I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5361 
To improve and coordinate interagency Federal actions and provide assistance 
to States for responding to public health challenges posed by emerging 
contaminants, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 9, 2019 
Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER (for herself and Mrs. RODGERS of Washington) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy 
and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Science, Space, and 
Technology, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, 
in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the juris-
diction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To improve and coordinate interagency Federal actions and 
provide assistance to States for responding to public 
health challenges posed by emerging contaminants, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safe Drinking Water 
Assistance Act of 2019’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) safe and clean drinking water is essential to 
the health, well-being, comfort, and standard of liv-
ing of every person of the United States; 
(2) emerging contaminants in drinking water 
systems are increasingly being detected at low levels; 
(3) prolonged exposure to unregulated drinking 
water contaminants, including emerging contami-
nants, may pose human health risks, particularly to 
vulnerable populations; 
(4) the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 
300f et seq.) requires the Administrator of the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency— 
(A) to periodically make regulatory deter-
minations with respect to unregulated contami-
nants; and 
(B) not less frequently than once every 5 
years, to identify and publish a description of 
unregulated contaminants that may require reg-
ulation; 
(5) in a 2011 report of the Government Ac-
countability Office, the Comptroller General of the 
United States found, with respect to unregulated 
drinking water contaminants, that— 
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(A) the Administrator has made limited 
progress in prioritizing drinking water contami-
nants based on greatest public health concern; 
(B) the lack of data relating to the expo-
sure of the public to potentially harmful drink-
ing water contaminants and the related health 
effects of that exposure continues to limit the 
ability of the Administrator to make regulatory 
determinations; and 
(C) in many cases, gathering sufficient 
data to address contaminants awaiting regu-
latory determinations by the Administrator has 
taken the Administrator more than 10 years, 
and obtaining data on other contaminants that 
are currently awaiting regulatory determina-
tions may take decades; 
(6) in the 2016 Drinking Water Action Plan of 
the Environmental Protection Agency, the Adminis-
trator recommended that the Federal Government 
and key water stakeholders strengthen the effective-
ness of drinking water health advisories through en-
hanced collaboration and increased focus on risk 
management and risk communication approaches; 
(7) in response to the report of the Committee 
on Appropriations of the Senate accompanying S. 
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