Vice Chair McCollum’s $3.9 Million for Local Water Infrastructure Projects Advances

Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN-04) and the House Appropriations Committee voted to approve the Fiscal Year 2023 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Bill and report today, including two Community Project Funding (CPF) requests made by Vice Chair McCollum to benefit Minnesota's Fourth Congressional District:

• Project: City of Woodbury East Wellfield Manifold Pipe ($3,450,000)
  This funding would be used to connect three municipal drinking water supply wells within the City of Woodbury to a single raw water line to facilitate subsequent connection to a water treatment facility addressing PFAS contamination in order to improve drinking water quality for residents.
• Project: City of Birchwood Village Sewer Lift Station Replacement ($480,000)
  This funding would be used for the replacement of the City's current sewer lift station, which is subject to corrosion due to a neighboring community's water main break that flooded and damaged the station.

"These important projects will protect the safety of the public water supply and improve water quality in the East Metro," Congresswoman McCollum said. "As Vice Chair of the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, I've worked hard to ensure that this bill makes important investments in healthy communities, clean air and water, our public lands, the arts and humanities, combating the climate crisis, and much more."

"We are grateful for the support from Congresswoman McCollum and her staff in making this a priority," said Woodbury Mayor Anne Burt. "Connecting all of our water supply wells to a new water treatment plant to address PFAS is an expensive endeavor and the city cannot do it on its own. This money will help reduce the funding gap and financial burden placed on our residents."

"Working with Representative Betty McCollum to learn we may be eligible for federal funding to help rebuild our main lift station is fantastic," said Birchwood Village Mayor Mary Wingfield. "Our lift station was flooded a few years ago. The damage it incurred is irreparable. With this new funding, our residents as well as White Bear Lake will be protected for years to come. We just finished celebrating our 100th anniversary. What a great way to start our next 100 years!"

Background:

In total, the bill includes $44.8 billion in regular appropriations, an increase of $6.8 billion – 18 percent – above the FY 2022 enacted level. There is also an additional $2.55 billion of funding provided under the fire suppression cap adjustment.

The legislation also:

• Honors the federal government's responsibilities to Native American families by investing in tribal communities including through education and health care programs
• Creates good-paying American jobs and strengthens the environmental workforce through investments in renewable energy development
• Confronts the climate crisis and builds resilience to climate change by expanding environmental enforcement efforts with a focus on land and water conservation
• Protects and preserves public lands and biodiversity, which encompasses threatened and endangered species and their habitats
• Invests in historically underserved communities overburdened by disproportionate impacts from pollution
• Dedicates the highest-ever level of funding to the arts and humanities

In FY 2023, Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) allocations are maintained as mandatory appropriations.

Department of the Interior (DOI) – The bill provides a total of $16.6 billion in discretionary appropriations for DOI, an increase of $2.1 billion above the FY 2022 enacted level. Of this amount, the bill includes:

• $1.5 billion for the Bureau of Land Management (MLR/O&C), $135 million above the FY 2022 enacted level. Within this amount, the bill includes:
  • $81 million for sage-grouse conservation, $37 million for threatened and endangered species, $70 million for the National Landscape Conservation System, and $12 million for National and Scenic Historic Trails consolidated in a new subactivity in Recreation Management. It also provides $156 million for the Wild Horse and Burro program which includes $11 million for research on reversible immunocontraceptive fertility control and its administration.

• $1.9 billion for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, $230 million above the FY 2022 enacted level. Within this amount, the bill includes:
  • $355 million for Ecological Services, $77 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $574 million for the National Wildlife Refuge System, $55 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $25.5 million for Multinational Species Conservation Fund, $5.5 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.

• $3.6 billion for the National Park Service, an increase of $378 million above the FY 2022 enacted level. Within this amount, the bill includes:
  • $3.1 billion for the Operation of the National Park System, an increase of $323 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $88 million for National Recreation and Preservation, an increase of $4 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $171 million for the Historic Preservation Fund. Within this amount, the bill includes $82 million for State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, $38 million for Save America's Treasures competitive and project grants, $28 million for competitive grants to preserve the sites and stories of underrepresented community civil rights, and $10 million for grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
• $1.6 billion for the U.S. Geological Survey, $250 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
• $228.77 million for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an increase of $22 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $51.68 million for the Renewable Energy Program, an increase of $14.86 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
• $291 million for the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, an increase of $3 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
• $4.4 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, and Office of the Special Trustee, an increase of $778 million above the FY 2022 enacted level. Within this amount, the bill includes:
  • $2.2 billion for Bureau of Indian Affairs Operation of Indian Programs, an increase of $330 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $50 million for Indian Land Consolidation, an increase of $43 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $181 million for Bureau of Indian Affairs Construction, an increase of $34 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $14 million for the Indian Guaranteed Loan Program, an increase of $2 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $1.2 billion for Bureau of Indian Education Operation of Indian Programs, an increase of $175 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $375 million to Bureau of Indian Education Construction, an increase of $111 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • Fully funds Contract Support Costs and Payments for Tribal Leases.
  • $111 million for the Office of the Special Trustee, an increase of $2 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
• $457 million for Departmental Offices, $55 million above the FY 2022 enacted level. Within this amount, the bill includes:
  • $129.7 million for the Office of Insular Affairs, an increase of $7.8 million above the FY 2022 enacted level and $4 million.
  • $45 million for the Energy Community Revitalization Program, an increase of $40 million above the FY 2022 enacted level. The principal focus in fiscal year 2023 is on hard rock mining.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – The bill provides a total of $11.5 billion for EPA – an increase of $2 billion above the FY 2022 enacted level. Of this amount, the bill includes:

• $4.67 billion for EPA's core science and environmental program work, an increase of $951 million above the FY 2022 enacted level. Within these amounts, the bill includes:
  • $679.9 million for Geographic Programs which help with the restoration of nationally significant bodies of water like the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, and Long Island Sound. This is an increase of $92.7 million above the FY 2022 enacted level and $101.3 million above the President's budget request.
  • $126 million in funding for scientific and regulatory work on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) needed to establish drinking water and cleanup standards. This funding builds on the $74 million the EPA received in 2022.
• $5.18 billion for State and Tribal Assistance Grants, an increase of $826 million above the FY 2022 enacted level. Within this amount, the bill includes:
  • $2.88 billion for Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, $113 million above the enacted level. This includes $934.7 million in Community Project Funding for 419 drinking water, wastewater, and storm water management projects across the country.
  • $131 million for Brownfields cleanups, a $39 million increase above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $150 million for Diesel Emissions Reduction grants, an increase of $58 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $65 million for ten new grant programs authorized in the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act.
• $1.31 billion for Superfund, an increase of $81 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
• $301 million for Environmental Justice activities, an increase of $201 million above the FY 2022 level.

Wildland Fire Management (WFM) – The bill provides $6.43 billion for WFM, which includes $2.55 billion in cap adjusted fire suppression funding. The total funding is $762.2 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.

Related Agencies –

• $3.95 billion for the Forest Service (non-fire/without LWCF), an increase of $257.99 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
• $8.1 billion for the Indian Health Service, an increase of $1.5 billion above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $5.7 billion for Health Services, an increase of $1 billion above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • $1.3 billion for Health Facilities, an increase of $367 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
  • Fully funds Contract Support Costs and Payments for Tribal Leases.
• $207 million each for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, an increase of $27 million above the FY 2022 enacted levels, $6.3 million over the requested level for the National Endowment for the Humanities and $3.45 million over the request level for the National Endowment for the Arts.
• $1.175 billion for the Smithsonian Institution, $112 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.
• $15 million for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, equal to the FY 2022 enacted level.
• $45 million for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, $5 million above the 2022 enacted level.
• $65.2 million for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, an increase of $2.6 million above the FY 2022 enacted level.

Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) – The bill allocates $900 million for land acquisition and support for state recreation programs.

The bill next heads to the floor of the U.S. House Floor for debate and approval.

The text of the bill is here. The bill report is here. In keeping with the Appropriations Committee's commitment to transparency, information on Rep. McCollum's Community Project Funding requests is available here.

###