Water Affordability and Reliability Act

Summary#

This bill creates a new federal trust fund called the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability Trust Fund to pay for water and sewer infrastructure, programs, and related activities. It raises the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 24.5% for taxable years starting after December 31, 2024, and directs the increased Federal revenues to the trust fund. The bill sets how the fund will be split among clean water and drinking water programs, household well grants, assistance for colonias, Indian Health Service sanitation projects, job training grants, and other targeted programs. It also requires an EPA study on water affordability, discrimination, public participation, and data collection, expands eligible projects for State revolving funds, increases school drinking water grant funding, and creates labor and job-training provisions for water-sector projects.

What it means for you#

  • Water and sewer utilities: The bill provides federal money for pipe and treatment upgrades, lead service line replacements, and projects to address certain contamination. State revolving funds may buy privately owned systems and cancel privatization contracts.
  • Households on wells and in colonias: New grant programs and higher funding levels are directed to household well fixes and colonia water projects.
  • Tribal and indigenous communities: A portion of the fund is set aside for Indian Health Service sanitation projects.
  • Schools: Grants for school drinking water infrastructure and lead monitoring are increased and expanded.
  • Workers and employers: The bill funds job training and apprenticeship programs for water and wastewater careers and includes provisions encouraging project labor agreements and prevailing wage rules for covered projects.
  • General public: EPA must study water affordability, disconnections, discrimination, and data gaps and report to Congress within one year of enactment.

Expenses#

  • Funding source: The bill increases the corporate tax rate from 21% to 24.5% and directs the additional Federal revenue from that change into the new trust fund.
  • Trust fund rules: Amounts equal to the estimated revenue increase are appropriated to the trust fund. Funds are available without further appropriation and have no fiscal year limitation.
  • Annual limit: Annual appropriations to the trust fund may not exceed the larger of $35,000,000,000 or one-twentieth of the combined 20-year needs reported by EPA under specified drinking water and clean water assessments.
  • Allocations: The bill specifies percentage allocations of the fund for clean water programs (including 42% for clean water capitalization grants and smaller percentages for specific program grants), drinking water programs (including 42% for drinking water capitalization grants and set shares for technical assistance, school grants, and colonia grants), 1% for household well grants (administered by USDA), 3% for Indian Health Service projects, and 0.5% for water operator job training grants administered by the Department of Labor.
  • Specific increases: Household water well program funding is changed to $348,500,000 per fiscal year. School drinking water grant program funding in the Safe Drinking Water Act is increased from $5,000,000 to $1,050,000,000 and extended through 2027. Colonia assistance funding is increased to $100,000,000 for 2025–2029.

Proponents' View#

No publicly available information.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information.