The Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), on Thursday marked up a GOP appropriations bill for fiscal year 2024. A Republican fact sheet celebrates proposed “cuts to wasteful spending” and “claw-backs of prior appropriations,” highlighting that it “reins in” the Environmental Protection Agency, “limits abuse of the Endangered Species Act,” and provides protections for the fossil fuel industry.
The GOP proposal would slash appropriations for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). The former provides low-interest loans for infrastructure projects like wastewater facilities while the latter provides assistance for initiatives like improving drinking water treatment and fixing old pipes.
How can they possibly spin this as a good thing?
They just want to let the local municipalities have the freedom to treat their own water how they want!
Unless it’s Austin or Houston or any blue city. Then the state will tell them how to not do it.
Are the programs shown to actually improve anything or does it become a slush fund? Don’t get caught up in the name of something, look into what it actually does (or doesn’t do).
Edit to add: that’s just one avenue, then you have alternate strategies to tackle the same problem
Here’s the eleven categories of projects that CWSRF loans can be used for.
Here’s the six categories of projects that DWSRF loans can be used for. The DWSRF also publishes a periodic Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey that lays out approximate costs for various system sizes, and the distribution of system sizes across communities.
There is also a lot of overlap; quoting the OP article:
The [CWSRF] provides low-interest loans for infrastructure projects like wastewater facilities while the [DWSRF] provides assistance for initiatives like improving drinking water treatment and fixing old pipes.
The CWSRF Environmental Benefits Report from 2014 says:
- 14,838 Projects Financed
- To 5,222 Communities
with one of the highlights being:
95% of Subsidy Goes to Recipients that Could Not Otherwise Afford the Project
With the variety of activities they support, and the fact that they are permitting projects that communities could not otherwise afford to engage in, I’d say they’re very valuable.
People who make such well sourced and written comments like yours is why i love lemmy/forum style communities.
Why don’t we just cut funding for clean water in the states with the Senators and Congressional representatives that are voting for these bills?
Because that’s not how rivers work.
Why is the GOP so fucking stupid? Living here makes my heart hurt.
“POTABLE WATER IS FOR SOCIALISTS!!1”
Clean water is communism. You can just buy water, it is not free.
Have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?
There is no such thing as “radical” right-wing ideology - right-wing ideology is reactionary. It is about as anti-radical as ideology gets.
The idea that people deserve proper drinking water is a radical one - the idea that people should be denied drinking water is about as reactionary as it gets.
I can’t help but notice you are very aggressive with your words, I recommend a lighter tone. I’m not referring to this post in specific, I checked your profile.
You’ll probably get banned after some time, lemmy moderators here are nice and open people but you need to be a little bit more civil. It’s something I’m always watching out for.
I also noticed you joined on July 8th, be prepared you’ll get some stalkers soon, block them.
Whoa sibling. I didn’t understand your response until I looked through that comment history. Thanks for helping me to look deeper.
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Relevantlink
I’m taking a fat shit gassing my family and I even think this wrong
Lol of course they do
