Spending: Senate Panel Cuts ’07 EPA Water, Corps Aid
The results of fiscal year 2007 appropriations so far in the Senate are gloomy for infrastructure programs. In a busy June 29 session that saw the Senate Appropriations Committee clear four of the 12 annual spending measures, lawmakers sliced spending for Environmental Protection Agency water accounts, the Corps of Engineers civil works program and Dept. of Energy defense environmental cleanup. Changes are possible when the measures come to the Senate floor after the July 4 break, but the signals aren’t encouraging.
Part of the problem is that budget allocations didn’t give appropriators “a whole lot of room,” says Larry Bory, HDR’s vice president for federal government relations. “We are in a situation where domestic infrastructure is taking a back seat” to funding for military and homeland security, he says. “It’s not surprising. It’s regrettable.”