As Congress hurries to its preelection recess, the list of major bills the House and Senate must pass before leaving may only include one item: legislation to keep federal agencies operating past September.
On Aug. 9, Sen. Joe Negron (R), president-designate of Florida’s state senate, unveiled a plan to purchase land south of Lake Okeechobee for a 60,000-acre reservoir to store 120 billion gallons of polluted lake water, which currently is discharged to tide when the lake rises to a level that threatens the dike that encloses it.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has signed an agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority; the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, which represents regional utilities; and the U.S. Southeastern Power Administration, a federal hydropower marketing agency, to provide $1.2 billion over 20 years for the repair of hydropower facilities.
A Senate committee has approved an $11-billion water-resources bill authorizing funds for 27 new Army Corps of Engineers projects. But in a striking change from similar past measures, the new one has an array of drinking-water and wastewater provisions, too, including a new trust fund.
Judging from figures in spending bills making their way through Congress, the Army Corps of Engineers civil-works program is in line for a modest fiscal year 2017 funding increase that will nudge the total to a new high.