David Beckman, Senior Attorney & Director, Water Program, Los Angeles

Over the course of the grueling budget process, NRDC and our partners managed to beat back harmful policy riders that had little to do with cutting the deficit and everything to do with reducing environmental safeguards. Several would have threatened our ability to keep America’s water clean.

The most significant victory is that the continuing resolution does not include riders that would have limited the government’s authority to implement the Clean Water Act. 

Nor does it include amendments the House passed in February that went after citizen-supported efforts to clean up iconic waterways like the Chesapeake Bay, the San Joaquin River, and the San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem, as well as the waters that draw millions of tourists to Florida each year.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the continuing resolution slashes the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget in general and strips away funding for state water infrastructure programs in particular.  

We do not know precisely how the general cuts will shake out at EPA’s water office, but we could see:

• A reduced ability to enforce rules that keep raw sewage and livestock waste out of our drinking ...

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