By Judy Sheahan
August 8, 2005

The House on July 28 and the Senate on July 29 passed the Interior-Environment Appropriations bill. Conferees hammered out differences in the spending bill earlier that week and reported out a $7.73 billion Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spending bill that was down $295 million from fiscal year 2005 but $160 million more than President Bush’s budget request.

One of the most contentious differences that the conferees had to negotiate involved the spending levels for the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund. The Senate allocated $1.1 billion, which was the level in fiscal year 2005, while the House version allocated $850 million. The President had requested $730 million. The compromise number was $900 million. This is down from historical highs of just three years ago of $1.3 billion.

Other appropriation levels were more similar with $73.027 million appropriated for the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Fund (LUST), $850 million for the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund, $1.26 billion for Superfund, and $90 million for Brownfields loans and grants.

The Appropriations bill also included a one-year provision to allow municipalities that purchased Brownfield properties prior to January 11, 2002, to be eligible for Brownfield grants and revolving loan funds. Related to this issue was a provision placed in the Transportation Bill (HR.3), which allows EPA to allocate up to 25 percent of the funds available to them for entities who “satisfy all of the elements set forth (by the law) to qualify as a bona fide prospective purchasers, except that the date of the acquisition of the property was on or before January 11, 2002.” This would be a permanent fix to the problem for cities who found themselves considered “potentially responsible parties” for purchasing Brownfield sites prior to the Brownfields Bill being signed into law.

President Bush is expected to sign the Interior-EPA Appropriations Bill.