WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), today issued the below statement after voting to pass America’s Water Infrastructure Act. The Senate approved the comprehensive, bipartisan legislation by a 99-1 vote.
 
“Strengthening and improving America’s infrastructure has traditionally been a bipartisan priority, and that’s because of the enormous benefits provided by safe and reliable infrastructure. This bipartisan legislation makes important changes and updates that will help improve the health and wellbeing of West Virginians and others in communities across the country. It cuts red tape to help our state and local leaders prioritize and complete critical water infrastructure projects that will promote economic growth. It also allows us to more effectively and responsibly use our limited federal dollars and increases the impact those resources will have on Rural America.
 
“As a member of the EPW Committee, I’m proud of the role I played in delivering the comprehensive legislation and the way we worked across the aisle to do so. I’m also excited that I was able to secure several provisions that I know will have a positive impact in West Virginia—including measures to grow and improve our water workforce and to provide our communities with better access to reliable wastewater systems. These measures, combined with the many other legislative solutions in this bill, will benefit Americans living in every single state, and I look forward to President Trump signing it into law.”
 
Provisions Senator Capito secured in the final legislation include:
 

  • The creation of a workforce development program to address the challenges of an aging water workforce through grants for education, job training, and apprenticeships.
  • Language directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study the challenges facing intractable water systems—such as those in former coal camps in Southern West Virginia—in which there is no or effectively no entity managing a municipal water system.
  • Legislation to provide grants for residential decentralized wastewater systems.

 
Additional information on America’s Water Infrastructure Act is available here.

 

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