Washington Report – May 13, 2024

The Engineering & Public Works Roadshow will pull into the this Thursday;
��˾�� President-Elect Dominick Longobardi will be one of the speakers, along with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and other local and federal officials;
DCIA is the first project visited by the roadshow that is still under construction;
- Once completed, it will recruit and train district residents in trade skills who can then join its public works department and take on infrastructure careers
- Workforce development is a key roadshow goal
A collaboration with the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the roadshow streams all its stops, including this week’s DCIA visit, live on its ;
- Watch at 11 a.m., ET on May 16.

The is through the Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grant program;
IIJA changed the program so 25% of program funds go to available projects in small and/or financially distressed communities
- State grantees are not required to contribute cost share money for program projects located in said communities though grant portions that go to other communities will include a cost-share requirement.

EPA has taken steps to provide greater help to communities including and ;
Expanded engineering services include the development of project needs assessments, preliminary engineering reports, cost estimates, and other studies needed to support community pre-applications and applications for State Revolving Funds
- Additional engineering support may be available on a case-by-case basis
EPA’s Creating Resilient Water Utilities (CRWU) initiative provides drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater (water sector) utility owners and operators with one-on-one, no-cost climate change risk assessment support using CRWU’s tools and resources, including its , , and ;
Over the course of two to four months, water sector utilities will be guided through a risk assessment process to:
- Better understand their potential risk to climate change threats
- Identify potential adaptive measures to become more resilient to those threats
- Identify potential funding sources for implementation of those potential adaptive measures
Apply to EPA CRWU’s technical assistance by Aug. 15 by emailing Aliza Furneaux.

��˾�� is one of 20 organizations on a May 9 letter to the Chairs and Ranking Members for the U.S. Senate and House Committees on Agriculture, which are working to re-authorize the farm bill;
The Coalition Against Bigger Trucks (CABT), of which ��˾�� is a longtime member, is urging the committees to reject legislative language that would allow for an increase in maximum truck weight and length;
As studies have shown, allowing heavier trucks would cause significant damage to highways, local roads, and other infrastructure, as well as make roads less safe;
Rural and local roads, particularly, would be hard hit as they often are older and built to bear less traffic;
The is comprised of more than two dozen organizations representing law enforcement, local governments, rail, trucking, and road safety.

��˾��, as a member of the has signed a letter to Congress requesting it rescind the 9 percent reductions to all grant programs within the Federal Assistance Account at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as outlined in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) FY24 budget;
Grant programs that would be impacted by the cut include:
- The , which allows state and local governments to augment gaps in national preparedness and enhance terrorism prevention capabilities
- The , which is a 50/50 grant that supports baseline emergency management capabilities when stretched the thinnest managing events beyond natural hazards to include cyber-incidents, asylum seekers, and school safety
- The addresses flood risks across the country and directly impacts the abilities of communities to manage their floodplain and save lives and property
- The , allows underserved tribal communities to bolster their local security posture for a range of preparedness efforts
The letter also requests Congress consider supplemental funding for the summer and moving forward with the FY25 DHS budget.

FEMA has released a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for $103M in grant funds for eligible state and local governments and Tribal Nations for equipping, upgrading, or constructing emergency operations center projects through the ;
The EOC Grant program is designed to improve emergency management and preparedness capabilities by supporting flexible, strategically located, and fully interoperable EOCs;
The deadline to apply for funding is June 7.

All times ET.

May 15 at 10 a.m., the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing on ;
May 15 at 10 a.m., the House Committee on Homeland Security Emergency Management and Technology Subcommittee and Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence Subcommittee will conduct a joint hearing on ;
May 15 at 1 p.m., the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will host an Emergency Services Sector Artificial Intelligence (AI) webinar on ;
May 15 at 4 p.m., FEMA will host a webinar on its ;
May 16 at 10 a.m. the House Natural ��˾�� Committee will hold a hearing on ;
May 16 at 1 p.m., EPA, CISA, and the FBI will provide important updates on ongoing , including recommended mitigations and cybersecurity best practices utilities can implement to protect against this threat.