Sponsors (2)
The bill directs modest, targeted increases in federal funding and emergency-assistance authority for drinking-water and wastewater systems—improving public-health protection and emergency response—while increasing federal outlays, delaying some near-term funding, and introducing risks of reliance and administrative uncertainty.
State and local governments and their residents (urban and rural) will receive increased federal funding for Safe Drinking Water Act programs—authorization raised from $35M to $50M per year for FY2027–2031—enabling more grants and projects to repair aging drinking-water systems and reduce contamination risks.
Publicly owned treatment works, States, and local governments will gain access to grants and technical assistance (including for cybersecurity and other emergencies) and the EPA can use existing emergency-assistance mechanisms to deploy help faster during crises, improving public-health response capability.
Local utilities and communities (urban and rural) will have dedicated federal funding—$50M/year (FY2027–2031) in authorized resources—to prevent or mitigate sewer overflows and similar hazards, reducing costs that individual ratepayers or small utilities could not afford alone.
Taxpayers ultimately fund the additional authorizations (the $15M/year increase and the $50M/year emergency funding), which increases federal spending and could crowd out other budget priorities absent offsets.
The shift of the increased Safe Drinking Water Act funding window to FY2027–FY2031 delays access to higher funding levels until 2027, potentially leaving near-term projects and urgent needs underfunded.
Some local utilities may come to rely on federal grants for costs they might otherwise finance or address themselves, which could discourage timely local investment in resilience and maintenance (moral hazard).
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Increases SDWA grant authorization to $50M/year (FY2027–2031) and creates a new CWA emergency response grant authority (including cybersecurity) authorized at $50M/year (FY2027–2031).
Official title: Amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to reauthorize emergency technical assistance, to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to authorize emergency technical assistance and grants, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 14, 2026 by Edward John Markey · Last progress July 14, 2026
Increases authorized annual funding for a Safe Drinking Water Act grant program to $50 million per year for fiscal years 2027–2031 and updates eligibility timing. Establishes a new Clean Water Act authority allowing the EPA to provide technical assistance and grants to states and publicly owned treatment works to respond to emergencies that threaten public health, explicitly including cybersecurity events, and authorizes $50 million per year for 2027–2031 to carry out that authority. Grants under the new authority may be used only to prevent, limit, or mitigate public‑health dangers from treatment works emergencies and are intended to cover actions that otherwise would not be taken or would be economically infeasible for ratepayers. The EPA may administer the authority through existing emergency programs and funds provided under this section are not subject to other programmatic caps.