House lawmakers to unveil water resources bill on Friday

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) said the lower chamber’s water resources bill will be unveiled on Friday.

The committee is slated to mark the bill up next Wednesday, May 23, Shuster told The Hill on Thursday.

A senior House GOP aide said the legislation will be bipartisan and will include two Republican and two Democratic co-sponsors. 

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The biennial water infrastructure bill is one of several pieces of legislation House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has referenced as part of President Trump’s push for an infrastructure overhaul. Congress regularly takes up the water resources bill every two years.

The Senate last week unveiled its own bipartisan version of the legislation, which was introduced by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and ranking member Tom Carper (D-Del.). Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who chairs the panel’s Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, and subcommittee ranking member Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) joined Barrasso and Carper in releasing the bill.

Cardin, in announcing the bill’s rollout, emphasized its focus on clean drinking water. The legislation also intends to localize the budget for the Army Corps of Engineers by calling upon the National Academy of Sciences to generate reports analyzing how the Corps can improve transparency to work with stakeholders, Congress and local governments.

“I can’t overstate the importance of the nation’s water infrastructure system,” Barrasso said at a committee hearing Thursday about the legislation.

“America’s Water Infrastructure Act will help deepen nationally significant ports, and fix aging dams and irrigation systems,” he added.

Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.), John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) have since signed onto the bill as co-sponsors.

The Senate will also mark up its version of the bill next week.