Just before leaving town to hit the campaign trail, by a vote of 399-25, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5303, the Water Resources Development Act of 2016, paving the way for negotiations to reconcile that bill with S. 2848, the Senate’s version of WRDA 16. The Senate approved its bill earlier in the month by a vote of 95-3.
The House action came after several days of tense negotiations, including whether WRDA would come to the floor at all, how to resolve conflict over a provision seeking to move harbor maintenance trust fund revenues off budget, and how to address the Flint water crisis. At the end of the day, resolution of the HMTF issue was delayed for another time, while an amendment to authorize $170 million for Flint was approved.
Leadership on both sides of the aisle expressed confidence in being able to come to agreement on a final bill in the lame duck session, despite some significant policy differences, notably more than half of the Senate version is focused on drinking water projects, typically outside the scope of a traditional WRDA. In addition, the price tag – $10.6 billion for the Senate bill compared to $5 billion for the House version – remains a significant hurdle. Nonetheless, discussions are ongoing to craft a final bill for passage before the end of the year.