Both the U.S. House and Senate are on recess this week and next. This is a prime opportunity to reconnect with your Representatives and Senators and their staff as they will likely be conducting local meetings or hearing directly from constituents at public townhall meetings.

It also gives NACWA members a chance to host Members of Congress for site visits to showcase the work undertaken by the clean water sector and demonstrate the types of projects that may now be possible in response to funding made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the recently passed FY2022 Omnibus spending package. 

Additionally, after two years of virtual events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Water Week 2022 (April 24 – April 30) returns to an in-person format this year in Washington, DC. The cornerstone event, the National Policy Fly-In, is set for Wednesday, April 27th and will be hosted by NACWA, the Water Environment Federation (WEF), the Water Research Foundation (WRF), and the WaterReuse Association. 

The water sector has achieved many federal policy accomplishments over the past few years to help ensure communities have safe, reliable and affordable clean water and drinking water. This year’s Fly-In will provide water professionals around the country with the ability to come together again and further build upon those accomplishments through in-person advocacy, networking and engagement with key Members of Congress, U.S. EPA staff and other federal agency officials.  

To help advance this advocacy goal, NACWA strongly encourages members to customize this template letter to send to their respective Representatives and Senators, as well as to advocate around the impact these programs have on your utilities and communities. You can find contact information for your Members of Congress at house.gov and senate.gov. 

NACWA looks forward to working with policymakers to advance these important clean water priorities. Please do not hesitate to reach out to NACWA’s legislative staff if you have any questions or need help preparing or sending the letter.