NWC FEDERAL SPOTLIGHT (September 9, 2022 edition)

So, the lazy days of summer are finished, and we move into fall. It is getting busy in our nation’s capital!

First off, a bit of news from USACE headquarters for you: A little birdie told me yesterday that Tab Brown was officially named as the Chief of USACE’s Civil Works Programs Integration Division. Be sure to congratulate him!

Second, the U.S. Senate returned this week (and the House of Representatives next week) from their summer recess for a frantic legislative dash to the elections. First up on their plate is a continuing resolution to extend the current federal government fiscal year. Please read more below under our Congressional and Federal Agency Spotlights.

On the NWC front, we just completed our second NWC Regional Spotlight last week in Arlington, Texas. The room was at max capacity with USACE Southwestern Division and District commanders and staff as well as a very attentive audience. The message from all was the day was a huge success! A huge thanks to our phenomenal partner, Texas Water Conservation Association, unbelievably amazing host and lunch sponsor, Trinity River Authority, and our awesome networking break sponsors Freese and Nichols and Gauge Engineering! If you want to read a recap about the Regional Spotlight on Texas, click here. NWC’s Regional Spotlight series was designed as a way to introduce people to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as build deeper relationships within the USACE division and district offices, as well as each other. Stay tuned for information on our next Regional Spotlight (TBD).

Also, just a quick reminder that NWC’s Annual Meeting in Houston, Texas, is October 26—28, 2022 and there is still time to register and book a hotel room. The hotel block ends on September 23 or as soon as the block fills up. For more information, click here.

Concurrently, for those of you attending NWC’s Annual Meeting, you may be interested in a concurrent event on October 26 at Fort Bend County Levee Improvement District to honor the legacy of Andre McDonald, a long-time NWC member. To learn more about the Oct. 26 event, click here.

Finally, last but not least, a shout-out to two of NWC’s newest members. Jones Fortuna LLP and LJA. Please welcome them when you see them. Some of you may be familiar with them—there are a few familiar faces. Welcome aboard!

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Best,

Julie

NWC NEW MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

NWC WELCOMES NEW MEMBER JONES FORTUNA LLP!! Jones Fortuna LP is a new law firm specializing in environmental and natural resources law and litigation. Serving public and private sector clients across the United States, they offer innovative solutions to complex environmental challenges with the focused, dedicated attention only a small firm can provide. Their areas of practice include water and water rights, water supply storage reallocations and modifications of federal reservoir projects, environmental litigation, permitting, compliance and enforcement,
infrastructure and natural resource development, and regulatory development and public policy.

For more information, contact Lewis Jones at ljones@jonesfortuna.com (404-862-3234) or John Fortuna at jfortuna@jonesfortuna.com (404-850-3835).

NWC WELCOMES NEW MEMBER LJA!! LJA is an employee-owned, full-service, comprehensive multi-disciplinary consulting firm. With offices across the nation, they offer one-source, one-stop reliability for all of their clients, when and where they are needed for the analysis and design of water resources infrastructure. LJA is organized around eight comprehensive sectors and can seamlessly build successful project teams with civil, structural, and electrical engineers, plus hydrologists, planners, landscape architects, construction managers, GIS designers, and surveyors. Their resources are leveraged across the firm to deliver expertise-driven teams, increase responsiveness to client-specific needs, and individualize project solutions.

For more information, contact Vice President & Director of Water Resources John Grounds, PhD, PE, CFM, D.WRE at jgrounds@lja.com or Senior Project Manager Dawn Pilcher, PE, RPLS at dpilcher@lja.com.

 PASSINGS

Passing of Sam Angel. From Stephen Gambrell, ED, Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association: Mr. Sam E. Angel (Jan 13, 1939 – Aug 15, 2022) passed away in his sleep, the early morning of Monday, August 15, 2022 after spending Sunday at the deer camp. Over the years I have encountered many people that told stories of how Mr. Sam helped them … when I mentioned the person and story to him … he said yeah, I remember that … and didn’t make a big deal out of it … he seemed to take it as something he wanted to do.  No credit, no bragging, he just moved on to tell a funny story about one of the kids or family members, or one of his adventures or a “fine dining” experience and then he privately helped someone else.  That was Angel … he knew people, he knew land and he lived Flood Control.  He was faithful to his mission.  We loved Sam Angel. Mr. Sam was a MVFCA Member and served as President of the Chicot Watershed Improvement District.  The Honorable Sam Epstein Angel was the longest-serving civilian member of the Mississippi River Commission (Sep 25, 1979 to Dec 29, 2019).  He was appointed by four Presidents:  Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, William Jefferson Clinton, and Barack Obama, and confirmed by the United States Senate. To read Mr. Angel’s obituary, please click here.

NWC MEMBER JOB BOARD

RED RIVER VALLEY ASSOCIATION: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NEEDED. Richard Brontoli, Executive Director, Red River Valley Association (RRVA), is looking for a successor.  RRVA supports civil works projects in the four states of the Red River Valley; Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Our office is in Shreveport, LA, in the northwest corner of Louisiana, known as the ARKLATEX region. Our main effort is to provide guidance to local sponsors on the civil works process and coordinate with our federal delegation to justify, authorize and get funding appropriated for studies and projects. The position is for someone who wants to be independent, have flexibility and family time. RRVA is a non-profit, member supported Association. The Board of Directors have been hands off and allowed the Director the freedom to operate the Association.

  • Contact Rich Brontoli, rrva@rrva.org, 318-393-6207, for a full job description, information on the region and ongoing projects and studies.

CONGRESSIONAL SPOTLIGHT

OVERVIEW. After their August recess, the U.S. Senate returned this week for legislative business. First on their plate is a series of agency nomination votes. The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to return next week. Both chambers will be in this month before hitting the campaign trail so they have a limited amount of legislative days to get things done. The House has 11 legislative days in September to the Senate’s 24 days (including days in October), although Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has already indicated he may cancel October business to allow Senators more time at home before the election. Most immediate, Congress is facing an end-of-the-month deadline on Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) appropriations. It is expected that both chambers leave unfinished business until after the election for a lame-duck session.

WILL THEY OR WON’T THEY ON FY2023 APPROPRIATIONS—CR ON HORIZON? The clock ticking toward the end of the fiscal year since FY2022 ends on Sept. 30, 2022, and FY2023 begins on Oct. 1. The problem? None of the 12 appropriations bills to fund federal government agencies have been signed into law, mainly due to funding and policy disagreements. If the bills aren’t signed by Sept. 30, we face the possibility of a federal government shutdown, although that is unlikely in an election year. The solution: A short-term Continuing Resolution (CR) that would extend the current fiscal year to after the elections. But a host of policy riders—including one from Sen. Manchin to streamline federal permitting for energy projects and an emergency supplemental request from President Biden—may derail the CR. There is not a lot of details about the CR but they are talking about it. It will likely be unveiled after the House returns on September 13 with a possible floor vote the week of Sept. 19 with Senate action sometime in the next 22 days. If no CR is passed, there will be a shutdown—again, not a popular option in an election year—and if the CR is passed, that means that federal agencies would be operating under FY2022 numbers with no funding for new projects. And leadership on both sides of the aisle have to come to an agreement on how long the CR will run and what other sort of policy riders may be attached. Best guess? The CR will run until after the election to a date uncertain. The Democrats would love to push off the date until mid-December so they can move a larger omnibus package with all of the FY2023 packages included before the 117th Congress ends. The Republicans, on the other hand, are likely to argue for a shorter CR, until right after the elections. Because if Republicans win one or both chambers, they may push for a second CR going into next year which would allow them to recraft the FY2023 appropriations with the new Congress. Just a reminder that any CR will have to be bipartisan since it requires 60 votes to pass the 50-50 split Senate.

WHAT ABOUT PERMITTING REFORM IN THE CR? Not only is Biden trying to attach emergency spending to the CR to address recent flooding events and the war in Ukraine, but we have the Manchin permitting reform proposal. If we rewind the clock to July, you might remember that the pared-down reconciliation bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, only passed because West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin voted yes–as long as the Democrats agreed to act on permitting reform for energy projects in this Congress (relevant for those ports working on off-shore wind projects). Sen. Manchin got a firm commitment from Senator Majority Leader Schumer but now comes the fight. The question is, should the CR include policy riders, or should it be clean? Additionally, there is pushback by some Senate Democrats who oppose Manchin’s proposal from being added to the CR—Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has already indicated he will vote against the CR if the provision is included. Furthermore, there is push-back by House Democrats who are saying they didn’t make this promise to Manchin. In fact, today 72 House Democrats sent a letter to House leadership expressing strong concerns with Manchin’s CR provision, indicating if it were included in the CR, they may not support the package. So what is this proposal that Manchin has offered? While we haven’t seen the legislative text, a summary by Sen. Manchin’s office has been floating around. Under this one-pager, the proposal offers a 2-year timeline for NEPA reviews for major projects and a 1-year for lower impact projects; sets timelines and requirements for Section 401 water certification Clean Water Act approvals and sets a status of limitations for judicial challenges. Whether all or some of the provisions will be included in the CR is uncertain.

CONGRESS APPEARS TO BE WORKING ITS WAY TOWARD PASSING WRDA 2022 LEGISLATION. On timing, everyone has been tight-lipped about when a conference report may come up for a vote. I’ve been told that the “informal” House and Senate conference committee has been meeting regularly, sometimes multiple times a day, to work through outstanding issues between the two passed bills, and they are making progress. WRDA is a bipartisan package, and it is their intent to finish it. If it is not finished before Congress leaves for the campaign trail, then it is likely that Congress will address it when they return for their lame-duck session.  To see a side-by-side of the House and Senate WRDA 2022 bills, click here.  To read a blog post NWC consultant Jon Pawlow wrote last month that gives background on WRDA, click here.

BIPARTISAN COAST GUARD AUTHORIZATION ACT INTRODUCED IN THE SENATE. On Sept. 8, U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Subcommittee Chair Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) introduced legislation that would reauthorize the Coast Guard for Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023.   According to the press release, the bill would: crackdown on illegal fishing and forced labor; boost USCG Artic presence; invest in shoreside infrastructure; reduce sexual assault and harassment at sea; expand options for childcare and access to medical care, education and training; and more. To view the bill, click here. To view the press release, click here.

Congressional Hearings of Interest Next Week:

  • Cargo Preference: Compliance with and Enforcement of Maritime’s Buy American Laws (Wednesday, September 14 at 10am ET before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee). Click here for more information.
  • Business Meeting to Consider the “Coast Guard Authorization Act” (Wednesday, September 14 at 10am ET before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee). Check the committee’s website for updated information.
  • Rail Service Challenges and the Impact on Agriculture (Thursday, September 15 at 2pm ET before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee).  For more information, click here.

DID YOU KNOW….that the term “lame-duck” is a phrase used to indicate a period of time when Congress meets after a general election but before the new Congress is sworn in. Since 1940, there have been 16 lame-duck sessions. According to Wikipedia, the term originated in the 18th century with bankrupted businessmen who were considered “lame” and vulnerable, like an injured duck.

FEDERAL AGENCY SPOTLIGHT

 DOD/ASACW.  Army CIVIL WORKS SUPPORTING DROUGHT RESILIENCE IN AMERICA’s Communities. In July, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Michael Connor, released a memo that laid out how USACE will respond to droughts. To read the memo, click here. You also may be interested in a related article on “Water is in short supply. Markets should pay attention.” Click here to read the article.

EPA. Accidental Release Prevention Requirements: Risk Management Programs Under the Clean Air Act; Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention; Proposed Rule (Comments due October 31, 2022). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to amend its Risk Management Program (RMP) regulations. This proposed rule is relevant to any entity who stores hazardous chemicals on-site, including drinking water and wastewater facilities, and any facility that may store hazardous chemicals like (but not necessarily limited to), ammonia and chlorine.  To learn more about this rule, click here.

FEMA. Notice of Intent to Publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity Announcement for the Safeguarding Tomorrow through Ongoing Risk Mitigation Revolving Loan Fund Program. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) published a notice of intent to establish its Safeguarding Tomorrow through Ongoing Risk Mitigation Revolving Fund Loan to allow states, tribes and local governments to carry out hazard mitigation projects to protect local communities. FEMA will public a Notice of Funding Opportunity later this year with an anticipated application deadline of spring 2023. For more information, click here.

FEMA. FEMA Releases 2022–2026 National Tribal Strategy. FEMA recently released the 2022-2026 National Tribal Strategy, a first-of-its-kind nationwide roadmap to support tribal nations by aligning our actions to promote equity by building climate resilience, enhancing preparedness and improving disaster response in native communities. Key issue areas include resources tailored to support tribal emergency management programs, including initiating a national study on tribal emergency management capacity and capabilities; developing a comprehensive FEMA guide of programs; developing tribal-specific technical assistance resources; convening an annual meeting of national and regional tribal liaisons; expand training opportunities for tribal nations, and other related objectives. To learn more, click here.

OIRA. BIDEN NOMINATES OIRA CHIEF. Earlier this month, President Biden announced his nominee to lead the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), within the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. According to the press release, “Revesz has an extensive background in law, environment, and public health among other expertise. According to the press release, Revesz is the AnBryce Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus at the New York University School of Law. He founded the Institute for Policy Integrity, a think tank for the environment, public health, and consumers. Revesz is also the director of the American Law Institute.

USACE. USACE Adds Two MORE Listening Sessions on Section 408 This Month (Listening sessions 9/12; Comments due September 20, 2022). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that they are planning two additional listening sessions on the Section 408 program on September 12th.  The first will be held at 10 AM Eastern and the second that day will be held at 3 PM Eastern. The goal of these listening sessions is to hear from those who have applied for Section 408 permissions about their experiences with the program—what works, challenges that remain, and how USACE can improve the program. Please click here to register for the session that works best for your schedule. After registering, you will receive more information about how to log into the virtual meeting. If you have any questions or would like to submit feedback on your experience with the Section 408 program separately, please email HQ-Section408@usace.army.mil by September 20.

NWC is working on comments through our Sect. 408 working group. For more information about the Sect. 408 working group or to participate, contact Julie Ufner at julie@waterways.org.

USACE. LEVEE ENGINEERING MANUAL. USACE is finalizing updates to Engineer Manual (EM) 1110-2-1913, which provides guidance for evaluating, designing, and constructing levees. While the formal comment period has passed, USACE has informally indicated they will accept additional comments up to 60 days after the comment period closed at the end of August. If your organization has filed comments, please share them with Julie Ufner, who is working closely with NWC’s Flood Caucus, to craft thoughtful comments. 

USCG. Consolidated Port Approaches and International Entry and Departure Transit Areas Port Access Route Studies (PARS) Integral to Efficiency of Possible Atlantic Coast Fairways. On September 9 in the Federal Register, the Coast Guard announced the availability of the Consolidated Port Approaches and International Entry and Departure Transit Areas Port Access Route Studies (CPAPARS). This report summarizes the findings of four regional port access route studies: the Northern New York Bight; Seacoast of New Jersey Including Offshore Approaches to the Delaware Bay, Delaware; Approaches to the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia; and the Seacoast of North Carolina Including Approaches to the Cape Fear River and Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. To read the notice, click here.

NWC UPCOMING EVENTS

 NWC Navigation Caucus Virtual Meeting (Tuesday, September 13 at 3pm ET). NWC’s Navigation Caucus, chaired by Sean Duffy, Executive Director of the Big River Coalition, will meet on Tuesday, September 13 at 3pm ET to discuss MS River Deeping Projects, CEMUS Dock, caucus meeting at NWC’s 2022 Annual Meeting and other business. If you would like to participate and have not received a zoom link, please contact Julie Ufner at julie@waterways.org.

NWC ANNUAL MEETING (October 26-28, 2022). Join NWC in Houston, Texas, for our Annual Meeting on October 26-28, 2022. Registration is still open and the hotel block closes on September 23 (or as soon as it is full, it’s getting close!). For more information, including registration,  hotel, and sponsorship opportunities, click here.