Democrats blast GOP for ‘sabotaging’ House waterways bill

The House is set to vote on a $5 billion waterways bill next week, but it’s not the bipartisan version approved by the Transportation Committee earlier this year.

{mosads}Democrats, who were delivered a copy of the legislative text that leadership plans to bring to the House floor next week, were surprised to learn on Thursday that highly sought-after language related to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund was dropped from the bill.

“This important bipartisan provision was stripped out of the bill after it was passed out of committee,” Rep. Janice Hahn (D-Calif.) said in a statement.

“This is disrespectful to the Transportation Committee and its members. Therefore, I will not support WRDA [the Water Resources Development Act] in its current form, and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.”

Democrats and a few Republicans had fought for years for the provision, which would ensure that money collected for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is used for upkeep at ports and harbors. A portion of the fund’s revenue is often diverted to offset other congressional spending.

It was considered a major victory when language was added to the House waterways bill that would have taken the Harbor Maintenance Tax “off-budget” in 2027, meaning the user fee would not be subject to the appropriations process.

But that provision is not included in the version lawmakers will vote on next week. The House Rules panel said on its website that the rules committee print strikes that section of the bill in order to “ensure compliance with the Rules of the House and the Congressional Budget Act.”

Democrats are expected to withhold their support for the measure, though the bill is still likely to muster enough support from Republicans to pass on its own.

“We had the potential chance to catch up on the massive backlog of maintenance in our harbors,” Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), ranking member on the Transportation Committee, told reporters on Thursday. “But the Republicans and their hypocrisy want to continue to collect the tax dedicated to harbor maintenance and divert part of that tax to other purposes.”

DeFazio said the decision was made at the GOP leadership level.

Democrats have also taken issue with the fact that the bill does not contain emergency funding for communities with lead-contaminated water like Flint, Mich. A Senate-passed version included Flint aid, but the House Transportation and Infrastructure panel did not have the jurisdiction to include the language at the committee level.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, assured his colleagues across the Capitol that they could add Flint aid during efforts to combine the two chambers’ bill and urged lawmakers to support the House version.

But it appears Democrats are not entirely convinced.

“Unfortunately, it sounds like the WRDA bill the House will consider next week will not be the bipartisan compromise that we passed out of committee earlier this year, nor will it address critical funding for Flint,” DeFazio said in an earlier statement.

“I’m incredibly disappointed that the Republican leadership has sabotaged a good, bipartisan bill that would have maintained and strengthened our ports, harbors and waterways, and our nation’s economic competitiveness. Unless the Republicans reevaluate their plan, I plan to oppose the legislation when it comes to the floor.”