American Water Stewardship Act Reauthorization

H.L.C.

Union Calendar No. H. R. 6422

119 CONGRESS TH 1 ST ESSION [Report No. 119-] To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to reauthorize certain EPA geographic programs, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

4, 2025 ECEMBER Mr. S(for himself and Ms. MD R ) introduced the fol-STAUBERCDONALD JIVET lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure --, 2026 ANUARY Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] [For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on December 4, 2025]

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H.L.C.

A BILL

To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to reau- thorize certain EPA geographic programs, and for other purposes.

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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3

This Act may be cited as the ''American Water Stew-4 ardship Act''. 5

SEC. 2. GREAT LAKES RESTORATION INITIATIVE. 6

Section 118(c)(7)(J)(i)(VI) of the Federal Water Pollu-7 tion Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1268(c)(7)(J)(i)(VI)) is amend-8 ed by striking ''fiscal year 2026'' and inserting ''each of 9 fiscal years 2026 through 2031''. 10

SEC. 3. LONG ISLAND SOUND. 11

Section 119(h) of the Federal Water Pollution Control 12 Act (33 U.S.C. 1269(h)) is amended by striking ''2023'' and 13 inserting ''2031''. 14

SEC. 4. COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN RESTORATION. 15

Section 123(d)(6) of the Federal Water Pollution Con-16 trol Act (33 U.S.C. 1275(d)(6)) is amended by striking 17 ''and 2021'' and inserting ''through 2031''. 18

SEC. 5. SAN FRANCISCO BAY RESTORATION PROGRAM. 19

Section 125 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act 20 (33 U.S.C. 1276a) is amended-- 21 (1) in the section heading, by striking 22 ''; and 23''GRANT (2) in subsection (e)-- 24

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(A) in the subsection heading, by striking 1 2''G '' and inserting ''PIRANT GROGRAM PROGRAM ''; 3MPLEMENTATION (B) in paragraph (1), by striking ''or other 4 means to State and local agencies, special dis-5 tricts, and public or nonprofit agencies'' and in-6 serting ''interagency agreements, contracts, or 7 other funding mechanisms to Federal, State, and 8 local agencies, special districts, public or non-9 profit agencies, and other public or private enti-10 ties''; and 11 (C) by striking paragraph (2) and inserting 12 the following: 13 .--Amounts provided for 14''(2) MAXIMUM AMOUNT a project, activity, or study under this section shall 15 not exceed an amount that is equal to 75 percent of 16 the total cost of such project, activity, or study. 17 .-- 18''(3) A -SSISTANCE TO NON FEDERAL ENTITIES Not less than 25 percent of the cost of any project, ac-19 tivity, or study carried out using amounts provided 20 to a non-Federal entity under this section shall be 21 provided from non-Federal sources.''. 22

SEC. 6. NATIONAL ESTUARY PROGRAM. 23

.--Section 320 of the Federal Water 24(a) INENERAL Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1330) is amended-- 25

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(1) in subsection (a)(2)(B), by striking ''and 1 Pensacola and Perdido Bays, Florida'' and inserting 2 ''Pensacola and Perdido Bays, Florida; and Mis-3 sissippi Sound, Mississippi''; and 4 (2) in subsection (i)(1), in the matter preceding 5 subparagraph (A), by striking ''2026'' and inserting 6 ''2031''. 7 8(b) I W R F YNELIGIBILITY ITH ESPECT TO ISCAL EARS 2027.--With respect to the amendment made by 92026 AND subsection (a)(1), the Administrator of the Environmental 10 Protection Agency may not use for the implementation of 11 that amendment, including, with respect to Mississippi 12 Sound, Mississippi, convening a management conference, 13 developing or carrying out a comprehensive conservation 14 and management plan, or providing grants under section 15 320 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 16 1330)-- 17 (1) any amounts appropriated to carry out the 18 national estuary program under that section for fiscal 19 year 2026; or 20 (2) unless the total amount appropriated to 21 carry out that program for fiscal year 2027 is at least 22 $850,000 more than the total amount appropriated to 23 carry out that program for fiscal year 2024, any 24

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amounts appropriated to carry out that program for 1 fiscal year 2027. 2

SEC. 7. COASTAL RECREATION WATER QUALITY MONI-3 TORING AND NOTIFICATION. 4

.-- 5(a) INENERAL -6(1) PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTA .--Section 406 of the Federal Water Pol-7GTION GRANTS lution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1346) is amended-- 8 (A) in subsection (b)-- 9 (i) in paragraph (3)(A)-- 10 (I) in clause (i), by striking 11 ''and'' at the end; 12 (II) by redesignating clause (ii) 13 as clause (iii); and 14 (III) by inserting after clause (i) 15 the following: 16 ''(ii) in the case of a State that uses 17 such grant to identify specific sources of 18 contamination pursuant to paragraph (5), 19 any data relating to such identified sources 20 of contamination; and''; and 21 (ii) by adding at the end the following: 22 23''(5) IDENTIFICATION OF SPECIFIC SOURCES OF .--A State or local government receiv-24CONTAMINATION ing a grant under this subsection may use such grant 25

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to identify specific sources of contamination for coast-1 al recreation waters adjacent to beaches or similar 2 points of access that are used by the public.''; and 3 (B) in subsection (i), by striking ''2001 4 through 2005'' and inserting ''2026 through 5 2031''. 6 .--Sec-7 (2) A RUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS tion 8 of the Beaches Environmental Assessment and 8 Coastal Health Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-284; 9 114 Stat. 877) is amended by striking ''2001 through 10 2005'' and inserting ''2026 through 2031''. 11 .--Sec-12(b) C W D OASTAL ECREATION ATERS EFINED tion 502(21)(A)(ii) of the Federal Water Pollution Control 13 Act (33 U.S.C. 1362(21)(A)(ii)) is amended by striking 14 ''(including coastal estuaries)'' and inserting ''(including 15 coastal estuaries, the mouths of rivers and streams, nearby 16 shallow waters, and waters present on beaches)''. 17 .--In providing guidance to States and 18(c) G UIDANCE local governments receiving grants under section 406 of the 19 Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1346), the 20 Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency 21 shall ensure that such guidance reflects innovations in test-22 ing technologies for water contamination. 23

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H.L.C. SEC. 8. LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS. 1

No Federal funds made available for any of fiscal 2 years 2026 through 2031 to carry out section 118, 119, 123, 3 125, 320, or 406 of the Federal Water Pollution Control 4 Act may be provided to any non-Federal entity-- 5 (1) that is domiciled in, headquartered in, or or-6 ganized under the laws of, or the principal place of 7 business of which is located in, a foreign country of 8 concern (as defined in section 10638 of the Research 9 and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act 10 (42 U.S.C. 19237)); or 11 (2) for projects conducted with a foreign country 12 of concern. 13

SEC. 9. GEOGRAPHIC PROGRAM REPORT. 14

.--Not later than 2 years after the 15(a) INENERAL date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of 16 the United States shall submit to the Committee on Trans-17 portation and Infrastructure of the House of Representa-18 tives and the Committee on Environment and Public Works 19 of the Senate a report on EPA geographic programs. 20 .--In preparing the report 21(b) RGEQUIREDEVALUATION required under subsection (a), the Comptroller General shall 22 include an evaluation, with respect to each EPA geographic 23 program, of-- 24

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(1) the management of funds, including the effi-1 ciency and effectiveness of program operations and 2 the use of Federal funds; 3 (2) the progress towards achieving program pur-4 poses, goals, and objectives, including the status of 5 program goals and objectives and the extent to which 6 the program has demonstrated measurable outcomes; 7 (3) obstacles to program success or progress; 8 (4) the efficacy of coordination with other Fed-9 eral, State, Tribal, and local programs and actions, 10 including whether there is any duplication of efforts 11 among such programs and actions; and 12 (5) the ethics policies and practices of the office 13 of the Environmental Protection Agency responsible 14 for implementing the program. 15 .--The Comptroller General 16(c) RPECOMMENDATIONS shall include in the report required under subsection (a) 17 recommendations, as appropriate, to improve EPA geo-18 graphic program efficiency, accountability, and effective-19 ness in achieving program purposes, goals, and objectives. 20 .--In this 21(d) EPA G D EOGRAPHIC ROGRAM EFINED section, the term ''EPA geographic program'' means-- 22 (1) the Chesapeake Bay Program under section 23 117 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 24 U.S.C. 1267); 25

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(2) the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative under 1 section 118 of the Federal Water Pollution Control 2 Act (33 U.S.C. 1268); 3 (3) the Long Island Sound program under sec-4 tion 119 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act 5 (33 U.S.C. 1269); 6 (4) the Patrick Leahy Lake Champlain Basin 7 Program under section 120 of the Federal Water Pol-8 lution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1270); 9 (5) the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration 10 Program under section 121 of the Federal Water Pol-11 lution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1273); 12 (6) the Columbia River Basin Restoration Pro-13 gram under section 123 of the Federal Water Pollu-14 tion Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1275); 15 (7) the San Francisco Bay Restoration Program 16 under section 125 of the Federal Water Pollution Con-17 trol Act (33 U.S.C. 1276a); 18 (8) the Puget Sound program under section 126 19 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 20 1276b); 21 (9) the Gulf of America Program carried out by 22 the Administrator; 23 (10) the South Florida Program carried out by 24 the Administrator; or 25

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(11) the Southeast New England Program car-1 ried out by the Administrator. 2

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