Assistance for Rural Water Systems Act of 2026
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill adds section 306B to the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act. Eligible rural water, wastewater, or waste disposal facilities may receive grants, zero percent interest loans, 1 percent interest loans, principal or interest forgiveness, loan-term modifications, or refinancing of other eligible water or waste loans. USDA can provide assistance when necessary to maintain public health, safety, or order, or to address financial hardship for facilities in disadvantaged or economically distressed areas. USDA must establish an affordable-water residential indicator based on household cost as a percentage of median household income and factors for disadvantaged or distressed areas.
Who Benefits and How
Rural water systems, wastewater facilities, waste disposal facilities, rural households, and disadvantaged communities benefit from cheaper financing, debt relief, refinancing, and hardship assistance intended to keep public health and safety services operating.
Who Bears the Burden and How
USDA Rural Development must evaluate eligibility, set affordability indicators, define disadvantaged or economically distressed factors, administer grants and low-interest loans, and decide when public health, safety, order, or financial hardship justifies assistance.
Key Provisions
- Creates a new USDA assistance authority for rural water, wastewater, and waste disposal facilities.
- Authorizes grants, zero percent loans, 1 percent loans, principal or interest forgiveness, loan modifications, and refinancing.
- Limits assistance to public health, safety, order, or financial-hardship needs in disadvantaged or economically distressed areas.
- Requires USDA to establish affordable-water indicators based on household cost as a share of median household income.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Creates additional USDA assistance for rural water, wastewater, and waste disposal systems through grants, zero percent loans, 1 percent loans, loan forgiveness, loan modifications, and refinancing.
Key Policy Areas
Water Infrastructure, Rural Development
Primary Purpose
Creates additional USDA assistance for rural water, wastewater, and waste disposal systems through grants, zero percent loans, 1 percent loans, loan forgiveness, loan modifications, and refinancing.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Rural water systems
- Rural wastewater facilities
- Rural waste disposal facilities
- Rural households
- Disadvantaged rural communities
Identified Costs
- USDA Rural Development
- Rural Development loan administrators
- Applicant rural water systems
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and …
Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.
Introduced in House
Mr. Davis of North Carolina (for himself and Mr. Johnson …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Rural waste disposal facilities, Rural wastewater facilities, Rural water systems
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of Agriculture
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology