Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is circulating a discussion draft of an interstate waste/flow control bill that may form the basis for a new bill.
The interstate waste section of the bill is identical to S. 534, a bill authored by Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) in 1995, versions of which passed the Senate twice in the last three years. The flow control section of the bill is very similar to H.R. 349, previously offered by House Commerce Committee Chair Thomas Bliley (R-Va.), that was defeated on the House floor in January 1996.
Like the 1996 bill, Sen. Chafee's draft allows a county to control the flow of solid waste to facilities only if
There are other limitations in the draft that are very close to those that were in the 1996 House bill. One additional limitation was added to the discussion draft regarding the use of revenues obtained through flow control authorities. Counties would not be able to use flow-control revenues to pay for recycling, composting, and household hazardous waste collection unless such programs were specifically financed as part of the facility bond issue.
Sen. Chafee's staff is seeking input on the bill, with the understanding that too many proposed amendments will put introduction of the bill in jeopardy. Most local governments that were covered by H.R. 349 last year would still be covered by Sen. Chafee's draft bill.
NACo, along with a coalition of local government associations, has submitted to Sen. Chafee's committee staff a very short list of proposed language changes for specifically-identified local governments. If the changes are not incorporated into the introduced bill, senators from the affected states may try to offer a floor amendment to expand the language slightly to cover the few excluded entities.