Contaminated drinking water can cause gastrointestinal illnesses and neurological disorders.  Prolonged exposure to pollutants like lead can lead to chronic diseases and developmental issues, particularly in children. Ensuring access to clean and safe drinking water is crucial for public health.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) have been two of the federal government’s sources of funding for water infrastructure since 1987 and 1996.  

CWSRF has financed the construction and upgrade of wastewater treatment plants, developing storm-water management systems, and managing nonpoint source pollution, which comes from several sources rather than a single polluter. The DWSRF has funded the replacement and rehabilitation of aging water infrastructure, including pipelines, and provided support for replacing service lines to eliminate lead contamination in drinking water.

On July 12, Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., described the two Revolving Fund programs as “critical to expand access to clean water, modernize aging water infrastructure and safeguard our public health.”  However, the 2021 reintroduction of earmarks, euphemistically called “community project funding,” into the congressional appropriations process has redirected funding away from these programs.

The Revolving Funds are funded through annual appropriations. The EPA distributes this funding of $2.76 billion annually in fiscal years 2023 and 2024 to each state as “capitalization grants” according to a statutory formula. However, before the appropriations committees allocate the grants, earmarks are taken for congressional districts and states, reducing the money available for the formula-based funding.

This process correlates more with the political clout of legislators than the need for water infrastructure projects in a given state. Since earmarked funds are deducted from the amount appropriated to the EPA, states that do not obtain earmarks can face substantial funding losses.

A July 9 letter from 16 senators and representatives to the chair and ranking members of the House and Senate appropriations committees and interior subcommittees stated, “Annual Appropriations Acts reduced funding for state SRFs by more than $3.7 billion in FY22, FY23, and FY24 to fund” the two programs.

In FYs 2022 and 2023, 56 percent of the combined funding for the Revolving Funds was diverted to earmarked projects.  According to the Environmental Policy Innovation Center, in FY 2023, “earmarks will result in a net direct loss of $328 million to 25 states … (which) will lose water funding that otherwise would have financed crucial infrastructure projects.”  

The July 9 letter noted that “if funding shortfalls and diversions continue, a major lifeline of our federal water infrastructure funding will run dry at a time when costs for infrastructure, design, and planning are skyrocketing.”

These concerns have been echoed by state water authorities. In 2022, Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority Executive Director Keith McLaughlin said he “came close to running out of loan money” to fund projects because the state lost more funding to out-of-state earmarks than Colorado’s congressional delegation managed to regain through their own earmarks.  

Puerto Rico received $26.6 million less during FYs 2022 and 2023 than expected based on the allocation formula, which is delaying the rebuilding of public infrastructure damaged during Hurricane Fiona in 2022.  Between FYs 2022 and 2023, 38 states and territories lost $660 million in federal water aid to unrelated earmarks.

Earmarks also endanger water infrastructure financing programs by reallocating money from the Revolving Funds’ interest-bearing loans, often repaid and reissued, to grants that will not be recouped. According to the Environmental Policy Innovation Center, the “10-year cost of these earmarks is an additional $458 million for all states.”

Earmarks give members of Congress the power to hand-pick projects that supersede the recommendations of state water authority officials. The earmarks go disproportionately to members of the House and Senate appropriations committees and congressional leadership and also divert funds from needier communities to wealthier ones.

Since 1991, Citizens Against Government Waste has exposed earmarks in its annual Congressional Pig Book.  CAGW’s Earmark Database documents 132,434 earmarks costing $460.3 billion.  The 2024 Congressional Pig  Book reveals  $54,207,765 earmarked through the Revolving Funds for projects hand-picked by members of Congress that divert funds from higher priority infrastructure projects identified by state water officials, along with $355,162,860 for other politically favored water projects not related to the Revolving Funds.

The power to divert funding through earmarks benefits members of Congress at the expense of drinking water infrastructure projects on which Americans rely.  This is another reason earmarks have been identified by CAGW President Tom Schatz and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, as “the most corrupt, costly, and inequitable practice in the history of Congress,” and must be abolished.

Alec Mena is a state government affairs associate at the Citizens Against Government Waste. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.