencies’ “reasonable” interpretations of “ambiguous” federal laws;
The latest decision said the EPA overstepped its authority because it imposed vague limits on San Francisco and the amount of raw sewage it could release into the Pacific Ocean;
The Clean Water Act prohibits discharging pollutants into waters of the United States without a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit;
The EPA administers NPDES and is reviewing last week’s decision;
APWA Government Affairs will track and share information when it is released by the EPA.

During its all-staff retreat last week, APWA staff visited WaterOne in Johnson County, Kansas, and the Wolcott Wastewater Treatment Plant in Western Kansas City, Kansas;
WaterOne serves 400,000 customers and has been serving Johnson County since 1957;
Wolcott is a relatively new treatment plant that uses new technology to improve effluent water quality;
The field trip helped APWA employees better understand how water and wastewater operations work so we can better represent APWA members on Capitol Hill.

(All times ET)

March 11 at 10 a.m., the House Transportation and Infrastructure Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee will hold a hearing, Water Infrastructure Financing – Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund;
March 11 at 10 a.m., the House Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee will hold a hearing, Regulatory Harm or Harmonization? Examining the Opportunity to Improve the Cyber Regulatory Regime;
March 11 at 10:15 a.m., the House Energy and Commerce Environment Subcommittee will hold a hearing, Maximizing Opportunities for Redeveloping Brownfields Sites-Assessing the Potential for New American Innovation;
March 11 at 1 p.m., the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Continuous Improvement Technical Assistance Program (CITAP) will host a webinar to share how entities can improve their emergency management programs;
March 12 at 10:30 a.m., the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a business meeting to mark-up of bills impacting disaster relief, S. 861, the Disaster Assistance Simplification Act and S. 594, the Helping Eliminate Limitations for Prompt (HELP) Response and Recovery Act.