Sponsors (8)
Official title: To reauthorize the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014, and for other purposes.
Introduced November 20, 2025 by Kim Schrier · Last progress November 20, 2025
The bill broadens who and what can get federal water infrastructure credit and support—helping more communities build and finance long‑lived projects faster and with more administrative funding—while increasing federal credit exposure, administrative complexity, and risks that competition and budget scoring changes could disadvantage some small or disadvantaged sponsors.
Small towns and rural communities (population up to 25,000), tribal areas, and their local governments will get expanded technical help and outreach from EPA to prepare water project proposals, increasing access to federal assistance.
State and non‑Federal project owners (including Reclamation and tribal projects) gain broader eligibility for WIFIA financing—covering storage, transferred works, and non‑Federal-owned projects—giving more sponsors access to low‑cost federal credit to build or rehabilitate water supply and drought‑resilience infrastructure.
Local and state project sponsors (utilities and governments) can use collaborative delivery methods (design‑build, construction manager at‑risk) and benefit from an EPA/Army study to identify barriers, which may speed project delivery and reduce some construction costs.
Taxpayers face greater federal exposure to loan risk and higher federal outlays (expanded eligibility, new administrative funding, and scoring changes), meaning defaults or added subsidies could raise costs for the federal budget.
Broader eligibility and expanded competition for WIFIA and related programs could disadvantage small, low‑income, or rural sponsors—reducing their share of limited funds and making it harder for historically underserved communities to compete.
New reporting, FCRA scoring requirements, split authority between agencies, and other compliance obligations increase administrative complexity and workload for federal and state staff, risking delays and higher overhead costs.
Based on analysis of 9 sections of legislative text.
Expands WIFIA eligibility and delivery options, raises small‑community threshold to 25,000, extends loan maturities for long‑lived projects, increases admin authorizations, and requires implementation reports and a study.
Expands and updates the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) to broaden eligible projects, increase administrative funding, extend loan maturities for long‑lived projects, authorize technical assistance for small communities, permit collaborative project delivery methods, and change certain budget treatment rules for non‑Federal assistance. It also directs studies and reports on program implementation and makes minor technical edits to existing statute text. The bill adds new project categories (including State‑led storage, transferred works, and certain non‑Federal-owned congressionally authorized projects), raises the population threshold for "small community" to 25,000, provides EPA authority and funding to offer engineering/financial planning help to small communities, allows longer loan maturities (up to 55 years) for projects with useful lives over 35 years, increases annual authorization amounts for WIFIA administrative funds, and requires several reports and a study on collaborative delivery methods and program implementation.