Last Thursday, the House Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development held their mark-up of the fiscal year 2010 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act.   

Although drafts of the bill are not yet public, the committee provided a summary of their FY10 requests which included funding for the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Department of Energy.  In total, the Committee proposed $33.8 billion in funding, a $1.1 billion decrease from the President’s request. 

Significant changes from the President’s request include a $50 million increase for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy , and a $666 million decrease for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.  Additionally, the Committee provided no new authority for DOE’s  Loan Guarantee Program .

Rep. Pastor (D-AZ), who is shepherding the bill since Chairman Visclosky (D-IN) temporarily stepped aside while he is in the midst of a federal investigation, began the mark with an outline of the bill.   Ranking Member Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) noted his support for the balance the Committee was able to achieve and expressed support with the Defense funding in the bill, although he made clear he had wanted a more diverse bill.  He mentioned he was pleased that the bill “touches every congressional district in the country” especially in the way of water infrastructure.

The mark-up continued with Rep. Wamp (R-TN) offering an amendment.  His amendment was concerned with the Chickamauga Lock located in his state.  According to Wamp, the lock only received $1 million in the stimulus, but needs $15 million.  The amendment would move $14 million from the homestead project to funding for Chickamauga Lock.  (TCS maintains the economics on the lock is shaky). He then withdrew his amendment, but asked to work with the staff on this issue.  Rep. Pastor mentioned how they want to continue funding for this project, to which Rep. Frelinghuysen agreed.

On a similar note, Rep Obey (D-WI) brought up navigation locks generally and his problem with the fact that Congress is often  stuck with finding funding for projects because they are not in the President’s budget request.  He mentioned his disappointment with the Administration not seeing the need for St. Lawrence Seaway infrastructure repair.  If a lock fails it shuts down the whole system.  He, however, did not offer an amendment, hoping to work this out between the parties.  Rep. Davis (D-TN) also expressed his support for funding the Chickamauga Lock.

The mark-up came to a close less than 25 minutes after it started when Rep. Edwards (D-TX) moved to report the bill to full committee.  The committee agreed.  The full committee is expected to mark-up the bill the week of July 7^th.