Restoring WIFIA Eligibility Act

Summary#

This bill, the "Restoring WIFIA Eligibility Act," would change how certain Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) financial assistance is treated for federal budget purposes. It would add a new section (5037) that says when a WIFIA loan or guarantee goes to a non-federal eligible recipient and the repayment sources are non-federal revenue, that financial assistance must be treated as non-federal and counted as a direct loan or loan guarantee under the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990.

What it means for you#

  • If you are a non-federal entity (for example, a city, utility, or other eligible borrower) and you get WIFIA assistance repaid from non-federal revenue, the assistance would be classified as non-federal and handled as a direct loan or loan guarantee for budget scoring.
  • The change is about how the federal budget accounts for these WIFIA amounts, not about who can apply or project eligibility.

Expenses#

No publicly available information on estimated dollar costs or changes to federal spending. The bill changes the budgetary classification method under the Federal Credit Reform Act but does not include specific cost estimates in the provided text.

Proponents' View#

No publicly available information.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information.