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.
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