Committee to vote on water infrastructure, forecasting bills

Lawmakers will mark up two bipartisan bills Wednesday focused on water and sanitation issues.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will take up the “Water Research Optimization Act,” S. 1523, and the “Wastewater Infrastructure Pollution Prevention and Environmental Safety (WIPPES) Act,” S. 1092.

The “Water Research Optimization Act,” from Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), would centralize river forecasting at one National Weather Service facility in Alabama.

There are currently 13 such forecasting centers, so the bill would put them all at the National Water Center. This would improve research on hydrology and promote flood resilience, according to Britt and Welch.