It may not always seem like it, but even in Washington, D.C., facts matter. The current coronavirus pandemic has thrown us all into a new realm of facts, beliefs, forecasts, and sometimes wishful thinking. However, if you're trying to convince a member of Congress to advance a policy, or you're trying to explain how the pandemic is affecting a sector critical to society, you need facts.

In March, staff and members of AWWA and other water organizations began talks with congressional offices about the effects of the pandemic on water utilities and the communities they serve. Vulnerable water customers came to mind first, followed by lower revenue streams for utilities due to lower usage by business and institutional customers. Then we wondered how this would affect infrastructure projects.

Congressional staff—and Senate staff in particular—came back with the question, “What are the impacts of the coronavirus on the water sector in actual dollar amounts?” The honest answer at that point was, “We don't know.” And that's the answer we gave.

However, we knew that was not satisfactory, and we asked for some time to provide a real answer. Using the Water Industry Technical Action Fund, administered by AWWA's Water Utility Council (WUC), Raftelis was commissioned to find the information Congress was looking for. Raftelis had performed an economic study for the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), and data from that study would be useful for answering this question, so AMWA was invited to be a partner.

The WUC gave Raftelis an unusually tight deadline for a study of this nature—two weeks—because discussions were already underway with Congress on potential recovery and stimulus measures. Raftelis took data from the AMWA study, developed new data from surveying US drinking water utilities, and performed a thorough analysis to produce a remarkable report, The Financial Impact of the COVID‐19 Crisis on U.S. Drinking Water Utilities (https://news.awwa.org/AWWA‐AMWA‐COVID).

Here are some crucial findings:

• The aggregate financial impact of COVID‐19 on drinking water utilities will likely be about US$13.9 billion, a 16.9% loss for the drinking water sector.
• Because of these financial losses, drinking water utilities across the nation are anticipated to delay and reduce capital expenditures by as much as $5 billion (annualized).
• This reduction in capital expenditures will have an economic cascade effect across the United States, and economic activity will drop by $32.7 billion (annualized), which could mean a loss of 75,000 to 90,000 private‐sector jobs.
• Future revenue losses could amount to $1.6 billion as a result of deferring planned water rate increases, bringing the total impact of the pandemic on drinking water utilities to more than $15 billion.

Not only did the report answer questions the water community and policymakers needed, it yielded a press release to start dialogues with trade press and mainstream news outlets. It became the basis for an AWWA legislative alert (https://news.awwa.org/Legislative‐Alert) and generated dialogue between AWWA members and their representatives in Congress.

H.R. 6800 would provide $1.5 billion to help low‐income utility customers.

So far, pandemic recovery legislation has focused on medical needs and economic stresses on businesses and individuals. However, one bill has passed the House of Representatives, H.R. 6800 (https://bit.ly/2Mby1vQ), that would provide $1.5 billion to help low‐income customers pay their water bills. It is modeled after the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (https://bit.ly/2Mapfy7), which helps low‐income energy customers.

H.R. 6800 is an immense bill with more than 1,800 pages; it is not likely to pass in the Senate and become law in its current form. However, it is the beginning of the dialogue on what the next recovery/stimulus bill should look like. AWWA members have been contacting members of Congress to communicate how the pandemic is affecting revenues and daily operations.

How Congress will respond is unknown as of this writing. However, thanks to this report, senators and representatives cannot say the facts were not available.

可能并不总是这样，但即使在华盛顿特区，事实也很重要。当前的冠状病毒大流行将我们带入了事实，信念，预测甚至是一厢情愿的新境界。但是，如果您要说服国会议员推进一项政策，或者要说明这种流行病如何影响对社会至关重要的部门，则需要事实。

3月，AWWA和其他水务组织的工作人员和成员开始与国会办公室就大流行对该水务公司及其所服务社区的影响进行讨论。首先是弱势水客户，其次是公用事业的收入流，这是因为企业和机构客户的用水量减少。然后我们想知道这将如何影响基础设施项目。

国会工作人员，尤其是参议院工作人员，提出了以下问题：“按实际美元数量计算，冠状病毒对水务部门有何影响？” 当时的诚实回答是：“我们不知道。” 这就是我们给出的答案。

但是，我们知道这并不令人满意，因此我们要求一段时间提供真实的答案。利用由AWWA的水务委员会（WUC）管理的水工业技术行动基金，Raftelis被委托找到国会正在寻找的信息。拉夫特利斯（Raftelis）为大都市水务机构协会（AMWA）进行了一项经济研究，该研究的数据将有助于回答这一问题，因此邀请AMWA成为合作伙伴。

WUC给Raftelis进行这种性质的研究的时间异常紧迫，为期两个星期，因为已经与国会就潜在的恢复和刺激措施进行了讨论。Raftelis从AMWA研究中获取数据，从对美国饮用水公用事业的调查中获得了新数据，并进行了彻底的分析，得出了引人注目的报告，即COVID-19危机对美国饮用水公用事业的财务影响（https：// news。 awwa.org/AWWA-AMWA-COVID）。

以下是一些重要发现：

• COVID-19对饮用水公用事业的总体财务影响可能约为139亿美元，对饮用水行业造成16.9％的损失。
• 由于这些财务损失，预计全国的饮用水公用事业将延迟并减少多达50亿美元的资本支出（按年计）。
• 资本支出的减少将在全美国产生级联效应，经济活动将减少327亿美元（年率化），这可能意味着损失75,000至90,000个私营部门的工作。
• 由于推迟了计划的水价上调，未来的收入损失可能达到16亿美元，从而使大流行对饮用水公用事业的总影响超过150亿美元。

该报告不仅回答了水社区和决策者所需的问题，而且还发布了新闻稿，开始与贸易新闻界和主流新闻媒体进行对话。它成为AWWA立法警报（https://news.awwa.org/Legislative-Alert）的基础，并在AWWA成员及其国会代表之间引发了对话。

HR 6800将提供15亿美元来帮助低收入公用事业客户。

到目前为止，大流行恢复立法的重点是医疗需求以及对企业和个人的经济压力。但是，一项法案已通过众议院HR 6800（https://bit.ly/2Mby1vQ），该法案将提供15亿美元帮助低收入客户支付水费。它以低收入家庭能源援助计划（https://bit.ly/2Mapfy7）为蓝本，该计划可帮助低收入能源客户。

HR 6800是一本涵盖1,800多页的巨额账单；它不可能通过参议院并以目前的形式成为法律。但是，这是关于下一份复苏/刺激法案的模样的对话的开始。AWWA成员一直在与国会议员联系，以交流这种流行病如何影响收入和日常运营。

截至本文撰写之时，国会将如何回应尚不得而知。但是，感谢这份报告，参议员和代表不能说没有事实。