Sponsors (3)
The bill funds and coordinates expanded wastewater surveillance to detect outbreaks earlier and strengthen public-health response, but it requires taxpayer funding, raises privacy/trust concerns, and may impose operational burdens on local utilities and communities.
Local and state public-health authorities and hospitals can detect and monitor infectious disease outbreaks earlier because the bill expands wastewater surveillance.
State and local surveillance programs and laboratory capacity will receive stable federal funding—$150 million per year from 2026–2030—enabling programs to be built and maintained.
Federal, state, and local agencies will coordinate monitoring, improving the targeting of public-health responses and resource allocation during outbreaks.
Taxpayers will fund $150 million per year for five years (totaling $750 million), increasing federal spending and creating budget tradeoffs.
Communities may face privacy and trust concerns from expanded surveillance unless data use and protections are clearly defined and enforced.
Local governments and wastewater service providers could face operational burdens from voluntary sampling requests, adding costs and logistics even without a federal mandate.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Expands and funds CDC's wastewater surveillance system to detect/monitor listed pathogens, authorizing $150M per year for FY2026–2030 and coordinating federal, state, and local partners.
Directs HHS, through the CDC, to expand, intensify, and coordinate the National Wastewater Surveillance System to detect and monitor pathogens in wastewater (examples named include SARS–CoV‑2, influenza, mpox, dengue, West Nile virus, and RSV). It authorizes $150,000,000 per year for fiscal years 2026–2030, funds to remain available until expended, and states that wastewater utilities are not required to comply with surveillance requests.
Introduced January 28, 2025 by Robert Garcia · Last progress January 28, 2025