MANAGER’S CORNER
FORECASTING LEGISLATIVE AND
regulatory policy on the eve of a new
presidential administration and a new
congress can be tricky, particularly with
such a non-traditional candidate assum-ing
the presidency. In the coming year, the
new president and his choice as the new
administrator of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (USEPA) will not only
have to learn how the agency works from
the inside, but also deal with regulations
already in progress or mandated by ex-isting
law, then possibly reconciling what
38 SOURCE winter 2017
happens at USEPA and other agencies
with the president’s campaign promises.
A president can act immediately to repeal
or amend executive orders issued by the
previous administration, but regulations
issued under existing law are much more
difficult to change. One regulation to
watch will be the Waters of the U.S. rule.
The rule is the subject of lawsuits, and the
new president is on record as strongly op-posing
it during the 2016 campaign. This
could mean that the new administration
will negotiate court settlements to sub-stantially
change it, bypassing appeals
court rulings against the regulation or the
formal regulatory proposal process..
At the opposite end of Pennsylvania
Avenue, the incoming 115th Congress
will have a number of new members
who are simply unaware of how drink-ing
water policy works, how utilities do
their jobs, and how federal policy acts
with local water systems. Some commit-tee
chairs with jurisdiction over drinking
water will change due to party mandat-ed
term limits for chairs. All these factors
AWWA’s Washington
Office Preps for
New Administration
The American Water Works Association
maintains a staff of eight in its
Washington, D.C. office to initiate and
address legislative and regulatory
issues impacting U.S. water utilities
and their customers. The following
is a look at what to look for in the
upcoming year.
AWWA D.C. Contacts
executive director
G. Tracy Mehan III
tmehan@awwa.org
director of
federal relations
Steve Via
svia@awwa.org
Regulations and security
legislative director
Tommy Holmes
tholmes@awwa.org
Legislation,
congressional
education, annual
AWWA Fly-Ins
manager of energy
and environmental
policy
Adam Carpenter
acarpenter@
awwa.org
Hydraulic fracturing,
climate change, and
consumer confidence
reports
manager of federal
relations
Kevin Morley
kmorley@awwa.org
Security and
preparedness including
the Water and
Wastewater Agency
Response Networks,
perchlorate
senior legislative
analyst
Sean Garcia
sgarcia@awwa.org
Financing, affordability,
rates, water loss,
strontium
regulatory analysis
Wendi Wilkes
wwilkes@awwa.org
Policy positions
regarding active/
potential legislation
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