What Did They Say?

Stories

Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Tag: epa ✕

On Its Last Working Day Before the Midterms, the House Passes the Water Resources Development Act 415-9 — the Transportation Chairman Says It Makes "Significant Improvements … to Our Inland Waterways, Ports and Harbors, Flood Protection," and the Top Democrat Calls It "Great News for Ports, Harbors and Inland Waterways"

On September 16, 2026 — the same day House Republican leaders cancelled the rest of the week's votes and sent members home until the midterms — the House passed the Water Resources Development Act of 2026 (H.R. 9497) by 415 to 9. WRDA is the biennial reauthorization of the Army Corps of Engineers' civil works program. The 2026 bill authorizes 61 new feasibility studies and 15 new or modified Corps projects covering navigation, flood control and ecosystem restoration, and reauthorizes the EPA's State Revolving Funds for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. The lopsided margin made it one of the few genuinely bipartisan measures to clear the chamber in the seven working days between the summer recess and the midterm adjournment. Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Sam Graves and Ranking Member Rick Larsen both claimed it, and the bill now goes to the Senate.

“WRDA 2026 makes significant improvements across the country to our inland waterways, ports and harbors, flood protection, and other critical water infrastructure.”

Sam Graves (R-MO) · Sep 16, 2026
infrastructure
house
water
3 statements

Trump Revokes Obama's Chesapeake Bay Restoration Order and Directs the EPA to Push States to Repeal Stormwater Fees — a Pennsylvania Republican at the Signing Says Families Have Been Billed "for the Rain That Falls on Their Own Roofs and Driveways"

On September 16, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order revoking Executive Order 13508, the 2009 Obama order that created the federal framework for Chesapeake Bay restoration, and directing the EPA to press the six watershed states and the District of Columbia to repeal local stormwater fees — the charges opponents call the "rain tax." The order, titled "Providing Meaningful Water Quality Improvements Through Collaboration and Oversight of Federal Support," reframes Bay cleanup around state collaboration rather than the federal pollution-reduction targets that have structured the effort for seventeen years. Two Pennsylvania Republicans from Luzerne County, where the stormwater fee has been a long-running local grievance, attended or welcomed the signing. As of the day after, no federal official from Maryland or Virginia — the two states most invested in the Bay program — had gone on the record about the order; the sharpest published criticism came from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation rather than an elected official. Stances below are relative to the executive order: "support" backs revoking the 2009 framework and targeting stormwater fees.

“The imposition of the so-called Rain Tax has created considerable controversy and opposition.”

Lisa Baker (R-PA) · Sep 16, 2026
environment
chesapeake-bay
executive-order
3 statements