Sponsors (2)
The bill provides stable, targeted funding and expands eligibility to help tribes and local watershed groups plan and carry out resilience and restoration projects, at the cost of modest additional federal spending and risks that money may be used for planning/overhead or concentrated with repeat recipients rather than for immediate on‑the‑ground restoration and new grantees.
Local governments, indigenous/tribal communities, and watershed groups gain explicit eligibility and access to federal grants, improving their ability to plan and manage water resources and carry out restoration projects.
Communities facing drought, wildfire, or other disasters can qualify for demonstration projects that speed assistance for at-risk watersheds and build resilience.
Reliable dedicated funding ($40M per year for FY2027–FY2031) provides stable support for more watershed projects and enables longer-term planning and program continuity.
Taxpayers face higher federal spending obligations from the $40M/year authorization, which could require offsets or add to budget pressures.
Allowing grant funds to pay for planning, grant writing, and overhead could reduce the share of money used for on-the-ground restoration, lessening immediate environmental benefits.
Continuing grants and expanded eligibility risk concentrating funding among recurring or better-resourced recipients, potentially crowding out new or smaller projects and reducing equitable access.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Reauthorizes and amends the Cooperative Watershed Management Program to expand eligibility (including tribes and ancestral-land entities), broaden grant uses, add disaster need criteria, and authorize $40M/year for FY2027–2031.
Introduced March 18, 2026 by Juan Ciscomani · Last progress March 18, 2026
Amends and reauthorizes the Cooperative Watershed Management Program to expand who can apply, broaden allowable uses of grant funds, add disaster-related demonstration criteria, and set new funding and grant limits. It explicitly includes Indian tribes (using the statutory definition), adds entities with ancestral lands in a watershed to eligibility, and requires continuous enrollment with multiple application windows per year. The bill corrects a prior funding clause to specify $50,000 per year for at least three years (subject to application and appropriations) for a specified subaward/activity, authorizes up to $40 million annually for FY2027–FY2031 to carry out the program, and lets the Secretary extend first-phase grants up to two additional years with continuation grants capped at $150,000 per year. Grant funds may be used for grant writing, project management, and technical assistance including feasibility, design, preliminary environmental review, and engineering.