S3725-119

What This Bill Does

The available introduced text of S.3725 requires the Secretary of the Interior, in coordination with Lewis and Clark Rural Water System, Inc., doing business as Lewis & Clark Regional Water System, to study expansion of the system's capacity and reach for municipal, rural and industrial water in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. A nonprofit successor can serve as the nonfederal project entity. The bill authorizes $10 million to carry out the section, limits the federal share of study costs to 50 percent, and ends the section's authority ten years after enactment. It does not itself appropriate the money or authorize construction of the expansion.

Version limitation: the Senate reported a substitute and placed the bill on the calendar on September 17, 2026, but the official text feed and available XML still contain the introduced version. The reviewed committee page did not supply that substitute. This analysis states the introduced terms and does not assume the later amendment is identical. The related H.R.7287 remains pending and has not enacted this proposal.

Who Benefits and How

The named nonprofit water-system entity could obtain federal participation in evaluating an expansion and a formal recommendation useful for later congressional consideration. Its member water providers and prospective municipal, rural and industrial water users could gain better information about viable expansion options. Interior testimony describes an existing regional system, not a project starting from zero; the bill does not promise new service to every community or establish a particular capacity, completion date or customer rate. Actual supply benefits would require further decisions, construction authority, financing and implementation.

Congress and the public would receive the feasibility report and associated study documents. The Secretary must consult and cooperate with appropriate federal, State, Tribal, regional and local authorities. Those consultations can inform the study, but the bill does not confer new water rights, eliminate environmental requirements, guarantee Tribal delivery service, or give each consulted body a veto.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The nonfederal project entity must enter a cost-sharing or appropriate financial-assistance agreement with the Secretary for a study meeting reclamation feasibility standards. Because the federal study share cannot exceed 50 percent, nonfederal sources must cover at least the other half of study costs. The $10 million authorization is not a promise of a $10 million award and is not a cap on the entire expansion's construction cost. Interior staff must conduct or coordinate the study, consult other authorities, prepare the report, submit it to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and House Natural Resources Committee, and publish the study materials. Federal spending depends on appropriations.

After the study, the Secretary must recommend whether construction should be authorized and an appropriate nonfederal construction share. That recommended share must be at least 25 percent and be informed by the ability to pay allocated construction, operations, maintenance and replacement costs. This is a rule for the report's recommendation, not present construction authorization, an immediately due construction payment, or a guaranteed 75-percent federal construction grant. The ten-year sunset ends this section's authority; it is not an order to close the existing water system. The text does not prescribe a shorter study-completion deadline.

Key Provisions

• Requires an expansion feasibility study for the named nonprofit system across Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, with a public report and intergovernmental consultation.
• Authorizes $10 million without directly appropriating it and limits the federal study share to 50 percent.
• Requires a recommendation on construction authorization and a nonfederal construction share of at least 25 percent, informed by ability to pay.
• Terminates the section's authority ten years after enactment without terminating the existing water system.