Title: Western Tribal Water Infrastructure Act of 2020
Policy area: Native Americans

Summary:
Western Tribal Water Infrastructure Act of 2019
This bill permanently reauthorizes, and expands, the Indian Reservation Drinking Water Program.
Specifically, the bill directs the Environmental Protection Agency to connect, expand, or repair existing public water systems that are on Indian reservations or off-reservation sites that serve tribes in the Columbia River Basin or its adjacent coastal river basins. Currently, only projects that are on Indian reservations in the Upper Missouri River Basin or the Upper Rio Grande Basin are eligible for the program.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3044 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3044

 To amend the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 to expand the 
   Indian reservation drinking water program, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 12, 2019

Mr. Wyden (for himself and Mr. Merkley) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 to expand the 
   Indian reservation drinking water program, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Western Tribal Water Infrastructure 
Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. INDIAN RESERVATION DRINKING WATER PROGRAM.

    Section 2001 of the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 (42 
U.S.C. 300j-3c note; Public Law 115-270) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 
                striking ``Subject to the availability of 
                appropriations, the Administrator'' and inserting ``The 
                Administrator'';
                    (B) in paragraph (1), by striking ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (C) in paragraph (2), by striking the period at the 
                end and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (D) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) 10 eligible projects described in subsection (b) that 
        are within--
                    ``(A) the portion of the Columbia River Basin that 
                is--
                            ``(i) south of the Columbia River; and
                            ``(ii) below the Grand Coulee Dam; or
                    ``(B) coastal basins adjacent to the portion of the 
                Columbia River Basin described in subparagraph (A).'';
            (2) in subsection (b)(1)--
                    (A) by striking ``is on a reservation'' and 
                inserting the following: ``is on--
                    ``(A) a reservation'';
                    (B) in subparagraph (A) (as so designated), by 
                striking ``and'' at the end and inserting ``or''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(B) an off-reservation site that serves an Indian 
                Tribe described in subsection (c)(2); and'';
            (3) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) by striking the subsection designation and 
                heading and all that follows through ``In carrying 
                out'' and inserting the following:
    ``(c) Requirements.--
            ``(1) Upper missouri river basin.--In carrying out''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(2) Columbia river basin.--In carrying out the program 
        under subsection (a)(3), the Administrator of the Environmental 
        Protection Agency shall select not less than 1 eligible project 
        that serves one or more Tribal communities of federally 
        recognized Indian Tribes the Federal recognition of which has 
        been terminated and subsequently restored.''; and
            (4) in subsection (d), by striking ``$20,000,000 for each 
        of fiscal years 2019 through 2022'' and inserting ``$30,000,000 
        for fiscal year 2020 and each fiscal year thereafter''.
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