Sponsor
Nanette Barragán
Representative · D-CA
Representative · D-CA
The bill keeps civil penalties aligned with inflation to maintain deterrence and simplify enforcement updates, but it raises future financial burdens on businesses and public entities and shifts routine oversight of penalty levels away from Congress.
Businesses and regulated entities (including small businesses, utilities, and energy companies) will have civil penalty limits automatically adjusted annually for inflation (CPI‑U), preserving the real deterrent effect of penalties over time.
The EPA (and similar regulators) gain a predictable, simple administrative mechanism (annual CPI‑U indexing) to update civil penalties without requiring new legislation each year, reducing regulatory lag and administrative burden.
Individuals and businesses are protected from retroactive increases because the adjustments apply prospectively only, so past violations won't be penalized at newly higher amounts.
Businesses and public entities (small businesses, utilities, local governments) will face steadily higher potential penalty costs over time as amounts are indexed to inflation, increasing compliance costs and financial risk.
Taxpayers could bear higher costs if government entities are fined under the higher indexed penalties, increasing fiscal exposure for state and local budgets.
Automatic annual indexing reduces Congress's direct oversight of penalty levels by delegating routine substantive adjustments to the EPA Administrator, limiting legislative control over penalty policy.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to increase certain criminal fines, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 11, 2025 by Nanette Barragán · Last progress December 11, 2025
Indexes three Clean Water Act civil penalty caps to annual CPI‑U inflation adjustments and requires EPA to publish each adjustment.
Amends the Clean Water Act's civil penalty caps by replacing three fixed dollar amounts with amounts that are subject to annual inflation adjustments tied to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI‑U). The EPA Administrator must publish the yearly adjustment in the Federal Register and adjustments apply only to violations that occur after publication. The change updates the statute's $5,000, $50,000, and $500,000 penalty figures to be adjusted each year for inflation, and requires the EPA to calculate adjustments using the October CPI‑U percent change from the prior year and to publish the updated maximum penalties annually.