Union Calendar No. 59

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1701

[Report No. 103–114]

A BILL

To amend title XVI of the Public Health Service

poses.water treatment facilities, and for other purState revolving funds to provide for drinkingAct (the Safe Drinking Water Act) to establish

MAY 27, 1993

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Commitordered to be printed tee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and
IB

★

Union Calendar No. 59

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1701

[Report No. 103–114]

To amend title XVI of the Public Health Service Act (the Safe Drinking

Water Act) to establish State revolving funds to provide for drinking

water treatment facilities, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 5, 1993

Mr. WAXMAN (for himself and Mr. DINGELL) introduced the following bill;

which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

MAY 27, 1993

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole

House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on April 5, 1993]

A BILL

To amend title XVI of the Public Health Service Act (the

Safe Drinking Water Act) to establish State revolving

funds to provide for drinking water treatment facilities,

and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2

•HR 1701 RH1S

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Drinking Water and

3 Public Health Enhancement Amendments of 1993’’.

4 SEC. 2. STATE REVOLVING FUNDS FOR SAFE DRINKING

5 WATER

6 Section 1443 of title XIV of the Public Health Service

7 Act (the Safe Drinking Water Act) is amended by redesig8 nating subsection (c) as (d) and by adding the following

9 new subsection after subsection (b):

10 ‘‘(c) STATE REVOLVING FUNDS.—

11 ‘‘(1) GENERAL AUTHORITY.—

12 ‘‘(A) GRANTS TO STATES TO ESTABLISH RE13 VOLVING FUNDS.—The Administrator shall enter

14 into agreements with States having primary en15 forcement responsibility for public water systems

16 to make capitalization grants, including letters

17 of credit, to the States under this subsection to

18 further the health protection objectives of this

19 Act. The grants shall be allotted to the States in

20 accordance with this section and deposited in

21 drinking water treatment revolving funds estab22 lished by the State.

23 ‘‘(B) USE OF FUNDS.—Amounts deposited

24 in such revolving funds, including loan repay25 ments and interest earned on such amounts,

26 shall be used only for providing loans or other fi-
3

•HR 1701 RH1S

1 nancial assistance of any kind or nature that the

2 State deems appropriate to public water systems.

3 Such financial assistance may be used by a pub4 lic water system only for expenditures (not in5 cluding monitoring, operation, and maintenance

6 expenditures) of a type or category which the

7 Administrator has determined, through guidance,

8 will facilitate compliance with national primary

9 drinking water regulations applicable to such

10 system under section 1411 or otherwise signifi11 cantly further the health protection objectives of

12 this title. 15 percent of the amount credited to

13 any revolving fund established under this section

14 in any fiscal year shall be available solely for

15 providing loan assistance to public water sys16 tems which regularly serve less than 10,000 indi17 viduals.

18 ‘‘(C) FUND MANAGEMENT.—Each State re19 volving fund under this subsection shall be estab20 lished, maintained, and credited with repay21 ments and interest. The fund corpus shall be

22 available in perpetuity for providing financial

23 assistance under this section. To the extent

24 amounts in each such fund are not required for

25 current obligation or expenditure such amounts
4

•HR 1701 RH1S

1 shall be invested in interest bearing obligations

2 of the State or of the United States. The Admin3 istrator and the States shall take such steps as

4 may be necessary to insure that amounts made

5 available under this subsection are deposited in

6 State revolving funds and earning interest as

7 promptly as practicable after the commencement

8 of the fiscal year in which such funds are made

9 available.

10 ‘‘(D) GRANTS FROM REVOLVING FUNDS.—A

11 State may not provide assistance in the form of

12 grants from a State revolving fund established

13 under this subsection in an aggregate amount

14 which exceeds the sum of the interest collected on

15 deposits in such State revolving fund plus

16 amounts deposited in such fund by the State

17 pursuant to paragraph (3). Such grants may

18 only be made to public water systems owned by

19 a governmental or inter-governmental agency, a

20 non-profit organization, an Indian tribe, or any

21 combination thereof which the State finds to be

22 experiencing financial hardship.

23 ‘‘(E) INVESTOR-OWNED PUBLIC WATER SYS24 TEMS.—In the case of any public water system

25 not owned by a governmental or inter-govern-
5

•HR 1701 RH1S

1 mental agency, a non-profit organization, an In2 dian tribe, or any combination thereof, the State

3 may provide assistance from a State revolving

4 fund under this subsection only to those systems

5 having the greatest public health needs and fi6 nancial need. The State may provide loan assist7 ance to any such system from such a State re8 volving fund only after making a determination

9 that the system has the ability to repay the loan

10 according to its terms and conditions. States are

11 authorized to require such systems to identify a

12 dedicated source for repayment of the loans and

13 to impose such other requirements as may be

14 necessary to assure loan repayment.

15 ‘‘(2) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS.—The Adminis16 trator shall enter into an agreement with a State

17 under this subsection only after the State has estab18 lished to the satisfaction of the Administrator that—

19 ‘‘(A) the State will deposit all grants re20 ceived from the Administrator under this sub21 section, together with all repayments and interest

22 on such grants, in a drinking water treatment

23 revolving fund established by the State in accord24 ance with this subsection; and
6

•HR 1701 RH1S

1 ‘‘(B) no loan or other financial assistance

2 will be provided to a public water system from

3 such revolving fund to be used for any expendi4 ture that could be avoided or significantly re5 duced by appropriate consolidation of that pub6 lic water system with any other public water

7 system, except that in such cases such assistance

8 may be provided from the revolving fund for

9 such consolidation.

10 The Administrator, in consultation with the States

11 and public water systems, shall establish criteria to be

12 applied in determining when the consolidation of

13 public water systems is appropriate.

14 ‘‘(3) STATE CONTRIBUTION.—In the case of

15 grants made after fiscal year 1994, each agreement

16 under this subsection shall require that the State de17 posit in the fund from State moneys an amount equal

18 to at least 20 percent of the total amount of the grant

19 to be made to the State on or before the date on which

20 the grant payment is made to the State.

21 ‘‘(4) COMBINED FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION.—

22 Notwithstanding subparagraph (A) of paragraph (2),

23 a State may combine the financial administration of

24 a revolving fund established under this subsection

25 with the financial administration of any other revolv-
7

•HR 1701 RH1S

1 ing fund established by the State if the Administrator

2 determines that—

3 ‘‘(A) the grants under this subsection, to4 gether with loan repayments and interest, will be

5 separately accounted for and used solely for the

6 purposes specified in paragraph (1); and

7 ‘‘(B) the authority to establish assistance

8 priorities and carry out oversight and related ac9 tivities (other than financial administration)

10 with respect to such assistance remains with the

11 State agency having primary responsibility for

12 administration of the State program under this

13 part.

14 ‘‘(5) FUND ADMINISTRATION.—(A) Each State

15 may use up to 4 percent of the grants in a revolving

16 fund established under this subsection to cover the

17 reasonable costs of administration of the assistance

18 program under this subsection and of providing tech19 nical assistance to public water systems within the

20 State. For fiscal year 1994, each State may use up

21 to 2 percent of the grants in any such revolving fund

22 for public water system supervision if the State

23 matches such expenditures with at least an equal

24 amount of non-Federal funds (additional to the

25 amount expended by the State for public water super-
8

•HR 1701 RH1S

1 vision in fiscal year 1993). An additional 1 percent

2 of the grants in such fund shall be used by each State

3 to provide technical assistance to public water sys4 tems in such State.

5 ‘‘(B) The Administrator shall publish such guid6 ance and promulgate such regulations as may be nec7 essary to carry out the provisions of this section, in8 cluding—

9 ‘‘(i) provisions to ensure that each State

10 commits and expends funds from revolving funds

11 established under this subsection in accordance

12 with this Act and applicable Federal and State

13 laws,

14 ‘‘(ii) guidance to prevent waste, fraud, and

15 abuse, and

16 ‘‘(iii) guidance to avoid the use of funds

17 made available under this subsection to finance

18 the expansion of any public water system in an19 ticipation of future population growth.

20 Such guidance and regulations shall also insure that

21 the States, and public water systems receiving assist22 ance under this subsection, use accounting, audit, and

23 fiscal procedures that conform to generally accepted

24 accounting standards.
9

•HR 1701 RH1S

1 ‘‘(C) Each State administering a revolving fund

2 and assistance program under this subsection shall

3 publish and submit to the Administrator a report

4 every 2 years on its activities under this subsection,

5 including the findings of the most recent audit of the

6 fund. The Administrator shall periodically audit all

7 revolving funds established under this subsection in

8 accordance with procedures established by the Comp9 troller General.

10 ‘‘(6) NEEDS SURVEY.—The Administrator shall

11 conduct an assessment of financial needs of all public

12 water systems in the United States and submit a re13 port to the Congress containing the results of such as14 sessment within 2 years after the date of the enact15 ment of this subsection.

‘‘(7) INDIAN TRIBES.—One and 1 16 ⁄2 percent of the

17 amounts appropriated to carry out this subsection

18 may be used by the Administrator to make grants to

19 Indian Tribes and Alaskan Native Villages which are

20 not eligible to receive either capitalization grants

21 from the Administrator under this subsection or as22 sistance from State revolving funds established under

23 this subsection. Such grants shall be used for expendi24 tures by such tribes and villages for public water sys25 tem expenditures referred to in paragraph (1)(B).
10

•HR 1701 RH1S

1 ‘‘(8) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—

2 There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out

3 the purposes of this subsection $599,000,000 for the

4 fiscal year 1994 and $1,000,000,000 for each of the

5 fiscal years 1995, 1996, and 1997, and such sums as

6 may be necessary thereafter.’’.