As I sit here writing in mid-October, the political world is in a whirlwind. The US House of Representatives has been without a speaker for the longest period in the nation's history, an event precipitated by the near-miss of what most in the Washington community thought was likely to be an extended government shutdown. And between pen time and press time, we will narrowly avoid that again in mid-November (or fail to do so), and we will have returned to typical congressional and federal agency function (or not). Upon publication, this may all be ancient history, or perhaps we’ll still be living it.

So why do I bring this up? Because I had committed to writing this column about the 2023 farm bill and how it would help protect sources of drinking water. Perhaps with a bit of naivety, I had assumed months ago that since the 2018 farm bill (formally the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018) expired on September 30, we would either have a new one passed or at least be able to talk about the House and Senate proposals and how those might shake out. At this point, we haven’t yet reached even the first version of the bill, largely because Congress is occupied with other things, and the 2023 farm bill is looking much more likely to instead be the 2024 farm bill. Presumably there will also be a short-term extension of the existing law because the authorization for many farm bill programs has expired, and Congress will run out of grace time at the end of December.

The 2018 law yielded significant benefits, including making source water protection a goal of the conservation programs and dedicating 10% of spending on conservation programs (except the conservation reserve program) for protecting sources of drinking water. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has worked to implement the law, and for more than five years now, AWWA has been actively encouraging utilities with source water needs to work with their NRCS state conservationist and to seek to participate in farm bill programs where appropriate. And a great many have, often bringing millions of dollars of local investment in conservation activities that benefit source waters.

Has the journey thus far been flawless? Of course not! Like with any complex program, there have been speed bumps, and there continue to be areas for improvement. But by and large, the relationship AWWA has enjoyed with NRCS has been collegial and problem-solving in nature, following up on concerns as they occur, continually seeking better information, and using a collaborative dialogue to figure out next steps. The biggest challenges we’ve encountered tend to be around different cultures and vocabularies between the water sector and the agricultural sector, as well as problems for some utilities that have been interested but haven’t been able to get solid responses to their inquiries, likely due to understaffing.

As we and our partners push for a 2023 or 2024 farm bill, we will be keeping these principles in mind and looking to find any other opportunities to protect the nation's drinking water.

当我十月中旬坐在这里写作时，政治世界正处于旋风之中。美国众议院在美国历史上最长的一段时间内没有发言人，这一事件是由华盛顿社区大多数人认为可能会延长的政府关门差点酿成的。在撰写本文和发表文章之间，我们将在 11 月中旬再次勉强避免这种情况（或未能这样做），并且我们将恢复典型的国会和联邦机构职能（或不恢复）。出版后，这可能都是古老的历史，或者也许我们仍然生活在其中。

那么我为什么要提出这个呢？因为我已承诺撰写有关 2023 年农业法案及其如何帮助保护饮用水源的专栏。也许有点天真，几个月前我就假设，自从 2018 年农业法案（正式的《2018 年农业改进法案》）于 9 月 30 日到期以来，我们要么会通过新的法案，要么至少能够谈论众议院以及参议院的提案以及这些提案将如何产生影响。目前，我们甚至还没有达成该法案的第一个版本，这主要是因为国会正忙于其他事情，而且 2023 年农业法案看起来更有可能成为 2024 年农业法案。由于许多农业法案计划的授权已经过期，而且国会将在 12 月底结束宽限期，因此现有法律可能还会进行短期延期。

2018年的法律带来了显着的效益，包括将水源保护作为保护计划的目标，并将10%的支出用于保护饮用水源地保护计划（保护储备计划除外）。自然资源保护局 (NRCS) 一直致力于实施该法律，五年多来，AWWA 一直积极鼓励有水源需求的公用事业公司与其 NRCS 州保护主义者合作，并寻求参与农业法案计划，其中合适的。很多人都这样做了，经常为当地的水源保护活动带来数百万美元的投资。

迄今为止的旅程是否完美无缺？当然不是！与任何复杂的计划一样，也存在减速带，并且仍然存在需要改进的地方。但总的来说，AWWA 与 NRCS 之间的关系本质上是合作和解决问题的关系，在出现问题时进行跟踪，不断寻求更好的信息，并通过协作对话来确定下一步的步骤。我们遇到的最大挑战往往是水务部门和农业部门之间的不同文化和词汇，以及一些公用事业公司所遇到的问题，这些公用事业公司已经对此感兴趣，但未能对其询问得到可靠的答复。由于人手不足。

当我们和我们的合作伙伴推动 2023 年或 2024 年农业法案时，我们将牢记这些原则，并寻找任何其他机会来保护国家的饮用水。