Water Infrastructure Enhancement Act of 2023

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4540 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4540

To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to establish a program to provide 
 grants to suppliers of water for the purpose of making infrastructure 
     improvements to public water systems, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 11, 2023

 Mr. Cuellar (for himself and Mr. Smith of New Jersey) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                                Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to establish a program to provide 
 grants to suppliers of water for the purpose of making infrastructure 
     improvements to public water systems, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Water Infrastructure Enhancement Act 
of 2023''.

SEC. 2. WATER INFRASTRUCTURE ENHANCEMENT.

    Part E of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300j et seq.) is 
amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 1459H. WATER INFRASTRUCTURE ENHANCEMENT.

    ``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Area of persistent poverty.--The term `area of 
        persistent poverty' means--
                    ``(A) any county (or equivalent jurisdiction) in 
                which, during the 30-year period ending on the date of 
                enactment of this section, 20 percent or more of the 
                population continually lived in poverty, as measured 
                by--
                            ``(i) the 1990 decennial census;
                            ``(ii) the 2000 decennial census; and
                            ``(iii) the most recent annual small area 
                        income and poverty estimate of the Bureau of 
                        the Census;
                    ``(B) any census tract with a poverty rate of not 
                less than 20 percent, as measured by the 5-year data 
                series available from the American Community Survey of 
                the Bureau of the Census for the period of 2014 through 
                2018; and
                    ``(C) any territory or possession of the United 
                States.
            ``(2) Eligible activity.--The term `eligible activity' 
        means one of the following activities with respect to a public 
        water system:
                    ``(A) Installing or upgrading water treatment 
                facilities.
                    ``(B) Constructing or rehabilitating storage tanks.
                    ``(C) Installing or replacing water transmission 
                and distribution pipes.
                    ``(D) Installing or upgrading pump stations.
                    ``(E) Installing emergency generators.
                    ``(F) Upgrading supervisory control and data 
                acquisition systems.
                    ``(G) Installing advanced metering infrastructure.
                    ``(H) Installing or upgrading wells.
                    ``(I) Facilitating compliance with any primary or 
                secondary drinking water regulation promulgated under 
                this Act.
                    ``(J) Any other activity determined appropriate by 
                the Administrator.
            ``(3) Rural area.--The term `rural area' means an area with 
        a population of 20,000 or fewer inhabitants.
    ``(b) Water Infrastructure Enhancement Grant Program.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Administrator shall establish a 
        program to provide grants to suppliers of water to carry out 
        eligible activities for the purpose of making infrastructure 
        improvements to public water systems in accordance with this 
        section.
            ``(2) Other considerations.--Of the total amounts made 
        available to carry out the grant program established under 
        paragraph (1)--
                    ``(A) not less than 50 percent shall be for 
                eligible activities carried out in rural areas; and
                    ``(B) not less than 15 percent shall be awarded to 
                eligible activities carried out in historically 
                disadvantaged communities or areas of persistent 
                poverty.
            ``(3) Cost-sharing.--The Federal share of the cost of an 
        eligible activity carried out using a grant under this section 
        shall be not more than 90 percent.
            ``(4) Authorization of appropriations.--There is authorized 
        to be appropriated to carry out this section $800,000,000 for 
        each of the fiscal years 2024 through 2029.''.
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