Sponsors (8)
The bill redirects Safe Drinking Water Act funding to strengthen water systems for firefighting in high-wildfire-risk areas and encourages local planning, improving safety and resilience but reallocating limited funds, risking inequitable access for under-resourced communities, and imposing immediate administrative burdens.
Homeowners, firefighters, and emergency responders in high-wildfire-risk rural communities receive funding for water-system upgrades (transmission, storage, consolidation) that improve firefighting capacity and drinking-water reliability, helping reduce property loss and save lives.
Rural and other high-wildfire-risk communities — especially those that adopt formal wildfire protection plans — are given higher priority for Safe Drinking Water Act grants and loans for projects with dual drinking-water and fire-suppression benefits, creating incentives for local planning and resilience-building.
Rural communities, local governments, and taxpayers may face reduced availability of funds for other drinking-water projects because expanding eligible uses and prioritizing fire-suppression projects can reallocate SDWA grant/loan resources, delaying non-fire-related upgrades.
High-risk communities that lack formal wildfire plans or planning resources—often low-income or under-resourced areas—could be disadvantaged by the priority system, worsening equity in access to water-infrastructure funding.
Immediate implementation upon enactment requires EPA and state agencies to change award criteria and decisions quickly, creating administrative strain and short-term confusion for federal employees and local governments.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs EPA to revise drinking-water grant/loan rules to prioritize projects that address wildfire risk, rural needs, and water infrastructure for fire suppression.
Requires the EPA Administrator to change Safe Drinking Water Act grant and loan program regulations to explicitly account for communities at high risk of wildfire, rural areas, and water infrastructure used for fire suppression. The changes add new definitions, eligibility and project-prioritization criteria (including priority for projects that provide both drinking-water and fire-suppression benefits and for communities with an adopted community wildfire protection plan), must be implemented immediately upon enactment, and must be incorporated into formal regulatory text within two years.
Official title: Require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to modify regulations with respect to drinking water State revolving funds, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 17, 2026 by Alejandro Padilla · Last progress June 17, 2026