Posted June 12, 2014
On
Tuesday, President Barack Obama signed the Water Resources
Reform and Development Act into law, according to an article on Farm Futures by
Janell Baum available here. The White House
Blog also published an article available here, Yahoo News here, and USA Today here. A previous blog
post on the Water Resources Reform and Development Act is available here.
The
$12.3 billion bill authorizes Army Corps infrastructure improvement projects
and funding reorganization plans, which many farm groups believe will increase
efficiency of grain and agricultural input shipping on inland waterways.
The
bill changes the funding mechanism for the Olmsted Lock and Dam completion,
which authorizes 85 percent of the funding to come from federal government and
only 15 percent from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, according to RFDTV.
The
Water Resources Reform and Development Act “will put Americans to work
modernizing our water infrastructure and restoring some of our most vital
ecosystems,” Obama said during a signing ceremony at the White House, according
to USA Today.
The
bill “gives a green light to 34 water infrastructure projects across the
country, including projects to deepen Boston Harbor and the Port of Savannah,
and to restore the Everglades,” he said.
"I
just want to be clear," he said. "If Congress fails to act, then
federal funding for transportation projects runs out by the end of the
summer," which would put more than 100,000 active projects
and nearly 700,000 jobs at risk, according to The White House Blog.
The
bill also includes a farm and ranch extension exemption
for the Environmental Agency
(EPA)’s Spill Preventing Control and Countermeasure rule, which authorizes
farmers to self-certify on farm-fuel storage up to 6,000 gallons, according to Farm Futures.
Farm
groups were pleased with the bill’s signing, but they also suggested that
changes to barge user fees would further improve infrastructure.
For more information on water law,
please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
