{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.capito.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ranking-member-capito-opening-statement-at-hearing-on-clean-water-infrastructure", "Ranking Member Capito Opening Statement at Hearing on Clean Water Infrastructure", "2023-11-08", "2023", "2023-11", "Republican", "Senate", "WV", "Shelley Moore Capito", "C001047", "www.capito.senate.gov", "capito", "https://www.capito.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here or the image above to watch Ranking Member Capito\u2019s opening remarks from the committee hearing.\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, participated in a hearing titled, \u201cAccessing Clean Water Infrastructure Assistance: Small, Rural, Disadvantaged and Underserved Communities.\u201d\n\nBelow is the opening statement of Ranking Member Capito as delivered.\n\n\u201cThank you, Mr. Chairman\u2026and thank you all witnesses for being here with us today.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s an important hearing to provide the oversight of the implementation of clean water investments for small and disadvantaged communities under the IIJA.\n\n\u201cAgain, I\u2019d like to thank the witnesses for their willingness to testify about this important topic.\n\n\u201cThis Committee values your perspectives on the opportunities and challenges facing this nation\u2019s water infrastructure, some of it is very, very old, as well as your insights on effective solutions.\n\n\u201cThe Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act provisions of the IIJA had a special focus on the infrastructure challenges faced by small, rural, disadvantaged, and underserved communities.\n\n\u201cAs the Chairman said, a bit over two years after enactment, it is easy for stakeholders on the ground and we in Congress to identify where the EPA\u2019s implementation of these programs is working and, more importantly, what\u2019s not working or how we can improve this.\n\n\u201cThe IIJA water provisions drafted by this Committee authorized $55 billion in funding for a range of water infrastructure programs, including targeted grants for small and disadvantaged communities, funding for lead service line replacement, and support for innovative water technologies, as well as money for wastewater treatment and storm water management.\n\n\u201cThese funding opportunities provide new resources for grants and low-interest loans to technical assistance.\n\n\u201cThese funds can support critical infrastructure upgrades, including the construction of wastewater facilities and wastewater treatment systems, nonpoint source pollution management, and measures to manage storm water and subsurface drainage.\n\n\u201cAdditionally, the funding can support capacity building initiatives, including workforce development and training programs, to help communities build the expertise they need to manage and maintain their water systems for years to come.\n\n\u201cDespite these significant funding opportunities, many rural, small, and disadvantaged communities are still grappling with aging infrastructure that is in need of repair or replacement, while others are dealing with emerging contaminants like PFAS that require specialized treatment technologies.\n\n\u201cAt the same time, these communities often lack the resources and the technical expertise needed to address these obstacles, leaving them vulnerable to waste water problems leading to public health risks.\n\n\u201cThese communities may not have the staff or technical capacity to track and apply for grants and loans as they become available.\n\n\u201cThat is why the Clean Water Act explicitly empowers the states to determine which of their communities qualify as disadvantaged.\n\n\u201cThe EPA should therefore work with the states to get this money where it is needed as quickly as possible.\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, I have significant concerns that the EPA is overstepping its statutory authority to use these funds to affect administration policy priorities that were not approved by Congress under the Clean Water Act or the IIJA.\n\n\u201cThe result is unnecessary friction in getting these programs stood up and investments flowing to the communities that need them.\n\n\u201cInconsistent application of Buy America waivers, across agencies and even within them, has caused delays for projects.\n\n\u201cMore concerning, regulatory guidance on environmental justice in service of the administration\u2019s very vague Justice40 goal tied to state formula grants appears to be an effort by the EPA to wrestle away states\u2019 statutory authorities under the Clean Water Act.\n\n\u201cWe all have concerns about disadvantaged communities, urban and rural, minority or low-income, receiving the funding that they need and deserve.\n\n\u201cThe states know their communities and their needs best, and what will work over the long haul.\n\n\u201cThey also realize that water systems do not neatly align within the Justice40 initiative\u2019s preference of using census tracts to define EJ communities, making the EPA\u2019s guidance impractical to implement.\n\n\u201cThe EPA must not sidetrack generational progress that can be made through the IIJA due to political agenda in this administration.\n\n\u201cThese unnecessary obstacles imposed by federal regulators are leading to delays, uncertainty, and the potential for litigation, while allowing historic investments to be eaten up by increased inflation, higher interest rates we have experienced since the passage of the IIJA.\n\n\u201cThe EPA needs to get out of the way and let states and communities get to work.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll close by saying what everyone in attendance in this room knows and across the country:\n\n\u201cWater infrastructure investments are critical to public health, environmental health, and economic development.\n\n\u201cThe carefully negotiated, bipartisan successes this Committee has achieved to date for the wastewater section have been grounded in the cooperative federalism that is enshrined in the Clean Water Act.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m hopeful these investments, properly implemented, can create more jobs and drive even more economic growth.\n\n\u201cThose kinds of economic opportunities need to be available everywhere, in my home state and across the country.\n\n\u201cI remain committed to working on these issues that are so important to my state West Virginia, and the states my fellow Committee members, an across the country.\n\n\u201cThank you to our panel for all you do to keep our country\u2019s water and wastewater systems clean and healthy.\u201d\n\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:01:09Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", 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