I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4540 
To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to establish a program to provide 
grants to suppliers of water for the purpose of making infrastructure 
improvements to public water systems, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 11, 2023 
Mr. CUELLAR (for himself and Mr. SMITH of New Jersey) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to establish a pro-
gram to provide grants to suppliers of water for the 
purpose of making infrastructure improvements to public 
water systems, 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 ‘‘Water Infrastructure 
Enhancement Act of 2023’’. 
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SEC. 2. WATER INFRASTRUCTURE ENHANCEMENT. 
Part E of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 
300j et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘SEC. 1459H. WATER INFRASTRUCTURE ENHANCEMENT. 
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) AREA
OF
PERSISTENT
POVERTY.—The 
term ‘area of persistent poverty’ means— 
‘‘(A) any county (or equivalent jurisdic-
tion) in which, during the 30-year period ending 
on the date of enactment of this section, 20 
percent or more of the population continually 
lived in poverty, as measured by— 
‘‘(i) the 1990 decennial census; 
‘‘(ii) the 2000 decennial census; and 
‘‘(iii) the most recent annual small 
area income and poverty estimate of the 
Bureau of the Census; 
‘‘(B) any census tract with a poverty rate 
of not less than 20 percent, as measured by the 
5-year data series available from the American 
Community Survey of the Bureau of the Census 
for the period of 2014 through 2018; and 
‘‘(C) any territory or possession of the 
United States. 
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‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE
ACTIVITY.—The term ‘eligible 
activity’ means one of the following activities with 
respect to a public water system: 
‘‘(A) Installing or upgrading water treat-
ment facilities. 
‘‘(B) Constructing or rehabilitating storage 
tanks. 
‘‘(C) Installing or replacing water trans-
mission and distribution pipes. 
‘‘(D) Installing or upgrading pump sta-
tions. 
‘‘(E) Installing emergency generators. 
‘‘(F) Upgrading supervisory control and 
data acquisition systems. 
‘‘(G) Installing advanced metering infra-
structure. 
‘‘(H) Installing or upgrading wells. 
‘‘(I) Facilitating compliance with any pri-
mary or secondary drinking water regulation 
promulgated under this Act. 
‘‘(J) Any other activity determined appro-
priate by the Administrator. 
‘‘(3) RURAL
AREA.—The term ‘rural area’ 
means an area with a population of 20,000 or fewer 
inhabitants. 
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‘‘(b) 
WATER
INFRASTRUCTURE
ENHANCEMENT 
GRANT PROGRAM.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall es-
tablish a program to provide grants to suppliers of 
water to carry out eligible activities for the purpose 
of making infrastructure improvements to public 
water systems in accordance with this section. 
‘‘(2) OTHER
CONSIDERATIONS.—Of the total 
amounts made available to carry out the grant pro-
gram established under paragraph (1)— 
‘‘(A) not less than 50 percent shall be for 
eligible activities carried out in rural areas; and 
‘‘(B) not less than 15 percent shall be 
awarded to eligible activities carried out in his-
torically disadvantaged communities or areas of 
persistent poverty. 
‘‘(3) COST-SHARING.—The Federal share of the 
cost of an eligible activity carried out using a grant 
under this section shall be not more than 90 per-
cent. 
‘‘(4) AUTHORIZATION
OF
APPROPRIATIONS.— 
There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out 
this section $800,000,000 for each of the fiscal 
years 2024 through 2029.’’. 
Æ 
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