II
118TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION S. 3830
To authorize the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY 28, 2024
Mr. PADILLA introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL
To authorize the Low-Income Household Water Assistance
Program, 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. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Low-Income House-4
hold Water Assistance Program Establishment Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. LOW-INCOME HOUSEHOLD WATER ASSISTANCE 6
PROGRAM. 7
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
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(1) A DMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-1
trator’’ means the Administrator of the Environ-2
mental Protection Agency. 3
(2) H OUSEHOLD.—The term ‘‘household’’ 4
means any individual or group of individuals who 5
are living together as 1 economic unit. 6
(3) L OW-INCOME HOUSEHOLD .—The term 7
‘‘low-income household’’ means a household— 8
(A) in which 1 or more individuals are re-9
ceiving— 10
(i) assistance under the State pro-11
gram funded under part A of title IV of 12
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 601 et 13
seq.); 14
(ii) supplemental security income pay-15
ments under title XVI of the Social Secu-16
rity Act (42 U.S.C. 1381 et seq.); 17
(iii) supplemental nutrition assistance 18
program benefits under the Food and Nu-19
trition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et 20
seq.); 21
(iv) payments under— 22
(I) section 1315, 1521, 1541, or 23
1542 of title 38, United States Code; 24
or 25
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(II) section 306 of the Veterans’ 1
and Survivors’ Pension Improvement 2
Act of 1978 (38 U.S.C. 1521 note; 3
Public Law 95–588); or 4
(v) assistance under the Low-Income 5
Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981; or 6
(B) that has a household income that, as 7
determined by the State or Indian tribe, does 8
not exceed the greater of— 9
(i) an amount equal to 150 percent of 10
the poverty level; 11
(ii) an amount equal to 60 percent of 12
the State median income for that State or 13
the State in which the Indian tribe is pri-14
marily located; or 15
(iii) an amount equal to 60 percent of 16
the area median income for the area in 17
which the household is located. 18
(4) P OVERTY LEVEL .—The term ‘‘poverty 19
level’’ means the poverty line determined pursuant 20
to section 673 of the Community Services Block 21
Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9902). 22
(5) PUBLIC WATER SYSTEM .—The term ‘‘public 23
water system’’ has the meaning given the term in 24
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section 1401 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 1
U.S.C. 300f). 2
(6) Q UALIFIED NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION .— 3
The term ‘‘qualified nonprofit organization’’ includes 4 a nonprofit organization described in section 5
680(a)(3)(B) of the Community Services Block 6
Grant Act (42 U.S.C. 9921(a)(3)(B)). 7
(7) S ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 8
the Secretary of Health and Human Services. 9
(8) S TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any of 10
the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com-11
monwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the United States 12
Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Common-13
wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 14
(9) TREATMENT WORKS .—The term ‘‘treatment 15
works’’ has the meaning given the term in section 16
212 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 17
U.S.C. 1292). 18
(b) ESTABLISHMENT.— 19
(1) I N GENERAL .—The Secretary, in consulta-20
tion with the Administrator, shall establish the Low- 21 Income Household Water Assistance Program to 22
award grants, in accordance with paragraph (3), to 23
eligible entities described in paragraph (2) to provide 24 funds to owners and operators of public water sys-25
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tems or treatment works to assist low-income house-1
holds in paying arrearages and other rates charged 2
to such households for drinking water or wastewater 3
services. 4
(2) E LIGIBLE ENTITIES .—An eligible entity de-5
scribed in this paragraph is a State, or Indian tribe, 6 that is eligible to receive or previously received a 7
grant under the Low-Income Home Energy Assist-8
ance Act of 1981 (42 U.S.C. 8621 et seq.). 9
(3) F ORMULA.—In awarding grants under this 10
subsection to eligible entities, the Secretary shall— 11 (A) allot amounts made available for 12
grants under this subsection to an eligible enti-13
ty that is a State or Indian tribe based on— 14
(i) the percentage of households in the 15
State, or under the jurisdiction of the In-16
dian tribe, with income equal to or less 17
than 150 percent of the poverty level; or 18
(ii) the percentage of households in 19
the State, or under the jurisdiction of the 20
Indian tribe, that spend more than 30 per-21
cent of monthly income on housing; and 22
(B) reserve up to 3 percent of amounts 23
made available for grants under this subsection 24
to eligible entities that are Indian tribes. 25
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(c) RURAL, UNDERSERVED, AND INDIAN TRIBE AC-1
CESS GRANTS.—The Secretary shall provide grants to 2
qualified nonprofit organizations to assist owners or oper-3 ators of public water systems or treatment works, in rural 4 or underserved areas or in the jurisdiction of an Indian 5 tribe, in accessing funds through the Low-Income House-6 hold Water Assistance Program. 7
(d) A PPLICATIONS.—Each eligible entity seeking a 8
grant under subsection (b) shall submit an application to 9 the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and con-10
taining such information as the Secretary shall require. 11 (e) LIMITATIONS.—A recipient of a grant under sub-12
section (b) or (c)— 13
(1) shall not use the funds from the grant to 14
supplant any other funds for any program that as-15
sists low-income households in maintaining access to 16 affordable drinking water or wastewater services; 17
and 18
(2) may use the funds from the grant to supple-19
ment or otherwise enhance any such program that 20
satisfies the requirements under this section. 21
(f) T ECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR ELIGIBILITY RE-22
QUIREMENTS.—The Secretary shall provide technical as-23 sistance to eligible entities receiving a grant under sub-24 section (b) for such eligible entities to establish data shar-25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:01 Mar 01, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3830.IS S3830kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 7 •S 3830 IS
ing agreements to streamline categorical eligibility re-1 quirements for low-income households. 2
(g) T RANSFER TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTEC-3
TION AGENCY.— 4
(1) I N GENERAL .—On the date on which the 5
final report described in section 50109(d) of the In-6
frastructure Investment and Jobs Act (42 U.S.C. 7
300j–19a note; Public Law 117–58; 135 Stat. 1148) 8
is submitted to Congress under such section, the 9
Secretary, in coordination with the Administrator, 10
shall transfer the Low-Income Household Water As-11
sistance Program established under this section to 12
the Environmental Protection Agency for adminis-13
tration of such program by the Administrator in ac-14
cordance with this section. 15
(2) ADMINISTRATION.— 16
(A) I N GENERAL .—Beginning on the date 17
described in paragraph (1)— 18
(i) the Administrator shall carry out 19
all functions of the Secretary under this 20
section; and 21
(ii) for purposes of administering the 22
program established under this section, 23
each reference in subsections (b)(3), (c), 24
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(d), and (f) to the Secretary shall be 1
deemed a reference to the Administrator. 2
(B) G RANTS PREVIOUSLY AWARDED .— 3
Notwithstanding paragraph (1) and subpara-4
graph (A), the Secretary shall continue, after 5
the transfer under paragraph (1), administering 6
each grant awarded under this section prior to 7
such transfer until the expiration of the term of 8
such grant. 9
(3) UNOBLIGATED BALANCES .—On the date de-10
scribed in paragraph (1) and subject to section 1531 11 of title 31, United States Code, the Secretary shall 12 initiate transfer of all unobligated balances of appro-13 priations, authorizations, allocations, or other funds 14 available to the Low-Income Household Water As-15
sistance Program established under this section (ex-16
cept for any such balances related to grants awarded 17 prior to the transfer under paragraph (1)) to the 18
Administrator. The amounts of any such unobligated 19
balances so transferred shall be used only for the 20
purposes for which the amounts were originally au-21
thorized and appropriated. 22
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(h) A UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 1
are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 2 necessary to carry out this section. 3
Æ
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