Update 430pm: House approves minibus spending bills in bipartisan 397-28 vote
Text here as (I think) passed: HR 6938. No changes re the CWIFP and WIFIA aspects discussed in this post, so I’m guessing the ‘long march’ to WIFIA reform remains, well, long. But that’s okay — fundamental reform is never easy, and it wouldn’t be any fun if it were.
As you’d expect, there’s a lot going on in Congress’ spending bills. But for now, I’m narrowly focused on the fate of two federal loan programs, WIFIA and WIFIA’s Army Corps section, CWIFP.
CWIFP Non-FCRA Ineligibility
In a recent prior post, Senate S.3293’s Non-FCRA Provisos and HR. 6229’s FCRA Amendment — Good Faith Policy or End Run? I expressed some concern about provisos in the December Senate spending bill that effectively made CWIFP cost share loans to dam and levee projects with any federal ownership at all ineligible, regardless of the FCRA Criteria (which, of course, currently still apply).
That means that if even if some type of FCRA amendment passes and the wretched FCRA Criteria are revised or superseded, dam and levee projects with any amount of federal ownership are just flat-out ineligible for CWIFP cost share loans using FY26 appropriations.
Well, most of these ‘non-FCRA ineligibility’ provisos survived, as highlighted in the PDF above, abstracted from House Rules Committee spending package released on January 5, 2026. As discussed in the prior post, there may be a valid policy rationale for the restrictions, and it’s important to note that federal ‘ownership’ is clearer and effectively less restrictive than the FCRA Criteria’s nebulous ‘federal involvement’ or arbitrary disqualification based on past history and Congressional authorization. But still…it’s hard to understand.
Perhaps in all the non-stop federal tumult these days, no one was focused on these eligibility nuances for such a small federal loan program, and the Senate bill’s language just got added without much review or discussion? That’d be understandable — but I’d note that one highly technical proviso amending the definition of ‘project’ for CWIFP got dropped in conference, and someone took the time to cut $2.8m of couch change out of the $5m that the Senate bill originally proposed.
WIFIA Pointless Funding
Elsewhere in the Rules Committee’s I&E package, the EPA’s WIFIA got about $65m of new appropriations. Um…why? The program already has about $220m of ‘until expended’ carryover funding, enough for ten years of loan volume at the current pace. And no policy riders or amendments that would expand WIFIA’s capabilities to pick up that pace were included — just the money.
So — let me get this straight:
- You cut $2.8m of couch change from a dam & levee loan program that could probably use more funding if its original pre-FCRA Criteria statutory eligibility were restored but also ensured with repeated provisos that the original statutory eligibility is never restored for the current funding?
- You give $65m to a loan program which doesn’t need it, a program that’s primarily used by highly rated water agencies as a near-substitute for tax-exempt bonds in ‘occasionally useful’ interest rate management, and which has become less popular because tax-exempt rates are better, all while racking up huge mandatory spending for interest rate re-estimates — and you don’t change a thing?
Okay. I’m hoping this is a ‘work in progress’. But if it’s the final outcome for FY26 spending legislation, then there’s a whole lot more to do.