H.R. 4540

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4540 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4540

To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to establish a program to provide 
grants to suppliers of water for the purpose of making infrastructure 
improvements to public water systems, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 11, 2023

Mr. Cuellar (for himself and Mr. Smith of New Jersey) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and 
Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to establish a program to provide 
grants to suppliers of water for the purpose of making infrastructure 
improvements to public water systems, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Water Infrastructure Enhancement Act 
of 2023''.

SEC. 2. WATER INFRASTRUCTURE ENHANCEMENT.

Part E of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300j et seq.) is 
amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 1459H. WATER INFRASTRUCTURE ENHANCEMENT.

``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
``(1) Area of persistent poverty.--The term `area of 
persistent poverty' means--
``(A) any county (or equivalent jurisdiction) in 
which, during the 30-year period ending on the date of 
enactment of this section, 20 percent or more of the 
population continually lived in poverty, as measured 
by--
``(i) the 1990 decennial census;
``(ii) the 2000 decennial census; and
``(iii) the most recent annual small area 
income and poverty estimate of the Bureau of 
the Census;
``(B) any census tract with a poverty rate of not 
less than 20 percent, as measured by the 5-year data 
series available from the American Community Survey of 
the Bureau of the Census for the period of 2014 through 
2018; and
``(C) any territory or possession of the United 
States.
``(2) Eligible activity.--The term `eligible activity' 
means one of the following activities with respect to a public 
water system:
``(A) Installing or upgrading water treatment 
facilities.
``(B) Constructing or rehabilitating storage tanks.
``(C) Installing or replacing water transmission 
and distribution pipes.
``(D) Installing or upgrading pump stations.
``(E) Installing emergency generators.
``(F) Upgrading supervisory control and data 
acquisition systems.
``(G) Installing advanced metering infrastructure.
``(H) Installing or upgrading wells.
``(I) Facilitating compliance with any primary or 
secondary drinking water regulation promulgated under 
this Act.
``(J) Any other activity determined appropriate by 
the Administrator.
``(3) Rural area.--The term `rural area' means an area with 
a population of 20,000 or fewer inhabitants.
``(b) Water Infrastructure Enhancement Grant Program.--
``(1) In general.--The Administrator shall establish a 
program to provide grants to suppliers of water to carry out 
eligible activities for the purpose of making infrastructure 
improvements to public water systems in accordance with this 
section.
``(2) Other considerations.--Of the total amounts made 
available to carry out the grant program established under 
paragraph (1)--
``(A) not less than 50 percent shall be for 
eligible activities carried out in rural areas; and
``(B) not less than 15 percent shall be awarded to 
eligible activities carried out in historically 
disadvantaged communities or areas of persistent 
poverty.
``(3) Cost-sharing.--The Federal share of the cost of an 
eligible activity carried out using a grant under this section 
shall be not more than 90 percent.
``(4) Authorization of appropriations.--There is authorized 
to be appropriated to carry out this section $800,000,000 for 
each of the fiscal years 2024 through 2029.''.
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