Santa Rosa City Council
September 26, 2023

II
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION S. 2162
To support water infrastructure in Reclamation States, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JUNE 22, 2023
Mrs. F EINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. K ELLY, and Ms. S INEMA) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on En- ergy and Natural Resources
A BILL
To support water infrastructure in Reclamation States, and for other purposes.

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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) S HORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Support To Rehydrate the Environment, Agriculture, 5
and Municipalities Act’’ or the ‘‘STREAM Act’’. 6
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 7
this Act is as follows: 8
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

Sec. 2. Definitions.

TITLE I—INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
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Sec. 101. Storage and conveyance projects.

Sec. 102. Annual report to Congress.

Sec. 103. Competitive grant program for the funding of water recycling projects.

Sec. 104. Eligible desalination project development.

Sec. 105. Drinking water assistance for disadvantaged communities.

Sec. 106. Extraordinary operation and maintenance work; project modification.

Sec. 107. Use of revenue to improve drought resilience or dam safety.

TITLE II—IMPROVED TECHNOLOGY AND DATA
Sec. 201. Reauthorization of the transboundary aquifer assessment program.

TITLE III—ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION AND PROTECTION
Sec. 301. Ecosystem restoration.

Sec. 302. Performance-based restoration authority.

TITLE IV—MISCELLANEOUS
Sec. 401. Modifications to drought program under the Reclamation States Emergency Drought Relief Act of 1991.

Sec. 402. Offset.

Sec. 403. Environmental compliance.

Sec. 404. Effect.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
1 In this Act: 2
(1) A NNUAL REPORT .—The term ‘‘annual re-3
port’’ means a report required under section 102(a). 4
(2) A UTHORIZING COMMITTEES OF CON -5
GRESS.—The term ‘‘authorizing committees of Con-6
gress’’ means— 7
(A) the Committee on Energy and Natural 8
Resources of the Senate; and 9
(B) the Committee on Natural Resources 10
of the House of Representatives. 11
(3) D ISADVANTAGED COMMUNITY .—The term 12
‘‘disadvantaged community’’ means a low-income 13
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community (as defined in section 45D(e) of the In-1
ternal Revenue Code of 1986). 2
(4) E LIGIBLE DESALINATION PROJECT .—The 3
term ‘‘eligible desalination project’’ has the meaning 4 given the term in paragraph (2) of section 4(a) of 5
the Water Desalination Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C. 6
10301 note; Public Law 104–298) (as amended by 7
section 104(a)). 8
(5) ELIGIBLE ENTITY .—The term ‘‘eligible enti-9
ty’’ means— 10
(A) any State, political subdivision of a 11
State, department of a State, or public agency 12
organized pursuant to State law; 13
(B) an Indian Tribe (as defined in section 14
4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu-15
cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304)) or an 16
entity controlled by an Indian Tribe; 17
(C) a water users’ association; 18
(D) an agency established by an interstate 19
compact; and 20
(E) an agency established under State law 21
for the joint exercise of powers. 22
(6) F EDERAL BENEFIT .—The term ‘‘Federal 23
benefit’’, with respect to a non-Federal storage 24
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project, water recycling project, or eligible desalina-1 tion project, means— 2
(A) public benefits provided directly by a 3
project; 4
(B) public benefits that— 5
(i) are— 6
(I) fish and wildlife benefits; or 7
(II) water quality benefits; 8
(ii) are provided by the implementa-9
tion of a watershed restoration plan ap-10
proved with the project; and 11
(iii) represent an increased Federal 12
commitment in the watershed as compared 13
to Federal commitments before the date of 14
approval of the project; 15
(C) benefits to a watershed from a water 16
recycling project or eligible desalination project; 17
or 18
(D) water supply benefits identified in ac-19
cordance with the reclamation laws. 20
(7) F EDERAL STORAGE PROJECT .—The term 21
‘‘Federal storage project’’ means any project con-22
structed by the Bureau of Reclamation— 23
(A) that involves the construction or ex-24
pansion of— 25
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(i) a surface water storage facility; or 1
(ii) a facility conveying water to or 2
from surface or groundwater storage; and 3
(B) to which the United States holds or 4
will hold title. 5
(8) N ATURAL WATER RETENTION AND RE -6
LEASE PROJECT .— 7
(A) I N GENERAL .—The term ‘‘natural 8
water retention and release project’’ means a 9
non-Federal storage project designed and devel-10
oped to increase water availability for optimal 11
management through aquifer recharge, flood-12
plain retention, the alteration of the timing of 13
runoff to allow increased utilization of existing 14
storage facilities, or another mechanism that— 15
(i) uses primarily natural materials 16
appropriate to the specific site and land-17
scape setting; and 18
(ii) substantially mimics natural 19
riverine, wetland, ecosystem, or hydrologic 20
processes. 21
(B) I NCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘natural 22
water retention and release project’’ includes— 23
(i) a single natural water retention 24
and release project; 25
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(ii) several distributed natural water 1
retention and release projects across a wa-2
tershed; and 3
(iii) the redesign, modification, or re-4
placement of existing infrastructure to in-5
corporate natural water retention and re-6
lease elements. 7
(9) N ON-FEDERAL STORAGE PROJECT .—The 8
term ‘‘non-Federal storage project’’ means any 9
project in a Reclamation State that— 10
(A) involves the construction, expansion, or 11
repair by an eligible entity of— 12
(i) a surface or groundwater storage 13
project that is not federally owned; 14
(ii) a facility that is not federally 15
owned conveying water to or from surface 16
or groundwater storage; or 17
(iii) a natural water retention and re-18
lease project; and 19
(B) provides a benefit in meeting any obli-20
gation under applicable Federal law (including 21
regulations). 22
(10) P UBLIC BENEFIT .—The term ‘‘public ben-23
efit’’, with respect to a non-Federal storage project 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Jul 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2162.IS S2162pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 7 •S 2162 IS
or extraordinary operation and maintenance work, 1
means— 2
(A) a public benefit identified under the 3
reclamation laws; 4
(B) a drinking water benefit for 1 or more 5
disadvantaged communities, including through 6
groundwater recharge, if— 7
(i) the drinking water meets applica-8
ble regulatory standards; 9
(ii) the drinking water benefit exceeds 10
express mitigation or compliance require-11
ments under Federal or State law; 12
(iii) the modified project reduces the 13
unit cost per volume, improves water qual-14
ity, or increases the reliability or quantity 15
of the drinking water supply of the dis-16
advantaged community as compared to the 17
condition of the drinking water or other 18
sources of drinking water available before 19
the modification of the project; 20
(iv) the drinking water benefit is 21
quantified in a public process, including 22
outreach to representatives of the affected 23
disadvantaged community at the earliest 24
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practicable opportunity, to determine the 1
scope of funding; and 2
(v) negative impacts on water quality 3
for other communities are not caused as 4
part of the modified project; 5
(C) emergency drinking water supply used 6
in response to a disaster declaration by a Gov-7
ernor; and 8
(D) energy savings benefits, including— 9
(i) the value of associated greenhouse 10
gas reductions; and 11
(ii) any reduction in energy costs for 12
Federal taxpayers, such as reduced water 13
delivery costs for water providing fish and 14
wildlife benefits. 15
(11) R ECLAMATION LAWS .—The term ‘‘rec-16
lamation laws’’ means Federal reclamation law (the 17
Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388, chapter 1093), 18
and Acts supplemental to and amendatory of that 19
Act (43 U.S.C. 371 et seq.)). 20
(12) R ECLAMATION STATE .—The term ‘‘Rec-21
lamation State’’ has the meaning given the term in 22
section 4014 of the Water Infrastructure Improve-23
ments for the Nation Act (43 U.S.C. 390b note; 24
Public Law 114–322). 25
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(13) S ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ 1
means the Secretary of the Interior. 2
(14) S TORAGE PROJECT .—The term ‘‘storage 3
project’’ means a Federal storage project or a non- 4
Federal storage project. 5
(15) W ATER RECYCLING PROJECT .—The term 6
‘‘water recycling project’’ means a project provided 7
a grant under section 1602(f) of the Reclamation 8
Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities 9
Act (43 U.S.C. 390h(f)). 10
(16) W ATERSHED.—The term ‘‘watershed’’ in-11
cludes— 12
(A) an entire watershed; or 13
(B) any portion of a watershed, including 14
the upper or lower reaches of the watershed. 15
(17) W ATERSHED RESTORATION PLAN .—The 16
term ‘‘watershed restoration plan’’ means a plan ap-17
proved by the Secretary that would provide benefits 18
to the affected watershed from a non-Federal stor-19
age project and other projects and activities, includ-20 ing— 21
(A)(i) restoration of fish and wildlife habi-22
tat or flows; or 23
(ii) water quality benefits; and 24
(B) water supply benefits. 25
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TITLE I—INFRASTRUCTURE 1
DEVELOPMENT 2
SEC. 101. STORAGE AND CONVEYANCE PROJECTS. 3
(a) STORAGE PROJECTS.— 4
(1) D EFINITIONS.—Section 4007 of the Water 5
Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (43 6
U.S.C. 390b note; Public Law 114–322) is amend-7
ed— 8
(A) by striking subsections (a) and (b) and 9
inserting the following: 10
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 11
‘‘(1) DESIGN; STUDY.— 12
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL .—The terms ‘design’ 13
and ‘study’ include any design, permitting, 14
study (including a feasibility study), materials 15
engineering or testing, surveying, or 16
preconstruction activity relating to a water stor-17
age facility. 18
‘‘(B) EXCLUSIONS.—The terms ‘design’ 19
and ‘study’ do not include an appraisal study or 20
other preliminary review intended to determine 21
whether further study is appropriate. 22
‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE ENTITY .—The term ‘eligible en-23
tity’ means— 24
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‘‘(A) a State, Indian Tribe, municipality, 1
irrigation district, water district, wastewater 2
district, or other organization with water or 3
power delivery authority; 4
‘‘(B) a State, regional, or local authority, 5
the members of which include 1 or more organi-6
zations with water or power delivery authority; 7
or 8
‘‘(C)(i) an agency established under State 9
law for the joint exercise of powers; 10
‘‘(ii) a combination of entities described in 11
subparagraphs (A) and (B); or 12
‘‘(iii) with respect to a natural water reten-13
tion and release project, a qualified partner. 14
‘‘(3) ELIGIBLE PROJECT .—The term ‘eligible 15
project’ means a project described in subsection (b). 16 ‘‘(4) FEDERAL BENEFIT ; NATURAL WATER RE -17
TENTION AND RELEASE PROJECT ; NON-FEDERAL 18
STORAGE PROJECT ; PUBLIC BENEFIT ; STORAGE 19
PROJECT; WATERSHED; WATERSHED RESTORATION 20
PLAN.—The terms ‘Federal benefit’, ‘natural water 21
retention and release project’, ‘non-Federal storage 22 project’, ‘public benefit’, ‘storage project’, ‘water-23 shed’, and ‘watershed restoration plan’ have the 24
meanings given the terms in section 2 of the Sup-25
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port To Rehydrate the Environment, Agriculture, 1
and Municipalities Act. 2
‘‘(5) QUALIFIED PARTNER .—The term ‘quali-3
fied partner’ means a nonprofit organization oper-4
ating in a Reclamation State that is acting with the 5
written support of an eligible entity.’’; 6
(B) by striking subsections (e), (f), and (i); 7
and 8
(C) by redesignating subsections (c), (d), 9
(g), (h), (j), and (k) as subsections (b), (c), (d), 10 (e), (f), and (g), respectively. 11
(2) N ON-FEDERAL STORAGE PROJECTS .—Sec-12
tion 4007(b) of the Water Infrastructure Improve-13
ments for the Nation Act (43 U.S.C. 390b note; 14
Public Law 114–322) (as redesignated by paragraph 15
(1)(C)) is amended— 16
(A) in the subsection heading, by striking 17
‘‘STATE-LED’’ and inserting ‘‘NON-FEDERAL’’; 18
(B) by striking ‘‘State-led’’ each place it 19
appears and inserting ‘‘non-Federal’’; 20
(C) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘project 21
in’’ and all that follows through the period at 22
the end and inserting ‘‘project.’’; 23
(D) in paragraph (2)— 24
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(i) in the paragraph heading, by in-1
serting ‘‘OR INDIAN TRIBE ’’ after ‘‘GOV-2
ERNOR’’; 3
(ii) in the matter preceding subpara-4
graph (A), by striking ‘‘Participation’’ and 5
inserting ‘‘Subject to paragraph (5), in the 6
case of natural water retention and release 7
projects, participation’’; 8
(iii) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 9
‘‘or the sponsoring Indian Tribe, in the 10
case of a Tribal project’’ after ‘‘located’’; 11
and 12
(iv) in subparagraph (B), in the mat-13
ter preceding clause (i), by striking ‘‘State 14
or local sponsor’’ and inserting ‘‘State, 15
Tribal, or local’’; and 16
(E) by adding at the end the following: 17
‘‘(5) NATURAL WATER RETENTION AND RE -18
LEASE PROJECTS .—Participation by the Secretary of 19
the Interior in a natural water retention and release 20 project under this subsection shall only occur if— 21
‘‘(A) for a project that costs not more than 22
$10,000,000, the eligible entity demonstrates 23
that the natural water retention and release 24
project would help optimize the storage or deliv-25
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ery of water in a watershed in which a Bureau 1
of Reclamation facility is located; and 2
‘‘(B) for a project that costs more than 3
$10,000,000— 4
‘‘(i) the requirements described in 5
paragraph (2) have been met; and 6
‘‘(ii) the eligible entity determines, 7
and the Secretary of the Interior concurs, 8
that— 9
‘‘(I) the natural water retention 10
and release project would produce or 11
allow additional retention or delivery 12
of water in a watershed in which a 13
Bureau of Reclamation facility is lo-14
cated; and 15
‘‘(II) there is a credible estimate 16
of the quantity of the storage benefit 17
of the natural water retention and re-18
lease project during each of a ‘wet’ 19
year, a ‘normal’ year, and a ‘dry’ 20
year. 21
‘‘(6) OTHER AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED .—Non- 22
Federal storage projects with a Federal cost-share 23
exceeding $250,000,000 may not be carried out 24
under this subsection. 25
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‘‘(7) FEDERAL COST SHARE .— 1
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL .—Except as provided in 2
subparagraph (B), the Federal share of the cost 3
of any eligible project provided a grant under 4
this subsection shall not exceed 25 percent of 5
the total cost of the eligible project. 6
‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—The Federal share of 7
the cost of a natural water retention and re-8
lease project provided a grant under this sub-9
section shall not exceed 90 percent of the total 10
cost of the natural water retention and release 11
project. 12
‘‘(8) REIMBURSABILITY OF FUNDS .— 13
‘‘(A) NONREIMBURSABLE FUNDS .— 14
‘‘(i) PUBLIC BENEFITS .—Subject to 15
paragraph (7), any funds provided by the 16
Secretary of the Interior to an eligible enti-17
ty under this subsection for the value of 18
public benefits described in subparagraphs 19
(A) and (B) of section 2(10) of the Sup-20
port To Rehydrate the Environment, Agri-21
culture, and Municipalities Act shall be 22
considered nonreimbursable. 23
‘‘(ii) WATER SUPPLY BENEFITS OF 24
EQUAL VALUE TO PUBLIC BENEFITS .— 25
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Subject to paragraph (7), any funds pro-1
vided by the Secretary of the Interior for 2
the value of Federal benefits provided 3
under section 2(6)(D) of the Support To 4
Rehydrate the Environment, Agriculture, 5
and Municipalities Act shall be considered 6
nonreimbursable to the extent that the 7
value of the Federal benefits does not ex-8
ceed the value of public benefits funded 9
under clause (i) that are fish and wildlife 10
or water quality benefits. 11
‘‘(B) REIMBURSABLE FUNDS .—If funds 12
provided to an eligible entity under subpara-13
graph (A) are less than the amount of the max-14
imum Federal cost share applicable to the eligi-15
ble project under paragraph (7), the Secretary 16
may provide reimbursable funds to an eligible 17
entity for any Federal benefits provided under 18
section 2(6)(D) of the Support To Rehydrate 19
the Environment, Agriculture, and Municipali-20
ties Act, subject to the limitation that the total 21
amount of Federal funds provided to an eligible 22
entity for the eligible project under this sub-23
section may not exceed the amount of the max-24
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imum Federal cost share applicable under para-1
graph (7). 2
‘‘(9) PRIORITY.—In providing grants to eligible 3
entities for eligible projects under this subsection, 4 the Secretary of the Interior shall give funding pri-5
ority to an eligible project that directly or through 6 watershed restoration plans approved with the 7
project meets 2 or more of the following criteria: 8
‘‘(A) Provides multiple benefits, including 9
substantial quantities of each of the following: 10
‘‘(i) Water supply reliability benefits 11
for States and communities that are fre-12
quently drought-stricken. 13
‘‘(ii) Fish and wildlife benefits. 14
‘‘(iii) Water quality improvements. 15
‘‘(B) Reduces impacts on environmental 16
resources from water projects owned or oper-17
ated by Federal agencies and State agencies, in-18
cluding through measurable reductions in water 19
diversions from imperiled ecosystems. 20
‘‘(C) Advances water management plans 21
across a multi-State area, such as drought con-22
tingency plans in the Colorado River Basin. 23
‘‘(D) Is collaboratively developed or sup-24
ported by multiple stakeholders. 25
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‘‘(E) Is located within a watershed for 1
which an integrated, comprehensive watershed 2
management plan has been developed to en-3
hance resilience of ecosystems, agricultural op-4
erations, and communities to chronic water 5
scarcity, acute drought, and changing 6
hydrological regimes.’’. 7
(3) A UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 8
Section 4007(e) of the Water Infrastructure Im-9
provements for the Nation Act (43 U.S.C. 390b 10
note; Public Law 114–322) (as redesignated by 11
paragraph (1)(C)) is amended by striking para-12
graphs (1) and (2) and inserting the following: 13
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL .—In addition to amounts 14
made available under section 40901(1) of the Infra-15
structure Investment and Jobs Act (43 U.S.C. 16
3201(1)), there is authorized to be appropriated to 17
the Secretary of the Interior to carry out this section 18 $750,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 19
through 2029, of which $50,000,000 is authorized to 20
be appropriated during that period to carry out nat-21
ural water retention and release projects under sub-22
section (b)(5). 23
‘‘(2) ALLOCATION.—Subject to paragraphs (3) 24
and (4), the Secretary of the Interior shall allocate 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Jul 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00018 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2162.IS S2162pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 19 •S 2162 IS
amounts made available under paragraph (1) 1
among— 2
‘‘(A) the design and study of— 3
‘‘(i) non-Federal storage projects, in-4
cluding natural water retention and release 5
projects; and 6
‘‘(ii) storage projects that are eligible 7
for study funding under subsection (a)(1) 8
of section 40902 of the Infrastructure In-9
vestment and Jobs Act (43 U.S.C. 3202), 10
if the amounts made available to the stor-11
age projects under this clause are provided 12
in accordance with subsections (b) and (c) 13
of that section; and 14
‘‘(B) construction of— 15
‘‘(i) non-Federal storage projects, in-16
cluding natural water retention and release 17
projects; and 18
‘‘(ii) storage projects that have re-19
ceived construction funding in accordance 20
with subsection (a)(2) of section 40902 of 21
the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs 22
Act (43 U.S.C. 3202), if the amounts 23
made available to the storage projects 24
under this clause are provided in accord-25
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ance with subsections (b) and (c) of that 1
section. 2
‘‘(3) PRELIMINARY STUDIES .—Of the amounts 3
made available under paragraph (1), not more than 4
25 percent shall be provided for appraisal studies, 5
feasibility studies, or other preliminary studies. 6
‘‘(4) OTHER STORAGE PROJECTS .—The funds 7
appropriated under paragraph (1) may not be used 8
for storage projects other than the storage projects 9
described in paragraph (2) unless authorized by an 10
Act of Congress. 11
‘‘(5) USE OF FUNDING FOR PUBLIC BENE -12
FITS.— 13
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL .—The Federal share of 14
the cost of public benefits provided by a storage 15
project described in paragraph (2) may be used 16
for the capital and operations, maintenance, 17
and replacement costs of public benefits. 18
‘‘(B) EFFECT.—Nothing in this paragraph 19
precludes the Secretary from using other au-20
thorities or appropriations for the capital and 21
operations, maintenance, and replacement costs 22
of a non-Federal storage project to provide pub-23
lic benefits.’’. 24
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(b) DURATION.—Section 4013(2) of the Water Infra-1
structure Improvements for the Nation Act (43 U.S.C. 2
390b note; Public Law 114–322) is amended by striking 3 ‘‘projects under construction in’’. 4
(c) A MENDMENT TO THE INFRASTRUCTURE JOBS 5
AND INVESTMENT ACT.—Section 40902(a)(2)(C)(i) of the 6
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (43 U.S.C. 7
3202(a)(2)(C)(i)) is amended by striking ‘‘clause (i) or 8 (ii)’’ and inserting ‘‘clause (i), (ii), or (iii)’’. 9
(d) A UTHORIZATION TO COMPLETE STORAGE 10
PROJECTS THAT RECEIVE CONSTRUCTION FUNDING.— 11
(1) D EFINITION OF CONSTRUCTION .—In this 12
subsection, the term ‘‘construction’’ has the meaning 13 given the term in section 4011(f) of the Water In-14
frastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (Pub-15
lic Law 114–322; 130 Stat. 1881). 16
(2) E XTENSION OF EXISTING REQUIRE -17
MENTS.—A storage project that has received fund-18
ing for construction activities in accordance with sec-19 tion 40901(1) of the Infrastructure Investment and 20
Jobs Act (43 U.S.C. 3201(1)) shall be eligible for 21
funding (including funding authorized under this 22
section or an amendment made by this section), to 23
complete construction of the project in accordance 24
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with the standards under section 40902 of that Act 1
(43 U.S.C. 3202). 2
(e) C ALFED REAUTHORIZATION.—The Calfed Bay- 3
Delta Authorization Act (Public Law 108–361; 118 Stat. 4 1681; 136 Stat. 221) is amended by striking ‘‘2022’’ each 5 place it appears and inserting ‘‘2028’’. 6
SEC. 102. ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS. 7
(a) A NNUAL REPORTS.—Not later than February 1 8
of each year, the Secretary shall develop and submit to 9 the authorizing committees of Congress an annual report, 10 to be entitled ‘‘Report to Congress on Future Storage 11 Project Development’’, that identifies— 12
(1) each Federal storage project that the Sec-13
retary— 14
(A) has found to be feasible; and 15
(B) recommends that Congress authorize 16
for construction; 17
(2) each non-Federal storage project that re-18
quires congressional authorization for which the Sec-19 retary— 20
(A) has approved feasibility determina-21
tions; and 22
(B) recommends that Congress authorize 23
the project for construction; and 24
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(3) each feasibility report that the Secretary 1
recommends that Congress authorize for proposed 2
Federal storage projects. 3
(b) P UBLICATION.—On submission of an annual re-4
port to Congress, the Secretary shall make the annual re-5 port publicly available, including through publication on 6 the internet. 7
SEC. 103. COMPETITIVE GRANT PROGRAM FOR THE FUND-8
ING OF WATER RECYCLING PROJECTS. 9
(a) A UTHORIZATION OF NEW WATER RECYCLING 10
PROJECTS.—Section 1602 of the Reclamation Wastewater 11 and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act (43 U.S.C. 12
390h) is amended— 13
(1) in subsection (e)(2)(B), by striking ‘‘in ac-14
cordance with the reclamation laws’’; and 15
(2) in subsection (f)— 16
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘, subject 17
to subsection (g)(2)’’; and 18
(B) by striking paragraph (2) and all that 19
follows through the end of subsection (g) and 20
inserting the following: 21
‘‘(2) PRIORITIES AND DIVERSITY OF PROJECT 22
TYPES.—In providing grants under paragraph (1), 23
the Secretary shall— 24
‘‘(A) give priority to projects that— 25
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‘‘(i) are likely to provide a more-reli-1
able water supply for a unit of State or 2
local government; 3
‘‘(ii) are likely to increase the water 4
management flexibility and reduce impacts 5
on environmental resources; or 6
‘‘(iii) provide multiple benefits, includ-7
ing water supply reliability, ecosystem ben-8
efits, system reliability benefits, ground-9
water management and enhancements, and 10
water quality improvements; and 11
‘‘(B) take into consideration selecting a di-12
versity of project types, including projects that 13
serve— 14
‘‘(i) a region or more than 1 commu-15
nity; 16
‘‘(ii) a rural or small community; or 17
‘‘(iii) an urban community or city. 18
‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—In ad-19
dition to amounts made available under section 20
40901(4)(A) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs 21 Act (43 U.S.C. 3201(4)(A)), there is authorized to be ap-22 propriated to the Secretary to carry out subsections (e) 23 and (f) $300,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2025 24 through 2029.’’. 25
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(b) L IMITATION ON FUNDING.—Section 1631(d) of 1
the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and 2
Facilities Act (43 U.S.C. 390h–13(d)) is amended— 3
(1) in paragraph (1)— 4
(A) by striking ‘‘by paragraph (2)’’ and in-5
serting ‘‘in paragraphs (2) and (3)’’; and 6
(B) striking ‘‘$20,000,000 (October 1996 7
prices)’’ and inserting ‘‘$50,000,000 (in prices 8
as determined for January 2022)’’; and 9
(2) in paragraph (2)— 10
(A) in subparagraph (B)— 11
(i) by striking ‘‘(B) In the case’’ and 12
inserting the following: 13
‘‘(B) SAN GABRIEL BASIN .—In the case’’; 14
and 15
(ii) by indenting clauses (i) and (ii) 16
appropriately; and 17
(B) by striking ‘‘(2)(A) Subject to’’ and in-18
serting the following: 19
‘‘(2) PROJECTS FUNDED AS OF 2021 .—The Fed-20
eral share of the cost of any single project author-21
ized under this title shall be $20,000,000 (October 22
1996 prices) if the project has received that amount 23 as of December 31, 2021. 24
‘‘(3) OLDER PROJECTS .— 25
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL .—Subject to’’. 1
SEC. 104. ELIGIBLE DESALINATION PROJECT DEVELOP-2
MENT. 3
(a) ELIGIBLE DESALINATION PROJECTS AUTHORIZA-4
TION.—Section 4(a) of the Water Desalination Act of 5
1996 (42 U.S.C. 10301 note; Public Law 104–298) is 6
amended by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the fol-7 lowing: 8
‘‘(2) PROJECTS.— 9
‘‘(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 10
‘‘(i) E LIGIBLE DESALINATION 11
PROJECT.—The term ‘eligible desalination 12
project’ means any project located in a 13
Reclamation State, or for which the con-14
struction, operation, sponsorship, or fund-15
ing is the responsibility of, and the pri-16
mary water supply benefit accrues to, 1 or 17
more entities in a Reclamation State, 18
that— 19
‘‘(I) involves an ocean or brack-20
ish water desalination facility— 21
‘‘(aa) constructed, operated, 22
and maintained by a State, In-23
dian Tribe, irrigation district, 24
water district, or other organiza-25
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tion with water or power delivery 1
authority; or 2
‘‘(bb) sponsored or funded 3
by any combination of a State, 4
department of a State, political 5
subdivision of a State, or public 6
agency organized pursuant to 7
State law, including through— 8
‘‘(AA) direct sponsor-9
ship or funding; or 10
‘‘(BB) indirect sponsor-11
ship or funding, such as by 12
paying for the water pro-13
vided by the facility; 14
‘‘(II) provides a Federal benefit; 15
and 16
‘‘(III) is consistent with applica-17
ble Federal and State resource protec-18
tion laws, including any law relating 19
to the protection of marine protected 20
areas. 21
‘‘(ii) AUTHORIZING COMMITTEES OF 22
CONGRESS; FEDERAL BENEFIT ; RECLAMA-23
TION STATE .—The terms ‘authorizing com-24
mittees of Congress’, ‘Federal benefit’, and 25
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‘Reclamation State’ have the meaning 1
given the terms in section 2 of the Support 2
To Rehydrate the Environment, Agri-3
culture, and Municipalities Act. 4
‘‘(iii) R URAL DESALINATION 5
PROJECT.—The term ‘rural desalination 6
project’ means an eligible desalination 7
project that is designed to serve a commu-8
nity or group of communities, each of 9
which has a population of not more than 10
25,000 inhabitants. 11
‘‘(B) COST-SHARING REQUIREMENT .— 12
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL .—Subject to the re-13
quirements of this subsection and notwith-14
standing section 7, the Federal share of an 15
eligible desalination project carried out 16
under this subsection shall be— 17
‘‘(I) not more than 25 percent of 18
the total cost of the eligible desalina-19
tion project; or 20
‘‘(II) in the case of a rural de-21
salination project, the applicable per-22
centage determined in accordance 23
with clause (ii). 24
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‘‘(ii) R URAL DESALINATION 1
PROJECTS.— 2
‘‘(I) C OST-SHARING REQUIRE -3
MENT FOR APPRAISAL STUDIES .— 4
Subject to subclause (IV), in the case 5
of a rural desalination project carried 6
out under this subsection, the Federal 7
share of the cost of appraisal studies 8
for the rural desalination project shall 9
be— 10
‘‘(aa) 75 percent of the total 11
costs of the appraisal studies, up 12
to $200,000; and 13
‘‘(bb) if the total costs of 14
the appraisal studies are more 15
than $200,000, 50 percent of any 16
amounts over $200,000. 17
‘‘(II) C OST-SHARING REQUIRE -18
MENT FOR FEASIBILITY STUDIES .— 19
Subject to subclause (IV), in the case 20
of a rural desalination project carried 21
out under this subsection, the Federal 22
share of the cost of feasibility studies 23
for the rural desalination project shall 24
be not more than 50 percent. 25
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‘‘(III) COST-SHARING REQUIRE -1
MENT FOR CONSTRUCTION COSTS .— 2
Subject to subclause (IV), in the case 3
of a rural desalination project carried 4
out under this subsection, the Federal 5
share of the cost of construction of 6
the rural desalination project shall be 7
not more than 75 percent. 8
‘‘(IV) REDUCTION IN NON -FED-9
ERAL SHARE .—The Secretary may re-10
duce the non-Federal share of a rural 11
desalination project required under 12
subclause (I), (II), or (III) by not 13
more than 10 percent if the Secretary 14
determines, after consultation with 15
the heads of any other Federal agen-16
cies that are partners in the rural de-17
salination project and in accordance 18
with applicable Reclamation stand-19
ards, that the reduction is appropriate 20
due to— 21
‘‘(aa) an overwhelming Fed-22
eral interest in the rural desali-23
nation project; and 24
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‘‘(bb) the sponsor of the 1
rural desalination project dem-2
onstrating financial hardship. 3
‘‘(iii) LIMITATION.—Funding for a 4
rural desalination project under clause (ii) 5
or the Water Infrastructure Finance and 6
Innovation Act of 2014 (33 U.S.C. 3901 et 7
seq.) shall not be considered for purposes 8
of the Federal share established under this 9
subparagraph. 10
‘‘(C) STATE ROLE .—Participation by the 11
Secretary in an eligible desalination project 12
under this paragraph shall not occur unless— 13
‘‘(i)(I) the eligible desalination project 14
is included in a State-approved plan; or 15
‘‘(II) the participation has been re-16
quested by the Governor of the State in 17
which the eligible desalination project is lo-18
cated; 19
‘‘(ii) the State or local sponsor of the 20
eligible desalination project determines, 21
and the Secretary concurs, that— 22
‘‘(I) the eligible desalination 23
project— 24
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‘‘(aa) is technically and fi-1
nancially feasible; 2
‘‘(bb) provides a Federal 3
benefit; and 4
‘‘(cc) is consistent with ap-5
plicable Federal and State laws 6
(including regulations); 7
‘‘(II) sufficient non-Federal fund-8
ing is available to complete the eligible 9
desalination project; and 10
‘‘(III) the non-Federal project 11
sponsor is financially capable of fund-12
ing the non-Federal share of the 13
project costs; and 14
‘‘(iii) the Secretary submits to the au-15
thorizing committees of Congress and 16
makes publicly available on the internet a 17
written notification of the determinations 18
under clause (ii) by not later than 30 days 19
after the date of the determinations. 20
‘‘(D) ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS .—To be eli-21
gible to receive a grant under this subsection, 22
a desalination project shall comply with— 23
‘‘(i) applicable Federal environmental 24
laws, including the National Environ-25
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mental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 1
4321 et seq.); and 2
‘‘(ii) applicable State environmental 3
laws. 4
‘‘(E) INFORMATION.—In participating in 5
an eligible desalination project under this sub-6
section, the Secretary— 7
‘‘(i) may rely on reports prepared by 8
the sponsor of the eligible desalination 9
project, including feasibility or equivalent 10
studies, environmental analyses, and other 11
pertinent reports and analyses; but 12
‘‘(ii) shall retain responsibility for 13
making the independent determinations de-14
scribed in subparagraph (C). 15
‘‘(F) FUNDING.— 16
‘‘(i) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIA -17
TIONS.—In addition to amounts made 18
available under section 40901(5) of the In-19
frastructure Investment and Jobs Act (43 20
U.S.C. 3201(5)), there is authorized to be 21
appropriated to carry out this paragraph 22
$150,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 23
2025 through 2029, of which not less than 24
$10,000,000 shall be made available dur-25
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ing the period for rural desalination 1
projects. 2
‘‘(ii) F UNDING OPPORTUNITY AN -3
NOUNCEMENT.—The Commissioner of Rec-4
lamation shall release a funding oppor-5
tunity announcement for a grant program 6
under this paragraph by not later than 75 7
days after the date of enactment of an Act 8
that provides funding for the program.’’. 9
(b) PRIORITIZATION OF PROJECTS.—Section 4 of the 10
Water Desalination Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C. 10301 note; 11 Public Law 104–298) is amended by striking subsection 12 (c) and inserting the following: 13
‘‘(c) PRIORITIZATION.—In carrying out demonstra-14
tion and development activities under this section, the Sec-15 retary shall prioritize projects— 16
‘‘(1) for the benefit of drought-stricken States 17
and communities; 18
‘‘(2) for the benefit of States that have author-19
ized funding for research and development of desali-20
nation technologies and projects; 21
‘‘(3) that demonstrably improve self-reliance on 22
local or regional water supplies in the case of any 23
project sponsors that rely on imported water sup-24
plies that have an impact on species listed under the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Jul 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00034 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2162.IS S2162pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 35 •S 2162 IS
Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 1
seq.); 2
‘‘(4) that demonstrably leverage the experience 3
of or partner with— 4
‘‘(A) international entities with consider-5
able expertise in desalination, such as Israel; or 6
‘‘(B) nonprofit water research foundations 7
or institutions with expertise in technology in-8
novation to advance sustainable desalination 9
processes or brine management; 10
‘‘(5) located in a region that— 11
‘‘(A) is impacted by salinity or brackish 12
groundwater; and 13
‘‘(B) has agricultural production of na-14
tional importance; 15
‘‘(6) that support regional stakeholder-based 16
planning and implementation efforts to manage 17
brine and salinity for sustainability and improve-18
ment of groundwater quality within an approved 19
basin plan; 20
‘‘(7) that maximize the use of renewable energy 21
to power desalination facilities; 22
‘‘(8) that maximize energy efficiency so that the 23
lifecycle energy demands of desalination are mini-24
mized; 25
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‘‘(9) located in a region that has employed 1
strategies to increase water conservation and the 2
capture and recycling of wastewater and stormwater; 3
and 4
‘‘(10) that, in the case of ocean desalination fa-5
cilities— 6
‘‘(A)(i) use a subsurface intake; or 7
‘‘(ii) if a subsurface intake is not feasible, 8
use an intake that uses the best available site, 9
design, technology, and mitigation measures to 10
minimize the mortality of all forms of marine 11
life and impacts to coastal-dependent resources; 12
‘‘(B) are sited and designed to ensure that 13
the disposal of wastewater (including brine from 14
the desalination process)— 15
‘‘(i) is not discharged in a manner 16
that increases salinity levels in Federal or 17
State marine protected areas; and 18
‘‘(ii) achieves ambient salinity levels 19
within a reasonable distance from the dis-20
charge point; 21
‘‘(C) are sited, designed, and operated in a 22
manner that maintains indigenous marine life 23
and a healthy and diverse marine community 24
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within a reasonable distance from the discharge 1
point; 2
‘‘(D) do not cause significant unmitigated 3
harm to aquatic life; and 4
‘‘(E) include a construction and operation 5
plan designed to minimize loss of coastal habi-6
tat as well as aesthetic, noise, and air quality 7
impacts.’’. 8
(c) P RIORITY SCORING SYSTEM.—As soon as prac-9
ticable after the date of enactment of this Act, for pur-10 poses of making recommendations to Congress for projects 11 to be carried out under section 4 of the Water Desalina-12 tion Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C. 10301 note; Public Law 104– 13 298), the Commissioner of Reclamation shall establish a 14 priority scoring system that provides for the assignment 15 of priority scores for the projects based on the 16
prioritization criteria established under subsection (c) of 17 that section. 18
(d) O THER REQUIREMENTS.—Non-Federal entities 19
that receive Federal assistance for projects or facilities au-20 thorized under this Act shall implement the projects or 21 facilities consistent with the standards for activities as-22 sisted under section 401 of the Safe Drinking Water Act 23 Amendments of 1996 (42 U.S.C. 300j–3c). 24
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(e) R ESEARCH AUTHORITY.—Section 8(a) of the 1
Water Desalination Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C. 10301 note; 2 Public Law 104–298) is amended— 3
(1) in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘2021’’ 4
and inserting ‘‘2028’’; and 5
(2) in the second sentence, by striking 6
‘‘$1,000,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$3,000,000’’. 7
SEC. 105. DRINKING WATER ASSISTANCE FOR DISADVAN-8
TAGED COMMUNITIES. 9
(a) I N GENERAL.—In addition to any amounts ap-10
propriated under section 50231 of Public Law 117–169 11 (commonly known as the ‘‘Inflation Reduction Act of 12
2022’’) (136 Stat. 2053) or any amounts made available 13 to carry out that section under any other law, there is 14 authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 15 out that section $100,000,000 for the period of fiscal 16 years 2025 through 2029. 17
(b) M ULTIPLE BENEFIT PROJECTS.—The Secretary 18
is encouraged to use all or a portion of the funds made 19 available under subsection (a) to incorporate into multiple 20 benefit projects features or facilities to assist in providing 21 domestic water supplies to disadvantaged communities. 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Jul 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00038 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2162.IS S2162pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 39 •S 2162 IS
SEC. 106. EXTRAORDINARY OPERATION AND MAINTE-1
NANCE WORK; PROJECT MODIFICATION. 2
(a) D EFINITIONS.—Section 9601 of the Omnibus 3
Public Land Management Act of 2009 (43 U.S.C. 510) 4
is amended— 5
(1) by redesignating paragraphs (1), (2), (3), 6
(4), (5), (6), and (7) as paragraphs (4), (7), (9), 7
(10), (11), (12), and (3), respectively, and moving 8
the paragraphs so as to appear in numerical order; 9
(2) by inserting before paragraph (3) (as so re-10
designated) the following: 11
‘‘(1) ADVERSE IMPACT .—The term ‘adverse im-12
pact’ means, with respect to a project modification, 13 a reduction in water quantity or quality or a change 14 in the timing of water deliveries available to a 15
project beneficiary from the modified project as com-16 pared to the water quantity or quality or timing of 17
water deliveries from— 18
‘‘(A) the project with the restored capacity, 19
if the extraordinary operation and maintenance 20
work under section 9603 is intended to restore 21
lost project capacity; 22
‘‘(B) the project prior to undertaking the 23
extraordinary operation and maintenance work 24
under section 9603, if the extraordinary oper-25
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ation and maintenance work is for any purpose 1
other than to restore lost project capacity; or 2
‘‘(C) project operations of the modified 3
project without an increase in benefits for a 4
new project beneficiary under section 5
9603(e)(1)(E). 6
‘‘(2) DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITY .—The term 7
‘disadvantaged community’ has the meaning given 8
the term ‘low-income community’ in section 45D(e) 9
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.’’; 10
(3) in paragraph (3) (as so redesignated)— 11
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking 12
‘‘and’’ at the end; 13
(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking the 14
period at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 15
(C) by adding at the end the following: 16
‘‘(C) inclusive of any modifications to the 17
facilities or facility components authorized 18
under section 9603(e).’’; 19
(4) by inserting after paragraph (4) (as so re-20
designated) the following: 21
‘‘(5) NEW BENEFIT .—The term ‘new benefit’ 22
means the increase in benefits of the modified 23
project compared to the benefits provided by— 24
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‘‘(A) the project with restored capacity, if 1
the extraordinary operation and maintenance 2
work under section 9603 is intended to restore 3
lost project capacity; or 4
‘‘(B) the project as the project existed 5
prior to undertaking the extraordinary oper-6
ation and maintenance work under section 7
9603, if the extraordinary operation and main-8
tenance work is for any purpose other than to 9
restore lost project capacity. 10
‘‘(6) P ROJECT BENEFICIARY .—The term 11
‘project beneficiary’ means any entity that has a re-12 payment, long-term water service, or other form of 13
long-term contract or agreement executed pursuant 14
to the Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388, chapter 15
1093), and Acts supplemental to and amendatory of 16
that Act (43 U.S.C. 371 et seq.), for water supply 17
from the project.’’; and 18
(5) by inserting after paragraph (7) (as so re-19
designated) the following: 20
‘‘(8) PUBLIC BENEFIT .—The term ‘public ben-21
efit’ has the meaning given the term in section 2 of 22 the Support To Rehydrate the Environment, Agri-23
culture, and Municipalities Act.’’. 24
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(b) REIMBURSEMENT OF COSTS.—Section 9603(b) of 1
the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (43 2
U.S.C. 510b(b)) is amended— 3
(1) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘the costs’’ 4
and inserting ‘‘from the Aging Infrastructure Ac-5
count established by subsection (d)(1) or any other 6
applicable available account the costs, including re-7
imbursable costs and nonreimbursable costs,’’; and 8
(2) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(4) DETERMINATION OF NONREIMBURSABLE 10
COSTS.—Any costs advanced under paragraph (2) 11
that are allocated to nonreimbursable purposes of 12
the project, including public benefits described in 13
section 2(10)(B) of the Support To Rehydrate the 14
Environment, Agriculture, and Municipalities Act, 15
shall be considered to be nonreimbursable costs.’’. 16
(c) AGING INFRASTRUCTURE ACCOUNT CONFORMING 17
AMENDMENTS.—Section 9603(d) of the Omnibus Public 18
Land Management Act of 2009 (43 U.S.C. 510b(d)) is 19
amended— 20
(1) in paragraph (1), in the matter preceding 21
subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘the funds’’ and in-22
serting ‘‘reimbursable funds’’; 23
(2) in paragraph (2)— 24
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(A) by striking ‘‘to fund’’ and inserting ‘‘to 1
fund,’’; and 2
(B) by striking ‘‘the funds for’’ and insert-3
ing ‘‘reimbursable funds for,’’; 4
(3) in paragraph (3)(A), by striking ‘‘the 5
amounts’’ and inserting ‘‘the reimbursable 6
amounts’’; and 7
(4) in paragraph (4)(B)(i), by inserting ‘‘, in-8
cluding projects under subsection (e)’’ after ‘‘this 9
section’’. 10
(d) A UTHORIZATION TO MODIFY TRANSFERRED 11
WORKS TO INCREASE PUBLIC BENEFITS AND OTHER 12
PROJECT BENEFITS AS PART OF EXTRAORDINARY OPER-13
ATION AND MAINTENANCE WORK.—Section 9603 of the 14
Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (43 15
U.S.C. 510b) is amended by adding at the end the fol-16 lowing: 17
‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION TO MODIFY TRANSFERRED 18
WORKS TO INCREASE PUBLIC BENEFITS AND OTHER 19
PROJECT BENEFITS AS PART OF EXTRAORDINARY OPER-20
ATION AND MAINTENANCE WORK.— 21
‘‘(1) AUTHORIZATION; REQUIREMENTS.— 22
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL .—The Secretary, in con-23
sultation with any transferred works operating 24
entity and any project beneficiaries and as part 25
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of extraordinary operation and maintenance 1
work under this section, may develop and carry 2
out a proposal to modify project features for 3
transferred works to increase public benefits 4
and other project benefits, including carrying 5
out a feasibility study and conducting any ap-6
plicable environmental analysis required for the 7
proposal, subject to subparagraphs (B) through 8
(F). 9
‘‘(B) M AXIMUM COST .—The maximum 10
amount that may be added to the original 11
project cost as a result of a project modification 12
under subparagraph (A) shall not exceed— 13
‘‘(i) an amount equal to 25 percent of 14
the original cost of the planned extraor-15
dinary operation and maintenance work, in 16
the case of a project for which the original 17
cost of the planned extraordinary operation 18
and maintenance work exceeds 19
$100,000,000; or 20
‘‘(ii) $25,000,000, in the case of a 21
project for which the original cost of the 22
planned extraordinary operation and main-23
tenance work is not more than 24
$100,000,000. 25
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‘‘(C) PUBLIC BENEFITS .—In the case of a 1
project modification under subparagraph (A), 2
not less than 50 percent of the new benefits 3
provided by the modification of the project, as 4
compared to the original planned extraordinary 5
operation and maintenance work, shall be public 6
benefits. 7
‘‘(D) WRITTEN CONSENT REQUIRED .—A 8
project modification under subparagraph (A) 9
shall not be constructed until the date on which 10
the Secretary has obtained the written consent 11
of— 12
‘‘(i) the transferred works operating 13
entity; and 14
‘‘(ii) consistent with paragraph (2), 15
any project beneficiary that would experi-16
ence an adverse impact as a result of the 17
modification of the project. 18
‘‘(E) ADVERSE IMPACT .—Any benefits that 19
accrue to a new project beneficiary resulting 20
from operations of the modified project shall 21
not be increased without the consent of existing 22
project beneficiaries that would experience an 23
adverse impact as a result of the modification 24
of the project. 25
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‘‘(F) REIMBURSEMENT OF COSTS .—The 1
costs of planning, design, and environmental 2
compliance for a project modification under 3
subparagraph (A) shall be reimbursed in ac-4
cordance with subsection (b), except that any of 5
the costs that would otherwise be allocated to a 6
project beneficiary shall be considered nonreim-7
bursable if the project beneficiary does not re-8
ceive any increase in long-term average annual 9
water deliveries as a result of the modification. 10
‘‘(G) ELIGIBILITY OF CERTAIN PROJECT 11
MODIFICATIONS.—If a project modification that 12
is otherwise eligible under subparagraph (A) 13
was in the planning, design, or construction 14
phase as of December 31, 2022, the project 15
modification shall remain eligible to be devel-16
oped under that subparagraph. 17
‘‘(2) PROCEDURE FOR OBTAINING CONSENT 18
AND TIME LIMITATION .— 19
‘‘(A) INITIAL DETERMINATION .—The Sec-20
retary shall initially determine whether the con-21
sent of a project beneficiary is required prior to 22
construction under paragraph (1)(D) based on 23
whether the modification or subsequent oper-24
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ations of the modified project would have any 1
adverse impacts on a project beneficiary. 2
‘‘(B) WRITTEN REQUEST FOR CONSENT .— 3
The Secretary shall provide to the transferred 4
works operating entity and any project bene-5
ficiaries, in writing— 6
‘‘(i) a description of the proposed 7
modification and subsequent operations of 8
the project; and 9
‘‘(ii)(I) a request for consent under 10
paragraph (1)(D); or 11
‘‘(II)(aa) an explanation that the Sec-12
retary has determined that no consent is 13
required under paragraph (1)(D); and 14
‘‘(bb) a statement that if the project 15
beneficiary believes that the consent of the 16
project beneficiary is required, the project 17
beneficiary shall send to the Secretary a 18
reply not later than 30 days after the date 19
of receipt of the notice that includes an ex-20
planation of the reasons that the project 21
beneficiary would experience adverse im-22
pacts as a result of the project modifica-23
tion. 24
‘‘(C) FINAL DETERMINATION .— 25
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‘‘(i) WRITTEN RESPONSE .—The Sec-1
retary shall respond in writing to any reply 2
from a project beneficiary under subpara-3
graph (B)(ii)(II)(bb) stating whether or 4
not the Secretary determines that the 5
project beneficiary would experience ad-6
verse impacts as a result of the project 7
modification. 8
‘‘(ii) FINAL AGENCY ACTION .—A writ-9
ten determination by the Secretary under 10
clause (i) shall be considered to be a final 11
agency action for purposes of section 704 12
of title 5, United States Code. 13
‘‘(iii) W RITTEN REQUEST .—If the 14
Secretary determines under clause (i) that 15
the project beneficiary would experience 16
adverse impacts as a result of the project 17
modification, the Secretary shall send to 18
the project beneficiary a written request 19
for consent in accordance with subpara-20
graph (B)(ii). 21
‘‘(D) TIME PERIOD FOR CONSENT .— 22
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL .—If written consent 23
required under paragraph (1)(D) is not ob-24
tained by the date that is 1 year after the 25
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date on which written consent is requested 1
under subparagraph (B)(ii), the trans-2
ferred works operating entity shall proceed 3
with extraordinary operation and mainte-4
nance work of the project without the 5
modification, unless the Secretary extends 6
the time for consent under clause (ii). 7
‘‘(ii) EXTENSION.—At the discretion 8
of the Secretary, the Secretary may elect 9
to extend the time for obtaining consent 10
under paragraph (1)(D) by 1 year. 11
‘‘(3) REALLOCATION OF COSTS BASED ON 12
PROJECT CHANGES AND INCREASED PUBLIC BENE -13
FITS.—The Secretary shall allocate costs, including 14
capital repayment costs and operation and mainte-15
nance costs, for a project modification under para-16
graph (1), to provide that— 17
‘‘(A) annual operation and maintenance 18
costs associated with nonreimbursable purposes 19
of the project shall be nonreimbursable; and 20
‘‘(B) the cost allocation of reimbursable 21
costs to each project beneficiary reflects any 22
changes in the benefits that the modified 23
project is providing to the project beneficiary. 24
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‘‘(4) INCENTIVE FOR BENEFITTING ENTITIES 1
TO PARTICIPATE IN PROJECTS WITH INCREASED 2
PUBLIC BENEFITS .— 3
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL .—The total amount of 4
reimbursable capital costs, as determined under 5
paragraph (3), for extraordinary operation and 6
maintenance work described in subparagraph 7
(B) shall be reduced by 15 percent, with each 8
project beneficiary to be responsible for 85 per-9
cent of the reimbursable costs that would other-10
wise be allocated to the project beneficiary. 11
‘‘(B) DESCRIPTION OF EXTRAORDINARY 12
OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE WORK .—The 13
extraordinary operation and maintenance work 14
referred to in subparagraph (A) is extraor-15
dinary operation and maintenance work involv-16
ing a project modification that would increase 17
nonreimbursable public benefits without in-18
creasing reimbursable municipal, industrial, or 19
irrigation benefits from the original design of 20
the planned extraordinary operation and main-21
tenance work. 22
‘‘(5) REIMBURSABLE FUNDS .—All reimbursable 23
costs under this subsection shall be repaid in accord-24 ance with subsection (b).’’. 25
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SEC. 107. USE OF REVENUE TO IMPROVE DROUGHT RESIL-1
IENCE OR DAM SAFETY. 2
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) D AM SAFETY INVESTMENT .—The term 4
‘‘dam safety investment’’ means a project to satisfy 5
dam safety standards— 6
(A) under the Federal Guidelines for Dam 7
Safety issued by the Federal Emergency Man-8
agement Agency or the Interagency Committee 9
on Dam Safety; 10
(B) under the Bureau of Reclamation Dam 11
Safety Program, including repayment of an ob-12
ligation for a corrective action taken pursuant 13
to that program; or 14
(C) required by the State in which a Bu-15
reau of Reclamation project or facility is lo-16
cated. 17
(2) D ROUGHT RESILIENCE INVESTMENT .—The 18
term ‘‘drought resilience investment’’ means— 19
(A) an improvement or addition to an eligi-20
ble facility that will increase drought resilience 21
in a Reclamation State; or 22
(B) annual payments on repayment obliga-23
tions incurred under section 9603 of the Omni-24
bus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (43 25
U.S.C. 510b). 26
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(3) ELIGIBLE FACILITY .—The term ‘‘eligible fa-1
cility’’ means— 2
(A) a project or facility owned by the Bu-3
reau of Reclamation; and 4
(B) a non-Federal facility that stores, 5
transports, or delivers water to or from a Bu-6
reau of Reclamation project or facility. 7
(4) E LIGIBLE TEMPORARY TRANSFER .—The 8
term ‘‘eligible temporary transfer’’ means the tem-9
porary and voluntary selling, leasing, or exchanging 10 of water or water rights among individuals or agen-11
cies that is allowable under the reclamation laws and 12 the water law of the applicable State. 13
(5) T RANSFEROR.—The term ‘‘transferor’’ 14
means the holder of a water service, transferred 15
works, water repayment, or other contract that enti-16
tles the holder to water from a Bureau of Reclama-17
tion project or facility that undertakes an eligible 18 temporary transfer. 19
(b) U SE OF REVENUE FOR DROUGHT RESILIENCE 20
INVESTMENTS OR DAM SAFETY INVESTMENTS.— 21
(1) I N GENERAL .—Notwithstanding the Act of 22
February 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 451, chapter 86; 43 23
U.S.C. 521), or subsection J of section 4 of the Act 24 of December 5, 1924 (43 Stat. 703, chapter 4; 43 25
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U.S.C. 526), all amounts derived from an eligible 1
temporary transfer that would otherwise be depos-2
ited in the reclamation fund established by the first 3 section of the Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388, 4
chapter 1093; 43 U.S.C. 391), shall remain available 5
to the transferor. 6
(2) U SE OF FUNDS .—Any funds retained by a 7
transferor under paragraph (1) may be— 8
(A) used for a drought resilience invest-9
ment or dam safety investment; or 10
(B) placed in the reserve account of the 11
transferor, to be used for future drought resil-12
ience investments or dam safety investments, 13
subject to paragraph (3). 14
(3) T RANSFER OF UNUSED FUNDS TO REC -15
LAMATION FUND .—Any funds placed in the reserve 16
account of the transferor pursuant to paragraph 17
(2)(B) that are not used for drought resilience in-18
vestments or dam safety investments by the date 19
that is 10 years after the date of the placement shall 20 be transferred to the reclamation fund established by 21 the first section of the Act of June 17, 1902 (32 22
Stat. 388, chapter 1093). 23
(4) REPORTING.—The transferor shall report to 24
the Commissioner of Reclamation on the use of any 25
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uses of funds derived from an eligible temporary 1
transfer. 2
(5) EFFECT OF SECTION .— 3
(A) I N GENERAL .—Nothing in this sec-4
tion— 5
(i) affects any other authority of the 6
Secretary to use amounts derived from rev-7
enues from a Bureau of Reclamation 8
project; or 9
(ii) creates, impairs, alters, or super-10
sedes a State water right. 11
(B) A PPLICABLE LAW .—Any eligible tem-12
porary transfer shall comply with all applica-13
ble— 14
(i) State water laws; 15
(ii) Federal laws and policies; and 16
(iii) interstate water compacts. 17
(c) RECLAMATION LAWS.—This section supplements 18
and amends the Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388, chap-19 ter 1093), and Acts supplemental to and amendatory of 20 that Act (43 U.S.C. 371 et seq.). 21
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TITLE II—IMPROVED 1
TECHNOLOGY AND DATA 2
SEC. 201. REAUTHORIZATION OF THE TRANSBOUNDARY AQ-3
UIFER ASSESSMENT PROGRAM. 4
(a) D ESIGNATION OF PRIORITY TRANSBOUNDARY 5
AQUIFERS.—Section 4(c)(2) of the United States-Mexico 6 Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Act (42 U.S.C. 1962 7
note; Public Law 109–448) is amended by striking ‘‘New 8 Mexico or Texas’’ and inserting ‘‘New Mexico, Texas, or 9 Arizona (other than an aquifer underlying Arizona and 10 Sonora, Mexico, that is partially within the Yuma ground-11 water basin designated by the order of the Director of the 12 Arizona Department of Water Resources dated June 21, 13 1984)’’. 14
(b) REAUTHORIZATION.— 15
(1) A UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 16
Section 8(a) of the United States-Mexico Trans-17
boundary Aquifer Assessment Act (42 U.S.C. 1962 18
note; Public Law 109–448) is amended by striking 19
‘‘$50,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2007 20
through 2016’’ and inserting ‘‘$50,000,000 for the 21
period of fiscal years 2025 through 2029’’. 22
(2) S UNSET OF AUTHORITY .—Section 9 of the 23
United States-Mexico Transboundary Aquifer As-24
sessment Act (42 U.S.C. 1962 note; Public Law 25
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109–448) is amended by striking ‘‘enactment of this 1
Act’’ and inserting ‘‘enactment of the Support To 2
Rehydrate the Environment, Agriculture, and Mu-3
nicipalities Act’’. 4
TITLE III—ECOSYSTEM RES-5
TORATION AND PROTECTION 6
SEC. 301. ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION. 7
(a) DEFINITIONS.—Section 40907 of the Infrastruc-8
ture Investment and Jobs Act (43 U.S.C. 3207) is amend-9 ed by striking subsection (a) and inserting the following: 10 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 11
‘‘(1) C OMMITTEE.—The term ‘Committee’ 12
means the Integrated Water Management Federal 13
Leadership Committee established under subsection 14
(f)(1). 15
‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE APPLICANT .—The term ‘eligible 16
applicant’ means— 17
‘‘(A) a State; 18
‘‘(B) a Tribal or local government; 19
‘‘(C) an organization with power, water de-20
livery, or water storage authority; 21
‘‘(D) a regional authority; or 22
‘‘(E) a nonprofit conservation organization. 23
‘‘(3) PROJECT.—The term ‘project’ includes— 24
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‘‘(A) planning, design, permitting, and 1
preconstruction activities; 2
‘‘(B) construction, construction manage-3
ment, replacement, and other similar activities; 4
‘‘(C) management activities, including the 5
acquisition of an interest in land or water, in-6
cluding the acquisition of a conservation ease-7
ment; 8
‘‘(D) research, development, demonstration 9
(including the demonstration of the scalability 10
of a project or activity), and monitoring; and 11
‘‘(E) project administration activities, in-12
cluding the payment of fees associated with im-13
plementing the project or activity.’’. 14
(b) REQUIREMENTS.—Section 40907(c)(1) of the In-15
frastructure Investment and Jobs Act (43 U.S.C. 16
3207(c)(1)) is amended by striking subparagraph (B) and 17 inserting the following: 18
‘‘(B) may not provide a grant to carry out 19
a habitat restoration project the purpose of 20
which is to meet existing environmental mitiga-21
tion or compliance obligations that are express 22
requirements of a permit or order issued under 23
Federal or State law, unless such requirements 24
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expressly contemplate reliance on Federal fund-1
ing in performance of the requirements.’’; and 2
(c) OTHER AMENDMENTS.—Section 40907 of the In-3
frastructure Investment and Jobs Act (43 U.S.C. 3207) 4 is amended by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(e) OTHER ACTIONS.— 6
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL .—In addition to other activi-7
ties authorized under this section, the Secretary may 8 undertake actions and enter into contracts and 9
agreements to implement projects that implement 10
watershed health, including projects described in 11
subsection (b)(3), that— 12
‘‘(A) accomplish 1 or more of the purposes 13
described in subsection (b); and 14
‘‘(B) are consistent with the requirements 15
described in subsection (c). 16
‘‘(2) REIMBURSABILITY.—The expenditures of 17
the Secretary under this subsection and subsection 18
(f) shall be nonreimbursable. 19
‘‘(f) ‘LEAVE BEHIND’ WATER TRANSFERS.— 20
‘‘(1) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this subsection 21
is to authorize the Secretary to address habitat 22
needs and promote collaborative, multi-benefit water 23 management through water sharing arrangements 24
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that incorporate habitat and other public benefits 1
into voluntary crop idling water transfers. 2
‘‘(2) AUTHORIZATION OF ACQUISITION .—In ap-3
proving a water transfer within a Federal reclama-4
tion project that results in voluntary fallowing of 5
crop land in the Sacramento Valley or Sacramento- 6
San Joaquin River Delta, the Secretary may acquire 7
a portion of the volume of water made available for 8
transfer if the Secretary determines that crop land 9
idled because of the transfer would create temporary 10 wildlife habitat with the application of the acquired 11 water, subject to paragraph (3). 12
‘‘(3) REQUIREMENTS.—In acquiring water pur-13
suant to paragraph (2), the Secretary shall— 14
‘‘(A) develop implementation guidelines in 15
consultation with relevant stakeholders; 16
‘‘(B) only acquire a portion of the volume 17
of water made available for transfer if the 18
transferor and the transferee agree to the ac-19
quisition; 20
‘‘(C) negotiate a mutually agreeable vol-21
ume of water for acquisition with the transferor 22
and the transferee; 23
‘‘(D) pay not more per volume of water 24
than the price negotiated between the trans-25
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feror and transferee for the water to be trans-1
ferred; 2
‘‘(E) compensate the transferor for any 3
reasonable incremental costs associated with 4
managing the water acquired to create tem-5
porary wildlife habitat; and 6
‘‘(F) apply the acquired water to idled crop 7
land to create temporary wildlife habitat. 8
‘‘(4) P RIORITIZATION.—The Secretary shall 9
give priority to approving and facilitating transfers 10 under this subsection that incorporate voluntary 11
habitat and other public benefits that exceed the 12
benefits provided under regulatory requirements. 13
‘‘(5) TREATMENT.—Water acquired by the Sec-14
retary under paragraph (2) shall be in addition to, 15
and not a substitute for, actions required to meet 16
obligations under existing law, including— 17
‘‘(A) the Central Valley Project Improve-18
ment Act (title XXXIV of Public Law 102–575; 19
106 Stat. 4706); and 20
‘‘(B) the Endangered Species Act of 1973 21
(16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). 22
‘‘(6) REPORTING.—The Secretary shall annu-23
ally submit to the authorizing committees of Con-24
gress (as defined in section 2 of the Support To Re-25
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hydrate the Environment, Agriculture, and Munici-1
palities Act) a report that describes, for the period 2 covered by the report— 3
‘‘(A) the volume of water acquired under 4
paragraph (2); and 5
‘‘(B) the extent and duration of temporary 6
wildlife habitat created under that paragraph. 7
‘‘(g) INTEGRATED WATER MANAGEMENT FEDERAL 8
LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE FOR ASSISTING PROJECTS AT 9
THE REQUEST OF A SPONSOR.— 10
‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 11
days after the date on which an eligible entity or 12
qualified partner sponsoring a habitat restoration 13
project that receives a grant under this section sub-14 mits to the Secretary a request for the establishment 15 of the Integrated Water Management Federal Lead-16
ership Committee, the Secretary shall establish the 17
Integrated Water Management Federal Leadership 18
Committee. 19
‘‘(2) CHAIRPERSON.—The Assistant Secretary 20
for Water and Science of the Department of the In-21
terior shall— 22
‘‘(A) serve as the chairperson of the Com-23
mittee; and 24
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‘‘(B) coordinate the activities of, and com-1
munication among, members of the Committee. 2
‘‘(3) MEMBERSHIP.—The Committee shall in-3
clude representatives of Federal agencies with re-4
sponsibility for water and natural resource issues, 5
including representatives of— 6
‘‘(A) the Bureau of Reclamation; 7
‘‘(B) the United States Fish and Wildlife 8
Service; 9
‘‘(C) the National Marine Fisheries Serv-10
ice; 11
‘‘(D) the Corps of Engineers; 12
‘‘(E) the Environmental Protection Agen-13
cy; and 14
‘‘(F) the Department of Agriculture. 15
‘‘(4) D UTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES .—The 16
members of the Committee shall establish the duties 17
and responsibilities of the Committee, including— 18
‘‘(A) facilitating communication and col-19
laboration among Federal agencies to support 20
and advance any projects for which an eligible 21
entity or qualified partner requests the assist-22
ance of the Committee; 23
‘‘(B) ensuring the effective coordination 24
among relevant Federal agencies and depart-25
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ments to ensure accelerated implementation of 1
any projects for which an eligible entity or 2
qualified partner requests the assistance of the 3
Committee; and 4
‘‘(C) making policy and budgetary rec-5
ommendations, if determined to be appropriate 6
by the Committee, to support the implementa-7
tion of projects. 8
‘‘(5) PROJECT ASSISTANCE .—On request of an 9
eligible entity or a qualified partner for a habitat 10 restoration project, the Committee shall assist that 11 project with permit processing and interagency co-12
ordination. 13
‘‘(h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—In ad-14
dition to amounts made available under section 15
40901(11), there is authorized to be appropriated to the 16 Secretary $250,000,000 to carry out this section for the 17 period of fiscal years 2025 through 2029, of which— 18
‘‘(1) $150,000,000 shall be made available for 19
the competitive grant program described in sub-20
section (b); and 21
‘‘(2) $100,000,000 shall be made available for 22
other actions described in subsection (e) and to 23
carry out subsection (f). 24
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‘‘(i) APPLICABLE LAW.—Nothing in this section af-1
fects or modifies— 2
‘‘(1) the obligations of the Secretary under— 3
‘‘(A) the reclamation laws; or 4
‘‘(B) Federal environmental laws, includ-5
ing— 6
‘‘(i) the Central Valley Project Im-7
provement Act (title XXXIV of Public Law 8
102–575; 106 Stat. 4706); and 9
‘‘(ii) the Endangered Species Act of 10
1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.); or 11
‘‘(2) the obligations of a non-Federal party to 12
comply with applicable Federal and State laws.’’. 13
SEC. 302. PERFORMANCE-BASED RESTORATION AUTHOR-14
ITY. 15
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 16
(1) E LIGIBLE PROJECT .—The term ‘‘eligible 17
project’’ means a habitat or ecosystem restoration, 18
mitigation, or enhancement project or activity au-19
thorized individually or through an existing Federal 20 program. 21
(2) E LIGIBLE RESTORATION PROVIDER .—The 22
term ‘‘eligible restoration provider’’ means a non- 23
Federal for-profit or nonprofit organization, com-24
pany, or corporation, or a State, Tribal, or local gov-25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Jul 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00064 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2162.IS S2162pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 65 •S 2162 IS
ernment, that is bonded, insured, and experienced in 1
financing and completing successful habitat and res-2
toration, mitigation, and enhancement activities. 3
(3) P ERFORMANCE-BASED.—The term ‘‘per-4
formance-based’’ means, with respect to a contract, 5
grant agreement, cooperative agreement, or fixed 6
amount award, a pay-for-performance, pay-for-suc-7
cess, pay-for-results, or similar model by which the 8
restoration provider agrees to finance and complete 9
habitat or ecosystem restoration, mitigation, or en-10
hancement activities, with payment to the restora-11
tion provider linked to delivery of verifiable and suc-12 cessful ecological performance, based on metrics and 13 the timeframe established in advance by the Sec-14
retary. 15
(4) R ESTORATION PROVIDER .—The term ‘‘res-16
toration provider’’ means a non-Federal organization 17 that performs restoration services contracted for, 18
agreed to, or awarded under a contract or agreement 19
entered into under subsection (b)(1). 20
(b) AUTHORIZATION.— 21
(1) I N GENERAL .—Subject to subsection (j), in 22
implementing existing authorities under Federal law 23
related to habitat and ecosystem restoration, mitiga-24 tion, or enhancement, the Secretary may enter into 25
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performance-based contracts, grant agreements, and 1
cooperative agreements, including providing funding 2
through fixed amount awards, with eligible restora-3
tion providers for the conduct of eligible projects for 4 which ecological targets and outcomes are— 5
(A) clearly defined; 6
(B) agreed to in advance; and 7
(C) capable of being successfully achieved. 8
(2) P ERFORMANCE-BASED CONTRACTS .—For 9
purposes of paragraph (1), the Secretary may enter 10
into performance-based contracts with eligible res-11
toration providers experienced in financing and com-12
pleting successful ecological habitat and restoration, 13 mitigation, and enhancement activities. 14
(3) G RANTS AND AWARDS .—For purposes of 15
paragraph (1), the Secretary— 16
(A) may provide funding through grant 17
agreements and cooperative agreements, includ-18
ing fixed amount awards, for eligible projects; 19
and 20
(B) shall allow for the use of performance- 21
based tools in the agreements and awards de-22
scribed in subparagraph (A). 23
(4) P ASS-THROUGH GRANTS AND AWARDS .— 24
For purposes of paragraph (1), the Secretary— 25
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(A) may allow funding provided to States, 1
local governments, Indian Tribes, and nonprofit 2
organizations to be passed through to third- 3
party eligible restoration providers under a con-4
tract or agreement entered into under that 5
paragraph; and 6
(B) shall allow for the use of performance- 7
based tools in grant and cooperative agreements 8
entered into with eligible restoration providers 9
under that paragraph. 10
(5) M ULTI-YEAR AGREEMENTS .—The Secretary 11
may use performance-based contracts, grant agree-12
ments, and cooperative agreements, including fixed 13
amount awards, issued under this section for multi- 14
year agreements, including capacity for multi-year 15
payment schedules for professional services, subject 16 to appropriations prior to obligation. 17
(c) GUIDELINES.— 18
(1) I N GENERAL .—Not later than 1 year after 19
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary 20
shall develop programmatic guidelines for the use of 21 performance-based contracts, grant agreements, and 22
cooperative agreements for eligible projects author-23
ized under subsection (b)(1). 24
(2) CONSULTATION REQUIRED .— 25
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(A) I N GENERAL .—In developing the 1
guidelines under paragraph (1), the Secretary 2
shall consult with external organizations and 3
other appropriate entities with experience in 4
performance-based contracts, agreements, or 5
awards, consistent with sections 6302 through 6
6305 of title 31, United States Code. 7
(B) L IMITATION.—Consultation with the 8
organizations and entities described in subpara-9
graph (A) shall not constitute or necessitate es-10
tablishment of an advisory committee under the 11
Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. 12
App.). 13
(3) R EQUIREMENTS.—At a minimum, guide-14
lines developed under paragraph (1) shall include 15
guidance on— 16
(A) appropriate proposal and evaluation 17
criteria for eligible projects; 18
(B) eligibility criteria for restoration pro-19
viders; 20
(C) criteria for defining achievable ecologi-21
cal outcomes; and 22
(D) determination of restoration provider 23
financial assurances sufficient to ensure ecologi-24
cal outcomes will be successfully achieved. 25
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(d) I DENTIFICATION OF ELIGIBLE PROJECTS.—The 1
Secretary shall— 2
(1) identify eligible projects for the use of con-3
tracts and agreements under subsection (b)(1); and 4
(2) issue a request for proposals from eligible 5
restoration providers to meet the ecological require-6
ments of habitat and ecosystem restoration, mitiga-7
tion, and enhancement for the eligible projects iden-8
tified under paragraph (1). 9
(e) CERTIFICATION.—After the date on which an eli-10
gible project identified under subsection (d)(1) is com-11 pleted, the Secretary shall certify that the work on the 12 eligible project was completed in accordance with the eco-13 logical requirements and outcomes defined in advance in 14 the applicable contract or agreement. 15
(f) T ECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—At the request of an 16
eligible restoration provider entering into a contract or 17 agreement with the Secretary under subsection (b)(1), the 18 Secretary may provide to the eligible restoration provider 19 technical assistance with respect to— 20
(1) conducting a study, engineering activity, or 21
design activity related to an eligible project carried 22 out by the eligible restoration provider under this 23
section; and 24
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(2) obtaining permits necessary for the eligible 1
project. 2
(g) EFFECT.—Nothing in this section authorizes the 3
Secretary to waive— 4
(1) the obligations of the Secretary under— 5
(A) the National Environmental Policy Act 6
of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.); 7
(B) the Endangered Species Act of 1973 8
(16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.); 9
(C) the Federal Water Pollution Control 10
Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.); or 11
(D) any other provision of Federal environ-12
mental law; or 13
(2) the obligations of a non-Federal party to 14
comply with applicable Federal and State laws. 15
(h) N ON-FEDERAL FUNDING.—The restoration pro-16
vider may finance the applicable non-Federal share of an 17 eligible project carried out under the authority provided 18 under subsection (b)(1), on the condition that the non- 19 Federal cost-share responsibility remains with the non- 20 Federal party. 21
(i) C OST SHARE.—Nothing in this section affects a 22
cost-sharing requirement under Federal law that is appli-23 cable to an eligible project carried out under the authority 24 provided under subsection (b)(1). 25
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(j) M ITIGATION.—Nothing in this section authorizes 1
Federal funding to meet existing environmental mitigation 2 or compliance obligations that are express requirements 3 of a permit or order issued under Federal or State law, 4 unless the requirements expressly contemplate reliance on 5 Federal funding for the performance of the requirements. 6 (k) REPORT.— 7
(1) I N GENERAL .—Not later than 3 years after 8
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary 9
shall— 10
(A) submit to the authorizing committees 11
of Congress and make publicly available a re-12
port describing the results of activities carried 13
out under the authority established under sub-14
section (b)(1), including any recommendations 15
of the Secretary on whether the authority or 16
any component of the authorized activities 17
should be implemented on a national basis; and 18
(B) except as provided in subsection (g), 19
identify any procedural requirements that im-20
pede the use of performance-based contracts, 21
grants, and cooperative agreements, including 22
fixed amount awards, for the development and 23
completion of eligible projects. 24
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(2) A DDRESSING IMPEDIMENTS .—Not later 1
than 1 year after the date on which the Secretary 2
identifies impediments, if any, under paragraph 3
(1)(B), the Secretary shall develop and implement 4
programmatic procedures and approaches, including 5
recommendations to the authorizing committees of 6
Congress on legislation, that would— 7
(A) to the extent practicable, address the 8
impediments; and 9
(B) protect the public interest and any 10
public investment in eligible projects carried out 11
under this section. 12
TITLE IV—MISCELLANEOUS 13
SEC. 401. MODIFICATIONS TO DROUGHT PROGRAM UNDER 14
THE RECLAMATION STATES EMERGENCY 15
DROUGHT RELIEF ACT OF 1991. 16
(a) A SSISTANCE DURING DROUGHT; W ATER PUR-17
CHASES.—Section 101 of the Reclamation States Emer-18
gency Drought Relief Act of 1991 (43 U.S.C. 2211) is 19 amended— 20
(1) in subsection (a)— 21
(A) in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘Con-22
sistent’’ and inserting the following: 23
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL .—Subject to paragraph (2) 24
and consistent’’; 25
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(B) in paragraph (1) (as so designated), in 1
the second sentence, by striking ‘‘Any construc-2
tion activities’’ and inserting the following: 3
‘‘(2) L IMITATION.—Any construction activi-4
ties’’; and 5
(C) in paragraph (2) (as so designated), by 6
striking ‘‘except that’’ and all that follows 7
through the period at the end and inserting the 8
following: ‘‘except that the following may be 9
permanent facilities: 10
‘‘(A) A construction project— 11
‘‘(i) for which Federal expenditures 12
are not more than $30,000,000; and 13
‘‘(ii) that is supported by— 14
‘‘(I) the Governor or the relevant 15
agency head of the affected State; or 16
‘‘(II) if the construction project 17
is on a reservation, by the affected In-18
dian Tribe. 19
‘‘(B) A well drilled to minimize losses and 20
damages from drought conditions that— 21
‘‘(i) aligns with applicable local, State, 22
or regional groundwater sustainability 23
goals; or 24
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‘‘(ii) supports drinking water supplies 1
for a disadvantaged community (as defined 2
in section 2 of the Support To Rehydrate 3
the Environment, Agriculture, and Munici-4
palities Act) or Indian Tribe.’’; and 5
(2) by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(e) FUNDING FOR FEE-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL 7
PROGRAMS.— 8
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL .—For any fiscal year for 9
which, due to a drought, as determined by the Sec-10
retary, there are insufficient funds to carry out any 11 environmental program that is funded in whole or in 12
part by fees based on the water volume of water de-13
livered by a Federal reclamation project (including 14
fees collected under section 3407(c) of the Reclama-15
tion Projects Authorization and Adjustment Act of 16
1992 (Public Law 102–575; 106 Stat. 4726)), the 17
Secretary may use other unobligated amounts made 18
available to the Secretary to carry out the environ-19
mental program for the fiscal year. 20
‘‘(2) N ONREIMBURSABLE FUNDS .—Notwith-21
standing any other provision of law, amounts made 22
available under paragraph (1) shall be nonreimburs-23
able. 24
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‘‘(3) EFFECT.—Nothing in this subsection af-1
fects— 2
‘‘(A) the authority of the Secretary to ad-3
dress insufficient funding for an environmental 4
program described in paragraph (1) that is not 5
a result of a drought; or 6
‘‘(B) the obligations of the Secretary to the 7
environment under Federal law.’’. 8
(b) APPLICABLE PERIOD OF DROUGHT PROGRAM.— 9
Section 104 of the Reclamation States Emergency 10
Drought Relief Act of 1991 (43 U.S.C. 2214) is amend-11 ed— 12
(1) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the 13
following: 14
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The programs and authorities 15
established under this title shall not become operative in 16 any Reclamation State or in the State of Hawaii until the 17 date on which— 18
‘‘(1)(A) the Governor of the affected State, and 19
the governing body of the affected Indian Tribe with 20 respect to a reservation, has made a request for tem-21 porary drought assistance; and 22
‘‘(B) the Secretary has determined that the 23
temporary assistance is merited; 24
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‘‘(2) a drought emergency has been declared for 1
a State or portion of a State by the Governor of 2
each affected State; or 3
‘‘(3) a drought contingency plan is approved in 4
accordance with title II.’’; and 5
(2) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘2021’’ and 6
inserting ‘‘2031’’. 7
(c) M UNICIPAL WELLS; F UNDING UNDER THE IN-8
FRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND JOBS ACT.—Section 9
9504(a)(3) of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act 10 of 2009 (42 U.S.C. 10364(a)(3)) is amended by adding 11 at the end the following: 12
‘‘(G) MUNICIPAL WELLS .—A grant or 13
agreement entered into by the Secretary with 14
any eligible applicant under paragraph (1) to 15
drill a groundwater well for municipal supply to 16
minimize losses and damages from drought con-17
ditions, including construction activities to 18
transport or otherwise convey groundwater 19
pumped from the well, shall not contribute to 20
an increase in the net water use of the eligible 21
applicant beyond the period of any drought 22
emergency, except if— 23
‘‘(i) the groundwater well is for the 24
purpose of supplying drinking water for a 25
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disadvantaged community (as defined in 1
section 2 of the Support To Rehydrate the 2
Environment, Agriculture, and Municipali-3
ties Act) or Indian Tribe; or 4
‘‘(ii) the new groundwater use is par-5
tially offset by aquatic habitat enhance-6
ment— 7
‘‘(I) during the drought period; 8
or 9
‘‘(II) over the long-term, includ-10
ing a future drought period. 11
‘‘(H) FUNDING UNDER THE INFRASTRUC -12
TURE INVESTMENT AND JOBS ACT .—For pur-13
poses of amounts made available to carry out 14
this section under paragraph (7) of section 15
40901 of the Infrastructure Investment and 16
Jobs Act (43 U.S.C. 3201) for each of fiscal 17
years 2025 and 2026, projects or activities eli-18
gible for funding under that paragraph may in-19
clude a combination of proposed planning ac-20
tivities, actions, or projects within a basin, with 21
the maximum amount of the combined activities 22
not to exceed the maximum amount established 23
under subparagraph (E)(iii).’’. 24
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SEC. 402. OFFSET. 1
Section 4013 of the Water Infrastructure Improve-2
ments for the Nation Act (43 U.S.C. 390b note; Public 3 Law 114–322) is amended— 4
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 5
end; 6
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking the period at 7
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 8
(3) by adding at the end the following: 9
‘‘(3) subsections (a), (b), (c), (d), and (f) of 10
section 4011, which shall expire on December 31, 11
2028.’’. 12
SEC. 403. ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE. 13
No water recycling project, non-Federal storage 14
project, eligible desalination project, or a project eligible 15 for amounts made available under section 105 shall receive 16 Federal funding under this Act unless the applicable 17 project complies with— 18
(1) applicable Federal environmental laws; and 19
(2) applicable State environmental laws. 20
SEC. 404. EFFECT. 21
Nothing in this Act or an amendment made by this 22
Act shall be interpreted or implemented in a manner that 23 interferes with any obligation of a State under the Rio 24 Grande Compact or any other compact approved by Con-25
gress under the Act of May 31, 1939 (53 Stat. 785, chap-26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:00 Jul 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00078 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2162.IS S2162pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB 79 •S 2162 IS
ter 155), or any litigation relating to the Rio Grande Com-1 pact or other compact. 2
Æ
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