Sponsors (2)
The bill directs federal funding and assistance to reduce urban canal repair burdens and speed hazard mitigation, at the cost of higher federal spending and repayment obligations and with a population threshold that may leave smaller vulnerable reaches without the new non‑reimbursable support.
Urban residents and local governments: the Secretary will pay 35% of extraordinary operations & maintenance (O&M) for qualifying urban canals, lowering local repair costs and making needed infrastructure repairs more likely to occur.
Local governments and transferred-works operators: eligible operators can receive emergency and non-emergency federal assistance for extraordinary O&M so hazards can be mitigated more quickly, protecting people and property.
Local governments and transferred-works operating entities: reimbursable advances from the Secretary can be counted as non‑Federal funds for federal grant cost‑sharing, improving competitiveness for other federal infrastructure grants.
All taxpayers: federal obligations rise because the federal government will cover 35% of extraordinary O&M for qualifying canals, increasing federal spending commitments.
Local governments and utilities operating transferred works: they must repay the reimbursable advance portion, creating debt or cash‑flow obligations that could strain local budgets or rates.
Smaller or rural communities: the requirement that an at‑risk reach put more than 100 people at risk to qualify may exclude smaller but vulnerable canal reaches from non‑reimbursable support.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows the federal water resources Secretary (and transferred-works operating entities) to perform extraordinary operation and maintenance (O&M) on certain high-risk urban canal reaches and creates a new legal category for those reaches. For qualifying "urban canals of concern," the federal government must pay 35% of extraordinary O&M costs on a nonreimbursable basis and will advance the remaining extraordinary O&M costs as reimbursable under existing transferred-works repayment rules; reimbursed amounts are counted as non-Federal funds for federal grant cost-sharing purposes.
Defines "urban canal of concern" and requires the Secretary to cover 35% of extraordinary O&M costs nonreimbursably while advancing the remainder as reimbursable; such advances count as non‑Federal funds for grants.
Introduced September 10, 2025 by James Risch · Last progress September 10, 2025