Sponsors
The bill directs substantial federal support to expand water recycling, conveyance, and habitat‑restoration projects—boosting resilience, environmental outcomes, and targeted assistance for disadvantaged communities—while increasing federal spending and leaving significant cost, complexity, and long‑term uncertainty for local sponsors, smaller jurisdictions, and taxpayers.
State and local water agencies, utilities, and communities gain hundreds of millions in new federal grant authorizations and programs to plan, design, and build recycling, conveyance, and reuse projects, improving regional water-supply resilience and enabling more projects to proceed.
Funds prioritized for multi‑benefit and restoration projects (including habitat and added flows for inland waterbodies and sites like the Great Salt Lake and Sacramento River) can improve ecosystems and long‑term water availability for communities and agriculture.
Low‑income and Tribal communities can receive funded conveyance capacity or direct assistance to help deliver safe drinking water, addressing demonstrated health and safety needs.
The bill authorizes large new federal spending (hundreds of millions across multiple programs), increasing taxpayer costs and potentially adding to deficit pressures or competing with other budget priorities.
Federal grants capped (commonly at 50% cost‑share) and additional caps on multi‑benefit allocations leave local sponsors, ratepayers, and states responsible for large residual costs, making many projects financially challenging for smaller or poorer jurisdictions.
The combination of a 15‑year sunset, deauthorization windows, and possible termination/exception language creates long‑term uncertainty that can jeopardize authorities, complicate financing, and threaten ongoing project planning.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes competitive grants and reauthorizations to fund large-scale water recycling, reuse, and conveyance projects, raises federal cost-share limits, sunsets certain provisions, and mandates deauthorization of inactive Reclamation projects.
Introduced January 29, 2026 by Alejandro Padilla · Last progress January 29, 2026
Creates and funds multiple Bureau of Reclamation programs to support large-scale water recycling, reuse, and conveyance projects in Reclamation States, sets federal funding levels for FY2028–2032, and establishes a competitive grants program for feasibility, planning, design, and construction. It also amends existing Reclamation authorities to raise federal cost-share limits, adds a 15‑year sunset for several listed provisions, and requires the Interior Department to identify and deauthorize federally authorized Reclamation projects that have received little or no recent federal investment unless Congress or a sponsor acts to preserve them.