S3738-119

What This Bill Does

The MORE WATER Act expands the IIJA large-scale water recycling and reuse program to cover feasibility studies as well as planning, design, and construction; extends its authority from five to ten years; gives projects already under construction protection from termination; lengthens the congressional notice period from 30 to 60 days; and authorizes $450 million for fiscal years 2028-2032. It creates a Water Conveyance Improvement Program with $500 million for those years. Reclamation may fund federal or nonfederal conveyance projects with up to a 50 percent nonreimbursable federal share after feasibility, solvency, matching-fund, and notice requirements. Projects costing at least $800 million must provide quantified drinking-water benefits for low-income communities or environmental benefits, and at least half of smaller awards must be multi-benefit. New facilities over $5 billion receive no funding. The bill also authorizes $550 million for wastewater and groundwater recycling, raises a project limit from $20 million in 1996 dollars to $50 million in December 2025 dollars with annual CPI adjustment, and authorizes $250 million for Great Salt Lake and other inland-lake restoration, Sacramento River habitat, fish passage and hatcheries, real-time science, and related implementation. Specified WIIN Act provisions receive a 15-year expiration period. Finally, Reclamation must publish interim and final lists of authorized projects with no obligations in the current or previous seven fiscal years; listed projects are deauthorized one year after the final list unless Congress disapproves, Congress funds them, a nonfederal sponsor fully funds completion, or Interior excludes a project as vitally important to health, safety, the economy, or the environment.

Who Benefits and How

State water authorities, Indian Tribes, municipalities, irrigation districts, water districts, wastewater districts, and joint-powers agencies benefit from access to large nonreimbursable grants for recycling and conveyance infrastructure. Low-income communities may receive safe drinking water through direct capacity, exchanges, groundwater banking, ratepayer assistance, or related infrastructure, while environmental organizations and affected Tribes gain formal roles in multi-benefit agreements. Water infrastructure contractors, engineers, recycling operators, habitat-restoration providers, and scientific-monitoring firms may gain work from $1.75 billion in stated program authorizations across sections 2 through 4. Great Salt Lake communities, endangered fish recovery programs, wildlife refuges, and water users may benefit from habitat improvements that also support Reclamation's contractual delivery obligations. Sponsors of active Reclamation projects may benefit if deauthorization of long-dormant projects reduces the authorized-project backlog and focuses administrative attention on fundable work.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Federal taxpayers bear the authorized grant and restoration costs. Conveyance sponsors generally must secure the nonfederal share of up to 50 percent, prove solvency and feasibility, and comply with benefit-allocation, stakeholder-agreement, notice, and applicable-law requirements. Bureau of Reclamation grant, engineering, environmental, and financial staff must establish a complex new program, review project and stakeholder proposals, monitor low-income and environmental benefits, administer recycling and restoration awards, and maintain allocation ratios. Sponsors of inactive Reclamation projects risk loss of federal authorization after the staged public-list process. To preserve a listed project, they may need new congressional funding, a successful vital-interest determination, or enough nonfederal money to complete it. Interior administrators must assemble searchable project data, make exclusion judgments, report twice to Congress, and implement automatic deauthorization while tracking the three statutory escape routes.

Key Provisions

• Expands large-scale water recycling grants to feasibility studies and construction, doubles program authority from five to ten years, protects projects already under construction, and authorizes $450 million for fiscal years 2028-2032.
• Creates a $500 million Water Conveyance Improvement Program with a federal share up to 50 percent and no individual-project dollar cap, while excluding new facilities costing more than $5 billion.
• Requires major and many smaller conveyance projects to integrate quantified low-income drinking-water or environmental benefits through stakeholder agreements and funding-allocation rules.
• Authorizes $550 million for recycling and raises a project limit to $50 million in 2025 dollars with annual inflation adjustment.
• Authorizes $250 million for inland-lake, river, fish, habitat, monitoring, hatchery, and related environmental work.
• Extends specified WIIN Act authorities to expire 15 years after enactment.
• Requires public interim and final lists of Reclamation projects unfunded for eight fiscal years and deauthorizes listed projects after a further year unless an exception is satisfied.